Neuroprotection of chicoric acid in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease involves gut microbiota and TLR4 signaling pathway

Chicoric acid (CA), a polyphenolic acid obtained from chicory and purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), has been regarded as nutraceutical to combat inflammation, virus and obesity. Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a...

Fertilization of purple coneflower (Echinacea Purpúrea L.) in the conditions of the Central chernozem region

The modern pharmaceutical industry uses Echinacea purpurea plants in the production of about 30% of all medicines. Many studies have been conducted to assess the effects of biological and immune activity of Echinacea purpurea on animals and humans (Sharayevskaya et al., 2010). Due to the small distribution area of this valuable crop, research aimed at its use as a double yielding crop is relevant. Plants are deficient in readily available forms of mineral elements after mowing. Studies were conducted to determine the effect of «AgroMaster» fertilizer grade 13-14-13 on the growth and development of Echinacea plants. We studied single and double application of the fertilizer at a dose of 2,0 and 4,0 kg per hectare. Growth and development processes of Echinacea purpurea plants were characterized by different intensity before and after cutting in experimental variants. The fertilizer had a significant impact on the biometric parameters of plants. In particular, the dynamics of plant growth in height had a positive trend in all variants with the use of fertilizer. At the same time, the optimum dose of fertilizer (2,0 kg per hectare) with double treatment of crops was revealed. Single treatment of crops with the minimum (2,0 kg per hectare) and maximum (4,0 kg per hectare) had no prolonging effect on Echinacea purpurea plants. Thus, the use of AgroMaster fertilizer of 13-14-13 grade in the crops of Echinacea purpurea is justified, with the advantage of double treatment of crops at a dose of 2,0 kg per hectare.

Growth variation and proline accumulation of Echinacea purpurea cultivated to CaCl2 salinity

Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench) is classified as medicinal plant comes from North America and not much developed in Indonesia. E. purpurea can be developed by utilizing suboptimal land such as saline land. This study aims to determine the effect of CaCl2 concentration on growth and proline accumulation of three accessions E. purpurea. This study used a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 2 factors and five replications. The first factor is three accessions E. purpurea (accession 1; 2; and 3). The two factor is four concentrations CaCl2 (0; 2500; 5000; and 10000 ppm). The observations are plant height, number of leaves, number of branches and proline accumulation. Data were analyzed using SPSS to test difference. The results showed that highest concentration of CaCl2 can inhibit growth and increase proline accumulation. The highest proline accumulation in accession 2 was 22.8002 µmol g−1, accession 2 as an indicator of accession tolerant to salinity.

Morphological characteristics and flavonoid accumulation of Echinacea purpurea cultivated at various salinity

Choirunnisa JP, Widiyastuti Y, Sakya AT, Yunus A. 2021. Morphological characteristics and flavonoid accumulation of Echinacea purpurea cultivated at various salinity. Biodiversitas 22: 3716-3721. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench) is an introduced medicinal plant from North America. E. purpurea has high morphological characteristics on stems, leaves and flowers. This plant has not much cultivated as a raw material for traditional medicine in Indonesia due to not much information about flavonoid accumulation of E. purpurea in this country. The purpose of this research was to study morphological characteristics from three accessions of E. purpurea cultivated with various salinity and to select E. purpurea accessions that have high flavonoid accumulation. This study design using a factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD). The first factor is 3 accessions of E. purpurea (E1; E2; E3). The second factor is 4 levels of CaCl2 (0 ppm; 2500 ppm; 5000 ppm; 10000 ppm). The study was conducted by observing the morphological characteristics of stems, leaves flowers, and herb extract and flavonoid accumulation were analyzed using SPSS. The results demonstrated that morphological characteristics are easy to observed on leaf shape and flower color. The highest herb extract with 10.043% and flavonoid accumulation with 0.510% were in accession 2 with the addition of CaCl2 concentration of 10000 ppm. This study concludes that there are morphological characteristics of E. purpurea cultivated at various salinity and the highest CaCl2 concentration can increase with significance to herb extract and flavonoid accumulation.

Echinacea purpurea L. (Moench) Hemagglutinin Effect on Immune Response In Vivo

Echinacea purpurea L. (Moench) is used in traditional and conventional medicine. However, there is lack of data on the biological activities of primary plant metabolite lectins. The aim of our experiment was to find out how lectin LysM (lysine motif), which was previously purified, affects the immune response in vivo. Eight-week-old BALB/c male mice (n = 15) received four weekly 250 μg/kg peritonial injections of purified Echinacea purpurea L. (Moench) roots’ LysM lectin. The control animal group (n = 15) received 50 μL peritoneal injections of fresh Echinacea purpurea L. (Moench) root tincture, and the negative control animal group (n = 15) received 50 μL peritoneal injections of physiological solution. At the fifth experimental week, the animals were sedated with carbon dioxide, and later euthanized by cervical dislocation, and then their blood and spleen samples were collected. The leukocytes’ formula and lymphocytes’ count was estimated in blood samples, the T lymphocytes’ density was evaluated in spleen zones. A statistically significant (p < 0.05) difference between each group was observed in the leukocytes’ formula (monocytes’ percentage, also little, medium and giant size lymphocytes). The purple coneflower fresh roots’ tincture significantly decreased (p < 0.05) the T lymphocytes’ quantity in peritoneal lymphoid sheaths (PALS) compared with the physiological solution injection’s group (p < 0.05) and the lectin injection’s group (p < 0.001). Meanwhile, lectin injections caused a significant (p < 0.01) increase in the T lymphocytes in a spleen PALS zone, compared with the physiological solution and tincture injection’s group. Our data suggests that LysM lectin acts as an immunostimulant, while fresh purple coneflower tincture causes immunosuppression.

Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris (yellow disease phytoplasmas).

Aster yellows (AY) group phytoplasmas affect plants by causing a general reduction in quantity and quality of yield. The most severely affected hosts are carrot, lettuce, onion, spinach and several ornamental crops, including aster, gladiolus, hydrangea, chrysanthemum and purple coneflower. Disease incidence may vary from year to year depending on the population trend of the vectors in the field. Infection rates varying from 20 to 30% were observed in lettuce and ranunculus fields in southern Italy (Marcone et al., 1995; Parrella et al., 2008). In Oklahoma, USA, according to Errampalli et al. (1991), AY group phytoplasma infections occurred in 80% of lettuce plants and 28% of carrots. In Ohio, disease incidence of 100% has been recorded in lettuce fields (Zhang et al., 2004). A major outbreak of AY disease occurred in 2000 in Texas that affected several vegetable crops. Among them, carrot was most severely damaged with infection rates that ranged from to 50 to near 100% (Lee et al., 2003). A severe AY disease of chrysanthemum which induced losses of 70 to 80% of the crop has been reported from China (Min et al., 2008) whereas losses of 90% were recorded in AY-affected aubergines in Bangladesh (Kelly et al., 2009). Infection rates of 60 and 99% were recorded in Hungary for AY-affected sugarbeet plants and India for AY-affected Jatropha curcas plants, respectively (Mumford et al., 2000; Kumar et al., 2010b). However, there are also several reports on sporadic occurrence and generally low incidence of AY group phytoplasmas in vegetable and ornamental crops (Smith et al., 1988; Vibio et al., 1995; Bertaccini et al., 1998). Cassava witches' broom, a disease affecting cassava in South East Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, China and the Philippines) is caused by 16SrI phytoplasma. The disease has resulted in significant reductions in cassava root starch content and up to 80% yield loss in parts of Vietnam (Anon., 2014).