• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.74-77
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• 2010

The Illam district, situated in the extreme North Eastern part (Latitude 26.58N and 87.58E Longitude) of Nepal, is a hot spot for floral diversity. The study of wild edible plants of this region was an attempt to highlight the types of wild flowering plants found there and mode of use by the people of the Illam hills. In this respect, a survey of natural resources of some of the representative regions of the district was undertaken and more than 74 major varieties of plant species were found to be used frequently by the people of the hills. The rich diversity occurring in Dioscoriaceae, Moraceae, Rosaceae, Myrtaceae, Poaceae, Urticaceae and Arecaceae provided the wild angiospermic species commonly used by the people of the hills.

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.367-376
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• 2016

Urban greenery is an important component of urban environment and is fast gaining prominence especially in the developing countries. The destruction of urban trees has resulted to the degradation of the environment, thus the introduction of green Kumasi project by Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Ashanti Region of Ghana. The composition and diversity of urban trees gives rise to adequate management and monitoring, thus an inventory of urban trees of the Metropolis was conducted to document complete information on its density, diversity, composition and distribution. A total tree population of 1,101 was enumerated in the principal roads of the Metropolis. The ten most encountered tree species accounted for 61.04% of all the individual tree populations with Mangifera indica being dominant. The dominant families: Fabaceae, Moraceae and Arecaceae constitute 38.57% of the tree population. Diversity of the tree species was very high. The minimum diversity criteria were met on analysis of the diversity of this population. The proportion of exotic species was high with 65.71% of the trees belonging to the introduced species. It is recommended that greater emphasis should be placed on the planting of indigenous trees in future tree planting exercise.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.155-164
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• 2018

Nypa fruticans Wurmb is a species of palm, which is widely distributed in the mangrove forest of Southeast Asia. Various parts of N. fruticans has been used as a traditional medicinal plant. However, the physiological activities of N. fruticans has not yet been clarified well. Therefore, in this study, the 50% ethanol extract and its aqueous and ethyl acetate fractions of young shoots of N. fruticans were investigated for their antioxidant, cytoprotective effect, and antimicrobial activities. Every sample possessed very high free radical and various ROS scavenging capacities assessed by employing different in vitro assays such as $DPPH^{\cdot}$, $O_2^{{\cdot}-}$, ${\cdot}OH$, and $^1O_2$ scavenging activities. Based on these results, the cytoprotective effect was investigated using the oxidative hemolysis of erythrocyte. We found that the extract and fractions provide a greater protective effect compared with (+)-${\alpha}$-tocopherol. Furthermore, antimicrobial activities were confirmed against skin pathogens by broth microdilution assay. The ethyl acetate fraction had much higher antimicrobial activities than methyl paraben against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans. Taken together, our results indicated that the young shoots of N. fruticans may have the potential role as a natural active ingredient through their antioxidant, cytoprotective effect, and antimicrobial activities.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.50
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• pp.190-199
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• 2023

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.: Arecaceae) is a dioecious species where only female trees bear fruits. In their natural state, date palms produce dates once a year. However, in Thailand, some trees were observed to produce dates during the off-season, despite no variations in morphology. The availability of such off-season fruits can significantly increase their market value. Interestingly, most female off-season date palms investigated in this study were obtained through micropropagation. Hence, there is an urgent need for genetic markers to distinguish female offseason flowering plantlets within tissue culture systems. In this study, we aimed to develop random amplification of polymorphic DNA-sequence characterized amplified region (RAPD-SCAR) markers for the identification of female off-season flowering date palms cultivated in Thailand. A total of 160 random decamer primers were employed to screen for specific RAPD markers in off-season flowering male and female populations. Out of these, only one primer, OPN-02, generated distinct genomic DNA patterns in female off-season flowering (FOFdp) individuals compared to female seasonal flowering genotypes. Based on the RAPD-specific sequence, specific SCAR primers denoted as FOFdpF and FOFdpR were developed. These SCAR primers amplified a single 517-bp DNA fragment, predominantly found in off-season flowering populations, with an accuracy rate of 60%. These findings underscore the potential of SCAR marker technology for tracking offseason flowering in date palms. Notably, a BLAST analysis revealed a substantial similarity between the SCAR marker sequence and the transcript variant mRNA from Phoenix dactylifera encoding the SET DOMAIN GROUP 40 protein. In Arabidopsis, this protein is involved in the epigenetic regulation of flowering time. The genetic potential of the off-season flowering traits warrants further elucidation.