Background: Greater consumption of fruits and vegetables is associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancers. The most important nutrients present in plants are carbohydrates, such as the starch and free sugars, oils, proteins, minerals, ascorbic acid, and the antioxidant phenols. Plants are an essential component of the universe. Human beings have used those as medic...

Silicon is the second most abundant element in soils, the mineral substrate for most of the world's plant life. The soil water, or the "soil solution," contains silicon, mainly as silicic acid, H4SiO4, at 0.1-0.6 mM--concentrations on the order of those of potassium, calcium, and other major plant nutrients, and well in excess of those of phosphate. Silicon is readily absorbed so that terrestri...

In low-nutrient ecosystems such as forests developed on acidic soil, the main limiting factor for plant growth is the availability of soil nutrients. The aim of this study was to investigate in a temperate forest: 1) the influence of the rhizosphere processes on the availability of nutrients and trace elements during one year period and 2) the seasonal evolution of this rhizosphere effect. Bulk...

Plants are sessile organisms therefore, cannot avoid adverse environmental conditions (such as soil salinity, drought, heat, cold, flooding and heavy metal contamination). These stress factors are a menace for plants, prevent them from reaching their full genetic potential and limit crop productivity worldwide. Soil contamination with heavy metals has become a world wide problem leading to loss...

Two hypotheses were tested: (1) heavy metals such as Zn, Pb and Cd can suppress the respiration rate of forest litter at low-moderate pollution levels, and (2) mineral nutrients such as K, Ca and Mg can counteract the toxicity of heavy metals when applied onto the polluted litter. In a completely randomised design, three doses of heavy metals were used: Cd-10, 50, 250; Pb-100, 500, 2500; Zn-200...

Incorporation of forest slash during stand establishment is proposed as ameans of increasing soil carbon and nutrient stocks. If effective, the increased soil carbon and nutrient status may result in increased aboveground tree growth. Eight years after study installation, the impact of forest slash incorporation into the soil on soil carbon and nutrient stocks, foliar nutrients and loblolly pin...

Many animals in the tropics of Africa, Asia and South America regularly visit so-called salt or mineral licks to consume clay or drink clay-saturated water. Whether this behavior is used to supplement diets with locally limited nutrients or to buffer the effects of toxic secondary plant compounds remains unclear. In the Amazonian rainforest, pregnant and lactating bats are frequently observed a...

identification and regulation of distribution of mineral nutrients between source and sink members is beneficial in improvement of growth and development of fruit trees. the aim followed in this study was an evaluation of the effects of urea and znso4 on storage and translocation of nitrogen and zink in the leaf and fruits of pomegranate cv ‘rabab-e-neyriz’. in 2009, znso4 (0.0, 0.3%, 0.6%) was...

Fungi interact directly with trees as biotrophs (obtaining nutrients from living cells/tissues) either parasites or mutualistic mycorrhizas, and as necrotrophs (obtaining nutrition from cells/tissues that they kill). Mycorrhizas are crucial to the health of the vast majority of plants in nature, supplying them with water and mineral nutrients, and protecting against root pathogens. Fungi affect...

Myrcia tomentosa (Aubl.) DC., Myrtaceae, found in Central Brazilian Cerrado and popularly known as "goiaba-brava", belongs to the Myrcia genus, which has several species with medicinal properties such as: hypoglycemic, diuretic, hypotensive, antidiarrheal, antimicrobial and antitumor. The present study aimed to analyzed the environmental infl uence on concentrations of phenolic metabolites in M...