Attraction of the fruit-eating bat Carollia perspicillata to Piper gaudichaudianum essential oil

We performed field tests using mimetic Piper fruits with and without essential oil extracted through hydrodistillation from Piper gaudichaudianum ripe fruits in order to evaluate the role of odor in Carollia perspicillata attraction and capture in mist-nets. During the field tests, 26 C. perspicillata were captured, 21 (80.7%) in nets with the essential oil of P. gaudichaudianum and five (19.3%) in nets without oil. Other bat species, Artibeus spp. ( 67), which is specialized on fruits of Moraceae, and Sturnira lilium ( 10), specialized on those of Solanaceae, were also captured, but they exhibited no significant preference for nets with or without oil. We conclude that odor is pre-eminent over visual cues in food location by C. perspicillata in a field situation. Based on the result, we propose the extraction and use of essential oils of chiropterochoric fruits as a useful approach to improve autoecological studies on fruit-eating bats and to promote tropical forest restoration through the attraction of frugivorous bats to degraded areas.

Influence of organic fertilisation on leaves and essential oil production of Ocimum gratissimuim L.

The experiment was installed in Lageado Experimental Farm with aim to verify the influence of organic fertilisation (0, 4, 8 and 12 kg of manure/m(2) - with four replications) on leaves and essential oil production of Ocimum gratissimum. The harvesting was done twice (May - autumn and August - winter), and the leaves were separated for extraction of essential oil by Clevenger apparatus. The leaf production and oil content were calculated on dry mass basis. The results showed no statistical difference for organic fertilisation, although significant difference was verified for seasons. The main constituents of essential oil were eugenol and 1,8- cineole. The amount of the eugenol was higher in autumn, while the presence of other components including 1,8-cineole, beta-selinene and trans-caryophyllene were more dominant at wintertime.

Composition and antifungal activity of essential oils from Piper aduncum, Piper arboreum and Piper tuberculatum

The composition of essential oils from leaves, stems and fruits of Piper aduncum, P arboreum and P. tuberculatum was examined by means of GC-MS and alltifungal assay. There was a predominance of monoterpenes in P aduncum and P tuberculatum and of sesquiterpenes in P arboreum. P aduncum showed the richest essential oil composition, including linalool. The essential oils from fruits of P. aduncum and R tuberculatum showed the highest antifungal activity with the MIC of 10 mu g as determined against Cladosporium cladosponoides and C. sphaerospermum, respectively. This is the first report of the composition of essential oils from P. tuberculatum.

THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF ZINC IN GROWTH

Zinc is known to play a relevant role in growth and development. The basic mechanisms of action of this trace element are intimately linked to the structure and action of countless enzymes involved in many different metabolic processes. In this respect, when zinc specifically acts on cartilage growth it is involved in multiple enzymatic reactions which make this a multifactorial event. Thus, we may divide the actions of zinc into three distinct types: 1) action on taste and smell acuity, appetite regulation, and food consumption and regulation; 2) action on DNA and RNA synthesis stimulating a) cell replication and differentiation of chondrocytes, osteoblasts and fibroblasts; b) cell transcription culminating in the synthesis of somatomedin-C (liver), alkaline phosphatase, collagen and osteocalcin (bone), and c) protein, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, that is intimately related to the mechanisms of smell, taste, appetite, and food consumption and utilization; 3) action on hormonal mediation by participating in a) GH synthesis and secretion in somatomammotroph cells, b) the action of GH on liver somatomedin-C production, and c) somatomedin-C activation in bone cartilage. In addition to these multiple functions, zinc also interacts with other hormones somehow related to bone growth such as testosterone, thyroid hormones, insulin, and vitamin D-3.On the basis of the above considerations, we conclude that the integration of these mechanisms contributes to the perfect physiological functioning of bone. Tn the presence of zinc deficiency, this homeostasis is impaired, causing the weight-height deficiency detected in several species studied, the human species in particular.

Completeness of coherent states associated with self-similar potentials and Ramanujan's integral extension of the beta function

A decomposition of identity is given as a complex integral over the coherent states associated with a class of shape-invariant self-similar potentials. There is a remarkable connection between these coherent states and Ramanujan's integral extension of the beta function.

Essential oil from leaves of Cryptocarya mandioccana Meisner (Lauraceae): Composition and intraspecific chemical variability

The composition of the essential oil from leaves of Cryptocarya mandioccana has been determined by chromatographic fractionation and GC-FID, GC-MS and C-13 NMR analyses, yielding the identification of 64 compounds with predominance of isomeric sesquiterpenes with molecular weights of 204. The main components of the oil obtained by hydrodistillation were beta-caryophyllene, spathulenol, caryophyllene oxide, delta-cadinene, germacrene D, benzaldehyde and bicyclogermacrene. However, the oil obtained by steam distillation contained higher levels of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, with predominance of P-caryophyllene (C), germacrene D (G) and bicyclogermacrene (B), and was considered to be more representative of the composition of the oil in its natural state. The intraspecific chemical variability of the essential oil obtained by steam distillation was evaluated within populations of trees growing at three separate locations in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Three distinct chemical groups could be characterised due to differences in the relative percentages of the three main sesquiterpenes from essential oil: CGB [relative contents of C (14-34%), G (5-28%), B (8-15%)], BCG [B (17-34%), C (9-24%), G (12-25%)] and GCB [G (22-42%), C (4-17%), B (7-15%)]. Individuals from groups CGB and BCG were found to be more frequent at south locations while group GCB is predominant in north location. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fundamental fermion masses from deformed SUq(2) triplets

A spectrum-generating q-algebra, within the framework of SUq(2), as firstly suggested by Iachello, is studied in order to describe the mass spectrum of three generations of quarks and leptons. The SUq(2) quantum group is a q-deformed extension of SU(2), where q = e(alpha) (with alpha real) is the deformation parameter. In this work, the essential use of inequivalent representations of SUq(2) is introduced. The inequivalent representations are labelled by (j, nu(0)), where j = 0, 1/2, 1, ... and nu(0) is a positive real number. A formula for the fermion masses M-m(j, nu(0)), with -j less than or equal to m less than or equal to j is derived. As an example, a possible scheme which corresponds to two triplets (j = 1) associated to up and down quarks is presented here in some detail. They are associated to different values of the deformation parameter, indicating a dependence of the charge Q on the parameter alpha. The masses of the charged leptons are treated in a similar way. The current results show that some mass relations for quarks and leptons found in the literature can be considered as approximations of the equations obtained in the j = 1 representations. The breaking of SUq(2) necessary to describe the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) flavor mixing is briefly discussed.

Application of low-pressure gas chromatography-ion-trap mass spectrometry to the analysis of the essential oil of Turnera diffusa (Ward.) Urb.

Turnera diffusa Willd. var. afrodisiaca (Ward) Urb. (syn. T. aphrodisiaca) belongs to the family of Turneraceae and is an aromatic plant growing wild in the subtropical regions of America and Africa. It is widely used in the traditional medicine as e.g. anti-cough, diuretic, and aphrodisiac agent. This work presents a 3 min chromatographic analysis using low-pressure (LP) gas chromatography (GC)-ion-trap (IT) mass spectrometry (MS). The combination of a deactivated 0.6 m x 0.10 mm i.d., restrictor with a wide-bore CP-Wax 52 capillary column (10 m x 0.53 mm i.d., 1 mum) reduces the analysis time by a factor of 3-7 in comparison to the use of a conventional narrow bore column. Chromatographic conditions have been optimized to achieve the fastest separation with the highest signal/noise ratio in MS detection. These results allow fast and reliable quality control of the essential oil to be achieved. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Essential Oil Composition of Aloysia gratissima From Brazil

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