State of the world’s plants and fungi 2020

Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi project provides assessments of our current knowledge of the diversity of plants and fungi on Earth, the global threats that they face, and the policies to safeguard them. Produced in conjunction with an international scientific symposium, Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi sets an important international standard from which we can annually track trends in the global status of plant and fungal diversity

Anti-leukaemic and anti-melanoma activities of homoisoflavonoids from Pseudoprospero firmifolium subsp. natalensis (Hyacinthaceae)

Five homoisoflavonoids, (3S)-3,5-dihydroxy-7‑methoxy‑3-(3′,4′-dimethoxybenzyl)-4-chromanone, 1, (3S)-3,5-dihydroxy-7,8-dimethoxy-3-(3′‑hydroxy‑4′‑methoxy)-4-chromanone, 2, (3R)-7,8-dimethoxy-5‑hydroxy‑3-(4′-hydroxybenzyl)-4-chromanone, 3, and (3R)-5‑hydroxy‑7‑methoxy‑3-(3′,4′-dimethoxybenzyl)-4-chromanone, 4, (3S)-3,5,7-trihydroxy-3-(3′‑hydroxy‑4′-methoxybenzyl)-4-chromanone, 5, and a spirocyclic nortriterpenoid, 29‑hydroxy‑15-deoxyeucosterol, 6, were isolated from the bulbs of Pseudoprospero firmifolium subsp. natalensis. Compounds 1, 2 and 5 were isolated previously from P. firmifolium subsp. firmifolium although configurations at C-3 were not established previously. Configurations at C-3 have been confirmed in this work for compounds 1–4 using ECD spectroscopy. The current findings for Pseudoprospero, and most especially of compound 3, indicate that the capacity of the Hyacinthoideae to synthesize homoisoflavonoids evolved prior to the divergence of the three extant tribes (Hyacintheae, Massonieae and Pseudoprospereae) ca. 18.8 Ma ago. Compound 5 displayed activity against two leukemia cell lines SR (GI50 = 0.64 μM) and K-562 (GI50 = 0.86 μM), and the melanoma MDA-MB-435 cell line (GI50=0.41 μM)

Household Food Security in Commercialized Subsistence Economies: Factors Influencing Dietary Diversity of Smallholder Tea Farmers in Nandi South, Kenya

Policies fronting commercialization of agriculture in Kenya assumed that realization of increased household incomes, through cultivation of cash crops, would guarantee improved food security and subsequent reduction of poverty. However, most communities in Kenya growing cash crops are currently struggling to put food on the table. Nandi South is a maize deficit zone despite being 68% arable and having good climate (GoK, 2005). Population pressure has led to competition for limited land resource, coupled with unfavourable poverty indicators; they have impacted negatively on food access in the district. Specifically significant is smallholder tea population in Nandi Hills division. The study focused the population of smallholder tea farmers in Nandi South who supply their tea leaves to the Multinational tea estates. The main objective was to investigate the factors influencing households’ food security among smallholder tea farmers in Nandi South. A modified Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) was used to model food demand of the smallholder households. Multi-stage proportional-to-size cluster sampling was used to sample 180 households. Data was collected using both questionnaires and interviews. Results point out that income, savings, food storage, land productivity, off-farm income, ratio of land allocated to tea significantly influence household food security. Policies that aim at improving household food security among smallholder cash crop farmers should target at increasing and diversifying household income sources and farm enterprises, provision of saving opportunities, storage facilities and proper allocation of land resource between cash crops and food crops

Household Food Security in Commercialized Subsistence Economies: Factors Influencing Dietary Diversity of Smallholder Tea Farmers in Nandi South, Kenya

Policies fronting commercialization of agriculture in Kenya assumed that realization of increased household incomes, through cultivation of cash crops, would guarantee improved food security and subsequent reduction of poverty. However, most communities in Kenya growing cash crops are currently struggling to put food on the table. Nandi South is a maize deficit zone despite being 68% arable and having good climate (GoK, 2005). Population pressure has led to competition for limited land resource, coupled with unfavourable poverty indicators; they have impacted negatively on food access in the district. Specifically significant is smallholder tea population in Nandi Hills division. The study focused the population of smallholder tea farmers in Nandi South who supply their tea leaves to the Multinational tea estates. The main objective was to investigate the factors influencing households’ food security among smallholder tea farmers in Nandi South. A modified Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) was used to model food demand of the smallholder households. Multi-stage proportional-to-size cluster sampling was used to sample 180 households. Data was collected using both questionnaires and interviews. Results point out that income, savings, food storage, land productivity, off-farm income, ratio of land allocated to tea significantly influence household food security. Policies that aim at improving household food security among smallholder cash crop farmers should target at increasing and diversifying household income sources and farm enterprises, provision of saving opportunities, storage facilities and proper allocation of land resource between cash crops and food crops.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Development of a botanical plant protection product from Larix by-products to protect grapevine from Plasmopara viticola

Extracts from European Larch (Larix decidua) were shown to be efficient to control grapevine downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) under controlled and field conditions. Larixyl acetate and larixol were identified as the active compounds

Terpenoids from Cameroonian Oxystigma mannii (Baill.) Harms

We describe two new terpenoids, 3″,5″-dihydroxycinnamoyl-3β,28,30-dihydroxylup-20(29)-ene (1) and 6S,9S-dihydroxycasbe-3E,7E,11E-trien-5,10‑dione (2) and ten known asperglaucide, aridanin, isoscopoletin, maslinic acid, ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, lupeol, sitosterol, stigmasterol and stigmasterol-glucoside from a West African, GuineoCongolian mangrove and strand forest tree, Oxystigma mannii (Baill.) Harms. The structures of the new compounds were determined based on their 1D and 2D NMR, HRMS and FTIR. DP4+ probabilities were used to assign the configurations for compound 2. The two compounds were tested for their antimicrobial effects against Saccharomyces cerevisiae (BY4743), Escherichia coli (BW25113) and Bacillus subtilis (BY4743), but no inhibition was observed at the maximum concentrations tested (800 µM)

State of the World’s Plants and Fungi

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