The ethanolic leaf extract of Cymbidium aloifolium (L.) was intended to evaluate the effect on the central nervous system (CNS) using a number of neuropharmacological experimental models in mice. The extract, at the dose of 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight, were shown to have CNS depressant activity by the reduction of locomotor and exploratory activities in the open field and hole cross tests. Th...

A full-length DNA copy of cymbidium ringspot virus RNA was cloned downstream of a phage T7 promoter. In vitro transcripts had no extra nucleotides at the 3' terminus, and a 5' end likely to be precisely as in genomic RNA. Transcripts were infective when inoculated into test plants. Northern blots from inoculated plants revealed the presence of genomic and subgenomic RNAs, but not of satellite R...

Nicotiana clevelandii plants were inoculated with cymbidium ringspot tombusvirus RNA synthesized in vitro, after which further passages were made by sap inoculation. During the third passage, low Mr RNA species appeared which had the characteristics of deletion mutants of genomic RNA. Sequence analysis of several of these defective interfering RNAs suggested a possible evolution of smaller from...

The species of poorly known but charismatic genera Haematodes Laporte, 1835 and Weiserianum Bernhauer, 1927 are revised. Weiserianumsyn. nov. is considered a junior synonym of Haematodes, with Haematodes kuntzeni (Scheerpeltz, 1936) comb. nov.Weiserianum woltersi Bernhauer, 1927 syn. nov. is treated as a synonym of Haematodes tenuipes Kraatz, 1858. Haematodes myterossp. nov., is described from ...

Carbon and nitrogen are the two elements that most affect plant organogenesis. In vitro, usually as part of the macronutrients. Some anecdotal evidence from the literature suggests that the ammonium (NH4+) to nitrate (NO3–) ratio may affect orchid organogenesis. In this study, to test this hypothesis, different NH4+: NO3– ratios were tested on the development of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) of ...