This survey was undertaken in the Errachidia province in south-eastern Morocco in order to inventory the main medicinal plants used in folk medicine to treat arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Four hundred individuals who knew about and/or had used the medicinal plants for the indicated diseases, including some herbal healers, were interviewed throughout different regions of the provi...

Efficacy of aqueous extracts of different plant parts and biocontrol agents was tested against the growth of three post-harvest fungal pathogens of banana (Macrophomina phaseolina R-4242, Fusarium oxysporum sp. QJC1403 and Nigrospora oryzae NRRL 54030).The plant extracts when applied as preand post-inoculation treatments were effective in controlling the growth of the three pathogenic fungi. Ex...

Disinfection of surface drinking water, in particular water chlorination, produces many by-products with genotoxic and/or carcinogenic activity. The aim of this research was to evaluate the genotoxicity of surface water after treatment with different disinfectants by means of in situ plant genotoxicity assays. The study was carried out in a pilot plant using lake water after sedimentation and f...

Onion bulbing is an important agricultural trait affecting economic value and is regulated by flowering-related genes. FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT)-like gene function is crucial for the initiation of flowering in various plant species and also in asexual reproduction in tuber plants. By employing various computational analysis using RNA-Seq data, we identified eight FT-like genes (AcFT) encoding PEBP...

Since folk medicine has been greatly appreciated for centuries, many researchers decided to study more deeply the curative qualities of plants. In the present study, meristematic cells of Allium cepa L. were used as vegetal test system and bone marrow cells of Wistar rats as animal test system. Both were treated in vivo to evaluate whether the plants Averrhoa carambola L., Syzygium cumini (L.) ...

Diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disorder that results in hyperglycemia due to decreased insulin production or inefficient insulin utilization. This disease has been reported in animals, particularly in aged dogs. However, the disorder is much more prevalent in humans. Millions of people across the globe currently have diabetes and incidence rates are predicted to increase dramatically as the p...

Cytogenetic effects of different herbicides viz. Atrazine, Avenoxan, Diuron and Quizalofop-P-ethyl (QPE), were evaluated in the root tip meristem cells of Allium cepa. In the Allium root growth test, the effective concentration (EC50) value was determined as approximately 0.5 ppm in the case of Atrazine and Avenoxan and 1.0 ppm in the case of Diuron and QPE herbicides with a control for each co...

In this study, the onion (Allium cepa) root test was used to evaluate the genotoxicity of the Pitimbu River (Natal city, Brazil) surface water. The water was collected at five sampling sites along the river and one sample was obtained after the treatment (flocculation, chlorination and pH correction) of the river water for human consumption. All raw river water samples increased the frequency o...

Onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lindeman (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), is a worldwide pest of onion, Allium cepa L. In field studies on onion resistance conducted in 2007 and 2008 using 49 cultivars, 11 showed low leaf damage by T. tabaci. In laboratory studies, the 11 cultivars, along with two susceptible checks and four additional cultivars, were evaluated to characterize resistance to T. tabaci and...

The aqueous extract of flowers of I. coccinea was evaluated for its cytotoxic and mutagenic effects on the meristematic cells of onion root tip. The percentage of abnormalities was found to increase with the increase in the concentration of the extract from 20 to 60 mg/ml. With 80 mg/ml completed arrest or total inhibition of cell division was observed. The major abnormalities were unprinted ch...