Biodiversity of the Indian Desert and it´s value

The state of Rajasthan is situated between 23º3’ and 30º12’ N latitude and 69º30’ and 78º17’ E longitude . The total land area of the state is about 3,24,239 km²out of which about 1,98,100 km² is arid and the rest semi arid. The physical features are characterized mainly by the Aravallis and to the some extent by the vindhyan formation, and the Deccan trap. A major portion of western Rajasthan has desert soils and sandy plains. Sand dunes occupy a greater part of western Rajasthan ( 1,20, 983 km²). The soils of the desert plains are loamy sand to loam and the eastern part has alluvial soil which supports good forests and agricultural crop. Occurrence of saline soils with pH up to 9.0 is a common feature in the sandy areas of Rajasthan. The average annual rainfall in the state is 525-675 mm, and the annual precipitation in different tracts of Rajasthan varies from 13 mm to 1766 mm. Out of the total areaforests cover only about 37,638 km² and are rich in biodiversity. Rajasthan is rich in biodiversity which has a great economic value. Characterization of different plant species of economic value was undertaken. (Table 1-6)

Biodiversity of the Indian Desert and it´s value

The state of Rajasthan is situated between 23º3’ and 30º12’ N latitude and 69º30’ and 78º17’ E longitude . The total land area of the state is about 3,24,239 km²out of which about 1,98,100 km² is arid and the rest semi arid. The physical features are characterized mainly by the Aravallis and to the some extent by the vindhyan formation, and the Deccan trap. A major portion of western Rajasthan has desert soils and sandy plains. Sand dunes occupy a greater part of western Rajasthan ( 1,20, 983 km²). The soils of the desert plains are loamy sand to loam and the eastern part has alluvial soil which supports good forests and agricultural crop. Occurrence of saline soils with pH up to 9.0 is a common feature in the sandy areas of Rajasthan. The average annual rainfall in the state is 525-675 mm, and the annual precipitation in different tracts of Rajasthan varies from 13 mm to 1766 mm. Out of the total areaforests cover only about 37,638 km² and are rich in biodiversity. Rajasthan is rich in biodiversity which has a great economic value. Characterization of different plant species of economic value was undertaken. (Table 1-6)

HPLC method development & structural elucidation of antiproliferative quassinoids from Quassia borneensis Noot. (Simaroubaceae) / Julenah Ag Nuddin

Bitter quassinoids have been reported to possess numerous biological activities. They are degraded triterpenoids classified according to their basic skeletons; C₁₈, C₁₉, C₂₀, C₂₂, C₂₅. Currently, more than 200 quassinoids have been isolated from genus Quassia, Brucea, Soulamea, Eurycoma, Picrolemnia and others. A study on Quassia borneensis Noot. (Simaroubaceae) (Qb) for its anti-proliferative active quassinoids using a developed and validated high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) isolation method is appropriate for data gathering. In addition, a total synthesis exploration of canthin-6-one would provide information regarding its mechanism and influential factors for viability study. The study was accomplished by extracting powdered bark and root Qb by cold maceration and soxhlet in methanol for yield comparison. The methanol extracts were partitioned to acquire n-hexane, chloroform and aqueous fractions. They were tested for their anti-proliferative activity based on MTS assay using HL-60 cell line. Later, chloroform and aqueous fractions were subjected to isolation and purification with HPLC. Then, pure isolates were structurally elucidated with liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy (LC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). In addition, the mass profile of active fractions was measured using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer triple quadrupole time of flight (LC-MSQTOF). Lastly, pure quassinoid compounds were subjected to MTT assay. In a biomimetic total synthesis attempt, canthin-6-one of Simaroubaceae was pursued through carboxyl-mediated approach following the method of Czerwinski et al. (2003). The positively identified sample was collected at Tawai Forest Reserve, Telupid, Sabah, Malaysia. Qb was successfully extracted and partitioned. Later, the anti-proliferative activity of hexane (Q₁-Q₄), chloroform (Q₅-Q₈) and aqueous (Q₉- Q₁₂) fractions were found active except Q₂ while Q₈ was found to be most active at 0.2 |μg/mL

Avaliação do incremento em volume de madeira de Quassia amara L.- Simaroubaceae, em cultivo agroecológico no trópico úmido da Costa Rica.

Quassia amara é arbusto de 3 a 6 metros de altura, tendo sido retirado indiscriminadamente das florestas para extrair do caule as quassinas usadas na indústria farmacêutica e como inseticida em agricultura orgânica. Não se tem muita informação técnica acerca do crescimento desta espécie para subsidiar estratégias de manejo sustentado. Este trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar o crescimento de Q. amara L. em cultivo agroecológico na Costa Rica. O trabalho consistiu em realizar avaliações do desenvolvimento de indivíduos de Q. amara em parcelas permanentes de medições, instaladas em meio às plantações desta espécie em consórcio com essências arbóreas. Foram efetuadas medições de diâmetro do caule a 10 cm do solo e altura total. Foi observado que em função das taxas de crescimento vegetal e incrementos médio e corrente anuais (IMA e ICA), mesmo após cinco anos de plantio, a madeira de Quassia amara para extração de quassinas não está pronta para colheita

Survey of Opiine parasitoids of fruit flies (Diptera:Tephritidae) in Thailand and Malaysia

A survey of fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) from wild and cultivated host plants was conducted in Thailand and Malaysia between 1986 and 1994. In addition to fruit flies, host samples also yielded parasites of those flies, predominantly opiine wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Opiinae). Although used extensively in classical biological control programmes, very little is known about the host relationships of these parasites in their native environment. From the survey work, host records are given for 13 described species (viz. Diachasmimorpha albobalteata [Cameron], D. dacusii [Cameron], D. longicaudata [Ashmead], Fopius arisanus [Sonan], F. deeralensis [Fullaway], F. persulcatus [Silvestri], F. skinneri [Fullaway], F. vandenboschi [Fullaway], Opius bellus Gahan, Psvtallia flelcheri [Silvestri], P. incisi [Silvestri], P. makii [Sonan] and Utetes bianchii [Fullaway]) and three undescribed opiines. The parasitoid species are listed in relation to the fruit fly species within fruit samples, and the plant species from which the flies and wasps were reared

Natural History Museum of Guangxi, Nanning 530012, People’s Republic of China.

The genus Ailanthus Desfontaines (1788: 265) of the family Simaroubaceae comprises 5–10 species distributed in South and Southeast Asia as well as northern Australia (Nooteboom 1962, Peng & Thomas 2008). The species can be classified into two groups, i.e., one with toothed leaflets and the other with entire-margined leaflets. The latter group currently includes five species, A. triphysa (Dennstedt 1818: 32) Alston (1931: 41), A. vietnamensis H.V.Sam & Nooteboom (2007: 555), A. fordii Nooteboom (1962: 220), A. integrifolia Lamarck (1792: 417), and A. guangxiensis S.L.Mo ex C.F.Liang & S.L.Mo (1982: 145). The last species was described based on two fruit collections from Longzhou County, Guangxi Province, China. In the protologue, the authors stated that it was clearly distinguished from its congeneric species by the large samaras. After that, A. guangxiensis is always considered as an endemic species of Guangxi (Peng & Thomas 2008, Qin & Liu 2010, Mo 2011). In 2010, it was listed as a key protected wild plant of Guangxi by the local government. In Ailanthus, the samara morphology is placed a high value on distinguishing species, including both living and fossil species (Nooteboom 1962, Corbett & Manchester 2004). The examination of the cited collections of A. guangxiensis, including the holotype (Fig. 1), shows that the samara is 12.9–14.8 × 3.6–4.1 cm. Although it is much larger than that of any other Chinese species of Ailanthus (usually less than 8 cm long), it does not beyond the range of A. integrifolia (11–22 × 2.5–5 cm), which has geographic distribution extending from India, Vietnam, the Philippines