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Plectranthus amboinicus (P. amboinicus) is a folk herb that is used to treat inflammatory diseases or swelling symptoms in Taiwan. We investigated therapeutic efficacy of P. amboinicus in treating Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) using collagen-induced arthritis animal model. Arthritis was induced in Lewis rats by immunization with bovine type II collagen. Serum anti-collagen IgG, IgM and C-reactive protein (CRP) were analyzed. To understand the inflammation condition of treated animals, production of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β from peritoneal exudates cells (PEC) were also analyzed. P. amboinicus significantly inhibited the footpad swelling and arthritic symptoms in collagen-induced arthritic rats, while the serum anti-collagen IgM and CRP levels were consistently decreased. The production of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β were also decreased in the high dosage of P. amboinicus group. Here, we demonstrate the potential anti-arthritic effect of P. amboinicus for treating RA, which might confer its anti-rheumatic activity. This differs the pharmacological action mode of indomethacin.

The Amazon river basin receives~2000 mm of precipitation annually and contributes~17% of global river freshwater input to the oceans; its hydroclimatic variations can exert profound impacts on the marine ecosystem in the Amazon plume region (APR) and have potential farreaching influences on hydroclimate over the tropical Atlantic. Here, we show that an amplified seasonal cycle of Amazonia precipitation, represented by the annual difference between maximum and minimum values, during the period 1979-2018, leads to enhanced seasonalities in both Amazon river discharge and APR ocean salinity. An atmospheric moisture budget analysis shows that these enhanced seasonal cycles are associated with similar amplifications in the atmospheric vertical and horizontal moisture advections. Hierarchical sensitivity experiments using global climate models quantify the relationships of these enhanced seasonalities. The results suggest that an intensified hydroclimatological cycle may develop in the Amazonia atmosphere-land-ocean coupled system, favouring more extreme terrestrial and marine conditions.

Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) was successfully purified by a procedure which included pulverizing diseased tissues frozen in liquid nitrogen, clarification of the extract with chloroformbutanol, concentration of the virus by cycles of differential centrifugation, stirring and incubating at 4°C followed by a second cycle of differential centrifugation and sucrose density gradient centrifugation. The concentrations of BBTV obtained from leaf blades and midribs plus petioles were up to 0.34 and 0.56mg/kg tissue, respectively. The virus concentration was highest in diseased leaves collected from October to December, and lowest in those collected from June to September. BBTV is a luteovirus (particles 20– 22 nm in diameter), preparations of which have maximum absorbance at 257 nm, minimum absorbance at 240 nm and a A260/280 ratio of 1.46. The relative molecular mass (Mr) of BBTV coat protein subunit is 21,000, and that of its ssRNA is 2.0 × 106.