Biological invasions have had profound effects on human society from the earliest times. The spread of the black death in the Middle Ages, the devastations of potato blight, the effects on indigenous species by grey squirrels, dutch elm disease and flatworms have all been seen as detrimental to man or the environment. Others are seen as bringing benefits: most of our crops evolved elsewhere in ...

Herbs and spices have been used for both culinary and medicinal purposes for centuries. Over the last decade, research into their role as contributors of dietary polyphenols, known to possess a number of properties associated with reducing the risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases, has increased. However, bearing in mind how these foods are consumed, normally in small quantities ...

The aqueous extracts of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L.), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Miller), olive (Olea europaea L.), sage (Salvia officinalis L.), thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.), wild thyme (T. serpyllum L.), tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze), and verbena (Verbena officinalis L.) were investigated for polyphenol, tannins, antocyanins and flavonoids. Among ...

Piper longum (P. longum, also called as long pepper) is one of the common culinary herbs that has been extensively used as a crucial constituent in various indigenous medicines, specifically in traditional Indian medicinal system known as Ayurveda. For exploring the comprehensive effect of its constituents in humans at proteomic and metabolic levels, we have reviewed all of its known phytochemi...

Several hundred plant and herb species that have potential as novel antiviral agents have been studied, with surprisingly little overlap. A wide variety of active phytochemicals, including the flavonoids, terpenoids, lignans, sulphides, polyphenolics, coumarins, saponins, furyl compounds, alkaloids, polyines, thiophenes, proteins and peptides have been identified. Some volatile essential oils o...

Lamiaceae herbs known for their culinary properties are a rich source of potentially health-beneficial antioxidant polyphenols. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate and prove the in vitro antioxidant activity of five different extracts of aerial parts of the plant Leucas aspera, belonging to the family Lamiaceae on different models namely the DPPH free radical scavenging assay, F...

Fresh herbs such as basil constitute an important food commodity worldwide. Basil provides considerable culinary and health benefits, but has also been implicated in foodborne illnesses. The naturally occurring bacterial community on basil leaves is currently unknown, so the epiphytic bacterial community was investigated using the culture-independent techniques denaturing gradient gel electroph...