Sociocultural and ecological factors influencing management of edible and non-edible plants: the case of Ixcatlán,Mexico

Background

Identifying factors influencing plant management allows understanding how processes of domestication operate. Uncertain availability of resources is a main motivation for managing edible plants, but little is known about management motives of non-edible resources like medicinal and ceremonial plants. We hypothesized that uncertain availability of resources would be a general factor motivating their management, but other motives could operate simultaneously. Uncertainty and risk might be less important motives in medicinal than in edible plants, while for ceremonial plants, symbolic and spiritual values would be more relevant.

Methods

We inventoried edible, medicinal, and ceremonial plants in Ixcatlán, Oaxaca, Mexico, and conducted in-depth studies with 20 native and naturalized species per use type; we documented their cultural importance and abundance by interviewing 25 households and sampling vegetation in 33 sites. Consumption amounts and preferences were studied through surveys and free listings with 38 interviewees. Management intensity and risk indexes were calculated through PCA and their relation analyzed through regression analyses. Canonical methods allowed identifying the main sociocultural and ecological factors influencing management of plants per use type.

Results

Nearly 64, 63, and 55% of all ceremonial, edible, and medicinal wild plants recorded, respectively, are managed in order to maintain or increase their availability, embellishing environments, and because of ethical reasons and curiosity. Management intensity was higher in edible plants under human selection and associated with risk. Management of ceremonial and medicinal plants was not associated with indexes of risk or uncertainty in their availability. Other sociocultural and ecological factors influence management intensity, the most important being reciprocal relations and abundance perception.

Conclusions

Plant management through practices and collectively regulated strategies is strongly related to control of risk and uncertainty in edible plants, compared with medicinal and ceremonial plants, in which reciprocal interchanges, curiosity, and spiritual values are more important factors. Understanding how needs, worries, social relations, and ethical values influence management decisions is important to understand processes of constructing management strategies and how domestication could be started in the past and are operated at the present.

     

Statistical analysis of fractionation resistance by functional category and expression

Background

The current literature establishes the importance of gene functional category and expression in promoting or suppressing duplicate gene loss after whole genome doubling in plants, a process known as fractionation. Inspired by studies that have reported gene expression to be the dominating factor in preventing duplicate gene loss, we analyzed the relative effect of functional category and expression.

Methods

We use multivariate methods to study data sets on gene retention, function and expression in rosids and asterids to estimate effects and assess their interaction.

Results

Our results suggest that the effect on duplicate gene retention fractionation by functional category and expression are independent and have no statistical interaction.

Conclusion

In plants, functional category is the more dominant factor in explaining duplicate gene loss.

     

Net primary production,nitrogen cycling,biomass allocation,and resource use efficiency along a topographical soil water and nitrogen gradient in a semi-arid forest near an arid boundary

Aims

The objective of this study was to investigate how plants maintain productivity under a limited supply of water and N along the topographical soil water and N gradients in semi-arid forests.

Methods

We investigated forest structure and productivity, N cycling, and water and N use by plants at three different slope positions in a forested area near an arid boundary on a loess plateau in China.

Results

Net primary production (NPP) and aboveground N uptake decreased as soil water and/or N availability decreased on upper slopes; however, NPP and aboveground N uptake were only slightly lower than those of more humid forest ecosystems. Water use efficiency (WUE), N use efficiency (NUE), and fine root biomass increased as soil water and/or N supply decreased with altitude. High NUE was linked to higher N mean residence time, caused by higher N resorption efficiency rather than increasing N productivity.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that NPP and N uptake can be maintained by increasing WUE and NUE and increasing fine root biomass in water and N co-limited semi-arid forest ecosystems near arid boundaries. Such changes in resource use and acquisition strategy can affect production and N cycling via plant-soil feedback systems.

     

Indigenous knowledge of dye-yielding plants among Bai communities in Dali,Northwest Yunnan,China

Background

Bai people in the Dali Prefecture of Northwest Yunnan, China, have a long history of using plant extracts to dye their traditional costumes and maintain this culture for posterity. However, the development of modern technology, while vastly improving the dyeing efficiency, is also replacing indigenous knowledge which threatens the indigenous practice, causing the latter disappearing gradually. This study sought to examine the indigenous knowledge of plants used for textile dyeing in Bai communities, so as to provide a foundation for their sustainable development.

Methods

We conducted a semi-structured interview among 344 informants (above age 36) selected through a snowball sampling method. Free lists and participant observation were used as supplementary methods for the interviews. Three quantitative indicators (informant consensus factor [ICF], use frequency, and cultural importance index [CI]) were used to evaluate the indigenous knowledge of the dye-yielding plants.

Results

Twenty-three species belonging to 19 plant taxonomic families were used for dye by Bai communities. We summarized them into four life forms, eight used parts, five colors, three processing methods, and four dyeing methods. Among them, Strobilanthes cusia (Nees) O. Kuntze was the most traditional dyeing plant and has an important cultural value. Location, age, and gender were found to have a significant effect on indigenous knowledge, and the dyeing knowledge was dynamic and influenced by social factors.

Conclusions

Diverse plant resources and rich indigenous knowledge of textile dyeing persist at settlements of Bai communities in Dali Prefecture. However, high labor costs and thinning market of traditional products that use plant dye cause repulsion toward traditional practice. To that, a good income in other profession attracts indigenous people to shift from their tradition of making plant-based dye and associated cultural systems at risk of extinction. More research for market development for products that use plant-based dye is necessary for the conservation of this valuable knowledge and biodiversity protection in Bai communities.

     

Traditionally used wild edible plants of district Udhampur,J&K,India

Background

Wild edible plants (WEPs) refer to edible species that are not cultivated or domesticated. WEPs have an important role to play in poverty eradication, security of food availability, diversification of agriculture, generation of income resources, and alleviating malnutrition. In the present study, an inventory of traditionally used WEPs from Udhampur district of J&K, India, has been prepared.

Methods

A systematic and extensive ethnobotanical survey was carried out in different villages of the district for the collection of information on WEPs. The data collected through questionnaire and interviews was then analyzed for cultural importance index (CI) and factor informant consensus (F_ic) to know the cultural significance of WEPs and consensus for the knowledge of WEPs among the informants.

Results

A total of 90 plant species belonging to 45 families and 78 genera were edible and serve as wild phytofoods in the present study. Species richness of wild edible species was the maximum for vegetables (46 species) followed by fruits (37 species) and medicinal plants (36 species). Culturally (on the basis of CI), the most important vegetable and fruit species were Diplazium esculentum, Fumaria indica, Taraxacum campylodes, Urtica dioica, Phyllanthus emblica, Punica granatum, Cordia dichotoma, Syzygium cumini, Ficus palmata, etc. The highest use-report (626) was recorded for vegetables whereas the maximum mean use-report (14.8) was recorded for fruits. On an average, 20.7 wild edible species were used per informant. Informant consensus index (F_ic) varied between 0.83 and 0.94 for raw vegetables and preserved vegetables, respectively.

Conclusion

One of the most important issues of this era is hunger for which one of the possible solutions is the usage of WEPs. The local populace of Udhampur has good knowledge of WEPs, and this legacy of traditional culture must be conserved.

     

Pseudo current density maps of electrophysiological heart,nerve or brain function and their physical basis

Background

In recent years the visualization of biomagnetic measurement data by so-called pseudo current density maps or Hosaka-Cohen (HC) transformations became popular.

Methods

The physical basis of these intuitive maps is clarified by means of analytically solvable problems.

Results

Examples in magnetocardiography, magnetoencephalography and magnetoneurography demonstrate the usefulness of this method.

Conclusion

Hardware realizations of the HC-transformation and some similar transformations are discussed which could advantageously support cross-platform comparability of biomagnetic measurements.

     

Naukan ethnobotany in post-Soviet times: lost edibles and new medicinals

Background

This study focuses on health-related plant use among speakers of the critically endangered Naukan language (Inuit-Yupik-Unangan family) in the Russian Far East. The Naukan people were forced, in 1958, under Soviet consolidation, to move from their original settlement on Cape Dezhnev, leading to significant changes in spiritual worldview, subsistence, social structure, and language proficiency in the years that followed. Here, we focus on changes that elders report in their edible, medicinal, and spiritual uses of local plant species since their childhood.

Methods

The authors worked from 2014 to 2016 in the villages of Lavrentiya, Lorino, and Uelen, in the Chukotskiy district of the Chukotka autonomous region, directly adjacent to the Bering Strait. We conducted structured interviews, using an oral history approach, along with participant observation and collection of voucher specimens from the local arctic tundra. Those with Naukan names and uses represent 42 species in 25 families.

Results

Participants reported a decrease of 13% in the number of edible species that people currently harvest, from what they recall harvesting in their youth. On the other hand, the number of local species considered to be medicinal has actually increased by 225%. Current and past Naukan medicinal practices diverge in some notable ways from those of neighboring societies on the Alaskan side of the Bering Strait. Most of the spiritual significance of local plants species is remembered by only a few elders.

Conclusions

Naukan elders explained the large increase in use of medicinal plants by noting that their original concept of medicine emphasized prevention and that illnesses were often assigned a spiritual rather than physical cause. Increased integration with ethnic Russians after moving from Naukan led to the adoption not only of new plant uses, but also of an entirely different, more naturalistic way of viewing illness and treatment.

     

Ethnobotany in a coastal environmental protected area: shifts in plant use in two communities in southern Brazil

Background

We investigated local knowledge of plants in terms of plant use shifts and losses, in two coastal communities within a protected area in southern Brazil. Our hypothesis is that people’s livelihoods are associated with different ethnobotanical knowledge, and changes in these activities can reflect shifts in ethnobotanical knowledge such as stopping using some plants.

Methods

We interviewed 125 inhabitants after prior informed consent, asking her/him about their socioeconomic profile and to free list the plants they know. The free lists were analyzed by frequency of cited plants. To compare averages of cited plants and age in both communities, we used the Wilcoxon test with a significance of 5%. Spearman correlation was tested with number of plants cited in the past and the interviewees’ age. Permanence and change in economic activities in each community were represented using a graph and compared through a chi-squared test with a significance of 5%. Qualitative analyses of the interviews and a field diary were used to analyze driving forces for the abandonment of used plants.

Results

We identified 231 plant species that were currently used mainly for food and medicine. Despite being in a protected area, most of the cited plants were exotic and cultivated in home gardens. We do not confirm the hypothesis that changes in livelihoods are reflected in the plants used; however, qualitative analyses showed potential drivers for shifts and losses of plant use. “Environmental law” and “protected area” were the drivers most related to the abandonment of plant use.

Conclusions

While recognizing the importance of the protected area to maintain local people and their traditions, we documented a shift in plant use that is mainly correlated to construction activities that disappeared from daily practices.

     

Metabolomic profiling of maternal hair suggests rapid development of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy

Introduction

Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a common maternal liver disease; development can result in devastating consequences, including sudden fetal death and stillbirth. Currently, recognition of ICP only occurs following onset of clinical symptoms.

Objective

Investigate the maternal hair metabolome for predictive biomarkers of ICP.

Methods

The maternal hair metabolome (gestational age of sampling between 17 and 41 weeks) of 38 Chinese women with ICP and 46 pregnant controls was analysed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.

Results

Of 105 metabolites detected in hair, none were significantly associated with ICP.

Conclusion

Hair samples represent accumulative environmental exposure over time. Samples collected at the onset of ICP did not reveal any metabolic shifts, suggesting rapid development of the disease.

     

Why they eat,what they eat: patterns of wild edible plants consumption in a tribal area of Western Himalaya

Background

From time immemorial, wild plants have been used for edible purposes. They still continue to be a major source of nutrition for tribal people. However, unfortunately, their use is now declining. This has implications in food security, narrowing genetic base, and future leads. The present study was, therefore, carried out in Chhota Bhangal region of Western Himalaya to analyze uses of wild edible plants (WEP) and the motivations behind their use or abandonment.

Methods

Field surveys were conducted to the study area from January 2016 to March 2017. Household surveys, group discussions, free listing, and structured questionnaires were used to elicit information on WEP. WEP use was categorized into six categories (vegetables, fruits, chutney, flavoring food, raw food, and local brew). Trends of use (continuing, decreasing, increasing, and not used) and motivations (environmental, economic, sociocultural, agriculture and land use practices, and human-wildlife conflict) behind their use were analyzed.

Results

Fifty plant species were used by the local people for edible purposes under six WEP categories. Mean and median of WEP used per respondent was 22.3 and 21, respectively. Highest number of these were used as vegetable (mean 8.9) while lowest were used as brew (mean 0.4). Out of the 50 WEP used, 20 were prioritized for motivation analyses. Though plant use is still maintained in the area, changes are evident. Almost 50% of the respondents revealed that they still continue the use of WEP while 36% reported trends of declining use as compared to 5–10 years back. Close to 10% respondents have stopped consuming WEP now and ~?3% reported an increase in the use of WEP. Among the WEP categories, use of chutney showed an increasing trend. Sociocultural motivations were found to play a prime role, both, in limiting and promoting WEP use. Taste and aroma were the major sociocultural reasons behind using WEP while modernization and changing lifestyle were the main reasons behind declining use of WEP.

Conclusions

The study concludes that though use of WEP is still maintained in the area, changes in consumption trends are evident. Sociocultural motivations guided use of WEP in the area.

     

Traditional medicine practitioners’ knowledge and views on treatment of pregnant women in three regions of Mali

Background

Despite the widespread use of medicinal plants in Mali, knowledge about how traditional practitioners (TPs) treat pregnant and lactating women is lacking.

Aim of the study

The aim of this study was to investigate how traditional practitioners in Mali treat common diseases and ailments during pregnancy.

Methods

Data was collected through structured interviews of traditional practitioners in one urban (Bamako) and two rural areas (Siby and Dioila) in Mali. The TPs were interviewed about how they treat common diseases and ailments during pregnancy. They were also asked to name harmful plants in pregnancy and plants that could affect breast milk production. In addition, we asked about nine specific medicinal plants commonly used in Mali; Opilia amentacea (syn. Opilia celtidifolia), Ximenia americana, Cola cordifolia, Combretum glutinosum, Parkia biglobosa, Trichilia emetica, Combretum micranthum, Lippia chevalieri and Vepris heterophylla.

Results

A total of 72 traditional practitioners (64% women, age: 34 to 90 years) were interviewed during an eight week period October 2011 to December 2011. They treated between 1 and 30 pregnant women with medicinal plants per months. We found a relatively high consensus for treatment of pregnant women with common diseases and ailments like nausea and dermatitis. The highest informer consensus was found for the treatment of malaria during pregnancy. TPs generally recommended pregnant women to avoid medicinal plants with bitter tastes like stem and root bark of Khaya senegalensis and Opilia amentacea (syn. Opilia celtidifolia). TPs distinguished between oral (potentially unsafe) and dermal use (safe) of Opilia amentacea (syn. Opilia celtidifolia). Cola cordifolia was used to facilitate labor.

Conclusion

Experience and knowledge about treatment of pregnant women with medicinal plants was broad among the traditional practitioners in the three investigated regions in Mali. Collaborating with traditional practitioners on the safe use of medicinal plants in pregnancy may promote safer pregnancies and better health for mothers and their unborn infants in Mali.

     

Identifying anti-HSV compounds from unrelated plants using NMR and LC–MS metabolomic analysis

Introduction

Plants have been used to treat various ailments and diseases, including viral infections. Often activity is reported after screening plants traditionally used, without identifying the active principles.

Objectives

This study investigated the use of metabolomics to identify common compound groups or compounds from unrelated plants, but with similar reported biological activity. Plants with anti-viral activities against Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) were collected and analysed. A few non-active plants, with no reported anti-viral activity were included as control samples.

Methods

1H-NMR and LC–MS metabolomic analysis were conducted, to determine the chemical similarity between plants with similar activity using SIMCA and XCMS online.

Results

Plants with anti-HSV, anti-HIV and anti-CMV activity, presented specific clusters, with the non-active samples separating from the active samples. The anti-HSV group presented a clear contribution plot and chlorogenic acid was identified by NMR. LC–MS metabolomic analysis confirmed the NMR results and furthermore identified several chlorogenic acid isomers including the main substructures of chlorogenic acids.

Conclusion

Metabolomic analysis on unrelated plants with similar activity can be used to identify the active compound groups or compounds, thereby eliminating the need for screening of plants to determine biological activity, additionally providing information on possible active principles. The two analytical methods identified chlorogenic acids and its building blocks as common and important compounds within plants with anti-HSV activity. Intensified research on plants containing chlorogenic acids should be the focus of future research for development of accessible anti-HSV treatments.

     

Crop metabolomics: from diagnostics to assisted breeding

Background

Until recently, plant metabolomics have provided a deep understanding on the metabolic regulation in individual plants as experimental units. The application of these techniques to agricultural systems subjected to more complex interactions is a step towards the implementation of translational metabolomics in crop breeding.

Aim of Review

We present here a review paper discussing advances in the knowledge reached in the last years derived from the application of metabolomic techniques that evolved from biomarker discovery to improve crop yield and quality.

Key Scientific Concepts of Review

Translational metabolomics applied to crop breeding programs.

     

Optimization of fecal sample preparation for untargeted LC-HRMS based metabolomics

Introduction

Collecting feces is easy. It offers direct outcome to endogenous and microbial metabolites.

Objectives

In a context of lack of consensus about fecal sample preparation, especially in animal species, we developed a robust protocol allowing untargeted LC-HRMS fingerprinting.

Methods

The conditions of extraction (quantity, preparation, solvents, dilutions) were investigated in bovine feces.

Results

A rapid and simple protocol involving feces extraction with methanol (1/3, M/V) followed by centrifugation and a step filtration (10 kDa) was developed.

Conclusion

The workflow generated repeatable and informative fingerprints for robust metabolome characterization.

     

Hypocapnia is a biological marker for orthostatic intolerance in some patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

Context

Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and those with orthostatic intolerance share many symptoms, yet questions exist as to whether CFS patients have physiological evidence of orthostatic intolerance.

Objective

To determine if some CFS patients have increased rates of orthostatic hypotension, hypertension, tachycardia, or hypocapnia relative to age-matched controls.

Design

Assess blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, end tidal CO2 and visual analog scales for orthostatic symptoms when supine and when standing for 8 minutes without moving legs.

Setting

Referral practice and research center.

Participants

60 women and 15 men with CFS and 36 women and 4 men serving as age matched controls with analyses confined to 62 patients and 35 controls showing either normal orthostatic testing or a physiological abnormal test.

Main outcome measures

Orthostatic tachycardia; orthostatic hypotension; orthostatic hypertension; orthostatic hypocapnia or combinations thereof.

Results

CFS patients had higher rates of abnormal tests than controls (53% vs 20%, p < .002), but rates of orthostatic tachycardia, orthostatic hypotension, and orthostatic hypertension did not differ significantly between patients and controls (11.3% vs 5.7%, 6.5% vs 2.9%, 19.4% vs 11.4%, respectively). In contrast, rates of orthostatic hypocapnia were significantly higher in CFS than in controls (20.6% vs 2.9%, p < .02). This CFS group reported significantly more feelings of illness and shortness of breath than either controls or CFS patients with normal physiological tests.

Conclusion

A substantial number of CFS patients have orthostatic intolerance in the form of orthostatic hypocapnia. This allows subgrouping of patients with CFS and thus reduces patient pool heterogeneity engendered by use of a clinical case definition.

     

Quantitative analysis of tetrahydrofolate metabolites from <Emphasis Type="Italic">clostridium autoethanogenum</Emphasis>

Introduction

Quantification of tetrahydrofolates (THFs), important metabolites in the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway (WLP) of acetogens, is challenging given their sensitivity to oxygen.

Objective

To develop a simple anaerobic protocol to enable reliable THFs quantification from bioreactors.

Methods

Anaerobic cultures were mixed with anaerobic acetonitrile for extraction. Targeted LC–MS/MS was used for quantification.

Results

Tetrahydrofolates can only be quantified if sampled anaerobically. THF levels showed a strong correlation to acetyl-CoA, the end product of the WLP.

Conclusion

Our method is useful for relative quantification of THFs across different growth conditions. Absolute quantification of THFs requires the use of labelled standards.

     

Soil micro-food web interactions and rhizosphere priming effect

Background

Seeds host bacterial inhabitants but only a limited knowledge is available on which taxa inhabit seed, which niches could be colonized, and what the routes of colonization are.

Scope

Within this commentary, a discussion is provided on seed bacterial inhabitants, their taxa, and from where derive the seed colonizers.

Conclusions

Seeds/and grains host specific bacteria deriving from the anthosphere, carposphere, or from cones of gymnosperms and inner tissues of plants after a long colonization from the soil to reproductive organs.

     

Transient expression of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) gene in cucurbit plants using viral vector

Objective

To use a transient expression system to express a truncated human tissue plasminogen activator (K2S) gene in cucurbit plants.

Results

The recombinant tissue plasminogen activator protein (K2S form) was expressed in active form in cucurbit plants. Its molecular weight was 43 kDa. The plant-derived rt-PA was determined using goat anti-rabbit antibody by western blotting. Among the infected lines, the highest expression of rt-PA was 62 ng/100 mg per leaf tissue as measured by ELISA. The enzymatic activity of the plant-derived rt-PA was 0.8 IU/ml.

Conclusions

The K25 form of rt-PA was expressed for the first time using the viral expression system. Plant-derived rt-PA showed similar potency to commercially-available PA.

     

A lost opportunity for science: journals promote data sharing in metabolomics but do not enforce it

Introduction

Data sharing is being increasingly required by journals and has been heralded as a solution to the ‘replication crisis’.

Objectives

(i) Review data sharing policies of journals publishing the most metabolomics papers associated with open data and (ii) compare these journals’ policies to those that publish the most metabolomics papers.

Methods

A PubMed search was used to identify metabolomics papers. Metabolomics data repositories were manually searched for linked publications.

Results

Journals that support data sharing are not necessarily those with the most papers associated to open metabolomics data.

Conclusion

Further efforts are required to improve data sharing in metabolomics.

     

Identification of a urine metabolite constellation characteristic for kidney allograft rejection

Introduction

Allograft rejection is still an important complication after kidney transplantation. Currently, monitoring of these patients mostly relies on the measurement of serum creatinine and clinical evaluation. The gold standard for diagnosing allograft rejection, i.e. performing a renal biopsy is invasive and expensive. So far no adequate biomarkers are available for routine use.

Objectives

We aimed to develop a urine metabolite constellation that is characteristic for acute renal allograft rejection.

Methods

NMR-Spectroscopy was applied to a training cohort of transplant recipients with and without acute rejection.

Results

We obtained a metabolite constellation of four metabolites that shows promising performance to detect renal allograft rejection in the cohorts used (AUC of 0.72 and 0.74, respectively).

Conclusion

A metabolite constellation was defined with the potential for further development of an in-vitro diagnostic test that can support physicians in their clinical assessment of a kidney transplant patient.