The allergy-preventive activity of a 35% EtOH extract (IT) of flowers of Impatiens textori MIQ. was demonstrated in a continuing search for allergy-preventive substances from natural sources. The evaluation of its activity used an in vivo assay method for monitoring the blood flow decrease in the tail vein microcirculation of mice subjected to sensitization with hen-egg white lysozyme. Among th...

Based on starch-iodine agar plate, a novel screening method that can be used to screen for β-lactamase inhibitors from extracts of herbs is established. The extracts of 100 traditional Chinese medicines were screened for βlactamase inhibitors by this method. The inhibition rates of the Rheum palmatum L., Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill., Hypericum japonicum Thunb., Paederia scandens (Lour.)...

Environmental variation often induces shifts in functional traits, yet we know little about whether plasticity will reduce extinction risks under climate change. As climate change proceeds, phenotypic plasticity could enable species with limited dispersal capacity to persist in situ, and migrating populations of other species to establish in new sites at higher elevations or latitudes. Alternat...

The evolution of distyly from tristyly was investigated in populations of Oxalis alpina at high elevations throughout the Sky Islands of the Sonoran Desert. Incompatibility systems in tristylous populations, where self-incompatible short-, mid-, and long-styled morphs occur in populations, vary from those typical of tristylous species in which each morph is equally capable of fertilizing ovules...

Globally, grassland biomes form one of the largest terrestrial covers and present critical social–ecological benefits. In Kenya, Arid Semi-arid Lands (ASAL) occupy 80% landscape are for livelihoods millions pastoralists. However, they have been invaded by Invasive Plant Species (IPS) thereby compromising their ecosystem functionality. Opuntia stricta, a well-known IPS, has ASAL in Kenya poses t...