Banana inflorescences are popularly known as 'navels,' and they are used in Brazil as nutritional complements. However, the nutritional value of banana inflorescences (male flowers and bracts) has never been studied. Therefore, plant material of Musa acuminata, cultivar "ouro", was collected in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, and then submitted to chemical procedures to determine its nutritional ...

We have created transgenic Arabidopsis plants in which a gene encoding the cell-autonomous diphtheria toxin A chain (DT-A) was expressed under the control of the LEAFY (LFY) promoter. This promoter is active both in emerging leaf primordia and young flowers, with the highest activity in flowers. The majority of LFY::DT-A plants had normal vegetative development but lacked flowers, demonstrating...

Polyceratocarpus askhambryan-iringae, an endemic tree species of Annonaceae from the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, is described and illustrated. The new species is identified as a member of the genus Polyceratocarpus by the combination of staminate and bisexual flowers, axillary inflorescences, subequal outer and inner petals, and multi-seeded monocarps with pitted seeds. From Polyceratocarpu...

The performance of a new dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) based in a natural dye extracted from the Bougainvillea spectabilis' bracts, is reported. The performance of this solar cell was compared with cells prepared using extract of the Bougainvillea glabra and mixture of both extracts; in both cases the pigments were betalains, obtained from Reddish-purple extract. These dyes were purified to ...

Pitaya, pitahaya or dragon fruit, grow on a veining epiphytic cactus (Hylocereus sp.) native to the tropical forest regions of Mexico and Central and South America (Mizrahi et al., 1997). The plants grow up tree trunks and are anchored by aerial roots. The fruits have red or pink thornless skins, while the juicy flesh can range from white to magenta. The skin is covered with bracts or "scales",...

Kalidium juniperinum Sukhor. et Lomon. is described as a species new to science. It similar K. foliatum in having short leaf blade but differs by the presence of numerous slender, prostrate, or ascending stems forming mats vs. stout main upright stem; acuminate bracts slightly exceeding flower cyme obtuse equal cyme; exserted pericarp looking like bulge on one-seeded diaspore not elevated top d...

To solve the problem of grain loss caused by nibbling during working process maize ear and stem harvesting machine, a vibrating screen-type grain-recovery device with an upper centrifugal fan was designed. The mainly consists screen. work is theoretically analyzed, it clarified that turning bracts key to separating from grains, design criteria screen are obtained. CFD–EDEM coupled single-factor...