Bioactivity of Licaria puchury-major essential oil against Aedes aegypti, Tetranychus urticae and Cerataphis lataniae

The present study was carried out to evaluate an alternative controlling agent for greenhouse pests and the yellow fever mosquito larvae. The potential bioactivity of Licaria puchury-major (Mart.) Kosterm. (“puxuri”) was evaluated here against three most common pests in tropical and subtropical countries: Aedes aegypti Linn. Larvae, Tetranychus urticae Koch. mites and Cerataphis lataniae Boisd. aphids. The essential oil from seeds was analyzed by GC-FID and GC-MS. The major compounds were safrole (38.8%) and eucalyptol (21.7%). Phenylpropanes (51.7%) was the main group of compounds and oxygenated monoterpenes represented 28.8% of the total oil. The essential oil has shown no inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the tested concentrations. However, potential antioxidant activities were evaluated by different methods [DPPH: LD50 = (27.8 ± 1.0) µg/.mL; ABTS: (977.3 ± 25.2) µM TEs/g (Trolox Equivalents); FRAP: (548.2 ± 29.0) µM Fe(II)/g]. A significant larvicidal potential for 24 h of exposure was observed with LD50 = 98.9 µg/mL, being an indicative that the larval mortality may occur by ingestion or contact due to the no inhibition against AChE. Volatile phase effects were evaluated against T. urticae Koch. and C. lataniae Boisd. and LD50 were found about 30.8 and 13.5 µg/mL, respectively. These results are consistent with an octopaminergic effect, since some phenylpropanoids (such as Safrole, identified as the major compound in this work) can block octopamine, a multi-functional, naturally occurring biogenic amine. Then, this study clearly illustrated the efficacy of the investigated seeds, which encourages the development of a new potential natural controlling agent against these common pests due to the abundance of these seeds in the Amazon region and to the high essential oil yield. © 2018 ACG Publications. All rights reserved

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Antiproliferative activity of the hexanic extract and phloroglucinols from Hypericum brasiliense

Natural products are regarded as major and important sources of molecules used in chemotherapy. Hypericum brasiliense Choisy, Hypericaceae, is an annual bush, native in the southern and southeastern Brazil. This species has been used in Brazilian folk medicine the anti-spasmodic and for the treatment of infectious diseases. H. brasiliense is chemically composed by flavonoids and xanthones. In addition, this species contain phloroglucinols, a class of substances with citotoxity effects against tumor cells lines. On the present study, hexanic extract and derivatives phloroglucinols obtained from H. brasiliense were tested against some human tumor cell lines. Hexanic extract presented a potent antiproliferative activity, with selective action on OVCAR-03 (ovarian), NCIADR/ RES (ovarian resistant) and UACC-62 (melanoma) tumor cell lines. Uliginosin B was the most active derivative phloroglucinol, presenting selectivity against NCI-ADR/ RES ( resistant ovarian) and OVCAR-03 (ovarian) tumor cell lines. Analysis of the results suggests that phloroglucinol derivatives with isoprenyl unit closed in the 9' position increases antiproliferative activity. Furthermore, this study contributes to identification of anti-tumor molecules and valorization of Hypericum brasiliense