BACKGROUND Solanum (Solanaceae), with approximately 1500 species, is one of the largest genera of flowering plants, and has a centre of diversity in the New World tropics. The genus is divided into 13 major clades, of which two, the Dulcamaroid clade and the "African Non-Spiny" clade, exhibit vine morphology with twining petioles. I am currently preparing a worldwide monograph of these two grou...

We examined the prevalence of interactions between pairs of short chromosomal regions from one species (Solanum habrochaites) co-introgressed into a heterospecific genetic background (Solanum lycopersicum). Of 105 double introgression line (DIL) families generated from a complete diallele combination of 15 chromosomal segments, 39 ( approximately 38%) showed evidence for complex epistasis in th...

Pigmented potato cultivars were ranked by a consumer panel for overall acceptance, and acceptance of aroma, appearance, and flavor. Potatoes were analyzed for total phenolics, anthocyanins and carotenoids. Concentrations of total phenolics in yellow and purple potato cultivars were 2-fold greater (P < 0.001) than in the white cultivar. Anthocyanins were low to non-detectable in white and yellow...

A new species of Solanum from the Australian "andromonoecious bush tomato clade" of Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum is described. Solanum jobsonii Martine, J.Cantley, & L.M.Lacey, sp. nov. is part of the S. eburneum Symon species group. It most closely resembles S. eburneum and S. watneyi Martine & Frawley of the northwestern part of the Northern Territory, but is separated geographically from t...

Previous studies have shown that fruits have different effects on alcohol metabolism and alcohol-induced liver injury. The present work selected three fruits and aimed at studying the effects of Syzygium samarangense, Passiflora edulis and Solanum muricatum on alcohol-induced liver injury in mice. The animals were treated daily with alcohol and fruit juices for fifteen days. Chronic treatment w...

In the present study, Solanum melongena Linn. (Brinjal; Solanaceae), was evaluated for its antiepileptic activity against experimental seizures. The roots ethanolic extract of Solanum melongena protected mice against tonic convulsion induced by maximal electroshock, Pentylenetetrazole and Picrotoxin. It was found that ethanolic extract up to a dose of 300 mg/kg p.o. decreased the duration of to...

AIM To investigate the action of apoptosis in occurrence of liver carcinomas in vivo and the biological effect of Solanum lyratum Thumb on BEL-7404 cell line inducing apoptosis in vivo. METHODS The apoptosis in the liver carcinoma was detected with terminal deoxynucl neotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL); the cancer cells cultured in DMED medium were treated with extra...

The chem ical com position and m orphology of leaf surface waxes of Solanum tuberosum were analysed using FT -IR . G L C and MS studies. T here is a predom inance of sa tu rated and long chained com ponents resulting in a crystalline wax layer in the form of ribbons, n -alkanes are a m ajo r constituen t with C 3I being p rom inen t. Wax esters and 5-alcohols form the o th e r m ajor com ponent...

We describe Solanum baretiaesp. nov., a new species of Solanum section Anarrhichomenum, named in honor of Jeanne Baret, who sailed as the assistant to botanist Philibert Commerson on Louis Antoine de Bougainville's global circumnavigation (1766-1769). The species is similar to Solanum chimborazense, but differs in having larger flowers, more flowers per inflorescence, and different patterns of ...

A newly discovered group of spherical plant viruses contains a bipartite genome consisting of a single-strand linear RNA molecule (RNA 1, Mr 1.5 x 10(6) ), and a single-strand, covalently closed circular viroid-like RNA molecule (RNA 2, Mr approximately 125,000). The nucleotide sequences of the RNA 2 of two of these, velvet tobacco mottle virus and solanum nodiflorum mottle virus, have been det...