Methods A technical evaluation of the capabilities of the Red Maple Trials Allergen Challenge Theatre was performed. The theatre is a 4-zone facility holding up to 99 seats in a series of elevated rows. Grass (Phleum pratense) and ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) pollens were injected into the air supply and blown into the facility through ducts located across the top of the front wall. Grass ...

Pollen viability and its germination capability for fruit set in are almond and peach essential. To optimize the pollen culture medium of almond and peach and selection of best medium, the present study was carried out with 48 different culture media containing different compositions including diverse levels of boric acid (0 and 100mg/1), calcium nitrate (0,150and300mg/l،), magnesium sulphate (...

The synthesis of clinical trials of sublingual immunotherapy for grass pollen allergy by Di Bona et al1 in this issue indicates an unimpressive small effect, and the efficacy is even smaller in the United States compared with European populations. However, what was impressive is the 70.0% (1817 of 2597 patients) proportion experiencing adverse effects (mostly mouth itching or burning and gastro...

Low seed yield is a limiting factor for cross breeding and hybrid seed production in cyclamen. This study was performed to investigate pollen germination and its relation to cross-pollination success and fruit set in this plant. In order to achieve a high level of pollen germination, the effect of different concentrations of chemical compounds were examined on in vitro pollen germination of cyc...

The expansion of pollinator-dependent crops, especially in the developing world, together with reports of worldwide pollinator declines, raises concern of possible yield gaps. Farmers directly reliant on pollination services for food supply often live in regions where our knowledge of pollination services is poor. In a manipulative experiment replicated at 23 sites across an Ethiopian agricultu...

Abstract Declines in floral resources, pollen and nectar, are considered one cause of pollinator decline. However, the supply demand resources can vary temporally. In Britain, autumn has been suggested as a period high resource availability due to flowering ivy ( Hedera helix ), common native plant, combined with fewer insects active during this season. Here, we directly quantified proportion n...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS In the UK, the flowers of fruit-bearing hedgerow plants provide a succession of pollen and nectar for flower-visiting insects for much of the year. The fruits of hedgerow plants are a source of winter food for frugivorous birds on farmland. It is unclear whether recent declines in pollinator populations are likely to threaten fruit-set and hence food supply for birds. The pr...

Background: The cultivation of saffron is expanding through the southeast of Iran, and allergy to saffron pollen occurs in workers involved in processing this plant. We aimed to clone, sequence and express a major allergen involved in saffron pollen allergy, and to compare the recombinant with the natural allergen. Methods: The N-terminal amino acid sequence of Cro s 1, an allergen from saff...

Bee-collected pollen (bee pollen) is reported as a health food with a vast range of nutritional and therapeutic effects. Biochemical and hematological parameters in blood of rainbow trout treated to various concentrations of pollen (0.5, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 30 ppm) for 96 h were determined. The levels of total protein, creatinine, chloride and sodium in fish which exposed to different concentrat...

Asthma and allergic diseases cases have risen in recent decades. Plant pollen is considered as the main aeroallergen causing allergic reactions. According to available data, urban residents experience more respiratory allergies than rural residents mainly due to the interaction between chemical air pollutants and pollen grains. This interaction can occur through several mechanisms; chemical pol...