No abstract

The cytochrome P45O activities of the naturally occurring Amaryllidaceae alkaloid narciclasine (3), isolated from Narcissus pseudonarcissus, and synthetic derivative trans-dihydronarciclasine (5) are reported. While narciclasine was found to possess potent inhibitory activity to human CYP3A4, its dihydro analogue was inactive. This study revealed that the C1-C10b double bond is required for inhibition of this crucial metabolizing enzyme. Compound 5 also demonstrated no inhibition of the related human cytochromes CYP19 and CYP1A1. This study elevates the status of trans-dihydronarciclasine (5) as a highly privileged, readily available molecule, with potent and selective anticancer activity.

An investigation was undertaken with Bambusa vulgaris (S.) as the test tree species to standardize ideal Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) techniques for assessing nutrient uptake and fixing appropriate dose of INM for growth of tissue cultured seedlings, so as to obtain the best quality seedling within a shortest nursery period. A nursery experiment was conducted by raising tissue culture B. vulgaris seedlings in polybags of size 25 cm x 15 cm filled with non-calcareous, red sandy loam soil (Typic Ustropept), sand and FYM with two levels of urea (500 and 1000 mg seedling-1), two levels of single super phosphate (1000 and 1500 mg seedling-1), two levels of muriate of potash (250 and 500 mg seedling-1) and micronutrient mixture (5g) along with Azospirillum (5g) seedling-1, phosphobacteria (5g) seedling-1 and VAM (10g) seedling-1.The results revealed that INM treatments were found to improve the N, P and K content of B. vulgaris seedlings. The significant increase in the total N, P and K uptake was noticed due to the incorporation of Urea, Single super phosphate and Muriate of potash (500: 1000: 250 mg) along with VAM (10g), Azospirillum (5g), phosphobacteria (5g) and micronutrient mixture (5g) seedling-1(T9) over the control at 120 DAP. The total N, P and K uptake was increased by 5.00, 1.89 and 3.19 mg seedling-1, more than the control by the same treatment. The available nutrient status was positively influenced by INM treatments compared to the application of organic, inorganic and biofertilizer alone and the control. Application of urea, single super phosphate and muriate of potash (1000: 1500: 500 mg seedling-1) along with VAM (10g), Azospirillum (5g), phosphobacteria (5g) and micronutrient mixture (5g) seedling-1(T10) recorded more available of N, P and K due to application of higher dose of fertilizers.

The present study was conducted in the 30 genotypes of Mimusops elengi (Bakul). Significant variations were observed for six morphological characters in trees and twelve physical parameters of fruits. Wide ranges in the means for morphological characters were exhibited by height (3.50 to 8.00m), canopy diameter (3.25 to 7.25m), diameter at base (17.00 to 36.00cm), DBH (13.70 to 31.30cm), girth at base (20.25 to 48.70cm) and girth at breast (14.20 to 49.60cm). Also ranges in the means for the physical parameters of fruits exhibited by weight of fresh fruit (2.02 to 5.10g), diameter of fruit (1.30 to 1.88cm), length of fruit (1.78 to 3.38cm), weight of fruit pulp (0.58 to1.71g), weight of dry fruit (1.20g to 2.62g), weight of seed (0.38g to 1.10g), moisture (17.62-66.15%), T.S. S. (9.85-17.11%), acidity (1.37-3.09%), total sugar (3.97-6.66%), reducing sugar (2.34-4.43%) and non reducing sugar (0.51-3.47%). The phenotypic, genotypic and environmental variances for various characters were ranged from 0.03 to 270.96, 0.02 to 85.72 and 0.02 to 185.24, respectively. The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was highest for non-reducing sugar (47.96) and minimum value was observed for diameter of fruit (11.48). Maximum genotypic coefficient of variation was found in non-reducing sugar (44.62) and minimum genotypic coefficient of variation was observed in diameter of fruit (8.24). The variations are useful for breeding work on this important multipurpose tree of subtropical regions. Therefore, on the basis of different characters, the genotypes A-2, A-4, A-1, A-5, K-7 and A-11 could be identified as a CPT’s in Bakul.