In 1890, Salvia freyniana Bornm., an endemic species of Turkey, was first collected and described by J.F. Bornmueller in 1892. While revising the genus occurring in Turkey based on specimens collected from Yenipazar, south of Yozgat (Turkey in 1892), it was discovered once again in 2006. The diagnostic morphological characters of this rare endemic species are discussed. Details of fruiting mate...

BACKGROUND Hepatic fibrosis is characterised by a progressive accumulation of fibrillar extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, including collagen that occurs in chronic liver diseases. Transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta)/Smad3 signalling plays a major role in tissue fibrogenesis acting as a potent stimulus of ECM accumulation. AIM To evaluate the effects of a combined therapy with anti-...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The distinction between pearl bodies (or pearl glands) and food bodies (FBs) is not clear; neither is our understanding of what these structures really represent. The present work examined the ontogenesis, structure, ultrastructure and histochemical aspects of the protuberances in Cissus verticillata, which have been described since the beginning of the 19th century as pearl...

Salvia miltiorrhiza, which is commonly known as Danshen, is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine. To illustrate its physiological and biochemical responses to salt stress and to evaluate the feasibility of cultivating this plant in saline coastal soils, a factorial experiment under hydroponic conditions was arranged on the basis of a completely randomised design with three replications. Five s...

Salvia miltiorrhiza is an important medicinal plant with great economic and medicinal value. The complete chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of Salvia miltiorrhiza, the first sequenced member of the Lamiaceae family, is reported here. The genome is 151,328 bp in length and exhibits a typical quadripartite structure of the large (LSC, 82,695 bp) and small (SSC, 17,555 bp) single-copy regions, sepa...

The Kangaroo Island glossy black-cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus) is an endangered subspecies that feeds almost entirely on the kernels of drooping sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata). Hence, it highly susceptible to changes in quantity or quality A. verticillata. Fire has potential severely impact feeding habitat island, but since verticillata serotinous, partially reliant fire ...

Radial oxygen loss (ROL) has been suggested to be a major process to protect plants exposed to the anaerobic by-products of soil anaerobiosis. The aim of the present study was to test the effects of root ROL from two submerged plants (Hydrilla verticillata and Vallisneria spiralis) on the rhizosphere oxygen profile and rhizosphere microarea. Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) of sediment samples ...

Submerged macrophyte communities are frequently subjected to disturbance of various frequency and strength. However, there is still little experimental evidence on how mechanical disturbance affects the performance and species composition of such plant communities. In a greenhouse experiment, we constructed wetland communities consisting of five co-occurring clonal submerged macrophyte species ...

BACKGROUND Salvia divinorum is a member of the Lamiaceae family and contains the psychotropic diterpene and kappa-opioid receptor agonist salvinorin-A. Originally a shamanic inebriant used by the Mexican Mazatec Indians, the plant and its preparations are becoming increasingly popular among non-traditional users. METHODS Demographic data and information on pattern of use and subjective effect...