Optimizing nitrogen levels combined with gibberellic acid for enhanced yield, photosynthetic attributes, enzyme activities, and artemisinin content of Artemisia annua

Artemisia annua L. is an aromatic-antibacterial herb that destroys malarial parasites, lowers fever, and checks bleeding, and from which the secondary compound of interest is artemisinin. It has become increasingly popular as an effective and safe alternative therapy against malaria, and its derivatives are effective against multidrug resistant Plasmodium falciparum strains. Nitrogen is required by the plants in the largest quantity and is most limiting where biomass production is desired. On the other hand, gibberellic acid plays an important role in flowering, growth, and development and also in other physiological and biochemical processes. The feasibility of foliar GA₃ (75 mg·L⁻¹) alone or with varying levels of soil applied nitrogen (40, 80, and 120 mg·kg⁻¹ soil) was tested on A. annua in the present study. The application of GA₃ proved effective in alleviating the growth, photosynthesis, and enzyme activities of A. annua. However, N levels combined with GA₃ showed better responses, and further improvement in these parameters was observed. Furthermore, the most important task we were interested in was to increase the artemisinin content and its yield on a per plant basis. The N combination (80 mg·kg⁻¹ soil) together with GA₃ augmented the content (21.8% more) and yield (55.8% more); this is true for both the treated plants, which were more than the control.     

Optimization of alkaline hydrolysis of paddy straw for ferulic acid extraction

Response Surface Methodology (RSM) via Central Composite Design (CCD) was used to optimize the alkaline hydrolysis of paddy straw to improve ferulic acid extraction. The parameters involved, namely temperature (°C), concentration of NaOH (M) and duration of extraction (h) are screened by Full Factorial Studies (FFD). The result obtained from FFD was 0.518% (5.18 mg/g). The interactions between each parameters involved were studied using Central Composite Design (CCD). Upon optimization, the percentage of ferulic acid improved from 0.518% to 0.817% (8.17 mg/g). The optimum conditions obtained from this study are 125 °C, 3.90 M, 2.30 h for temperature, concentration of NaOH and extraction time, respectively. This result shows a significant improvement than the previous published work. Details of the experimental design, statistical analysis and interpretation are discussed below.     

Effect of Age and Performance on Physical,Hematological, and Biochemical Parameters in Endurance Horses

Endurance horses are subjected to heightened stress even after several conditioning protocols. Hence, the goal of this study was to examine the effect of age and performance on the hematology, biochemistry, and physical parameters after an endurance race. Eighteen horses aged 6-15 years were grouped into 80-km race category. All the horses were physically examined, and blood samples were collected postrace. After physical examination, the poor (n = 9) and good (n = 9) performance horses were identified. Potassium concentration was significantly higher (P < .05) in the good performance horses; chloride concentration was significantly higher (P < .05) in the poor performance horses. The mean blood glucose concentration of the poor performance horses in all the age-groups was significantly higher (P < .05). The mean blood lactate concentration was significantly lower (P < .05) in the poor performance horses. There was significant effect of performance on heart rate (P < .031), capillary refill time (P < .013), and gut motility (P < .05). Univariate Fisher exact test results were significantly higher for skin recoil (P < .03), mucous membrane (P < .03), and gait (P < .04) in the performance categories. In conclusion, the influence of age was seen in the poor performance category in relation to lactate, but age did not influence other physical, hematological, and biochemical parameters of the endurance horses. Thus, further studies are required to determine whether physical, hematological, and biochemical parameters during training could be used to estimate performance in endurance horses based on age.     

New coumarin glycosides from Rhododendron lepidotum

Two new coumarin glycosides, named Rhodonin (1) and Rhodonetin (2) were isolated from the aerial parts of Rhododendron lepidotum.     

The occurrence of Xylosandrus compactus and its associated fungi on cacao from South Sulawesi,Indonesia: A preliminary study of an emerging threat to the cacao industry

Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection - Xylosandrus compactus is one of the significant beetle pests on perennial crops, which has become an increasing problem on cacao productivity and...