Search results for "Plants"
showing 10 items of 1914 documents
Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Proteins against Coleopteran Pests
2020
Bacillus thuringiensis is the most successful microbial insecticide agent and its proteins have been studied for many years due to its toxicity against insects mainly belonging to the orders Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera, which are pests of agro-forestry and medical-veterinary interest. However, studies on the interactions between this bacterium and the insect species classified in the order Coleoptera are more limited when compared to other insect orders. To date, 45 Cry proteins, 2 Cyt proteins, 11 Vip proteins, and 2 Sip proteins have been reported with activity against coleopteran species. A number of these proteins have been successfully used in some insecticidal formulations and…
Historical ethnopharmacology of the herbalists from Krummhübel in the Sudety Mountains (seventeenth to nineteenth century), Silesia
2018
Background Krummhübel (after 1945, Karpacz) in the Sudety Mountains (now SW Poland) was called “the village of pharmacists”. At the end of the seventeenth century, there were 57 households, of which about 40 were inhabited by herbalists. Krummhübel herbalists were the first in the Sudety region who applied medicinal mixtures for the treatment of various diseases (using, among others, plants, oils, minerals and even viper venom) in contrast to previous herbalists who only indicated the use of individual plant species for specific diseases. Riesengebirge (in Polish Karkonosze) potions were sold in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia, and some of them could even be purchased in Scan…
Ethnobotany of dye plants in Southern Italy, Mediterranean Basin: floristic catalog and two centuries of analysis of traditional botanical knowledge …
2020
Abstract Background Since ancient times, man has learned to use plants to obtain natural dyes, but this traditional botanical knowledge (TBK) is eroding. In the late, during, and the early 1800s, there was an increase in research related to dye species, and this allowed the development of industry and economy in rural contexts of Southern Italy. Today, dyes are mainly obtained from synthetic products, and this leads to risks for human health related to pollution. Methods Starting from the literature, three catalogs of the dyeing species (plants, algae, fungi, and lichens) used in the Mediterranean Basin and mainly in Southern Italy have been created. Percentages of parts used and colors ext…
Ethnobotany of the Aegadian Islands: safeguarding biocultural refugia in the Mediterranean
2021
Abstract Background The Aegadian Islands are located west of Trapani, Sicily. Once the site of bountiful tuna fisheries and fruit orchards (plums, peaches, apricots), grapevines, prickly pears, and grains, the local economy is now based on tourism, and many traditional agricultural and maritime practices have been abandoned. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the state of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) concerning the use of wild and cultivated plants and fungi for human health, food, maritime, and agricultural purposes on the islands of Levanzo, Favignana, and Marettimo and compare present-day practices with those documented in the past. Methods In-depth semi-structured interviews …
Fine‐grain beta diversity of Palaearctic grassland vegetation
2021
QUESTIONS: Which environmental factors influence fine-grain beta diversity of vegetation and do they vary among taxonomic groups? LOCATION: Palaearctic biogeographic realm. METHODS: We extracted 4,654 nested-plot series with at least four different grain sizes between 0.0001 m² and 1,024 m² from the GrassPlot database, covering a wide range of different grassland and other open habitat types. We derived extensive environmental and structural information for these series. For each series and four taxonomic groups (vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, all), we calculated the slope parameter (z-value) of the power law species–area relationship (SAR), as a beta diversity measure. We tested whe…
Looking for Hidden Enemies of Metabarcoding: Species Composition, Habitat and Management Can Strongly Influence DNA Extraction while Examining Grassl…
2021
Despite the raising preoccupation, the critical question of how the plant community is composed belowground still remains unresolved, particularly for the conservation priority types of vegetation. The usefulness of metabarcoding analysis of the belowground parts of the plant community is subjected to a considerable bias, that often impedes detection of all species in a sample due to insufficient DNA quality or quantity. In the presented study we have attempted to find environmental factors that determine the amount and quality of DNA extracted from total plant tissue from above- and belowground samples (1,000 and 10,000 cm2). We analyzed the influence of land use intensity, soil properties…
Nested core collections maximizing genetic diversity in Arabidopsis thaliana.
2004
Summary The successful exploitation of natural genetic diversity requires a basic knowledge of the extent of the variation present in a species. To study natural variation in Arabidopsis thaliana, we defined nested core collections maximizing the diversity present among a worldwide set of 265 accessions. The core collections were generated based on DNA sequence data from a limited number of fragments evenly distributed in the genome and were shown to successfully capture the molecular diversity in other loci as well as the morphological diversity. The core collections are available to the scientific community and thus provide an important resource for the study of genetic variation and its …
Degradation of sexual reproduction in Veronica filiformis after introduction to Europe
2011
Abstract Background Baker’s law predicts that self-incompatible plant species are generally poor colonizers because their mating system requires a high diversity of genetically differentiated individuals and thus self-compatibility should develop after long-distance dispersal. However, cases like the introduction of the self-incompatible Veronica filiformis (Plantaginaceae) to Europe constitute an often overlooked alternative to this rule. This species was introduced from subalpine areas of the Pontic-Caucasian Mountains and colonized many parts of Central and Western Europe in the last century, apparently without producing seeds. To investigate the consequences of the absence of sexual rep…
Decision support systems (DSS) for wastewater treatment plants - A review of the state of the art.
2019
The use of decision support systems (DSS) allows integrating all the issues related with sustainable development in view of providing a useful support to solve multi-scenario problems. In this work an extensive review on the DSSs applied to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is presented. The main aim of the work is to provide an updated compendium on DSSs in view of supporting researchers and engineers on the selection of the most suitable method to address their management/operation/design problems. Results showed that DSSs were mostly used as a comprehensive tool that is capable of integrating several data and a multi-criteria perspective in order to provide more reliable results. Only …
Medieval Monastery Gardens in Iceland and Norway
2021
Gardening was an important part of the daily duties within several of the religious orders in Europe during the Middle Ages. The rule of Saint Benedict specified that the monastery should, if possible, contain a garden within itself, and before and above all things, special care should be taken of the sick, so that they may be served in very deed, as Christ himself. The cultivation of medicinal and utility plants was important to meet the material needs of the monastic institutions, but no physical garden has yet been found and excavated in either Scandinavia or Iceland. Especially the Cistercians were well known for being pioneer gardeners, but also other orders like the Benedictines and A…