In agroecosystems, local and landscape features, as well as natural enemy abundance and richness, are significant predictors of predation services that may result in biological control of pests. Despite the increasing importance of urban gardening for provisioning of food to urban populations, most urban gardeners suffer from high pest problems, and have little knowledge about how to manage the...

Background on the Chemistry of Rotenone. Rotenone is a natural product isolated from certain subtropical and tropical members of the pea family found in South America and Southeast Asia. The use of rotenone by man may be ancient, as early explorers noted Peruvian natives using crude extracts of the Cubé plant to stun fish for eating. In the early 1900’s, botanists exploring Peruvian jungles sea...

A new low-cost glucoamylase preparation for liquefaction and saccharification of starchy raw materials in a one-stage system was developed and characterized. A non-purified biocatalyst with a glucoamylase activity of 3.11 U/mg, an alpha-amylase activity of 0.12 WU/mg and a protein content of 0.04 mg protein/mg was obtained from a shaken-flask culture of the strain Aspergillus niger C-IV-4. Fact...

The three-dimensional structure of the pseudotetrasaccharide acarbose complexed with glucoamylase II(471) from Aspergillus awamori var. X100 has been determined to 2.4-A resolution. The model includes residues corresponding to 1-471 of glucoamylase I from Aspergillus niger, a single molecule of bound acarbose, and 535 sites for water molecules. The crystallographic R factor from refinement is 0...

Although pterocarpan phytoalexins commonly ac­ cumulate in the fungus-inoculated tissues of papilionate legumes, only three compounds of this type possess oxygenation at C-2 [1, 2]. They are 2,3,9-trimethoxypterocarpan (1), 2,9-dimethoxy-3-hydroxypterocarpan (2-methoxymedicarpin, 2) and 2,3,9-trimethoxy-4-hydroxypterocarpan (3) all of which co­ occur with pisatin in the Fusarium solani f. sp. p...

A systematic approach was taken to isolate and characterize the antimicrobial peptide(s) from the crude aqueous extract, solubilized ammonium sulphate precipitates and purified gel filtration chromatographic fractions of seed/pod of Pisum sativum L. (garden pea). Their antibacterial activity was investigated against a number of bacteria: Micrococcus luteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus...

The juices of leaves and stem of Mentha piperita (peppermint), skin and seeds of Pisum sativum (garden pea), skin and pulp of Momordica charantia (bitter melon) were screened for antibacterial activities against 56 isolates belonging to 11 different species of Gram-negative bacilli: Escherichia coli (19), Klebsiella pneumoniae (11), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (9), Salmonella typhi (3), Salmonella p...

The ability of Meloidogyne trifoliophila to gall 230 species and cultivars of plants was determined in a greenhouse. All clovers (Trifolium spp.) were severely galled regardless of species or cultivar. Most soybean cultivars were moderately to severely galled. Among other legumes, broad bean, garden pea, Korean lespedeza, sweetclover, and common vetch were good hosts, but alfalfa, bird's-foot t...