The use of microstructures in the authentication of powdered drug plants

Adulteration and substitution of herbal drugs are trending issues in the herbal industry, posing a serious threat to commercial natural product research. The anatomy of powdered and non-powdered samples of plant species were compared to ascertain their similarities. Air dried powdered leaf samples and unground or intact leaves, flowers and barks of eight medicinal plant species, namely, Vernonia amygdalina, Ocimum gratisimum, Trichilia monadelpha, Bridelia ferruginea, Lophira alata., Alstonia boonei, Dialium guineense and Enantia chlorantha were studied anatomically with the aim of identifying the original plant parts used in the preparation of the drugs. The microscopic studies of leaves of V. amygdalina and O. gratisimum revealed the presence of similar stomatal complex types and trichomes in both ground and unground samples. The anatomy and palynology of T. monadelpha flower revealed that bipolar, inaperturate, monopolar, monoporate, tetracolporate and triporate pollens are present in both the ground and unground samples. The microscopic study of the barks of L. alata, B. ferruginea, A. boonei, D. guineense and E. chlorantha also showed similar cells in ground and unground samples. The anatomical features are, therefore, elucidated for authentication of the originality of the medicinal plants studied.

Characterization of an isolate of Lettuce big-vein associated virus (LBVaV) detected in naturally infected tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) in Slovakia

A tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum Linnaeus, labelled KVE) displaying virus-like symptoms, tested negative for common tomato viruses, was subjected to high-throughput sequencing (HTS) on the Illumina MiSeq platform using ribosomal RNA-depleted total RNA as a template. The analysis has revealed the contigs mapping to Lettuce big-vein associated virus (LBVaV). The near complete LBVaV-KVE sequence of RNA1 and RNA2 revealed 95.0 and 94.9% identity with the reference sequence, the same length of translated products and a typical varicosavirus genome organisation. After initial long-term maintenance of LBVaV-KVE in the original plant, the virus could be detected by RT-PCR or nanoLC-ESI-Q-TOF in new plants generated from lateral shoot cuttings or inoculated by stem chips, although not uniformly. So far, LBVaV was reported to infect lettuce and related species. Our study expands the natural host range of the LBVaV to tomato.

Citrus aurantium L. Active Constituents, Biological Effects and Extraction Methods. An Updated Review

Citrus genus is a prominent staple crop globally. Long-term breeding and much hybridization engendered a myriad of species, each characterized by a specific metabolism generating different secondary metabolites. Citrus aurantium L., commonly recognized as sour or bitter orange, can exceptionally be distinguished from other Citrus species by unique characteristics. It is a fruit with distinctive flavor, rich in nutrients and phytochemicals which possess different health benefits. This paper presents an overview of the most recent studies done on the matter. It intends to provide an in-depth understanding of the biological activities and medicinal uses of active constituents existing in C. aurantium. Every plant part is first discussed separately with regards to its content in active constituents. All extraction methods, their concepts and yields, used to recover these valuable molecules from their original plant matrix are thoroughly reported.

Extraction Processes Affect the Composition and Bioavailability of Flavones from Lamiaceae Plants: A Comprehensive Review

Lamiaceae plants are a widespread family of herbaceous plants with around 245 plant genera and nearly 22,576 species distributed in the world. Some of the most representative and widely studied Lamiaceae plants belong to the Ocimum, Origanum, Salvia, and Thymus genera. These plants are a rich source of bioactive molecules such as terpenes, flavonoids, and phenolic acids. In this sense, there is a subgroup of flavonoids classified as flavones. Flavones have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-diabetic potential; thus, efficient extraction techniques from their original plant matrixes have been developed. Currently, conventional extraction methods involving organic solvents are no longer recommended due to their environmental consequences, and new environmentally friendly techniques have been developed. Moreover, once extracted, the bioactivity of flavones is highly linked to their bioavailability, which is often neglected. This review aims to comprehensively gather recent information (2011–2021) regarding extraction techniques and their important relationship with the bioavailability of flavones from Lamiaceae plants including Salvia, Ocimum, Thymus, and Origanum.

Selenium Nanoparticles as a Natural Antioxidant and Metabolic Regulator in Aquaculture: A Review

Balanced aquafeed is the key factor for enhancing the productivity of aquatic animals. In this context, aquatic animals require optimal amounts of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The original plant and animals’ ingredients in the basal diets are insufficient to provide aquafeed with suitable amounts of minerals. Concurrently, elements should be incorporated in aquafeed in optimal doses, which differ based on the basal diets’ species, age, size, and composition. Selenium is one of the essential trace elements involved in various metabolic, biological, and physiological functions. Se acts as a precursor for antioxidative enzyme synthesis leading to high total antioxidative capacity. Further, Se can enhance the immune response and the tolerance of aquatic animals to infectious diseases. Several metabolic mechanisms, such as thyroid hormone production, cytokine formation, fecundity, and DNA synthesis, require sufficient Se addition. The recent progress in the nanotechnology industry is also applied in the production of Se nanoparticles. Indeed, Se nanoparticles are elaborated as more soluble and bioavailable than the organic and non-organic forms. In aquaculture, multiple investigations have elaborated the role of Se nanoparticles on the performances and wellbeing of aquatic animals. In this review, the outputs of recent studies associated with the role of Se nanoparticles on aquatic animals’ performances were simplified and presented for more research and development.

Adaptive Fault Estimation for Hyperbolic PDEs

The new adaptive fault estimation scheme is proposed for a class of hyperbolic partial differential equations in this paper. The multiplicative actuator and sensor faults are considered. There are two cases that require special consideration: (1). only one type of fault (actuator or sensor) occurs; (2). two types of faults occurred simultaneously. To solve the problem of fault estimation, three challenges need to be solved: (1). No prior information of fault type is known; (2). Unknown faults are always coupled with state and input; (3). Only one boundary measurement is available. The original plant is converted to Observer canonical form. Two filters are proposed and novel adaptive laws are developed to estimate unknown fault parameters. With the help of the proposed update laws, the true state of the faulty plant can be estimated by the proposed observers composed of two filters. By selecting a suitable Lyapunov function, it is proved that under unknown external disturbance, the estimation errors of state parameters and fault parameters decay to arbitrarily small value. Finally, the validity of the proposed observer and adaptive laws is verified by numerical simulation.

Fabrication of strong macrofibers from plant fiber bundles

The production of long cellulose macrofibers starting from nanofibers is still complex and expensive. This study proposes a method of manufacturing long macrofibers from plant fiber bundles by chemically extracting non-cellulosic substances but preserving the original shape of the fibers. Once the cellulosic fiber bundles are dried, the original cellulose nanofibers are bridged to neighboring nanofibers by the formation of hydrogen bonds, giving shape stability and enhanced mechanical properties. By the process, the tensile strength was increased by about 50% and the modulus doubled from the original plant fiber bundles.

Smart Irrigation Control With Disease Detection Using Machine Learning and Arduino Controller

Our paper proposes an approach for the classification of leaf disease, based on the characterization of texture, shape, and color properties. An original plant leaf is preprocessed initially using the Gaussian filter to minimize the noise. For enhancing the contrast and quality of the image, the histogram equalization applied. The preprocessed image is segmented by K-means clustering; only affected region is picked and their features are extracted. The GLCM and the LBP systems are introduced for the extraction of features. It has the issues of lower accuracy and recognition rate. The proposed feature extraction techniques overcome the difficulties faced by the existing method. The feature comprises of texture features, shape features, and color features. Then, classification algorithm is applied over the segmented image in order to predict and classify the disease. Atlast, it compared with training images in relevant to show the performance assessment of the proposed approach. Based on disease classification, pesticides will be providing to plant leaf; Sensors are also connected to identify the water level, humidity those depends on the threshold value the motors will be on.

An increased proportion of transgenic plants in the progeny of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) transformants

Cotyledon and leaf explants of two spring rapeseed varieties were transformed with Agrobacterium tumefaciens harboring a genetic construct with the gfp marker gene. In order to reduce the proportion of hyperhydrated shoots, which appeared during regenerant formation, we optimized sucrose content in the regeneration media. Analysis of the progeny obtained from T0 regenerants showed that in a number of lines the distribution of the gfp marker did not follow Mendelian segregation of a monogenic trait in self-pollinated plants, while in the progeny of the other lines of transgenic plants, the gfp marker was completely absent, although its presence had been confirmed in all selected T0 plants. We also found that in individual transformants gfp is randomly inherited throughout the central peduncle; its presence in the genome of seedlings does not depend on the location of the pod. Thus, both transformed and non-transformed cells were involved in the formation of gametes in T0 plants. In addition, marker segregation was different in plants of the T1 line obtained by nodal cuttings of a primary transformant, depending on the location of the cuttings on the stem of the original plant, indicating that the nature of T1 generation plants was also chimeric. Furthermore, we showed that propagation of plants by cutting followed by propagation by seeds formed as a result of self-pollination led to an increase in the proportion of transgenic plants in subsequent generations. The results obtained during the course of this study show that the transformants were chimeric, i. e. their tissues contained both transgenic and non-transgenic cells, and this chimeric nature was passed on to subsequent generations. We found that, in addition to nutrient media composition, other factors such as plant genotype and explant type also contribute to the rising of chimeric plants during transformation. Based on these results, we developed a simplified method, which consists of several rounds of a combination of cutting, seed production by self-pollination, and subsequent culling of wild-type plants, which significantly enriched descendent populations of the original rapeseed transformants with plants transgenic for the gfp marker.

Transcriptome and Comparative Chloroplast Genome Analysis of Vincetoxicum versicolor: Insights Into Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetic Implication

Vincetoxicum versicolor (Bunge) Decne is the original plant species of the Chinese herbal medicine Cynanchi Atrati Radix et Rhizoma. The lack of information on the transcriptome and chloroplast genome of V. versicolor hinders its evolutionary and taxonomic studies. Here, the V. versicolor transcriptome and chloroplast genome were assembled and functionally annotated. In addition, the comparative chloroplast genome analysis was conducted between the genera Vincetoxicum and Cynanchum. A total of 49,801 transcripts were generated, and 20,943 unigenes were obtained from V. versicolor. One thousand thirty-two unigenes from V. versicolor were classified into 73 functional transcription factor families. The transcription factors bHLH and AP2/ERF were the most significantly abundant, indicating that they should be analyzed carefully in the V. versicolor ecological adaptation studies. The chloroplast genomes of Vincetoxicum and Cynanchum exhibited a typical quadripartite structure with highly conserved gene order and gene content. They shared an analogous codon bias pattern in which the codons of protein-coding genes had a preference for A/U endings. The natural selection pressure predominantly influenced the chloroplast genes. A total of 35 RNA editing sites were detected in the V. versicolor chloroplast genome by RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) data, and one of them restored the start codon in the chloroplast ndhD of V. versicolor. Phylogenetic trees constructed with protein-coding genes supported the view that Vincetoxicum and Cynanchum were two distinct genera.