BACKGROUND AND AIMS In tropical lowland rain forest (TLRF) the leaves of most monocots differ from those of most dicots in two ways that may reduce attack by herbivores. Firstly, they are tougher. Secondly, the immature leaves are tightly folded or rolled until 50-100 % of their final length. It was hypothesized that (a) losses of leaf area to herbivorous invertebrates are generally greatest du...

Introduction Leaf of areca tree (Areca catechu L.) is a hard material (good tensile strength), slow in biodegradation and has low calorific value. About 1000 million leaf sheaths (2,33,000 tonnes) are available annually in India alone. Areca leaf sheath (cellulose, 43%) by digestion using sulphite process at 162°C for 3.5 h gives a pulp (yield, 36-40%), which in admixture with other pulp can be...

Royal palm tree peroxidase (RPTP) has been isolated to homogeneity from leaves of Roystonea regia palm trees. The enzyme purification steps included homogenization, (NH4)SO4 precipitation, extraction of palm leaf colored compounds and consecutive chromatography on Phenyl-Sepharose, TSK-Gel DEAE-5PW and Superdex-200. The novel peroxidase was characterized as having a molecular weight of 48.2 ± 3...

Freshwaters provide valuable habitat and important ecosystem services but are threatened worldwide by habitat loss and degradation. In Southeast Asia, rainforest streams are particularly threatened by logging and conversion to oil palm, but we lack information on the impacts of this on freshwater environmental conditions, and the relative importance of catchment versus riparian-scale disturbanc...

Understanding foraging strategies of birds is essential to understanding mechanisms of their community assembly. To provide such information on a key Southeast Asian rainforest family, the babblers (Timaliidae), we evaluated foraging behavior and abundance in 7 morphologically and behaviorally similar sympatric species (Cyanoderma erythropterum, C. rufifrons, Stachyris maculata, S. nigricollis,...

Twelve introgressed oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) progenies of Nigerian dura x Deli dura were evaluated for bunch yield, yield attributes, bunch quality components and vegetative characters at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board Research Station, in Keratong, Pahang, Malaysia. Analysis of variance revealed significant to highly significant genotypic differences, indicating sufficient genetic variabilit...

Elaeis guineensis of the Arecaceae family is widely used in the traditional medicine of societies in West Africa for treating various ailments. To validate the ethnotherapeutic claims of the plant in skin diseases, wound healing activity was studied. The results showed that E. guineensis leaf extract had potent wound healing capacity as evident from the better wound closure (P < 0.05), improved...

BACKGROUND There have been few studies on the sustainable use of non-timber forest products in arid and semi-arid zones. The palm Brahea dulcis has been one of the most important resources in semi-arid Mesoamerica, since pre-Hispanic times. Currently, some populations grow within protected natural areas, representing both a challenge and an opportunity for local development. This ethnoecologica...

Preferences of different oil palm crosses in the station of Pobè in Benin were tested on Coelaenomenodera lameensis by monitoring the natural population for 7 consecutive years. Experiments monitoring of developmental stages of the insect were performed on material types Elaeis guineensis and Elaeis oleifera. Observations were performed every two weeks on leaves of different ranks (25, 17 or 9)...

We reported the use of the timed manual method, routinely employed as an indicator to the relative abundance of domestic triatomine bugs, to estimate their absolute density in houses. A team of six people collected Rhodnius prolixus Stål bugs from the walls and roofs of 14 typical palm-leaf rural houses located in Cojedes, Venezuela, spending 40 minutes searching in each house. One day after th...