Vitamins, omega-3, magnesium, manganese, and thyme can boost our immunity and protect against COVID-19

A new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has been recognized as a cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and COVID-19 disease. In the absence of stable treatments for COVID-19, the possibility that vitamins: B1, C, D, and E, omega-3, minerals (magnesium and manganese), and herb thyme may have unspecified effects on infection with COVID-19 would be considered. Various reports have revealed that vitamins B1, C, D, and E, omega-3, magnesium, manganese, and thyme may affect the human innate system, for example, thiamine may play beneficial roles in human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV), treating megadose ascorbic acid can assist prevent cold and flu symptoms, vitamin D can decrease the risk of developing COVID-19, vitamin E has been evaluated against the influenza virus in mice, and omega-3 fatty acids supplementation has been efficient in reducing the severity and frequency of sickle cell rate. Magnesium may be effective in patients with a mutation in the interleukin-2-inducible T-cell kinase, as well as manganese associates with the metabolism of glucose and fats, vitamin C, and B, accelerating protein synthesis, endocrine regulation, stimulating hematopoiesis, improving innate function, and reducing reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Moreover, thyme extract can have beneficial antiviral effects against human papillomavirus (HPV) and influenza A (IAV). The possibility that the vitamins B1, C, D, E, omega-3, magnesium, manganese, and thyme appear to affect the human innate system warrants further study, especially in light of the recent COVID-19 epidemic. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.399065

Physiological responses to excess boron in wheat cultivars

This study investigates the response of two wheat cultivars to boron toxicity stress. Plants were cultivated in sand culture and boron was applied to the culture for 10-day. Symptoms, tiller number, boron concentration, soluble sugars, proteins and other free amino acids than proline were studied. The differences between the cultivars were apparent from higher boron and the chlorosis in tolerant cultivar was about 7% compared to the sensitive one 70%. Tiller number gradual decreased in tolerant-cultivar, while in sensitive one a dramatic reduction was exhibited by increasing boron level in culture media. In most boron levels, although the accumulation of soluble carbohydrates was significantly stimulated in shoot of B-sensitive cultivar (Gemmeza 9; S), there were no appreciable differences in the production of carbohydrates in shoot of B-tolerant cultivar (Sakha 93; T). However, the soluble proteins production did not affect by most boron levels in both cultivars. The presence of boron at various concentrations induced a production of free amino acids in shoots of each of the two test cultivars. Tiller number (yield index) decreased in the two test cultivars and was in range 50-59 and 84-92% less than control plants for tolerant and sensitive cultivar, respectively. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20037

Effect of excess boron on growth, membrane stability, and functional groups of tomato seedlings

With the scarcity of good quality water, plants like tomatoes will be more susceptible to excess boron (EB) in Mediterranean regions. The effects of EB on the growth, free, semi-bound, and bound boron (B) concentrations, and macromolecules of the Solanum lycopersicum L. cultivar Castle Rock, were investigated in this study. Seedlings were exposed to four levels of EB using boric acid. The results manifested that EB inhibited tomato growth, total water content, and photosynthetic pigments. EB harmed the membrane stability, as seen by increased potassium (K) leakage, UV absorbance metabolites, and electrolyte conductivity (EC) in leaf disc solution. EB raised concentrations of free, semi-bound, and bound forms of B in seedlings. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) data revealed that EB induced uneven wax deposition, altered the shape of cell walls, and lowered cellulose synthesis in seedlings. EB affected the amide I and amide II indicating damage to the protein pools. These results provide new insights into understanding the specific effects of EB on the functional groups of different macromolecules of tomato seedlings

Phyto-remedial of excessive copper and evaluation of its impact on the metabolic activity of Zea mays

Maize is diagnosed as a heavy metal (HM) accumulator, while the tolerance mechanism is not sufficiently known. A hydroponic experiment was performed to test the ability of maize plants to tolerate and accumulate Cu. Excess copper treatments (ECu; 5 and 10 μM CuSO4) considerably reduced plant growth, photosynthetic pigments, ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and guaiacol peroxidase (POD) activity. However, ECu significantly enhanced catalase (CAT) activity. ECu treatments reduced the leaf membrane integrity as indicated by increasing malondialdehyde (MDA) content in leaves. Proline and phenolic contents were considerably increased in maize organelles by ECu toxicity. ECu treatments considerably stimulated free amino acid (FAA) accumulation, total-soluble proteins (TSPs), and K in shoots, whereas these parameters did not change in the roots. Applications of CuSO4 did not affect the accumulation of total soluble sugars (TSSs) in shoots, while this accumulation enhanced in roots. CuSO4 treatments significantly increased the Cu concentration and uptake but decreased the Cu translocation factor (TF) and bioaccumulation factor (BF). Structural components such as cell wall components, proteins, lipids, and sugars were affected by ECu stress, as shown by infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis. These results give a new insight into the strategy, which maize can use to treat the Cu-polluted environment as Cu accumulates within seedling tissues and the seedling can protect itself from ECu stress