Composition of Sexual Fluids in Cycas revoluta Ovules During Pollination and Fertilization

The composition of fluids that mediate fertilization in cycads is described for the first time. Using tandem mass spectrometry, proteomes of two stages of fluid production, megagametophyte fluid and archegonial chamber fluid production, are compared in Cycas revoluta. These were compared with the proteome of another sexual fluid produced by ovules, the pollination drop proteins. Cycad ovules produce complex liquids immediately prior fertilization. Compared with the pollination drops that mainly had few proteins in classes involved in defense and carbohydrate modification, megagametophyte fluid and archegonial chamber fluid had larger proteomes with many more protein classes, e.g. proteins involved in programmed cell death. Using high-performance liquid chromatography, megagametophyte fluid and archegonial chamber fluid were shown to have elevated concentrations of smaller molecular weight molecules including glucose, pectin and glutamic acid. Compared to megagametophyte fluid, archegonial chamber fluid had elevated pH as well as higher osmolality.

Raising Rajas in Hathayoga and Beyond

This article discusses the concept of rajas in the Hathayoga corpus and compares it with material in Ayurveda and Daoism. Rajas is the red blood of menstruation, female sexual fluid, and one aspect of a gendered binary with bindu or semen. In texts deriving from a male celibate context, rajas occurs within male practitioners without the interaction of a woman. In some paradigms of the yogic body, bindu is drawn upwards and preserved alongside rajas using the technique of vajrolimudra, conferring success (siddhi) and immortality (amrta). Women appear infrequently in Hatha texts, but those who preserve their rajas are said to be yoginis. Rajas in Ayurveda functions in embryology as a vital essence, thus explaining its power in Hathayoga. Daoist materials are more detailed and cohesive than Hatha, and female inner alchemy (Nüdan) describes a practice of voluntary amenorrhea, ‘slaying the crimson dragon’—the halting of menstruation. The Daoist model enables an interpretation of the scant Hatha sources to suggest that yoginis who preserve their rajas potentially halt their periods.