Proceedings of the 16th annual meeting of the Society for Economic Botany: "Plants and cancer." Introduction.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Government Agencies↗
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Results for “Botany”
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
[Marcel Petitmengin (1881-1908), pharmacist botanist: his life, his work].
Marcel Petitmengin was born in Nancy in January 1881. Student at the school of pharmacy and preparator in its laboratory for natural history, he received his diploma in 1904. He had already published some papers on botany and belonged to the International Academy for Geographical botany. He choose the flora of Mount Viso, in Italy, for his philosophical thesis. In the same time, he worked on greek flora with Maire, then on Primulaceae from Asia. Having published about fifty papers on botany, he died from tuberculosis in October 1908, being twenty-seven years old. Very faithful, he took part actively in protestantism in Nancy.
Botany↗
[Not Available].
Vitaliano Donati, physician and naturalist, born in Padua in 1717, around the mid-eighteenth century played a significant role among the leading Italian philosophers, performing in Italy and in the Balkans some important naturalistic research that set the basis for the "geographical map", the new theory of Carl Linne. In 1751, King Charles Emmanuel of Savoy called him to the chair of Botany in Turin University. During the permanence of Vitaliano Donati in the Kingdom of Sardinia he continued his important activities in botany, mineralogy and geology and made relevant observations about climate, earthquakes, and mining-sites in Piedmont always having the aim of increasing the knowledge of local resources and their potential for exploitation. In 1759 the king entrusted Vitaliano Donati with the direction of a scientific and commercial mission in Egypt and in the East Indies. This voyage had a double purpose: to collect samples for a Museum and for the Botany Garden, and to observe in those countries the processes of mineral extraction, of agricultural cultivation and of livestock breeding. The travel started in Venice in June 1759, and among critical events and diplomatic plots, continued to the Middle East and Egypt, from where it continued until arriving at the Indian Ocean. But this adventure ended in February 1762 when Donati died on a Turkish boat not far away the Indian coast near Mangalore. This article, which traces the complete transcription of the correspondence concerning the voyage, also reports the text of the "instructive memory" issued by the king to Vitaliano Donati, and summarizes the scientific and political scopes of this unfortunate enterprise.
Commerce↗
Orthodoxy and reform: differing medical practices in a Glasgow Jewish Victorian family.
Medical botanists formed a major and growing element in the delivery of medical care in Victorian Britain, supplementing the provision made by qualified physicians. Medical reform, introduced into Britain from the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, combined botanical treatment, including a strong emphasis on the use of lobelia, with physiotherapy. The Levenston family in Glasgow was represented among both qualified orthodox medical practitioners and unqualified practitioners of medical botany. Samuel Levenston graduated M.D. at the University of Glasgow in 1859 and had a long career in medical practice in Glasgow after years of work as an unqualified practitioner. His father and brothers were active in medical botany in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin, often posing as doctors but without appropriate qualifications. This paper examines the history of the Levenstons and contrasts the practices of the different members of the family, showing the relationships between a university-trained physician and medical chemists. The surviving Glasgow pharmacopeia of Solomon (Alexander) Levenston illustrates the style of his medical treatments, setting the practice of his medical botany into context.
Complementary Therapies↗
The Green Revolution: botanical contributions to forensics and drug enforcement.
Forensic botany encompasses many sub-disciplines, including plant anatomy, plant ecology, plant systematics, plant molecular biology, palynology, and limnology. Although the field of forensic botany has been recognized since the mid-1900's, the use of trace plant material as physical evidence in criminal casework is still novel. A review of published forensic casework that used plant evidence is presented here. Cases include the analysis of wood evidence in the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the use of pollen in establishing the location of a sexual assault, and pollen analysis to determine the time of year for burial in a mass grave. Additional cases discuss the use of plant growth rates to determine the time of a body deposit in a field, the use of diatoms to link individuals to a crime scene, and plant DNA typing to match seedpods to a tree under which a body was discovered. New DNA methods in development for plant species identification and individualization for forensic applications are also discussed. These DNA methods may be useful for linking an individual to a crime scene or physical evidence to a geographic location, or tracking marijuana distribution patterns.
Botany↗
[The botanical garden of the Demirkapi Medical School].
An archive document, dated 1867 informs us that there was a botanical garden in the Medical School of Demirkapi. The document related to the subject studied in the text and from them are informed the following knowledge: the gardeners brought from Wien did not know Turkish and therefore they needed translators. We learn from the document that the gardeners of the school were given presents. The salaries of the gardeners and the translataors were also listed in the document. We also learn that instead of Mr. Stefanaki who was a professor of botany at the Demirkapi Medical School, professor Kalya Efendi who studied chemistry and Bonkowski Efendi were responsible for the Department of Botany as assistant professors. Bonkowski Efendi was appointed to establish the botanical garden in the Medical School of Demirkapi.
Austria↗
[Doctors and apothecaries as botanists in the renaissance].
It is often claimed, that the late attempts in the renaissance to classify plants according to Aristotelian principles were caused by insufficient morphological knowledge and terminology, by problems with identification of the plants described by the ancient authorities and by the overwhelming number of new plants from the hitherto unknown parts of the world. These explanations are in the present paper not contested but supplemented with information achieved by analysis of two dialogues on botanical problems, both published in the 1530s, in which the ambiguities of the then new science are discussed. The main object of the studies in botany made by medical doctors was identification of simplicia in the pharmacies and drug-dealers shops. Control of the simplicia sold was a public duty demanded of university professors and medical doctors, and the teaching in plant science consequently concentrated on parmacognosy. As even the best Aristotelian classification is useless in identification of small plant parts, systematic botany in the modern sense was not needed and it is concluded that this fact also contributed to the late interest in classification.
Botany↗
The enchanted herb: the work of early medical botanists in Australia.
The surgeons of the First Fleet sought not only adventure, but new herbal remedies that were awaiting discovery in the Australian bush. Within days of the foundation of the Colony at Sydney Cove in 1788, therapeutic experiments with wild currants, Eucalyptus kino (Botany Bay kino), and local "greens" were being undertaken. Scurvy and dysentery--part of the nation's foundation--prompted both a hunter-gatherer approach to new herbal remedies, and an empiricism which has continued to the present day. At least four of the 10 doctors of the First Fleet were keen botanists, and their endeavours established a precedent for medical "botanizing" which has become a living tradition over the ensuing 200 years. Before the onset of the 20th century, some 50 doctors who had studied botany in Australia had had their names appended to the native flora of the new continent. The eponyms that are preserved in the taxonomy of the country's flora comprise one record of the living history of Australia.
Australia↗
Future ESA missions in biology.
A survey is given of the life sciences research program sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA). This program rests on a number of facilities originated by ESA: Spacelab, Space sled, Biorack, Anthrorack, Eureca and its Botany - and Protein Crystallization facilities. They are all to be brought into space and returned by one of the NASA Space Shuttles. With these facilities a wide range of space biology research will be covered: cell biology, developmental biology, botany, human physiology, radiobiology, exobiology and biotechnology. Information is given on how to prepare, submit and execute an experiment proposal.
Europe↗
Beverly T. Galloway: visionary administrator.
With a career that began at the University of Missouri in the early 1880s and culminated at the USDA in the 1930s, Beverly Galloway devoted his life to practical botany and agriculture. He became a driving force in the movement for "New Botany" during a period that stressed an experimental approach as well as new disciplines such as plant pathology. As administrator and scientist, he was arguably the single, most influential figure involved in the early growth and development of plant pathology and the plant sciences generally in the USDA. From assistant mycologist in the Section of Mycology to Chief of the Bureau of Plant Industry to Assistant Secretary of the USDA, Galloway displayed exceptional administrative acumen. His administrative and scientific skills were instrumental in laying the foundations for the science of plant pathology during its formative period in the United States.
Journal Article↗
[Gerog Fresenius and the species Aspergillus fumigatus].
The species Aspergillus fumigatus was first extensively described by G. Fresenius. J. B. Georg W. Fresenius was born in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, in 1808 and also died there in 1866. He studied medicine and finished his doctorate thesis (MD) in 1829. Afterwards he started his career as a physician and surgeon in Frankfurt/Main in the same year. In 1831 Fresenius became a university lecturer for botany at the "Senckenbergisches medicinisches Institut"; this institute specialized in botany. In this year Fresenius also became the director of the botanical gardens of Frankfurt/Main. Apart from his collaboration in the institute for agriculture he actively participated in the microscopical association of Frankfurt as well as the "Senckenbergische medicinische Gesellschaft". Almost over the whole period, Fresenius also worked as a physician taking care of miserable people. The outstanding publications of Fresenius are "Die Flora von Frankfurt" (Flora of Frankfurt) and "Beiträge zur Mykologie" (Contributions to Mycology). The monograph "Beiträge zur Mykologie" was published by Fresenius as a dedication for the centennial celebrations of the Senckenberg foundation ("Senckenbergische Stiftung"). It contains 132 pages and 13 excellent lithographic figures (Camera lucida). The third part of this monograph also contains the description of the species A. fumigatus. Fresenius was an engaged physician as well as an outstanding researcher and expert in natural sciences who described numerous new fungal species some of which are still accepted nowadays in accordance with the "International Code of Botanical Nomenclature".
Aspergillus fumigatus↗
Contributions to the debate on water transport.
The useful criticisms of my theory of water transport by Comstock (American Journal of Botany 86: 1077-1081) and by Stiller and Sperry (American Journal of Botany 86: 1082-1086) are acknowledged and reviewed. I make the following responses. (1) Tensile stresses to contain tissue pressure are kept within modest limits by the organization of vascular tissues into cylindrical bundles with small ratios of radius/boundary thickness. (2) The balance of pressures within tissues of a nontranspiring leaf is best understood by treating it as a single compartment containing several pressure-generating engines whose resultant is the pressure throughout the compartment. An error in the published notional balances for a transpiring leaf is corrected. (3) The argument against a valve in the transpiring leaf, which allows water out but not in, is not convincing. (4) The "robust and extremely consistent" cohesion theory gains this status by neglecting large bodies of experimental fact, once well known to plant physiologists. (5) The demonstration that living cells are not involved in the refilling of embolisms in birch stems is welcomed as an important advance. However, the major questions remain unresolved. (6) Proof is still needed that embolisms in vessels are not refilled by the collapse of gas bubbles under small positive pressures during conductance measurement. (7) The survival of unbroken water threads in vessels under centrifugal stress has still not been demonstrated. (8) Both questions 6 and 7 can be easily answered by direct observation of gas/liquid volumes in frozen stems in the cryo-scanning electron microscope.
Journal Article↗
[Not Available].
The teaching of Biology at the Medical Faculty in Sofia started in 1918 with Botany and Zoology. Already in the next year, it was radically changed by Metodii Popov: 1. Instead of Botany he introduced General Biology, and instead of Zoology - Parasitology (including a general review of the evolution of non-vertebrate animals) and Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates; 2. He adapted the teaching of Biology to the needs of the medical education. Those changes were possible thanks to the considerable medical background of M. Popov - it started in 1911 with suitable specialization and research activities, and continued with the establishment of Department of Biology and the Medical Faculty, and the involvement of medics, besides biologists, in its academic staff. During the past years there have been a lot of changes in the curriculum both in its schedule and contents. Some of them were as a result of the development of the biological science and the integration with the other disciples, but some were forced by the administration. Today the students have 90 hours of lectures and a practical course of 90 hours as well. They have at their disposal textbooks on "Biology", "Parasitology" and "Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates", as well as, a "Textbook for the practical Course on Biology". Their knowledge is evaluated during the practical course, at two colloquia, and at a practical and theoretical (oral) exam at the end of the first year of education.
Biology↗
[Use of Ancient texts in modern therapeutic research].
Two main purposes were assigned to this study of medicinal prescription of spices at the time of the Roman Empire: analyze Roman pharmacopoeia of spices in reference to modern criteria and assess a new discipline, close to "ethno-botany" and "ethno-pharmacology", aiming to a new approach of drug research: "archeopharmacology". A brief overview is given of the Roman world of spices : all aromatic substances from Orient, India and Far-East held a major place which can only be compared to the role of petroleum in our modern times. The study is conducted on a thesaurus of 2600 quotations from twelve authors: Apicius, Caelius Aurelianus, Cassius Felix, Celsus, Dioscorides, Galen, Marcellus,(Anonymous) Mulonmedicina, Pelagorius, Pliny the Elder, Serenus Sammonicus and Scribonius Largus and a set of 33 medicinal spices among which: cyperus, ferulas (Asa foetida), frankincense, pepper, myrrh and saffron. Medicinal use of spices (mainly for pneumology, dermatology and gastroenterology) do not differ notably from the rest of Roman pharmacopoeia: the main criteria for prescription of spices is not their place of origin but a "therapeutic profile" which is clearly assigned to each substance by tradition. During the last decades, new methods of therapeutic research: ethno-botany and ethno-pharmacology have been used extensively to explore traditional medicines. A new discipline is ready to emerge: "archeo-pharmacology", aiming towards a drug research based on Ancient texts.
Archaeology↗
Ethnobotany and the identification of therapeutic agents from the rainforest.
Many rainforest plant species, including trees and herbaceous plants, are employed as medicines by indigenous people. In much of the American tropics, locally harvested herbal medicines are used for a significant portion of the primary health care, in both rural and urban areas. An experienced curandero or herbal healer is familiar with those species with marked biological activity, which are often classified as 'powerful plants'. Examples are given from studies in progress since 1987 in Belize, Central America. The Institute of Economic Botany of The New York Botanical Garden is collaborating with the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland (USA) in the search for higher plants with anti-AIDS and anticancer activity. Several strategies are cited for identification of promising leads from among the circa 110,000 species of higher plants that are present in the neotropics, the focus of this search. Recommendations are offered for the design of future efforts to identify plant leads for pharmaceutical testing.
Antiviral Agents↗
[Not Available].
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of autobiographies of dispensing chemists for the history of science. The analysis of the autobiographies of E. W. Martius, D. H. Hoppe, F. T. Kützing and other pharmacists of the 18th and 19th centuries, shows that these books give much information about the history of medicine, chemistry or botany. The memoirs of pharmacists, published in the later 19th and 20th centuries, for example by Th. Fontaine or by H. Sudermann, are especially interesting origins for the history of pharmacy.
Autobiographies as Topic↗
[Not Available].
The cultural history of alcoholic fermentation goes back to very early periods of human being. But only in the 19th century the nature of the biological production of alcohol was discovered. In that time chemistry and botany had a different, complementary view to alcoholic fermentation. While the positions of chemists are well-known and much discussed in the historiography of science the contribution of botanists to fermentation research is almost entirely forgotten nowadays. The work of the mycologist Oscar Brefeld, who studied yeast fermentation from 1873 to 1876, illustrates the special botanical view to the ontogenetical side of alcoholic fermentation, to morphlogical and physiological differences between growing and dying, fermenting and fermented yeast cells, and to the energetic and ecological role of fermentation as well as its universality in vegetable kingdom.
Alcohols↗
Large-scale general collection of wild-plant DNA in Mustang, Nepal.
The deposit of DNA samples of wild plants that correspond to voucher specimens is highly informative and greatly enhances the value of the herbarium specimens. The Society of Himalayan Botany (SHB), Tokyo, has assembled general collections of flowering plants of the Sino-Himalayan region for more than 40 years. In a trial of the collection of these types of bioresources for use in basic research, we adopted FTA cards, which have recently been used for large-scale collection of DNA of humans, microorganisms and viruses, for the general collection of DNA samples of wild plants during a botanical expedition in Mustang, Nepal, in 2003. Three hundred and fifty-five plant specimens from Mustang, Nepal, were collected along with the corresponding DNA samples. Examination of the quality of the DNA samples by PCR demonstrated the utility of the collection system. The identification of all of the specimens collected, as well as data from the specimens, will be presented on the Flora of Nepal Database website (http://ti.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/default.htm), which is open to the public. The DNA resources will be identified on the website and distributed openly by the SHB to researchers worldwide for basic research.
Botany↗