Nature of ergastic substances in some Nigerian asteraceae

Abstract

Seeds of 110 species of the Nigerian Asteraceae were examined for fats and oils, proteins and starch using standard detection procedures. All the examined species except for 8 species were herbs. Fats and oils were found in all the species investigated comprising of both herbs and shrubs (100% detection rate). Protein bodies were found in 23 species. While starch grains were found to be absent in all the investigated species. There was no correlation between life forms and the nature of ergastic substances in the family. The results from this study did not support the changes of names in the revision of the tribe Vernonieae as such this character cannot be used as a delimiting species.

Investigation of Prospective Science Teachers’ Understandings on Ergastic Substances with the Semantic Mappings

“…In particular, the detection of crystals, protein and starch grains are taxonomic, thus benefiting society by classifying plant species (Nwachukwu & Edeoga, 2006). In addition, carbohydrates, proteins, fats have a unique position in human nutrition requirement (Omoigui & Aromose, 2012). In this context, the handling of ergastic substances is necessary to understand the importance of organisms and life, as well as the relationships of biology.…”

Medicinal Uses, Biological and Phytochemical Properties of Helichrysum Foetidum (L.) Moench. (Asteraceae)

“…Bip., Gnaphalium foetidum L., and Gnaphalium fruticans Schrank, are associated with the species [21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. The species is native to Burundi [28], Cameroon [29], Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [28,30], Equatorial Guinea [31], Eritrea [25], Ethiopia [25,28,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39], Kenya [3,28], Malawi [5,26,28], Nigeria [28,40], Rwanda [41], São Tomé and Príncipe (Gulf of Guinea) [42], Somalia [27], South Africa [20,21,24,43,44], South Sudan [28,45], Sudan [28,45], Tanzania [28,46,47], Uganda [28,48], and Yemen [28,49]...…”