Evolutionary Medicine Of Kani Tribal’s Botanical Knowledge In Agasthiayamalai Biosphere Reserve, South India

Agasthiayamalai Biosphere Reserve in Tirunelveli zones have had five Kani tribal settlement surveys of ethnomedicinal utilization with more than 480 species of which only 70 species are been reported during the field study 2006-2007. Collected ancestral knowledge was documented in database format by the software Visual Basic 6.0 and M.S Access. Kani tribes reveal that they are capable of treating various diseases. Exploitation and documentation of traditional medicine is essential for the future. Such study will be useful to understand the role and importance of the tribal botanical knowledge in the conservation of medicinal plants of this area

Exploration of Kani Tribal Botanical Knowledge in Agasthiayamalai Biosphere Reserve - South India

Since traditional herbal remedies are based on ancestral knowledge and empiric experiences of tribes, an ethnomedicinal survey was undertaken to collect information appeared to be useful for the research on medicinal plants of the Agasthiayamalai Biosphere Reserve in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu during October 2005- December 2006. The ancestral traditional knowledge of Kani people including reliable hakims, physicians in five settlements (Tirunelveli zones) the native plants used for the preparation of drugs and methods of their administration along with doses were recorded, collected through questionnaire as well as informal personal interviews during field trips. The exploration of ethno medicinal survey of medicinal utilization among Kani hakims 76 species of plants distributed in 64 genera belonging to 43 families have been reported. The information was collected and documented in database management systems using Visual Basic 6.0 as front end and M.S Access 7.0 as back end. The practical knowledge of plants in medicines of Kani tribe reveals that they are capable of treating various diseases. Exploitation and documentation of traditional medicine is essential for the future. Such study will be useful to understand the role and importance of the Tribal Botanical Knowledge (TBK) in the conservation of medicinal plants of this area

Origins of Plant Derived Medicines

This review article describes the origins of plant derived medicines that have been developed as a result of traditional knowledge being handed down from one generation to the next. Various industries are now searching into sources of alternative, more natural and environmentally friendly antimicrobials, antibiotics, diabetics, antioxidants and crop protection agents. Medicinal plants have provided a good source of a wide variety of compounds, such as phenolic compounds, nitrogen compounds, vitamins, terpenoids and some other secondary metabolites, which are rich in valuable bioactivities, e.g., antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antimutagenic, anti-carcinogenic, antibacterial, or antiviral activities. Medicinal plants have become the main object of chemists, biochemist, and pharmaceutics. Their research plays an important role for discovering and developing new drugs that hopefully have more effectiveness and no side actions like most modern drugs

Molecular Responses of Groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) to Zinc Stress

Heavy metals are important environmental pollutants and their toxicity is a problem of increasing significance for ecological, evolutionary and environmental reasons. The interference of germination related proteins by heavy metals has not been well documented at the proteomic and genomic level. In the current study, molecular responses of germinating groundnut seeds were investigated under Zinc stress. The SDS-PAGE showed the preliminary changes in the polypeptides patterns under Zinc stress. Restriction digestion banding pattern of EcoRI and Hind III enzymes showed distinct banding pattern in the treated plants

Prediction of Biological Activity Spectra for Few Anticancer Drugs Derived from Plant Sources

Over the past decade plants have become an interesting source of new classes of pharmacologically active natural products. Some secondary metabolites are also well known for their effectiveness on living species. The PASS (Prediction of Activity Spectra for Substances) computer program, which is able to simultaneously predict more than one thousand biological and toxicological activities from only the structural formulas of the chemicals, was used to predict the biological activity profile of 7 secondary metabolites. PASS predictions were successfully compared to the available information on the pharmacological and toxicological activity of these compounds

Drought Stress and Its Impact on Protein in Three Species of Vitex

Drought is one of the most important natural phenomenon which affects on plant growth. When drought stress is imposed different molecular and biochemical responses took place in the plants. The protein profile of three species of Vitex (Vitex trifolia L., Vitex altissima L. and Vitex negundo L.) under normally irrigated condition and severe drought plants was analyzed through SDS-PAGE. Drought stress significantly affects proteins in plants when compared the normal conditioned plants. Several new protein bands were identified in the stressed plants. It seems that Vitex species can be adapted to drought stress conditions. Hence it was concluded that number of new proteins were synthesized in stressed plants for their adaptation in the stressed conditions. These proteins could be used as markers in identifying the stressed plants

Next-to-leading order predictions for Z gamma+jet and Z gamma gamma final states at the LHC

We present next-to-leading order predictions for final states containing leptons produced through the decay of a Z boson in association with either a photon and a jet, or a pair of photons. The effect of photon radiation from the final state leptons is included and we also allow for contributions arising from fragmentation processes. Phenomenological studies are presented for the LHC in the case of final states containing charged leptons and in the case of neutrinos. We also use the procedure introduced by Stewart and Tackmann to provide a reliable estimate of the scale uncertainty inherent in our theoretical calculations of jet-binned Z gamma cross sections. These computations have been implemented in the public code MCFM.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figure