Industrial Crops Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Salacia chinensis L. (family – Hippocrateaceae) is a convenient source for industrial scale isolation of antidiabetic and anticancerous drug ‘mangiferin’ which is extensively used in both traditional and modern medicines. High demands... more

Salacia chinensis L. (family – Hippocrateaceae) is a convenient source for industrial scale isolation of antidiabetic and anticancerous drug ‘mangiferin’ which is extensively used in both traditional and modern medicines. High demands from pharmaceutical industries lead the indiscriminate harvesting from the wild which created the pressure on natural populations. Micropropagation system was developed using different explants for both commercialization and conservation of S. chinensis. Murashige and Skoog’s (MS) medium with different concentrations and combinations of plant growth regulators (PGRs) viz. 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), kinetin (KN), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), -naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D) were used during various in vitro regeneration stages. Maximum rate of shoot multiplication (75%) and maximum number of shoots(6.7 ± 1.0) were obtained with MS medium fortified with BAP (2.0 mg/l), NAA (0.8 mg/l) and ascorbic acid(100 mg/l). The antioxidants and other additives significantly altered the rate of shoot multiplication,number of shoots as well as survival rate of shoots. The plantlets rooted on ½MS + IBA 1.5 mg/l, showed 80% establishment in soil without any morphological variation. The genetic integrity of the regenerated plants was further confirmed using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSR) analysis. A total of 3871 distinct bands were produced by 12 RAPD and 17 ISSR primers in mother and 20 randomly selected micropropagated clones wherein 3858 (99.66%) bands were monomorphic and rest of 13 (0.34%) were polymorphic. The high level of monomorphism confirms the genetic uniformity of the micropropagated clones. Additionally, reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) analysis at various in vitro regeneration stages showed uniformity in terms of presence of mangiferin however, the amount of mangiferin varied across regeneration stages. Phytochemical and molecular fingerprinting of micropropagated clones revealed that the in vitro regeneration protocol developed could be successfully used for industrial-scale propagation of S. chinensis with enhanced production of mangiferin.

The ethanol and acetone/water extracts of Cistus ladanifer and Arbutus unedo L. were characterised concerning the total phenolic and flavonoid contents, presenting relatively high values when compared with other species described in the... more

The ethanol and acetone/water extracts of Cistus ladanifer and Arbutus unedo L. were characterised concerning the total phenolic and flavonoid contents, presenting relatively high values when compared with other species described in the literature. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method in terms of EC50, using trolox as standard reference. The extracts of both species showed scavenging activity for the DPPH radical.Extracts bioactivities were also tested by the evaluation of the viability effects on human fibroblasts primary culture cells. Viability studies were performed by MTT method. Both extracts are bioactive; C. ladanifer extracts were associated with an inhibitory effect and A. unedo L. were associated with an induced effect on cells viability.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate for the first time the technological potential of novel, totally bio-based, binder-free vegetable fiber-composites based on the reed-like plant Typha sp. Binder-free vegetable fiberboards based on... more

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate for the first time the technological potential of novel, totally bio-based, binder-free vegetable fiber-composites based on the reed-like plant Typha sp. Binder-free vegetable fiberboards based on Cattails were prepared and their mechanical (flexural modulus of elasticity, flexural strength and water absorption) and surface textural properties were determined. The influence of press time and panel density on the properties was investigated. In contrast to currently known natural fiber composites based on hemp, flax, kenaf or the like annual plants which all require up to 30wt% of suitable bonding resins, the typha based composites were prepared completely without the addition of any extraneous glue and showed good mechanical performance that clearly exceeded the performance of other natural fiber composites containing low percentages of phenolic binder (15%). Of special interest were the superior surface properties of the typha based panels. D...