Rates of terrestrial wood decomposition are known to vary widely depending on regional and local climatic conditions, substrate characteristics and the organisms involved but the influence of many factors remain poorly quantified. We sought to determine how bark and insects contribute to decomposition in a southeastern U.S. forest. Open-topped stainless steel pans with screened bottoms were use...

The deciduous bark habit is widespread in the woody plant genus Eucalyptus. Species with deciduous bark seasonally shed a layer of dead bark, thereby maintaining smooth-bark surfaces on branches and stems as they age and increase in diameter. This has a significant cost in terms of fire protection, because smooth-barked species have thinner bark than rough-barked species that accumulate success...

Painful venoms are used to deter predators. Pain itself, however, can signal damage and thus serves an important adaptive function. Evolution to reduce general pain responses, although valuable for preying on venomous species, is rare, likely because it comes with the risk of reduced response to tissue damage. Bark scorpions capitalize on the protective pain pathway of predators by inflicting i...

Arbutus andrachne and Platanus orientalis grow naturally in Turkey. They do not occur in stands but can be seen as solitary trees. A. andrachne is seen in coastal parts of Anatolia, whereas P. orientalis can be found from west to the east of Turkey, mostly in river banks. Lipophilic extractives, hydrophilic extractives, and suberin monomers from Arbutus andrachne and Platanus orientalis bark wa...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate invitro and invivo antiasthmatic activity of ethanolic bark extract of Symplocos racemosa. For invitro study, isolated guinea pig ileum was used and dose response curve of histamine in plain Tyrode solution and in Tyrode solution containing 25 μg/ml ethanolic barks extract of Symplocos racemosa were performed. For invivo study histamine induced bronc...

The USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program collects data on a wealth of variables related to trees in forests. Some of these trees produce nontimber forest products (NTFPs) (e.g., fruit, bark, and sap) that are harvested for culinary, decorative, building, and medicinal purposes. At least 11 tree species inventoried by FIA are valued for their bark. For example, slipper...

The Optimal Foraging Theory was used to identify possible patterns in bark extraction and the selective cutting of Anadenanthera colubrina (Angico), a medicinal plant. The hypotheses were built on two approaches: selection of collection place and bark exploitation occurrence in only one of these resource areas. The results suggest that the distance that must be traveled to reach each gathering ...

Two methods (DAS-ELISA and RT-PCR) were compared for the detection of Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) in woody host Prunus mahleb isolated from Malatya. Total RNA extractions were made from serially diluted fresh leaf tissue, root, bark and one year old green bark tissue using silica-based method. Purified total RNA extracts were used as template for cDNA synthesis by reverse transcripti...

Tannin is a very versatile industrial material found in many parts of plants such as the bark of Eucalyptus camadulensis (EC). The bark of EC that normally peels off during the dry season has usually served as anxious substrate for pathogens. In the present experiment, tannin was leached from the bark of EC using water as solvent. Tannin produced varied from 5 to 12%. The yield obtained was fou...

Based on the structures of identified active ingredients, the phenolic compounds extracted from grape seeds and pine bark would not be expected to be genotoxic. Indeed, the inventor of pycnogenol states that this product was tested in Salmonella typhimurium and was negative. Substantial health claims for grape seed and pine bark extracts, including some studies showing tumor inhibition, make th...