Moderate grazing by cattle increases the heterogeneity of soil and vegetation. This has been suggested as an ecologically sustainable mean of managing natural environments endangered by tree encroachment, such as heathlands. Our study was performed to test the impact of grazing intensity on soil macroinvertebrate communities in heterogeneous landscapes in a private property eligible to the Natu...

In this study, the physical properties (oven-dry density, basic volumetric shrinkage, and swelling) structural components (cellulose, lignin, extractives content) of three wild almond wood species from southwestern Iran, namely Amygdalus arabica, eburna, scoparia, were investigated. Wild is a valuable in Zagros forests but there lack data on their properties. Three adult trees each chosen, samp...

BACKGROUND The fructus of Kochia scoparia Schrader (Chenopodiaceae) is a traditional herbal medicine that has been used for treating gonorrhea and dermatitis. OBJECTIVE We investigated the anti-inflammatory activities of three marker compounds, including 20-hydroxyecdysone, momordin Ic, and oleanolic acid, from the fructus of K. scoparia. MATERIALS AND METHODS The simultaneous analysis of t...

OBJECTIVE To make an useful identification method for the molecule of DNA on 3 herbs of Artemisia genus and compare the differences of the genes of Korean and Chinese species of Artemisia. METHODS Sequence of 3 herbs (Artemisia sacrorum Ledeb., Artemisia iwayomogi Kitam. and Artemisia capillaris Thunb.) was determined by PCR sequence system. DNA was extracted from rDNA/ITS (internal transcrib...

BACKGROUND Artemisia frigida Willd. is an important Mongolian traditional medicinal plant with pharmacological functions of stanch and detumescence. However, there is little sequence and genomic information available for Artemisia frigida, which makes phylogenetic identification, evolutionary studies, and genetic improvement of its value very difficult. We report the complete chloroplast genome...

Understory vegetation plays a crucial role in carbon and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems; however, it is not clear how understory species affect tree litter decomposition and nutrient dynamics. In this study, we examined the impacts of understory litter on the decomposition and nutrient release of tree litter both in a pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) and a poplar (Populus × xiaozhu...

We studied the impacts of re-vegetation on soil moisture dynamics and evapotranspiration (ET) of five land cover types in the Loess Plateau in northern China. Soil moisture and temperature variations under grass (Andropogon), subshrub (Artemisia scoparia), shrub (Spiraea pubescens), plantation forest (Robinia pseudoacacia), and crop (Zea mays) vegetation were continuously monitored during the g...

The aromatic compounds of Artemisia annua were extracted by supercritical carbon dioxide. Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of volatile flavor compounds from Artemisia annua was performed at pressure 150bar and temperature 40oC. The flow rate of CO2 was 20 g/min and the flow rate of ethanol as an entrainer was 5% of CO2 used. The extraction time was 1 h. The trapped sample by cold trap 1 ...

The widespread occurrence of herbicide-resistant (HR) Kochia scoparia is an increasing concern for growers in the US Great Plains and Canada. K. scoparia populations resistant to dicamba have been reported in six US states. Populations cross-resistant to dicamba and fluroxypyr have been reported from wheat fields in Montana, USA. It is unclear whether resistance to the auxinic herbicides (dicam...