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Nuclear bodies in the maturing egg cell of a fern, Pteridium aquilinum.

Nuclear bodies about 250 nm in diameter, and with a strong affinity for uranium and acriflavine, appear in the nuclei of maturing egg cells of Pteridium. Many enter well-defined evaginations of the nucleus. The nuclear bodies are almost wholly digested by Pronase, but are resistant to ribonuclease and deoxyribonuclease. Radioactive labelling gives no evidence of the presence of nucleic acids, but X-ray microprobe analysis indicates phosphorus. It is concluded that the bodies consist entirely of acidic protein, possibly phosphorylated. This protein may be a structural component of the nucleus, temporarily displaced and aggregated as a consequence of the fine dispersal of the chromatin.

Cell Nucleus↗

Isolation of an active glucoside in bracken fern, Pteridium aquilinum.

An active glucoside that enhanced release of histamine from rat peritoneal mast cells was isolated from a toxic fraction of bracken fern, Pteridium aquilinum, by partition column chromatography on Sephadex G-25. It was a yellowish amorphous powder on freeze-drying, readily soluble in water or ethanol, and insoluble in ether. It was hydrolysed with beta-glucosidase to release D-glucose. It was assumed to be a kind of beta-glucopyranoside with a carbocyclic structure in the aglycone moiety.

Animals↗

Pteridium aquilinum (bracken fern) toxicity in cattle in the humid Chaco of Tarija, Bolivia.

We studied the toxicity caused by chronic ingestion of Pteridium aquilinum (bracken) in cattle in the humid Chaco of Tarija, Bolivia. Bovine enzootic haematuria (BEH) and Carcinoma of the esophagus (CE) affected the herds. Sick animals showed caquexia, anemia, leucopenia and urine that turned from pink to intense red color with the presence of blood clots. Cattle grazed in the humid forests of the mountains where P aquilinum represented more than 50% of the plants. P aquilinum var arachnoideum and P aquilinum var Caudatum were present. Toxic norsesquiterpene, ptaquiloside, was identified in both varieties. Carcinomas were in the urinary bladders and esophagus of 100% and 50% of the cattle, respectively. Control of the intoxication could be difficult due to geographic characteristics of this Bolivian region.

Animals↗

Effects of bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum L Kuhn) feeding during the development of female rats and their offspring.

Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum L Kuhn), is widely food in many parts of the world; the toxic effects have been demonstrated on many species of animals, and both carcinogenicity and enzootic hematuria has been studied. We investigated the effects of feeding bracken fern on the development of female rats and their offspring. The plant was fed as 30% of the normal diet on an ad libitum basis. Bracken fern did not modify the weight gain of the female rats during development, nor affect estrus cycle duration or milk production, the plant did reduce female fertility and weight gain during pregnancy. It also adversely affected physical and neurobehavioral development in the offspring.

Animal Feed↗

Carcinogenicity of tannin and tannin-free extracts of bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) in rats.

F344 inbred and Sprague-Dawley noninbred rats were fed a basic diet (groups 1 and 7) or a basic diet supplemented with 0.1% (later, 0.2 and 0.4%) tannin (group 2) isolated from bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) (BF), 33% BF (groups 3 and 6), 2% chloroform fraction of BF (group 4), or 4% tannin-free fraction of BF (group 5). The following incidences of intestinal or bladder tumors were observed: group 1, intestinal and bladder, 0/16; group 2, 0/21; group 7, 0/16; groups 4 and 5, intestinal, 7/15, bladder, 0/15; group 3, intestinal, 19/20, bladder, 12/20; and group 6, intestinal, 22/30, bladder, 15/30. The chloroform-methanol fraction prepared from urine of rats fed BF, chloroform fraction of BF, or tannin-free fraction of BF demonstrated mutagenicity for Salmonella typhimurium TA 100 but not for TA 98. No mutagenicity was detected in other prepared fractions. F344 rats in group 8 received weekly sc injections of tannin solution (0.1 g/kg body wt) for 38 weeks, and 16/20 developed palpable tumors that were malignant fibrous histiocytomas at the injection site. No tumor was present in any rat of control group 9.

Animals↗

Concentration of ptaquiloside, a major carcinogen in bracken fern (Pteridium spp.), from eastern Australia and from a cultivated worldwide collection held in Sydney, Australia.

Two surveys of bracken fern for the concentration of the carcinogen ptaquiloside (PT) have been carried out, one of bracken fern from the eastern side of Australia and the other from a worldwide collection of bracken clones held in Sydney Australia. Bracken from eastern Australia contained concentrations of ptaquiloside ranging from 0 to 12,945 micrograms PT/g. From 91 samples 15% contained greater than 5,000 micrograms PT/g and 57% of samples contained more than 1,000 micrograms PT/g bracken on the dry weight basis. Ptaquiloside concentrations were highest in Pteridium revolutum and from P. esculentum from areas where bovine enzootic haematuria was known to occur. Bracken from the cultivated bracken clone collection from world-wide sources tended to have lower concentrations of ptaquiloside ranging from 0 to 9,776 micrograms PT/g. From 77 samples, 8% contained more than 5,000 micrograms PT/g and 35% contained more than 1,000 micrograms PT/g bracken. Samples from both the eastern Australia survey and the Australian representatives in the worldwide collection showed significantly higher concentrations of PT in the P. esculentum collected from the more southern states. In samples from the worldwide collection there were no statistical differences in the concentrations of PT in bracken between taxa.

Analysis of Variance↗

Sorption, degradation and mobility of ptaquiloside, a carcinogenic Bracken (Pteridium sp.) constituent, in the soil environment.

Ptaquiloside (PTA) is a carcinogenic norsesquiterpene glucoside produced by Bracken in amounts up to at least 500 mg m(-2). The toxin is transferred from Bracken to the underlying soil from where it may leach to surface and groundwater's impairing the quality of drinking water. The objectives of the present study were to characterize the solubility, degradation and retention of PTA in soils in order to evaluate the risk for groundwater contamination. PTA was isolated from Bracken. The logarithmic octanol-water and ethyl acetate-water partitioning coefficients for PTA were -0.63 and -0.88, respectively, in agreement with the high water solubility of the compound. PTA hydrolysed rapidly in aqueous solution at pH 4 or lower, but was stable above pH 4. Incubation of PTA with 10 different soils at 25 degrees C showed three different first order degradation patterns: (i) rapid degradation observed for acid sandy soils with half life's ranging between 8 and 30 h decreasing with the soil content of organic matter, (ii) slow degradation in less acid sandy soils with half-lives of several days, and (iii) fast initial degradation with a concurrent solid phase-water partitioning reaction observed for non-acid, mostly clayey soils. The presence of clay silicates appears to retard the degradation of PTA, possibly through sorption. Degradation at 4 degrees C was generally of type (iii) and degradation rates were up to 800 times lower than at 25 degrees C. Sorption isotherms for the same set of soils were almost linear and generally showed very low sorption affinity with distribution coefficients in the range 0.01-0.22 l kg(-1) at a solution concentration of 1 mg l(-1) except for the most acid soil; Freundlich affinity coefficients increased linearly with clay and organic matter contents. Negligible sorption was also observed in column studies where PTA and a non-sorbing tracer showed almost coincident break-through. Leaching of PTA to the aqueous environment will be most extensive on sandy soils, having pH >4 and poor in organic matter which are exposed to high precipitation rates during cold seasons.

Biodegradation, Environmental↗

Inhibition of carcinogenic effect of bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) by various chemicals.

The inhibitory effect of butylated hydroxyanosole (BHA), disulfiram, calcium chloride, and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) on the intestinal and urothelial carcinogenicity of bracken fern (BF) was determined in albino rats. Of 10 groups of rats, one group received a normal diet, one received a BF-containing diet (one-third of diet by weight), four received a normal diet with one of the following supplements, and four received BF-containing diet with one of the following: BHA (5 mg/g diet); disulfiram (5 mg/g diet); PVP (50 mg/g diet); or calcium chloride (20 mg/g diet). At 12 months of the experiment, the following results were noted: in the BF-treated group, 30 rats (100%) exhibited intestinal tumors and 22 of 30 (73%) urinary bladder tumors. In the BF-BHA group, 15 of 20 rats (75%) showed intestinal tumors and 12 of 20 rats (60%) urinary bladder tumors. Of the 16 rats in the BF-disulfiram group, 12 (80%) had intestinal and 10 (62.5%) had urinary bladder tumors. In the BF-calcium chloride group, intestinal tumors arose in 16 of 23 rats (70%) and urinary bladder tumors in 4 of 23 rats (17%), while in the 28 BF-PVP rats, 26 (93%) exhibited tumors of the intestine and 5 (18%) tumors of the urinary bladder. Dietary BHA, disulfiram and calcium chloride decreased the incidence of intestinal tumors by about 25--30% (p less than 0.01). Similarly, PVP and calcium chloride inhibited BF-induced urinary bladder carcinogenesis by about 80% (p less than 0.001). No tumors were detected in groups receiving either normal diet or normal diet supplemented with BHA, disulfiram, calcium chloride or PVP.

Animals↗