Pogostemon auricularius is an aromatic herb belonging to the family Lamiaceae. Objectives: In the present study we have utilized the Allium cepa root tip meristem model to evaluate the cytotoxic and antimitotic potential of P. auricularius. Methods: The roots of Allium cepa were exposed to different concentrations of the aqueous leaf extracts (0.01%, 0.05%, 0.1% and 0.5%), for four different ti...

Bioactive dietary agents have been shown to regulate multiple cancer hallmark pathways. Epidemiologic studies have linked consumption of Allium vegetables, such as garlic and onions, to decreased incidence of cancer. Diallyl trisulfide (DATS), a bioactive compound derived from Allium vegetables, has been investigated as an anti-cancer and chemopreventive agent. Preclinical studies provide ample...

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...

Worldly data show the increasing incidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and particularly of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). In developing countries, TB control programmes are overwhelmed by the complexity of treating MDR-TB infected people, as current tools and therapies are inadequate. MDR-TB could become the main form of TB. Risk factors that make South Africa into one of t...

Genetic analysis of onion has been hampered by a lack of portable codominant markers based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The public release of a relatively large set of non-redundant onion expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in 2003 has provided the opportunity to develop such markers for use in Allium research and industry. We have mined this collection for simple sequence repeats (SSRs) ...

ROSS chromosome aberrations or rearrangements have recently G come to occupy an important position in the study of problems of evolution and speciation. Such aberrations are known to occur in many plants and animals. However, the spontaneous occurrence of these aberrations is rather difficult to study, since their frequency is usually very low. In an endeavor to obtain a further understanding o...

The present study was designed to evaluate the phytochemical profile and the anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-convulsant activity of methanolic extracts of Allium sativum, L.(peel of the bulb), Arachis hypogaea, L. (fruit shell), Citrus limon, L. (rind of the fruit), Punica granatum, L.(rind of the fruit) and Vitis vinifera, L.( seed).

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) communities were established in pots using fungal isolates from a single field in Switzerland. It was tested whether multispecies mixtures provided more phosphorus and supported greater plant growth than single AMF species. Two host plants, medic (Medicago truncatula) and leek (Allium porrum), were inoculated with three AMF species (Glomus mosseae, G. claroid...

The antioxidant activities of seven wild edible plants e.g. Allium schoenoprasum, Carica papaya, Neptunia oleracea, Eurya acuminata, Hodgsonia heteroclita, Brassica nigra and Flacourtia jangomas collected from Meghalaya state in India were studied by assessing 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, reducing power ability, estimation of total phenolic content, flavono...