Antidiarrheal effect of extract from the bark of Combretum leprosum in mice

Abstract This study investigated the effects of the ethanolic extract from the bark of Combretum leprosum (ECL) on intestinal transit and castor-oil induced diarrhea in mice. The oral administration of ECL (750 and 1000 mg/kg) slowed intestinal transit (ID50 of 455 mg/kg). The ECL (250-1000 mg/kg) reduced castor-oil induced diarrhea, in a time- and dose-dependent manner (p < 0.05). To determine if antidiarrheal effect of ECL involves α2-adrenergic or opioid receptor activation, the mice were pretreated with antagonists of these receptors, yohimbine or naloxone respectively. None of these drugs inhibited the antidiarrheal effect of ECL. To test if antidiarrheal effect of ECL is due to an antisecretory action, we realized the enteropooling assay on rats. The ECL increased bowel content and did not inhibit intestinal fluid secretion increase induced by misoprostol (100 µg/kg, s.c.). To determine if antimotility effect of ECL is due to a reduction on gastric motility, we realized the organ bath assay in the rat fundus stomach. Isotonic recordings show that the carbachol /KCl - induced contraction was not reversed by the addition of ECL. In conclusion, our results suggest that ECL contains antidiarrheal compounds and these compounds could induce a reduction of intestinal tract motility

Meat quality of lambs supplemented with intramuscular vitamin E

ABSTRACT: This study evaluated the effects of intramuscular alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) supplementation on meat quality characteristics of Santa Inês and Dorper crossbreed lambs. All animals were feed with a high concentrated diet in feedlot. Eight days before slaughter, the animals were distributed into four blocks according to weight gain. At the seventh and fourth days before slaughter, they were intramuscularly treated with 0, 10 or 20 IU of DL-alpha-tocopherol per kg of metabolic body weight. At slaughter they had 138 days of age and 43.6 kg of live weight, in average. Carcasses were stored for 24 hours under refrigeration at 2°C. Longissimus thoracis muscle pH (pH24h) and color (lightness, yellowness and redness) were analyzed and its samples were collected for evaluation of shear force (SF), cooking loss (WLC), fatty acid composition (FA) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances after one (TBARS1m) and after five months (TBARS5m) of freezing. Linearity deviation effect was observed for lightness (L*; P=0.0042) and yellowness (b*; P=0.0082). Intramuscular administration of 10 or 20 IU of alpha-tocopherol/kg of metabolic weight did not influence the conservation of fatty acid in the carcasses, but benefit L* and b* values

Analysis and Functional Annotation of an Expressed Sequence Tag Collection for Tropical Crop Sugarcane

To contribute to our understanding of the genome complexity of sugarcane, we undertook a large-scale expressed sequence tag (EST) program. More than 260,000 cDNA clones were partially sequenced from 26 standard cDNA libraries generated from different sugarcane tissues. After the processing of the sequences, 237,954 high-quality ESTs were identified. These ESTs were assembled into 43,141 putative transcripts. Of the assembled sequences, 35.6% presented no matches with existing sequences in public databases. A global analysis of the whole SUCEST data set indicated that 14,409 assembled sequences (33% of the total) contained at least one cDNA clone with a full-length insert. Annotation of the 43,141 assembled sequences associated almost 50% of the putative identified sugarcane genes with protein metabolism, cellular communication/signal transduction, bioenergetics, and stress responses. Inspection of the translated assembled sequences for conserved protein domains revealed 40,821 amino acid sequences with 1415 Pfam domains. Reassembling the consensus sequences of the 43,141 transcripts revealed a 22% redundancy in the first assembling. This indicated that possibly 33,620 unique genes had been identified and indicated that >90% of the sugarcane expressed genes were tagged

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora