Stepwise increases in fluorescent illuminance, imposed as a single variable in a controlled environment, induced progressive stomatal opening in 8 plant species, as evidenced by a consistent decrease in leaf diffusion resistance (R(L)), ranging from 15 to 70 sec cm(-1) in darkness to about 1 sec cm(-1) at approximately 40 kilolux. The minimum R(L) values were the same for the upper and the lowe...

The paper deals with pharmacognosy of Centella asiatica (L.) Urban, including its morphological, anatomical, chemical constituents and powder analysis. Stomata are mostly anisotricytic, isotricytic and few tetracytic. Sphaero-crystals of calcium oxalate are observed in palisade, spongy and ground parenchyma of leaf lamina, petiole and rhizome and absent in roots. Uniseriate flagellate conical h...

Leaf veins supply the mesophyll with water that evaporates when stomata are open to allow CO2 uptake for photosynthesis. Theoretical analyses suggest that water is optimally distributed in the mesophyll when the lateral distance between veins (dx) is equal to the distance from these veins to the epidermis (dy), expressed as dx:dy ≈ 1. Although this theory is supported by observations of many de...

Pterospermum acerifolium plant is considered to be laxative, anthelmintic, stomachic and used in inflammation, blood disorders, ulcers and leprosy. The leaf was studied for pharmaconostic evaluations, including examination of morphological and microscopic characters, determination of leaf constants, ash values and extractive values. The morphological studies revealed that the leaf is dark green...

The present study was performed for the development of physico-chemical parameters of Carica papaya Linn. leaves belonging to family Caricaceae. The study comprises physico-chemical and phytochemical evaluation to confirm purity and authenticity of Carica papaya leaf based on WHO guidelines. Microscopy of the leaf showed presence of epidermis, collenchyma, and parenchyma, scellerenchyma, xylem,...

DNA gel blot analysis suggested that asparagine synthetase (AS; EC 6.3.5.4) occurred as a single gene in rice. A fusion protein consisting of 17 kDa tagged-region from pET32a(+) expression plasmid and 42 kDa N-terminal region of rice AS was first expressed in Escherichia coli. The resulting polypeptide was purified and a mono-specific antibody for rice AS was prepared after affinity-purificatio...

Dualex (dual excitation) is a field-portable instrument, hereby described, for the assessment of polyphenolic compounds in leaves from the measurement of UV absorbance of the leaf epidermis by double excitation of chlorophyll fluorescence. The instrument takes advantage of a feedback loop that equalizes the fluorescence level induced by a reference red light to the UV-light-induced fluorescence...

Dichapetalum cymosum (Hook.) Engl. (Poison leaf; gifblaar) is a major cause of acute livestock plant poisoning in southern Africa. Microscopic identification of leaf fragments found in the digestive tract of poisoned animals can assist in the diagnosis of poisoning when D. cymosum poisoning is suspected. The microscopic morphology of D. cymosum leaves are described using standard staining and m...