Identifying the scene of a crime through pollen analysis.

The forensic analysis of pollen involves the comparison of crime scene and reference pollen samples. Successful matches are frequently used to solve time- or location-related crimes. Despite its prospects in criminal investigation, forensic palynology is still underused in casework due to inherent shortcomings such as its limited evidential weighting, scarcity of skilled palynologists dedicated to forensic casework and the laborious nature of analytical procedures. To address these challenges, the current state-of-the-art in forensic palynology is transiting from the traditional light microscopic methods that dominated the early days of palynology to more contemporary approaches like Raman spectroscopy, stable isotope analysis and DNA metabarcoding. The major challenges of these methods, however, include a lack of optimisation to forensic expectations and the unavailability of robust databases to permit accurate data interpretation, and quests to resolve these problems constitute the theme of current research. While reiterating the usefulness of pollen analysis in criminal investigation, this report recommends orthogonal testing as a way of improving the evidential weighting of forensic palynology.

Histochemical Techniques in Plant Science: More Than Meets the Eye.

Histochemistry is an essential analytical tool interfacing extensively with plant science. The literature is indeed constellated with examples showing its use to decipher specific physiological and developmental processes, as well as to study plant cell structures. Plant cell structures are translucent unless they are stained. Histochemistry allows the identification and localization, at the cellular level, of biomolecules and organelles in different types of cells and tissues, based on the use of specific staining reactions and imaging. Histochemical techniques are also widely used for the in vivo localization of promoters in specific tissues, as well as to identify specific cell wall components such as lignin and polysaccharides. Histochemistry also enables the study of plant reactions to environmental constraints, e.g. the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can be traced by applying histochemical staining techniques. The possibility of detecting ROS and localizing them at the cellular level is vital in establishing the mechanisms involved in the sensitivity and tolerance to different stress conditions in plants. This review comprehensively highlights the additional value of histochemistry as a complementary technique to high-throughput approaches for the study of the plant response to environmental constraints. Moreover, here we have provided an extensive survey of the available plant histochemical staining methods used for the localization of metals, minerals, secondary metabolites, cell wall components, and the detection of ROS production in plant cells. The use of recent technological advances like CRISPR/Cas9-based genome-editing for histological application is also addressed. This review also surveys the available literature data on histochemical techniques used to study the response of plants to abiotic stresses and to identify the effects at the tissue and cell levels.

In Vitro Calli Production Resulted in Different Profiles of Plant-Derived Medicinal Compounds in Phyllanthus amarus.

The efficient production of plant-derived medicinal compounds (PDMCs) from in vitro plants requires improvements in knowledge about control of plant or organ development and factors affecting the biosynthesis pathway of specific PDMCs under in vitro conditions, leading to a realistic large-scale tool for in vitro secondary metabolite production. Thus, this study aimed to develop an in vitro technique, through the induction and proliferation of calli, for production of plant fresh weight, and to compare the PDMC profile obtained from the plants versus in vitro calli of Phyllanthus amarus. It was successfully possible to obtain and proliferate two types of calli, one with a beige color and a friable appearance, obtained in the dark using Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium plus 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), and a second type with a green color, rigid consistency, and nonfriable appearance obtained under light conditions and MS medium plus 6-benzyladenine (6-BA). In vitro micropropagated plants that gave rise to calli were also acclimatized in a greenhouse and cultivated until obtaining the mass for PDMC analysis and used as a control. While the micropropagated-derived plants concentrated the lignans niranthin, nirtetralin, and phyllanthin, the Phyllanthus amarus calli proliferated in vitro concentrated a completely different biochemical profile and synthesis of compounds, such as betulone, squalene, stigmasterol, and ß-sitosterol, in addition to others not identified by GC-MS database. These results demonstrate the possibility of applying the calli in vitro from Phyllanthus amarus for production of important PDMCs unlike those obtained in cultures of differentiated tissues from field plants.

Quantitative methods in microscopy to assess pollen viability in different plant taxa.

High-quality pollen is a prerequisite for plant reproductive success. Pollen viability and sterility can be routinely assessed using common stains and manual microscope examination, but with low overall statistical power. Current automated methods are primarily directed towards the analysis of pollen sterility, and high throughput solutions for both pollen viability and sterility evaluation are needed that will be consistent with emerging biotechnological strategies for crop improvement. Our goal is to refine established labelling procedures for pollen, based on the combination of fluorescein (FDA) and propidium iodide (PI), and to develop automated solutions for accurately assessing pollen grain images and classifying them for quality. We used open-source software programs (CellProfiler, CellProfiler Analyst, Fiji and R) for analysis of images collected from 10 pollen taxa labelled using FDA/PI. After correcting for image background noise, pollen grain images were examined for quality employing thresholding and segmentation. Supervised and unsupervised classification of per-object features was employed for the identification of viable, dead and sterile pollen. The combination of FDA and PI dyes was able to differentiate between viable, dead and sterile pollen in all the analysed taxa. Automated image analysis and classification significantly increased the statistical power of the pollen viability assay, identifying more than 75,000 pollen grains with high accuracy (R2 = 0.99) when compared to classical manual counting. Overall, we provide a comprehensive set of methodologies as baseline for the automated assessment of pollen viability using fluorescence microscopy, which can be combined with manual and mechanized imaging systems in fundamental and applied research on plant biology. We also supply the complete set of pollen images (the FDA/PI pollen dataset) to the scientific community for future research.

Botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, analytical methods, processing, pharmacology and pharmacokinetics of Bupleuri Radix: A systematic review.

Bupleuri Radix (BR) is the dry root of Bupleurum chinense DC. and Bupleurum scorzonerifolium Willd. It has the functions of evacuation and antipyretic, soothing liver and relieving depression and often used to treat cold fever, chest and rib swelling pain, irregular menstruation, uterine prolapse, rectocele and other diseases. In this paper, the botany, traditional application, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicity of BR were reviewed. On the basis of limited literature, the analytical method, quality control, processing method, processing effect and pharmacokinetics of BR were summarized and analyzed for the first time. This review makes an in-depth discussion on the shortcomings of the current research on BR, and puts forward its own views and solutions. This has never been summarized in the previous review of BR. It is of great practical significance for future scholars to find a breakthrough point in the study of BR. So far, its mechanism has not been satisfactorily explained. Moreover, the comprehensive quality evaluation and multi-target network pharmacology of BR need to be further studied. In the future, more in vitro and in vivo experiments are needed to give full play to the therapeutic potential of BR.

Using museum pelt collections to generate pollen prints from high-risk regions: A new palynological forensic strategy for geolocation.

The use of pollen as a forensic tool for geolocation is a well-established practice worldwide in cases ranging from the provenance of drugs and other illicit materials to tracking the travel of individuals in criminal investigations. Here we propose a novel approach to generation of pollen databases that uses pollen vacuumed from mammal pelts collected historically from international areas that are now deemed too high risk to visit. We present the results of a study we conducted using mammal pelts collected from Mexico. This new investigative technique is important because, although it would seem that the ubiquitous and geo-specific nature of pollen would make pollen analysis among the most promising forensic tools for law enforcement and intelligence agencies, it is not the case. The process is notoriously slow because pollen identification is a tedious task requiring trained specialists (palynologists) who are few in number worldwide, and the reference materials necessary for geolocation usually are rare or absent, especially from regions of the world that are no longer safe to visit because of war or threat of terrorism. Current forensic palynological work is carried out by a few highly trained palynologists who require accurate databases of pollen distribution, especially from sensitive areas, to do their jobs accurately and efficiently. Our project shows the suitability of using the untapped museum pelt resources to support homeland security programs. This first palynological study using museum pelts yielded 133 different pollen and spore types, including 8 moss or fern families, 12 gymnosperm genera and 112 angiosperm species. We show that the palynological print from each region is statistically different with some important clustering, demonstrating the potential to use this technique for geolocation.

Microscopic techniques used for the identification of medicinal plants: A case study of Senna.

BACKGROUND: The use of quality control tool for adulteration of Senna (Cassia aungustifolia) a pharmaceutically very important. They were used for multiple health disorders such as constipation, indigestion, epilepsy, asthma, piles, migraine, and heart problems. Two different species of same family or same genus used commercially in Indo-Pak using the same medicine name Senna. One named as Senna (C. aungustifolia) and its adulterant named as Sickle Senna (Cassia obtusifolia). METHODOLOGY: These two plants were analyzed using classical microscopic techniques light microscopy and the modern chemotaxonomic traits scanning electron microscopy, fluorescence studies and phytochemical studies. RESULTS: The C. aungustifolia L. had found to be a perennial herb with trilobed pollen, diacytic, paracytic, and anisocytic stomata having smooth walled epidermal cells, whereas the C. obtusifolia stands out as a perennial shrub with spheroidal and circular pollen and paracytic type of stomata having irregular shaped epidermal cells. The powdered drug of C. aungustifolia is dark grayish green, whereas the powdered drug of C. obtusifolia is light green in color. Investigation and other techniques used in this project provided the basis for the authentication of this species.

Depolarizing metrics for plant samples imaging.

Optical methods, as fluorescence microscopy or hyperspectral imaging, are commonly used for plants visualization and characterization. Another powerful collection of optical techniques is the so-called polarimetry, widely used to enhance image contrast in multiple applications. In the botanical applications framework, in spite of some works have already highlighted the depolarizing print that plant structures left on input polarized beams, the potential of polarimetric methods has not been properly exploited. In fact, among the few works dealing with polarization and plants, most of them study light scattered by plants using the Degree of Polarization (DoP) indicator. Other more powerful depolarization metrics are nowadays neglected. In this context, we highlight the potential of different depolarization metrics obtained using the Mueller matrix (MM) measurement: the Depolarization Index and the Indices of Polarimetric Purity. We perform a qualitative and quantitative comparison between DoP- and MM-based images by studying a particular plant, the Hedera maroccana. We show how Mueller-based metrics are generally more suitable in terms of contrast than DoP-based measurements. The potential of polarimetric measurements in the study of plants is highlighted in this work, suggesting they can be applied to the characterization of plants, plant taxonomy, water stress in plants, and other botanical studies.

Plant growth regulator interactions in physiological processes for controlling plant regeneration and in vitro development of Tulbaghia simmleri.

The endogenous auxin and cytokinin contents of in vitro regenerated Tulbaghia simmleri maintained on applied plant growth regulators in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium were investigated using UHPLC-MS analysis. The highest number of shoots (27.6 per leaf) were produced in MS medium supplemented with 2.5 µM thidiazuron. A higher number of these shoots were rooted with 10 µM 6-(2-hydroxy-3-methylbenzylamino) purine (PI-55, cytokinin antagonist). Production of somatic embryos (SEs: 16.4-4.6, globular to cotyledonary stages) improved significantly with liquid MS medium containing 2.5 µM picloram, 2.5 µM phloroglucinol (PG) and 1.5 µM gibberellic acid or 1.5 µM PI-55 and 1.0 µM trans-zeatin. SEs (torpedo and cotyledonary stages) germinated (100%) in plant growth regulator free MS medium. The plantlets were acclimatized and all survived in the greenhouse. Higher levels of endogenous auxin, 2-oxindole-3-acetic acid (oxIAA, 371.52 pmol/g DW) and indole-3-acetylaspartate (IAAsp, 141.56 pmol/g DW) were detected in shoots from PG treatments. The roots of garden-grown mother plants possessed the highest level of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA, 630.54 pmol/g DW) and oxIAA (515.26 pmol/g DW). Cytokinins [CKs: trans-zeatin-O-glucoside (tZOG), cis-zeatin (cZ) and N6-isopentenyladenosine-5'-monophosphate (iPRMP)] levels were relatively high in shoots and roots of plantlets in vitro. However, PI-55 treatments influenced the development of plantlets promoting a higher biosynthesis level of iPRMP (418.06 pmol/g DW in root) and cZRMP (904.61 pmol/g DW in roots and 1427.83 pmol/g DW in shoots). The presented protocols offer organogenesis and somatic organogenesis systems for rapid plant regeneration of T. simmleri. In addition, the importance of exogenous and endogenous hormonal effects on in vitro plant growth and development as well as endogenous hormone metabolism signalling and transport related to the physiological processes of CK metabolism and transport are illustrated for in vitro development of T. simmleri.

Influencia de reguladores de crecimiento sobre el establecimiento de cultivos in vitro de Salvia hispanica L. ("chía") y sobre su contenido de ácidos grasos / Influence of growth regulators on the establishment of in vitro cultures of Salvia hispanica L. ("chia") and its content of fatty acids

Salvia hispanica L. (Labiateae), comúnmente conocida como "chía", es una especie herbácea anual cuyo cultivo está ampliamente extendido por América del Sur. Es utilizada como cultivo industrial y para la ela-boración de alimentos funcionales por su contenido en proteínas, antioxidantes, fibras y lípidos esenciales. El aceite de sus semillas contiene la mayor proporción (68 %) de omega-3 que cualquier fuente vegetal conocida. El objetivo de este trabajo fue establecer cultivos in vitro de "chía" y analizar la influencia de diferentes reguladores de crecimiento sobre la inducción de callos, sobre el crecimiento de estos y sobre su contenido de ácidos grasos. Se iniciaron cultivos de callos in vitro a partir de explantos de tallos sin nudos y de hojas de plántulas axénicas de 20 días de edad, utilizando 3 tratamientos de reguladores de crecimiento diferentes. El medio Murashige & Skoog modificado (MSRT) con el agregado de ácido 2,4-diclorofenoxia-cético (2,4-D) a una concentración de 2,25 µM y un fotoperíodo de 16 horas fueron las condiciones óptimas para la inducción de callos. Para el mantenimiento de los callos el tratamiento más adecuado resultó ser bencilaminopurina (BAP) a una concentración de 1 µM. La cinética de crecimiento se caracterizó por un período de latencia hasta el día 20 de cultivo, seguido de un período de crecimiento exponencial entre los días 20 y 54. El tratamiento con 2,4-D (2,25 µM) mostró la más alta velocidad específica de crecimiento (0,22 ± 0,01 /día), el tiempo de duplicación más bajo (31,51 ± 1,00 día) y la mayor biomasa máxima (1,46 ± 0,01 g PF). El contenido de ácidos grasos en los callos de "chía" fue 0,83 % en promedio de todos los tratamientos después de 6 meses en cultivo y no mostró variaciones significativas (0,2 % - 0,3 %) entre los tratamientos aplicados (p < 0,05). (AU)

Tracking maize pollen development by the Leaf Collar Method.

KEY MESSAGE: An easy and highly reproducible nondestructive method named the Leaf Collar Method is described to identify and characterize the different stages of pollen development in maize. In plants, many cellular events such as meiosis, asymmetric cell division, cell cycle regulation, cell fate determination, nucleus movement, vacuole formation, chromatin condensation and epigenetic modifications take place during pollen development. In maize, pollen development occurs in tassels that are confined within the internal stalk of the plant. Hence, identification of the different pollen developmental stages as a tool to investigate above biological processes is impossible without dissecting the entire plant. Therefore, an efficient and reproducible method is necessary to isolate homogeneous cell populations at individual stages throughout pollen development without destroying the plant. Here, we describe a method to identify the various stages of pollen development in maize. Using the Leaf Collar Method in the maize inbreed line B73, we have determined the duration of each stage from pollen mother cells before meiosis to mature tricellular pollen. Anther and tassel size as well as percentage of pollen stages were correlated with vegetative stages, which are easily recognized. The identification of stage-specific genes indicates the reproducibility of the method. In summary, we present an easy and highly reproducible nondestructive method to identify and characterize the different stages of pollen development in maize. This method now opens the way for many subsequent physiological, morphological and molecular analyses to study, for instance, transcriptomics, metabolomics, DNA methylation and chromatin patterns during normal and stressful conditions throughout pollen development in one of the economically most important grass species.

Early Neolithic wine of Georgia in the South Caucasus.

Chemical analyses of ancient organic compounds absorbed into the pottery fabrics from sites in Georgia in the South Caucasus region, dating to the early Neolithic period (ca. 6,000-5,000 BC), provide the earliest biomolecular archaeological evidence for grape wine and viniculture from the Near East, at ca. 6,000-5,800 BC. The chemical findings are corroborated by climatic and environmental reconstruction, together with archaeobotanical evidence, including grape pollen, starch, and epidermal remains associated with a jar of similar type and date. The very large-capacity jars, some of the earliest pottery made in the Near East, probably served as combination fermentation, aging, and serving vessels. They are the most numerous pottery type at many sites comprising the so-called "Shulaveri-Shomutepe Culture" of the Neolithic period, which extends into western Azerbaijan and northern Armenia. The discovery of early sixth millennium BC grape wine in this region is crucial to the later history of wine in Europe and the rest of the world.

An assessment on the uncertainty of the nitrogen to phosphorus ratio as a threshold for nutrient limitation in plants.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The nitrogen (N) to phosphorus (P) ratio (N:P) has been widely used as a threshold for identifying nutrient limitations in terrestrial plants; however, the associated reliability has not been well assessed. METHODS: The uncertainty of nutrient limitations caused by the N:P threshold was evaluated using two approaches: fertilization experiments synthesized across multiple ecosystems; and random sampling simulation of the impacts of different nutrient sufficiencies and deficiencies. KEY RESULTS: The fertilization experiment data indicated that the types of nutrient limitation determined via N:P thresholds were partly inconsistent with the growth responses observed under N and P additions, i.e. under N:P thresholds of 14 and 16 (or 10 and 20), 32.5 % (or 16.2 %) of the data were inconsistent between these two. The random sampling simulation suggested that N:P thresholds may indicate N (or P) limitations when leaf N (or P) content is sufficient, whereas these thresholds may not indicate N (or P) limitations when leaf N (or P) content is deficient. The error risks calculated from the sampling simulation presented large fluctuations at small sample sizes and decreased as the thresholds of nutrient content sufficiency (or deficiency) increased (or decreased). The N:P thresholds of 10 and 20 showed lower error risks than the thresholds of 14 and 16. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight that canonical N:P thresholds have the potential to introduce a large uncertainty when used to detect plant nutrient limitations, suggesting that the error risks should be cautioned in future studies.

Terapéutica para tratar el cólera en Yucatán, México (1833-1853). Medicina fisiológica, herbolaria local y régimen moral / Therapy for the treatment of cholera in Yucatan, México (1833-1853). Physiological medicine, local herbalist and moral regiment

Este artículo analiza los pilares que sostuvieron la práctica terapéutica en Yucatán para tratar a los enfermos de cólera durante los brotes registrados antes del descubrimiento de su etiología bacteriana, uno en 1833 y otro en 1853. Debido en parte a una importante evolución del pensamiento médico-científico y a la divulgación de los principios del positivismo, en esta época se vivió un profundo proceso de transformación que significó, entre otras cosas, nuevas percepciones sobre la enfermedad y esquemas distintos a los coloniales para afrontar las emergencias y procurar la salud pública. Sin embargo, ante la falta de consensos en cuanto al origen del cólera y sus medios de propagación, el gobierno estatal promovió la difusión de diferentes técnicas terapéuticas empleadas en Europa o Estados Unidos, que se sumaron al conocimiento local respecto al empleo medicinal de la herbolaria, retomando también antiguas ideas sobre la incidencia de las conductas morales individuales en la propensión al contagio y eventualmente a la muerte (AU)

This article analyzes the pillars that supported the therapeutic practice in Yucatán to treat cholera patients during the outbreaks preceding the discovery of its bacterial etiology, one in 1833 and another in 1853. Due partly to a significant evolution in scientific and medical ideas, and the dissemination of the principles of positivism, a profound process of transformation was experienced, which brought, among other things, new perceptions of the disease as well as schemes different from the colonials to deal with emergencies and ensure public health. However, given the lack of consensus about the origin of cholera and its means of propagation, the government promoted different therapeutic techniques practiced in Europe or the United States, alongside local knowledge on the medicinal use of herbs, while also reviving old ideas on the impact of individual moral behavior in the tendency to contract the disease and eventually die (AU)

A Novel Method for the Separation of Overlapping Pollen Species for Automated Detection and Classification.

The identification of pollen in an automated way will accelerate different tasks and applications of palynology to aid in, among others, climate change studies, medical allergies calendar, and forensic science. The aim of this paper is to develop a system that automatically captures a hundred microscopic images of pollen and classifies them into the 12 different species from Lagunera Region, Mexico. Many times, the pollen is overlapping on the microscopic images, which increases the difficulty for its automated identification and classification. This paper focuses on a method to segment the overlapping pollen. First, the proposed method segments the overlapping pollen. Second, the method separates the pollen based on the mean shift process (100% segmentation) and erosion by H-minima based on the Fibonacci series. Thus, pollen is characterized by its shape, color, and texture for training and evaluating the performance of three classification techniques: random tree forest, multilayer perceptron, and Bayes net. Using the newly developed system, we obtained segmentation results of 100% and classification on top of 96.2% and 96.1% in recall and precision using multilayer perceptron in twofold cross validation.

A comprehensive analysis on Symplocos racemosa Roxb.: Traditional uses, botany, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Symplocos racemosa Roxb. belongs to a unigeneric family Symplocaceae, known as lodhra in Sanskrit; is a small evergreen tree, found throughout the tropical and sub-tropical countries. Ethnobotanical literature indicates use of S. racemosa in treatment of eye disease, skin diseases, ear diseases, liver and bowel complaints, tumors, uterine disorders, spongy and bleeding gums, asthma, fever, snake-bite, gonorrhea and arthritis. The main aim of this review is to provide detailed phytopharmacological profile on S. racemosa in support with the traditional practices and ethnomedicinal uses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All relevant worldwide accepted databases have been searched for the name "S. racemosa" along with other literature from Indian Classical texts and Pharmacopoeias. The accessible literatures available on S. racemosa, were collected through electronic search on Pub med, Scopus, Science direct and traditional reports. RESULTS: S. racemosa is important Indian traditional drug used in many Ayurvedic and herbal formulations for treatment of liver as well as uterine disorders and leucorrhea. Majority of phytopharmacological reports are on stem bark of the plant which include anti-cancer, hepatoprotective, anti-oxidant, anti-androgenic effect, anti-inflammatory, wound healing activity and anti-diabetic effects. Phytochemical studies indicated presence of many phenolic glycosides like symplocoside, triterpenoids like betulinic acid, acetyloleanolic acid and oleanolic acid and flavonoids like quercetin which might have contributed to the observed protective effects. CONCLUSION: Many ethnobotanical claims have been confirmed through systematic in-vitro and in-vivo pharmacological studies on different extracts of stem bark and isolated constituents. However, systematic studies on the bio-markers are desirable to establish mode of action and to validate the traditional claim in clinical practice after proper safety assessment. The conservation data of genus Symplocos showed risk of extinction due to restricted distribution in the wild hence systematic techniques should be developed for the maintenance of this plant.

Synchrotron-based X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy imaging for laterally resolved speciation of selenium in fresh roots and leaves of wheat and rice.

Knowledge of the distribution of selenium (Se) species within plant tissues will assist in understanding the mechanisms of Se uptake and translocation, but in situ analysis of fresh and highly hydrated plant tissues is challenging. Using synchrotron-based fluorescence X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) imaging to provide laterally resolved data, the speciation of Se in fresh roots and leaves of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.) supplied with 1 µM of either selenate or selenite was investigated. For plant roots exposed to selenate, the majority of the Se was efficiently converted to C-Se-C compounds (i.e. methylselenocysteine or selenomethionine) as selenate was transported radially through the root cylinder. Indeed, even in the rhizodermis which is exposed directly to the bulk solution, only 12-31% of the Se was present as uncomplexed selenate. The C-Se-C compounds were probably sequestered within the roots, whilst much of the remaining uncomplexed Se was translocated to the leaves-selenate accounting for 52-56% of the total Se in the leaves. In a similar manner, for plants exposed to selenite, the Se was efficiently converted to C-Se-C compounds within the roots, with only a small proportion of uncomplexed selenite observed within the outer root tissues. This resulted in a substantial decrease in translocation of Se from the roots to leaves of selenite-exposed plants. This study provides important information for understanding the mechanisms responsible for the uptake and subsequent transformation of Se in plants.

DNA-Based Authentication of Botanicals and Plant-Derived Dietary Supplements: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?

Herbal medicines and botanicals have long been used as sole or additional medical aids worldwide. Currently, billions of dollars are spent on botanicals and related products, but minimal regulation exists regarding their purity, integrity, and efficacy. Cases of adulteration and contamination have led to severe illness and even death in some cases. Identifying the plant material in botanicals and phytomedicines using organoleptic means or through microscopic observation of plant parts is not trivial, and plants are often misidentified. Recently, DNA-based methods have been applied to these products because DNA is not changed by growth conditions unlike the chemical constituents of many active pharmaceutical agents. In recent years, DNA barcoding methods, which are used to identify species diversity in the Tree of Life, have been also applied to botanicals and plant-derived dietary supplements. In this review, we recount the history of DNA-based methods for identification of botanicals and discuss some of the difficulties in defining a specific bar code or codes to use. In addition, we describe how next generation sequencing technologies have enabled new techniques that can be applied to identifying these products with greater authority and resolution. Lastly, we present case histories where dietary supplements, decoctions, and other products have been shown to contain materials other than the main ingredient stipulated on the label. We conclude that there is a fundamental need for greater quality control in this industry, which if not self-imposed, that may result from legislation.

O uso de plantas medicinais por moradores de Quixadá­Ceará / The use of medicinal plants to habitants from Quixada-Ceara

RESUMO O presente trabalho teve por objetivo observar o uso de plantas medicinais por moradores de Quixadá-Ceará. A amostragem adotada foi 5% da população urbana adulta na sede do município, o que resultou em 263 domicílios visitados, onde foi aplicado um questionário semi-estruturado. De acordo com os resultados ainda temos um número expressivo de pessoas que fazem uso de plantas medicinais na cidade de Quixadá-Ceará (57,41%), e que a maioria dos entrevistados (97%) considera que o uso indiscriminado de plantas medicinais não causa nenhum problema à saúde. A maioria dos entrevistados foram mulheres (63,57%) e o maior número de informações e conhecimentos sobre plantas medicinais concentrou-se na faixa de 51-60 anos (24,71%). Com relação ao nível de escolaridade, 34,22% dos entrevistados afirmou ter ensino médio completo. A família botânica mais representativa foi a Lamiaceae (21,05%) e a espécie mais citada foi a erva-cidreira. Dos entrevistados 93,37% consideraram utilizar o chá como medicamento e 6,63% alegaram fazer a utilização do mesmo como alimento. Quanto à frequência do uso de plantas medicinais de forma contínua, 27% alegaram fazer o uso diariamente.

ABSTRACT This study aimed to observe the use of medicinal plants by residents from Quixada-Ceara. The sample used was 5% of the adult urban population in the county seat, which resulted in 263 households visited, where we applied a semi-structured questionnaire. According to the results, there is still a significant number of people who uses medicinal plants in the city of Quixada-Ceara (57.41%), and the majority of participants (97%) consider that the indiscriminate employment of medicinal plants do not cause any health problem. Most respondents were female (63.57%) and the highest number of information and knowledge about medicinal plants were concentrated among 51-60 years old individuals (24.71%). In regard of the educational level, 34.22% of the participants claimed to have completed high school. The botanical family Lamiaceae was the most representative (21.05%) and the most cited specie was the lemongrass. 93.37% of the respondents pledged to use tea as medicine and 6.63% claimed to use it as food. Regarding the employment frequency of the medicinal plants, 27% claimed to take them daily.