The use of synthetic larvicides to control vector populations is detrimental to human and environmental health and selects for insecticide resistance. Plants can be alternative sources of effective and safe mosquito control agents. In the present work the chemical composition and larvicidal activity, of essential oil of Lavandula stoechas (lamiaceae), growing in wilds of Morocco, against the ma...

Citrinin is a nephrotoxic mycotoxin produced by several species of the genus and Monascus. Citrinin is generally formed after harvest and occurs mainly in stored grains. efficacy of different concentrations of aqueous leaf extracts of Rhazya stricta Decne and Cleome amblyocarpa two fungal strains Penicillium notatum and Aspergillus niger and fungal biomass by the isolates was suppressed, depend...

Rhazya stricta Decne. (Apocynaceae) contains a large number of terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs). This study focused on the composition of alkaloids obtained from transformed hairy root cultures of R. stricta employing ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). In the UPLC-MS analyses, a total of 20 TIAs were identified from crude extracts. Eburenine and vincanine were...

Regular spatial patterning is common in nature, and various mechanisms of self-organization have been proposed to explain regular patterning. We report on regular spatial patterning in Carex stricta in a freshwater wetland and investigate the applicability of theoretical models that explain regular patterning based on inhibition, facilitation, or interaction between the two. Spectral analysis o...

Traditionally, melissopalynological and physicochemical analyses have been the most used to determine the botanical origin of honey. However, when performed individually, these analyses may provide less unambiguous results, making it difficult to discriminate between mono and multifloral honeys. In this context, with the aim of better characterizing this beehive product, a selection of 112 Lava...

Maintaining the integrity of the cuticular transpiration barrier even at elevated temperatures is of vital importance especially for hot-desert plants. Currently, the temperature dependence of the leaf cuticular water permeability and its relationship with the chemistry of the cuticles are not known for a single desert plant. This study investigates whether (i) the cuticular permeability of a d...

Information about polymorphism, population structure, and linkage disequilibrium (LD) is crucial for association studies of complex trait variation. However, most genomewide studies have focused on model systems, with very few analyses of undisturbed natural populations. Here, we sequenced 86 mapped nuclear loci for a sample of 46 genotypes of Boechera stricta and two individuals of B. holboell...

Essential oil components were extracted from Lavandula angustifolia (Lavender) flowers using pressurized fluid extraction (PFE). A Box-Behnken design was used to optimize the effective extraction variables. The chemical composition of extracted samples was analyzed by gas chromatograph-flame ionization detector column. For achieving maximum % extraction yield the temperature, pressure, and dyna...

The antioxidant activity of five samples of Lavandulae flowers (L. angustifolia ssp. angustifolia, L. hybrida, L. angustifolia spp. pyrenaica, L. angustifolia spp. angustifolia cv. Munstead and cv. Hidicote Blue) harvested from Romania was investigated using DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging and ferrous ion chelating assays. Total polyphenolic content (mg/g dried extract) ...

The antioxidant activity and the chemical composition of methanol extracts from peel and pulp belonging to two species of Tunisian prickly pears Opuntia ficus indica (spiny and thornless forms) and Opuntia stricta has been studied. The antioxidant capacity was measured by DPPH radical scavenging activity. The Total Phenolic Compound (TPC) and the total flavonoid content were determined by the F...