Water blooms formed by potentially toxic species of cyanobacteria are a common phenomenon in the Baltic Sea in late summer. Twenty-five cyanobacterial bloom samples were collected from open and coastal waters of the Baltic Sea during 1985 to 1987, and their toxicity was determined by mouse bioassay. All of 5 bloom samples from the southern Baltic Sea, 6 of 6 from the open northern Baltic Sea (G...

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms are of increasing global concern and their prediction and management requires an improved understanding of the controlling factors for cyanobacterial growth and dominance. In Lake St Charles, the drinking water supply for Quebec City, Canada, harmful cyanobacterial blooms were first recorded in autumn 2006. Our aims were to define the temporal and spatial variation...

Interactions between different phytoplankton taxa and heterotrophic bacterial communities within aquatic environments can differentially support growth of various heterotrophic bacterial species. In this study, phytoplankton diversity was studied using traditional microscopic techniques and the bacterial communities associated with phytoplankton bloom were studied using High Throughput Sequenci...

Anatoxin-a(s) is a guanidinemethyl phosphate ester isolated from the freshwater cyanobacterium (bluegreen algae) Anabaena flos-aquae strain NRC 525–17. Previous work has shown anatoxin-a(s) to be a potent irreversible inhibitor of electric eel acetylcholinesterase (AChE, EC 3.1.1.7). Anatoxin-a(s) has been shown to be an active site-directed inhibitor of AChE, which is resistant to reactivation...

BACKGROUND StemSport (SS; StemTech International, Inc. San Clemente, CA) contains a proprietary blend of the botanical Aphanizomenon flos-aquae and several herbal antioxidant and anti-inflammatory substances. SS has been purported to accelerate tissue repair and restore muscle function following resistance exercise. Here, we examine the effects of SS supplementation on strength adaptations resu...

BACKGROUND Evidence for the scientific basis of purported therapeutic effects and adverse effects of herbal supplements continues to grow. Many herbal supplements are touted for their immunostimulatory properties, and both in vitro and in vivo experiments have supported this claim. Although this explains their beneficial effects in preventing or curtailing disease, to our knowledge, no immunost...

Tropical coastal wetland ecosystems are widely distributed in arid regions. The Grande coastal lagoon in Peru’s central plain is shallow, eutrophic and alkaline, exposed to the annual hydrological regime with flooding and desiccation periods, when a salt crust is formed. The brackish to hypersaline habitats showed salinity gradients from 2-90 ppt (NaCl) to saturation, pH values from 7.0 to 10.5...

The eutrophication of freshwaters is a global health concern as lakes with excess nutrients are often subject to toxic cyanobacterial blooms. Although phosphorus is considered the main element regulating cyanobacterial biomass, nitrogen (N) concentration and more specifically the availability of different N forms may influence the overall toxicity of blooms. In this study of three eutrophic lak...

Fresh water bodies in populated plains of tropical countries face various disturbances in the form of pollutant and nutrient inflow, heavy metal and elemental precipitation (wet or dry) and constant silt inflow (natural or anthropogenic). The physico-chemical characteristics are very much important for any water body. In lentic water bodies these characteristics shows very much variation becaus...

Immunoglobulins are part of the humoral immunity response against foreign antigens. Their blood levels could be influenced by different agents, including food supplements as Aphanizomenon flos-aquae (AFA), Propolis, substances as Fucoidan and herbal extracts. Purpose. To evaluate whether Fucoidan, AFA, a total leaf extract of Haberlea rhodopensis and Propolis augment the IgG and IgM levels into...