Starchy food residue on a potsherd from a late Holocene hunter-gatherer site in Argentine Patagonia: towards the visibility of wild underground storage organs

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-105
Author(s):  
Maria Laura Ciampagna ◽  
Soledad Molares ◽  
Ana Haydeé Ladio ◽  
Aylen Capparelli
2020 ◽  
Vol 06 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faiq H. S. Hussain ◽  
Hawraz Ibrahim M. Amin ◽  
Dinesh kumar Patel ◽  
Omji Porwal

: The family Iridaceae contains 92 genera and more than 1800 species, mostly perennial herbs with underground storage organs called rhizomes (bulbs). Some genera are important in traditional medicines, especially Iris and Gladiolus. The genus Iris belongs to this family and comprises about hundreds species among them, 12 species are found in Iraq. It has been widely used various medicines worldwide especially Iris persica is used in folk medicine in the Kurdistan region of Iraq as an effective treatment against tumours, antibacterial, antifungal and treating inflammation. Earlier finding confirmed that Iris persica and its constituents play role in the scavenging of free radical generation and prevention of disease pathogenesis. Each part of the Iris persica herb has some medicinal property. This review gives a eagle eye view mainly on the biological activities of the Iris persica and some of their compounds isolated, pharmacological actions of the Iris persica extracts and products, and plausible medicinal and therapeutically applications.


1978 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. El-Ghonemy ◽  
A. Wallace ◽  
E. M. Romney ◽  
S. Dowaidar ◽  
A. El-Gazzar

1969 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 489 ◽  
Author(s):  
WB Mcglasson

It is well known that injury and infection by disease organisms may stimulate ethylene production by plant tissues (Williamson 1950; Burg 1962; McGlasson and Pratt 1964). The increased ethylene production which results from injury in fruit tissues may hasten the onset of a respiratory climacteric. This response, which has been observed in slices cut from three-quarter-grown cantaloupe fruit, may herald the commencement of physiological changes leading to natural ripening (McGlasson and Pratt 1964). However, in underground storage tissues, stimulated ethylene production may be concerned with the mechanisms of wound healing (Stahmann, Clare, and Woodbury 1966; Imaseki, Uchiyama, and Uritani 1968). The phenomenon of induced respiration in tissue slices of bulky underground storage organs has been known for many years (Laties 1967) and more recently it has been found to occur in sections or slices of other plant parts (ap Rees 1966). Palmer and McGlasson (1969) observed a similar rise in slices of green banana fruit which they considered to be a form of "induced" respiration.


Botany ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (11) ◽  
pp. 827-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuela de Oliveira Joaquim ◽  
Rita de Cássia Leone Figueiredo-Ribeiro ◽  
Adriana Hissae Hayashi ◽  
Maria Angela Machado de Carvalho

Geophytes are widespread in rocky fields, having evolved to survive adverse environmental conditions mainly because of their underground storage organs and reserve compounds. Among these compounds, carbohydrates have several functions other than as an energy source, including protection against drought and extreme temperatures. In this work, we analyzed the composition and tissue distribution of carbohydrates in the underground organs of four Asteraceae species from a preserved area of rocky fields in the Brazilian Cerrado. Soluble carbohydrates were quantified and analyzed by HPAEC–PAD, and starch was analyzed by an enzymatic assay. All species (Baccharis subdentata DC., Chresta curumbensis (Philipson) H.Rob., Lessingianthus floccosus (Gardner) H.Rob., and Strophopappus glomeratus (Gardner) R.Esteves) store long-chain inulin-type fructans. Among them, C. curumbensis presented the highest amount of soluble carbohydrates, comprising 25% of the reserve organ dry mass. Inulin sphero-crystals were visualized under polarized light, mainly in the vascular cylinder. Buds were found on the underground organs of B. subdentata and C. curumbensis, and secretory structures were identified in S. glomeratus, L. floccosus, and C. curumbensis. The occurrence of buds, secretory structures, and fructans in these organs is probably related to ecophysiological strategies used as defense and survival mechanisms in response to stress conditions, particularly drought and fire, that occur frequently in rocky fields.


2010 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberley J. Hockings ◽  
James R. Anderson ◽  
Tetsuro Matsuzawa

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elzanne Singels ◽  
Alastair J Potts ◽  
Karen J Esler ◽  
Richard M Cowling ◽  
Curtis W Marean ◽  
...  

Underground storage organs (USOs) serve as a staple source of carbohydrates for many hunter-gatherer societies and they feature prominently in discussions of diets of early modern humans. While the way of life of hunter-gatherers in South Africa’s Cape is no longer in existence, there is extensive ethnographic, historical and archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherers’ use of such plants as foodstuffs. This is to be expected, given that the Cape supports the largest concentration of plants with USOs globally. The southern Cape is the location of several Middle Stone Age sites that are highly significant to research on the origins of behaviourally modern humans, and this provided the context for our research. Here we evaluate the foraging potential of USOs by identifying how abundant edible biomass is in a coastal setting of the southern Cape, how easily it is gathered, and how nutritious it is. We staged a range of foraging events to provide an indication of the potential return rates for selected USOs when a forager is likely to be naïve about foraging for them. Nearly all of the sites sampled (83%) contained edible USOs, and the edible biomass can be highly concentrated in space. The edible USO biomass fell within the range of biomass observed in areas supporting extant hunter-gatherer communities. The six USO species we assessed for nutritional content contained between 40-228 calories/100 g. They also grow near the soil surface, mostly in sandy soils, and were gathered with minimal effort. Some 50% of the foraging events conducted yielded enough calories to meet the daily requirements of a hunter-gatherer of small stature within 2 hours. Thus, we demonstrate that USOs are a readily available source of carbohydrates in the southern Cape landscape and that they likely played a critical role in providing food for early humans.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Enrique Cueto ◽  
Ariel David Frank ◽  
Fabiana Skarbun

La María and Cerro Tres Tetas archaeological localities are located in the Central Plateau, in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentine Patagonia. This area presents abundant lithic raw materials of very good quality for knapping including flint, chalcedony and silicified wood. These raw materials were used by the inhabitants of the region since the end of the Pleistocene until recent historical times. Besides, we have recorded the exploitation of exotic stones in low proportions at the archaeological sites. Among these, the most abundant is obsidian which probably comes from sources located more than125 kmaway. In this context, the use of this type of raw material should be evaluated in terms of social and symbolic issues.In this paper, we examine the strategies of acquisition and reduction of the obsidian found at the archaeological sites Cerro Tres Tetas 1, Casa del Minero 1, Cueva de La Ventana, La Mesada and Cueva Túnel. We carry out a technomorphological analysis of the obsidian remains from these sites.Results from this work strengthen the idea that the groups which lived in the Central Plateau knew about and exploited an obsidian source known as Pampa del Asador. A raise in the use of this raw material throughout time is recorded, reaching its peak in the late Holocene. We identified two different moments in the exploitation of obsidian at the regional level. During the final Pleistocene and early Holocene, obsidian would not have played a relevant role in the organization of technology. Production sequences indicate that tools probably were entered to the sites already manufactured. During the middle and late Holocene nodules and cores could have been brought into the sites. The strategies involved in their reduction are in broad terms similar to those implemented with local raw materials; there is no evidence that obsidian had more value in any way. On the other hand, it is also not possible to state that there was just an eventual exploitation of this raw material. We believe that obsidian was acquired during mobility circuits which enabled the contact between different groups.


2019 ◽  
Vol 170 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Truppa ◽  
Luca A. Marino ◽  
Patricia Izar ◽  
Dorothy M. Fragaszy ◽  
Elisabetta Visalberghi

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie M. Tribble ◽  
Michael R May ◽  
Abigail Jackson-Gain ◽  
Rosana Zenil-Ferguson ◽  
Chelsea D. Specht ◽  
...  

The evolution of major innovations in life history strategies (how organisms gather and store energy and reproduce) is a primary theme of biodiversity research. In one remarkable example of a life history innovation, certain plants --- geophytes --- retreat underground using underground storage organs (USOs), and thus survive extended periods of unfavorable conditions. Geophytes have evolved multiple times independently across all major vascular plant lineages. Even within closely related lineages, however, geophytes show impressive variation in the morphological modifications (i.e. 'types' of USOs) that allow them to survive underground. With all this variation, it is unclear to what extent geophytes with different USO morphologies have converged in climatic niche, or have evolved distinct niches. To test this hypothesis, we extended existing phylogenetic comparative method approaches to test for links between hierarchical discrete traits and adaptation to environmental variation. We inferred a phylogeny of 621 species of Liliales and used the phylogeny and analysis pipeline to test the relationship between underground morphologies and different adaptive optima of climate seasonality. Contrary to expectation, plants with the same USO type do not share climatic niches more than expected by chance, with the exception of root morphology, where modified roots are associated with lower temperature seasonality. These findings suggest that root tubers may be adaptations to different climatic conditions than other types of USOs. Thus, the tissue type and developmental origin of the structure may influence the way it mediates ecological relationships and draws into question the appropriateness of ascribing broad ecological patterns uniformly across geophytes. This work provides a new framework for testing adaptive hypotheses and for linking ecological patterns across morphologically varying taxa.


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