The discovery of well-preserved frescoes at Akrotiri on Thera has vastly expanded our awareness of the importance of color in Aegean Bronze Age costumes (C. Doumas, The WallPaintings of Thera, 1992, for good illustrations). Yellow dye, derived from saffron crocus, is particularly important in women's clothing at different stages in life, and some of these garments are further embellished with e...

UGT707B1 is a new glucosyltransferase isolated from saffron (Crocus sativus) that localizes to the cytoplasm and the nucleus of stigma and tepal cells. UGT707B1 transcripts were detected in the stigma tissue of all the Crocus species analyzed, but expression analysis of UGT707B1 in tepals revealed its absence in certain species. The analysis of the glucosylated flavonoids present in Crocus tepa...

Introduction: The polar condensation/sublimation of CO2, that involve about one fourth of the atmosphere mass, is the major Martian climatic cycle. Early observations in visible and thermal infrared have shown that the sublimation of the Seasonal South Polar Cap (SSPC) is not symmetric around the geographic South Pole [1]. Therefore the asymmetric release of CO2 in the atmosphere may lead to sp...

Crocus sativus is the source of saffron spice, the processed stigma which accumulates glucosylated apocarotenoids known as crocins. Crocins are found in the stigmas of other Crocuses, determining the colourations observed from pale yellow to dark red. By contrast, tepals in Crocus species display a wider diversity of colours which range from purple, blue, yellow to white. In this study, we inve...

The accumulation of three major carotenoid derivatives-crocetin glycosides, picrocrocin, and safranal-is in large part responsible for the color, bitter taste, and aroma of saffron, which is obtained from the dried styles of Crocus. We have identified and functionally characterized the Crocus zeaxanthin 7,8(7',8')-cleavage dioxygenase gene (CsZCD), which codes for a chromoplast enzyme that init...

The effects of aqueous-ethanolic extracts of Crocus sativus (Iridaceae) on muscarinic receptors were examined on tracheal chains of guinea pigs. The effects of three concentrations of aqueous-ethanolic extract, safranal, atropine and saline on muscarinic receptors were tested (n=8). The EC50 (effective concentration of methacoline causing 50% of maximum response) obtained in the presence of atr...

Over the past years, a vast number of datasets have been published based on Semantic Web standards, which provides an opportunity for creating novel industrial applications. However, industrial requirements on data quality are high while the time to market as well as the required costs for data preparation have to be kept low. Unfortunately, many Linked Data sources are error-prone which preven...