A major dieback of seagrass occurred in South Australia where 12,717 ha of intertidal and shallow subtidal seagrasses were lost along the north eastern coast of Spencer Gulf. This was a rapid decline, occurring toward the end of summer in January or early February of 1993. The extent and location of the dieback was mapped from aerial photographs taken before (1987) and after the event (1994). E...

Carica papaya L. leaves have been used in ethnomedicine for the treatment of fevers and cancers. Despite its benefits, very few studies on their potential toxicity have been described. The aim of the present study was to characterize the chemical composition of the leaf extract from 'Sekaki' C. papaya cultivar by UPLC-TripleTOF-ESI-MS and to investigate the sub-acute oral toxicity in Sprague Da...

The objective of the present study was to measure the glycemic index of durian, papaya, pineapple and water-melon grown in Malaysia. Ten (10) healthy volunteers (5 females, 5 males; body mass index 21.18+/-1.7 kg/m2) consumed 50 g of available carbohydrate portions of glucose (reference food) and four test foods (durian, papaya, pineapple and watermelon) in random order after an overnight fast....

The facts about the ohia (Metrosideros polymorpha) rain forest dieback are put together in abbreviated form as far as they have been revealed over the past 12 years of intensive research in Hawaii. They lead to the conclusion that this native rain forest ecosystem is made up of an irregular and dynamic mosaic of ohia cohort stands occurring side by side. These are in different and similar life ...

During recent years, oak decline has been widely spread across Brant’s oak (Quercus Brantii Lindl.) stands in the Zagros Mountains, Western Iran, which caused large-area forest dieback in several sites. Mapping the intensity and spatial distribution of forest dieback is essential for developing management and control strategies. This study evaluated a range of geostatistical and interpolation m...

In the present study, the Allium cepa chromosome assay was employed as a preliminary test to investigate the mutagenic and antimutagenic potential of three plants, namely Clinacanthus nutans, Adhatoda vasica, and Carica papaya, used by traditional practitioners in Malaysia against a direct acting mutagen-Methyl Methanesulphonate (MMS). Onions were planted in various treatment groups: plant extr...

Malaysia has a rich diversity of medicinal plants and some of them inhibit xanthine oxidase (XO), which can be introduced as new natural sources of gout medication and a substitute for synthetic xanthine oxidase inhibitors (XOI). The degree of XO inhibitory activity was determined by measuring the absorbance spectrophotometrically at 295 nm, which is associated with uric acid formation. Our pre...