Introduction To be invited to deliver a presidential address is a great honour signifying, firstly, the support of peers in being elected to the presidency and, secondly, the impending conclusion of this responsibility. It is, in accordance with tradition, the single occasion on which the opinion of the president is not questioned, when he can even discuss the taboo subjects of sex, religion, a...

"The Iliac Passion" traces a return from the new but busy and rapidly growing discipline of "bioethics" to its source in "fundamental philosophical inquiry." The dilemma between bioethics and medicine is examined in two ways. First, the philosophical concept of the "big question" is presented. If we ask of life or of human experience "What does it all mean?", the "it" needs to be defined, and w...

Graduate students and post-docs often ask “What do I need to do to succeed?” One popular answer is to boost your career by networking feverishly, finding powerful mentors, learning to pinpoint hot areas, and publishing in sexy journals. This approach has two problems: it makes succeeding in biology sound like learning to sell used cars, and it relies heavily on prognostication, a skill that eve...

Rhododendron is one of the largest shrubs and is well known as a garden plant because of their evergreen leaves and various flower colors. The present study investigated the variation in amino acids in the differently colored flowers of Rhododendron schlippenbachii. Analysis of the Rhododendron flowers revealed 22 types of amino acids. The amino acid content varied greatly depending on the diff...

The angiosperm order Malpighiales includes ~16,000 species and constitutes up to 40% of the understory tree diversity in tropical rain forests. Despite remarkable progress in angiosperm systematics during the last 20 y, relationships within Malpighiales remain poorly resolved, possibly owing to its rapid rise during the mid-Cretaceous. Using phylogenomic approaches, including analyses of 82 pla...

Adhesion of leukocytes to endothelial cells plays an important role in neuroinflammation. Therefore, suppression of the expression of adhesion molecules in brain endothelial cells may inhibit neuroinflammation. Chrysin (5,7-dihydroxyflavone) is a flavonoid component of propolis, blue passion flowers, and fruits. In the present study, we examined the effects of chrysin on lipopolysaccharide (LPS...

Nectar robbers are thought rarely to pollinate flowers, especially those with sexual organs hidden within corollas. In this study, we examined whether robbers pollinate flowers of distylous Primula secundiflora. Distylous plants have two floral morphs. Pin flowers have long styles and short stamens, and thrum flowers have short styles and long stamens. Flowers of P. secundiflora were commonly r...

Passiflora incarnata L. commonly known as passion flower belongs to Passifloraceae family and is one of the most popular and widely used medicinal plants in traditional medicine. The plant has a long history of application in herbal medicine as an anxiolytic and sedative-hypnotic. Extracts prepared from P. incarnata have been reported for their diverse ranges of pharmacological actions includin...

Jen Sheen grew up in a sugarcane plantation community in a rural area next to the city Pinton in southern Taiwan. The sweet scent in the air and the lush tropical plants in her parents’ gardens were important childhood influences for her choice of studying botany as an undergraduate at National Taiwan University (NTU) and for her unconventional research path studying sugar sensing and signaling...

Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis) is a nutritious tropical belongs to the family Passifloraceae. The purple passion local from southern Brazil through Paraguay northern Argentina. India, for long time, has appreciated moderate collect of in Nilgiris south and various parts India. good amount antioxidants, flavanoids, anti- inflammatory, bacterial, fungal ageing properties. This huge economical ...