Drugs-of-abuse screening is becoming more prevalent, and a major technical and legal concern is that individuals may be mistakenly identified as drug usersbecause of a false-positive test result. Marijuana use can be detectedby screening a urine specimen with the Abbott (North Chicago, IL) TDx cannabinoid assay, which gives a positive reaction with several delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) der...

A successful protocol was established for micropropagation in two selected varieties of exotic ornamental plants, Calathea crotalifera. The effects of different sterilization techniques, explant type, and the combination and concentration of plant growth regulators on shoots induction were studied. The axillary shoot buds explants sprouted from rhizomes in soil free conditions showed high induc...

Immature cotyledons of open-pollinated fruits from three sour cherry cultivars (Prunus cerasus L.) were excised and cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with various combinations of auxin and cytokinin to induce somatic embryogenesis. Somatic embryogenesis occurred principally when using the combinations of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid plus kinetin. Using a-naphthaleneacetic ac...

Genetic variation due to somaclonal variation in micropropagated plants is a beneficial phenomenon for crop improvement. Genetic integrity of the plants derived through micropropagation becomes crucial if genetic transformation studies have to be carried out. Somaclonal variation in tissue culture is a common phenomenon which makes it mandatory to check for genetic stability of plants. Hypocoty...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Ilex khasiana is a rare and critically endangered holly endemic to the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, India, and confined to a small number of pocket areas. In addition to conventional methods of propagation, endemic and threatened plants such as this could be more effectively multiplied and conserved using in vitro methods. Such techniques have the additional advantage of having...

A successful protocol was developed for mass propagation of Lawsonia inermis Linn., an important medicinal plant. Multiple shoots were induced in apical and axillary meristems derived from mature explants of L. inermis on Murashige and Skoog (1962) medium supplemented with 0.25 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (BA), 0.25 mg/l Kinetin (Kn), 0.5 mg/l ascorbic acid and 3% (w/v) sucrose. The rate of multip...

A new pseudocyclic triflate derivative of benziodoxole (IBA-OTf) was prepared and characterized by X-ray analysis. This highly electrophilic reagent readily reacts with various organic substrates to give the corresponding products in good yields. Furthermore, IBA-OTf can be used as a catalyst with m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid as the terminal oxidant.