Moringa oleifera Lam. (synonym: Moringa pterygosperma Gaertn.) (M. oleifera) known in 82 countries by 210 different names is well known by the name of the miracle tree. It is one of the extensively cultivated and highly valued members of Moringaceae, a monogeneric family, comprising of thirteen perennial angiosperm shrubs and trees[1-3]. Moringa tree is endemic to the Himalayan foothills of Pak...

Xanthine oxidase plays crucial roles in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and uric acid in blood which may lead to gout, one of the oldest known forms of arthritis amongst humans. Summer savory (Satureja hortensis L.) a medicinal/spice exhibits antioxidant activity, but unknown effects on xanthine oxidase activity. Here, for the first time, we examined the effects of S. hortensis...

There are some reports in ancient medicinal literature that aqueous extracts of the leaves of Teucrium polium show analgesic effects. This prompted us to investigate the analgesic effect of the leaves of the plant using Tail-Flick and Fomalin tests. For this purpose, male NMRI rats weighing 220-260 g were used in all experiments. The aqueous extract of the plant was injected intraperitoneally a...

The comparative effects of different concentrations of saline soil and saline irrigation water were investigated on growth of canola (cv. Ganyou-5). Plants were subjected to control (non-saline), 0.2% (EC 2.5 dS.m-1), 0.4% (EC 4.5 dS.m-1) and 0.6% (EC 6.5 dS.m-1) of sea salt concentrations in soil as well as saline irrigation water. Vegetative growth parameters recorded were plant height, numbe...

The absorption of (59)Fe(3+) by the leaves of various plant species was studied. Stomata were found to play a major role in foliar absorption when leaves were totally submerged in treatment solutions, and a correlation was found to exist between stomatal area and absorption. Day treated leaves absorbed much more than did night treated leaves. The use of a surfactant markedly increased absorptio...

The nutritional, anti-nutritional and mucilage contents of flour of leaves of two vegetables Bombax costatum leaf (BCL) and Cissus populnea leaf (CPL) were investigated. Their protein (≈19.0 g/100g in BCL and ≈13.0 g/100g in CPL) and ash (≈6.0 g/100g in BCL and ≈11.0 g/100g in CPL) contents were significantly different at P < 0.05. Both leaves were rich in Ca (BCL, 102 ± 2.5 mg/100g; CPL, 113 ±...

Fungal endophytes colonize living internal plant tissues without causing any visible symptoms of disease. Endophytic fungi associated with healthy leaves may play an important role in the protection of hosts against herbivores and pathogens. In this study, the diversity of foliar endophytic fungi (FEF) of the southern temperate tree Embothrium coccineum (Proteaceae), as well as their role in pl...

RghBNG, a gene of unknown function, was cloned from Rehmannia glutinosa by reverse transcription PCR and rapid amplification of cDNA ends. The full-length cDNA of RghBNG was 548 bp with a282-bp open reading frame. It encoded a polypeptide of 93 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 10.5 kDa and a theoretical isoelectric point of 9.25. Bioinformatics analysis indicated that RghBNG had...

The segmentation of individual leaves in plant images is still a challenging task, especially in case of leaf overlaps. The exact determination of individual leaf areas could improve the biomass estimation which is a good indicator for plant performance. In addition, the number of leaves is directly related to plant development, leaf counts give insight into changing plant development stages. M...

Peroxidases are involved in many plant processes including plant defense responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. We isolated a novel peroxidase gene CanPOD from leaves of pepper cultivar A3. The full-length gene has a 1353-bp cDNA sequence and contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 975-bp, which encodes a putative polypeptide of 324 amino acids with a theoretical protein size of 34.93 kDa. ...