It is commonly accepted that crime scene recovery and recording are key moments of any judicial inspection in which investigators must decide on the correct strategies to put into place. Complex outdoor scenarios, presenting partially or entirely skeletonised remains, can benefit more than others by the intervention of environmental specialists (forensic anthropologists, archaeologists, entomologists and botanists). These experts are capable of singling out, correctly recording and recovering environmental evidence that can lead to a more comprehensive reconstruction of a given criminal episode. If human remains are discovered in an outdoor scenario, the on-site presence of a botanist will guarantee a correct approach to the identification, recording and recovery of any botanical evidence. If an on-site botanist is not available, the operators must be capable of both the botanical evaluation of a scene and the implementation of correct botanical sampling protocols.The following collection of unusual case histories that aim at underlining the efficacy of forensic botany will examine the determination of post mortem or the post depositional interval, evidence for a victim's post mortem transfer, evidence for the identification of a primary crime scene and evidence for the identification of a victim's dismemberment site. In another two cases, one, we will illustrate the important role that forensic botany played in the discrimination between botanical material used to voluntarily conceal a victim and vegetation that had grown naturally above a disposal site, whereas the other will highlight the protocols implemented for the identification of a murder weapon.

• Klíčová slova
• Concealment locations, Dendrochronology, Forensic botany, Murder weapon, PMI, Skeletonised human remains,
• MeSH
• botanika * MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• oběti zločinu MeSH
• smrt MeSH
• soudní vědy metody   MeSH
• tělesné pozůstatky patologie   MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• mužské pohlaví MeSH
• ženské pohlaví MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• kazuistiky MeSH

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Rheum australe D. Don (Polygonaceae) has been commonly used in traditional medicine for a wide range of ailments related to the circulatory, digestive, endocrine, respiratory and skeletal systems as well as to infectious diseases. AIM OF THE REVIEW: To provide the up-to-date information that is available on the botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of Rheum australe. Additionally, to highlight the possible uses of this species to treat different diseases and to provide a basis for future research. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present review covers the literature available from 1980 to 2011. The information was collected from scientific journals, books, theses and reports via a library and electronic search (Google Scholar, Web of Science and ScienceDirect). RESULTS: Ethnomedical uses of Rheum australe have been recorded from China, India, Nepal and Pakistan for 57 different types of ailments. The phytochemical studies have shown the presence of many secondary metabolites belonging to anthraquinones, stilbenes, anthrones, oxantrone ethers and esters, chromones, flavonoids, carbohydrate, lignans, phenols and sterols. Crude extracts and isolated compounds from Rheum australe show a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities, such as antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, hepatoprotective and immune-enhancing activities, as well as a usefulness for improving renal function. CONCLUSION: Rheum australe has been widely used source of medicine for years without any adverse effects. Many studies have provided evidence for various traditional uses. However, there is a need for additional studies of the isolated compounds to validate the traditional uses in human models. The present review on the botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry and toxicity has provided preliminary information for further studies and commercial exploitations of the plant.

• MeSH
• etnobotanika MeSH
• fytoterapie * MeSH
• léčivé rostliny MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• Rheum * chemie   MeSH
• rostlinné extrakty chemie   farmakologie   terapeutické užití   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• přehledy MeSH
• Názvy látek
• rostlinné extrakty MeSH

• MeSH
• botanika dějiny   MeSH
• dějiny 18. století MeSH
• dějiny 19. století MeSH
• školy lékařské dějiny   MeSH
• Check Tag
• dějiny 18. století MeSH
• dějiny 19. století MeSH
• Publikační typ
• biografie MeSH
• časopisecké články MeSH
• historické články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Československo MeSH

• O autorovi
• Mikan, J K

Rydingia michauxii and R. persica, respectively, known as Kase Gol and Goldar in Persian, belong to the family Lamiaceae and they are well known herbal medicine in Iran for the treatment of various diseases, particularly diabetes. This review aims to appraise the phytochemistry, ethnopharmacology, and pharmacological activities of Rydingia species growing in Iran and assess their potential in clinical applications. Besides, it critically evaluates existing literature and looks into the perspective for further research and utilization. All available scientific literature was consulted using the database searches involving Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science applying the keyword Rydingia and its Syn; Otostegia. Only the search results that are associated with the Iranian species R. michauxii and R. persica are included in this review. α-pinene, carvacrol, caryophyllene oxide, diisooctyl phthalate, dillapiole, eugenol, hexadecanoic acid, and pentacosane are the major constituents of the essential oils of the Rydingia species. Additionally, these species produce bioactive flavonoids, phenolic acids, steroids, and terpenoids. Extracts and active compounds from Rydingia species have been reported to possess various pharmacological activities including antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial, antimicrobial, antioxidant, cytotoxic, and lipid-lowering properties. Based on the information available to date on the Iranian Rydingia species, it will be worth subjecting these species to further developmental work involving preclinical and clinical trials.

• Klíčová slova
• Bioactive chemicals, Pharmacology, Phytochemistry, Rydingia michauxii, Rydingia persica, Traditional medicine,
• MeSH
• etnofarmakologie * MeSH
• fytonutrienty * farmakologie   izolace a purifikace   MeSH
• fytoterapie MeSH
• hluchavkovité * chemie   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• oleje prchavé * farmakologie   chemie   MeSH
• rostlinné extrakty farmakologie   chemie   MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Írán MeSH
• Názvy látek
• fytonutrienty * MeSH
• oleje prchavé * MeSH
• rostlinné extrakty MeSH

Polar isolates of four chlorococcal microalgae originating from the Arctic and Antarctica withstand cryopreservation using encapsulation-dehydration. Viability assessments, which initially used chloroplhyll fluorescence (Kautsky) induction kinetics, revealed that all strains suffered photosynthetic impairment during early post-cryopreservation recovery. This cryoinjury was reversible, as indicated by cell regrowth in three of the four strains. Lack of growth in the fourth isolate was due to contaminating bacteria rather than cryogenic factors.

• MeSH
• Eukaryota * MeSH
• kryoprezervace metody   MeSH
• studené klima * MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH

Jirí Josef Camel (1661-1706), a pharmacist and botanist, was born in Brno, educated at a grammar school and then joined the Jesuit Order as a laic brother. He worked in the college pharmacies in Brno, Jindrichův Hradec and Ceský Krumlov. In 1687 he left for a religious mission to the Philippine Islands, where he worked for 17 years in a hospital as a pharmacist. He died in Manila in 1706. He wrote 19 treatises, in which he acquainted European medicine and pharmacy with the flora and fauna of the Philippines. Camel sent his papers to London to J. Ray, the then most distinguished authority in botany. Ray published them in the 3rd volume of Historia Plantarum in 1704. The most valuable part of his work are drawings of plants, published by Petiver in the journal Gazophylacei naturae et artis (1702-1709). More than 400 of them have survived till nowadays in the collection of the British Museum. Further 260 drawings were acquired in the course of years by the University Library in Louvain.

• MeSH
• botanika dějiny   MeSH
• dějiny 17. století MeSH
• dějiny 18. století MeSH
• dějiny lékárnictví MeSH
• Check Tag
• dějiny 17. století MeSH
• dějiny 18. století MeSH
• Publikační typ
• biografie MeSH
• časopisecké články MeSH
• historické články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Československo MeSH
• Filipíny MeSH

• O autorovi
• Camel, J J

A previous study from Sicily, Italy, indicated that the dominant Mediterranean seagrass Posidonia oceanica forms a dark septate endophytic (DSE) association with a lulworthioid fungus ('Lulwoana sp.'). This conflicts with several other studies from the NW Mediterranean Sea that point at the recently described pleosporalean fungus Posidoniomyces atricolor. I collected P. oceanica roots at eight sites around Sicily and checked them for fungal colonization using light microscopy. At three sites, root fungal symbionts (mycobionts) were isolated into pure cultures and identified using ITS rDNA sequences. Posidoniomyces atricolor represented the most frequent mycobiont (56 isolates), closely followed by lulworthioid fungi (51). The obtained mycobiont spectrum also included Cladosporium (2), Alternaria (1), Corollospora (1), Fusarium (1), Penicillium (1) and Vishniacozyma (1) isolates. The characteristic DSE root colonization, similar to those occurring in terrestrial plants but not known from any other seagrass, was found in all investigated P. oceanica individuals. The microscopy screening suggests that P. atricolor is responsible for the observed DSE colonization. This study extends the known range of Pos. atricolor and the DSE association characteristic for P. oceanica to the southern Tyrrhenian Sea/Sicily. While lulworthioid fungi regularly occur in P. oceanica tissues, including terminal fine roots, their significance and functioning (e.g. parasitic, pathogenic, endophytic) are unknown and require further investigation. However, there is currently no proof that they belong among dark septate endophytes of this seagrass.

• Klíčová slova
• Posidoniomyces atricolor, Lulwoana, Lulworthiales, Sicily, fungal endophytes, marine fungi,
• MeSH
• Alismatales * MeSH
• endofyty * MeSH
• houby MeSH
• kořeny rostlin MeSH
• rostliny MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Itálie MeSH

The sixteenth century could be understand as a period of renaissance of interest in nature and as a period of development of natural history as a discipline. The spreading of the printing press was connected to the preparation of new editions of Classical texts and to the act of correcting and commenting on these texts. This forced scholars to confront texts with living nature and to subject it to more careful investigation. The discovery of America uncovered new horizons and brought new natural products, which were exotic and unknown to Classical tradition. The aim of this study is to compare strategies and categories, which were used in describing plants of the Old and the New World. Attention will be paid to the first reactions to the new flora, to the methods of naming and describing plants, to the ways of gaining knowledge about plants from local sources or by means of one's own observation. The confrontation with novelty puts naturalists in the Old World and in the New World in a similar situation. It reveals the limits of traditional knowledge based on Classical authorities. A closer investigation, however, brings to light not only the sometimes unexpected similarities, but also the differences which were due to the radical otherness of American plants.

• Klíčová slova
• Classical authorities, Experience, Herbae nudae, History of botany, Natural history, New World,
• MeSH
• botanika dějiny   MeSH
• dějiny 16. století MeSH
• ilustrované knihy dějiny   MeSH
• přírodopis dějiny   MeSH
• referenční knihy * MeSH
• rostliny MeSH
• Check Tag
• dějiny 16. století MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• historické články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Evropa MeSH

• Klíčová slova
• Gene editing, microscopy, omics, plant methods, state-of-art techniques, technical advances, virtual case study,
• MeSH
• botanika * metody   MeSH
• fyziologie rostlin MeSH
• rostliny metabolismus   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• úvodní články MeSH
• úvodníky MeSH

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Pyroloids, forest sub-shrubs of the Ericaceae family, are an important model for their mixotrophic nutrition, which mixes carbon from photosynthesis and from their mycorrhizal fungi. They have medical uses but are difficult to cultivate ex situ; in particular, their dust seeds contain undifferentiated, few-celled embryos, whose germination is normally fully supported by fungal partners. Their germination and early ontogenesis thus remain elusive. METHODS: An optimized in vitro cultivation system of five representatives from the subfamily Pyroloideae was developed to study the strength of seed dormancy and the effect of different media and conditions (including light, gibberellins and soluble saccharides) on germination. The obtained plants were analysed for morphological, anatomical and histochemical development. KEY RESULTS: Thanks to this novel cultivation method, which breaks dormancy and achieved up to 100 % germination, leafy shoots were obtained in vitro for representatives of all pyroloid genera (Moneses, Orthilia, Pyrola and Chimaphila). In all cases, the first post-germination stage is an undifferentiated structure, from which a root meristem later emerges, well before formation of an adventive shoot. CONCLUSIONS: This cultivation method can be used for further research or for ex situ conservation of pyroloid species. After strong seed dormancy is broken, the tiny globular embryo of pyroloids germinates into an intermediary zone, which is functionally convergent with the protocorm of other plants with dust seeds such as orchids. Like the orchid protocorm, this intermediary zone produces a single meristem: however, unlike orchids, which produce a shoot meristem, pyroloids first generate a root meristem.

• Klíčová slova
• Chimaphila, Moneses, Monotropa, Pyrola, in vitro culture, Ericaceae, convergent evolution, mixotrophy, orchid, protocorm, seed dormancy, seed germination,
• MeSH
• botanika metody   MeSH
• Ericaceae anatomie a histologie   růst a vývoj   metabolismus   MeSH
• klíčení * MeSH
• Pyrolaceae anatomie a histologie   růst a vývoj   metabolismus   MeSH
• semena rostlinná růst a vývoj   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH