The use of medicinal plants to improve health is an ancient practice and in recent years it has been observed an increasing interest of scientific researchers for the study of plants with biological properties and active principles responsible for their therapeutic effects. Salvia officinalis L. is considered the queen of herbs and belongs to the Lamiaceae (Labiatae) family. Due to the increasing interest in plants health benefits, the aim of the present study was to characterize various extracts of Romanian sage regarding their content in compounds with antioxidant activity. Three different techniques and five solvents were used for extraction of bioactive compounds from Salvia officinalis L. The total phenolic content and the antioxidant activity of plant extract were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu method and respectively by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay. Methanolic extract exhibited the highest content in phenolic compound (1974.89 mg GAE/100g dw) as well ass the strongest antioxidant capacity (85.12%).

The importance of the maize fertilization system consists in its directly involvement in the plant growth and development processes conditioning the quantity, quality and economic level of the crops as well as the soil fertility status. Application of unilateral and combined fertilization with different doses of fertilizers and zeolite showed significant variations between experimental variants.

The paper presents a solution for modeling and simulation of the adsorption process of the sulfur dioxide in natural zeolites. The adsorption process is modeled as a distributed parameter process, its dynamics depending on three independent variables: time and two spatial variables. In order to simulate the adsorption process, an original form of the approximating analytical solution which describes the process work in dynamical regime is proposed and used. The coefficients of the approximating analytical solution are determined using experimental data obtained from the real plant. A direct practical application, resulted through the simulation of the obtained mathematical model, is the approximation of the time period in which the saturation of the zeolites of different dimensions occurs. Having the mentioned time period, the operators from the industrial field can decide with precision the moment when a zeolite block has to be replaced in order to avoid the environment pollution.

A comprehensive and quantitative knowledge of ecological factors affecting crop production is needed in purpose to meet the challenge of growing world population with minimal environmental impact. Earthworms are target organisms both for scientists studying the biological component of soils and for farmers concerned with monitoring the quality of their soils. For the growing social interest to quantify the role of earthworms in ecosystems, a precise and accurate estimation of their diversity, abundance and biomass is needed. Earthworm ecologists tend to use methods of extraction with less use of chemicals, with this purpose we want to test some new environmental friendly methods like chili powder, mustard powder, mustard-vinegar suspension, in comparison with formalin 0.1% (10 ml in 8 l water) and 0.2% (15 ml in 8 l water). Efficiency of methods is compared in terms of earthworm species composition, numbers, biomass, ecological groups (epigeic, anecic, endogeic), development stages (adults + subadults vs. juveniles) and the mortality rates in the first week after sampling.

The use of zeolites in agriculture is part of the current trend of finding viable alternatives for increasing soil productivity in concurrence with growing fertility. Using zeolite as a partial or total replacement for chemical fertilizers is based of the vast capability of this product to improve the physical and chemical properties of soil. The spring barley crop fertilizer use based on zeolite had a beneficial effect, increasing production.