Centaurea solstitialis, commonly known as yellow starthistle, is an invasive plant listed as a noxious weed in the western areas of North America and is the target of classical biological control, which involves release of herbivores known to be specific to this plant. These insects often choose their host plant on the basis of the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted. Accordingly, volatil...

Members of the genus Centaurea (Asteraceae) have been used in traditional plant-based medicine. The methanol extracts of twelve Centaurea species, of which five are endemic to Turkey flora, were screened for antibacterial activity against four bacteria (Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella enteritidis, Staphylococcus aureus). The antibacterial activity was evaluated by the microdilutio...

Many of the best-selling anticancer drugs are plant-derived. We tested for the anticancer properties of extracts isolated from Centaurea ainetensis, a plant species endemic to Lebanon and which is often used in folk medicine. We performed bioassay-guided fractionation of Centaurea ainetensis extracts using a panel of normal and neoplastic murine cells to identify a component that is associated ...

Centaurea L. is a genus of the family Asteraceae that comprises over 600 taxa. Representatives of the Centaurea genus were used as natural medications for many diseases. Methanolic-aqueous extracts from aerial parts of two Centaurea species: C. borysthenica Gruner and C. daghestanica (Lipsky) Wagenitz were studied for their polyphenolic composition and potential protective effect on cardiomyocy...

BACKGROUND Biological invasions are fundamentally biogeographic processes that occur over large spatial scales. Interactions with soil microbes can have strong impacts on plant invasions, but how these interactions vary among areas where introduced species are highly invasive vs. naturalized is still unknown. In this study, we examined biogeographic variation in plant-soil microbe interactions ...

Invading exotic plants are thought to succeed primarily because they have escaped their natural enemies, not because of novel interactions with their new neighbors. However, we find that Centaurea diffusa, a noxious weed in North America, has much stronger negative effects on grass species from North America than on closely related grass species from communities to which Centaurea is native. Ce...

Eight sesquiterpene lactones were isolated from Centaurea solstitialis (yellow starthistle). They are solstitialin A, repin, subluteolide, acroptilin, janerin, cynaropicrin, and the new &tones solstitiolide and episolstitiolide.