Smilax canariensis Brouss. ex Willd. is an endemic plant of the Canary Islands. Its rhizomes, leaves and stems have been traditionally used in Canary folk medicine to treat a wide variety of conditions including pain. Our objective is to investigate the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of different extracts of S. canariensis in Swiss mice, using established biological models for pain ...

Many parasites, such as those that cause malaria, depend on an insect vector for transmission between vertebrate hosts. Theory predicts that parasites should have little or no effect on the transmission ability of vectors, e.g., parasites should not reduce vector life span as this will limit the temporal window of opportunity for transmission. However, if the parasite and vector compete for lim...

The present study was designed to confirm the wide traditional use of treating pain with Salix canariensis, an endemic species of the Macaronesian region. The active compounds were identified. Pharmacological activities were explored in experimental animals by acetic acid-induced writhing, formalin and Levy's tests, and bioactive compounds were identified after a bio-guided fractionation of the...

Studies conducted on volcanic islands have greatly contributed to our current understanding of how organisms diversify. The Canary Islands archipelago, located northwest of the coast of northern Africa, harbours a large number of endemic taxa. Because of their low vagility, mygalomorph spiders are usually absent from oceanic islands. The spider Titanidiops canariensis, which inhabits the easter...

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. canariensis has caused the death of hundreds of Canary Island date palms, Phoenix canariensis, in Sydney where they have been used prominently in landscape plantings. The fungus is spread in soil, by transplanting palms and on contaminated pruning implements and possibly by seed, birds and insects. Vegetative compatibility groupings (VCGs) were u...

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Pollination is a critical phase for plant reproduction, but ecological and evolutionary outcomes by pollinators may be counteracted by floral herbivores. These interacting assemblages may also be altered (directly or indirectly) by introduced species, especially on oceanic islands. In this study, we analyzed the effects of opportunistic nectar-feeding passerin...

BACKGROUND Dinoflagellates are important primary producers, crucial in marine food webs. Toxic strains, however, are the main causative agents of non-bacterial seafood poisoning, a major concern for public health worldwide. Despite their importance, taxonomic uncertainty within many genera of dinoflagellates is still high. The genus Coolia includes potentially harmful species and the diversity ...

The genus Tarphius Erichson (Coleoptera: Colydiidae) is represented by 29 species on the Canary Islands. The majority are rare, single-island endemics intimately associated with the monteverde (laurel forest and fayal-brezal). The Tarphius canariensis complex is by far the most abundant and geographically wide-spread, occurring on Gran Canaria, Tenerife and La Palma. Eighty-seven individuals fr...