Medicinal Plants and Plant-Based Remedies in Grande-Terre: An Ethnopharmacological Approach.

The island of Grande-Terre is a French overseas region that belongs to the Guadeloupean archipelago, a biodiversity hotspot with unique flora. Herbal medicine is widely used in the island for therapeutical purposes; however, there is a significant knowledge gap in the records relating to medicinal plants and their associated uses. Ethnobotanical survey methodology using quantitative parameters (informant consensus factor, species use value, relative frequency of citation, frequency use of a treatment and plant for an ailment) provided insights into the traditional medicinal use of a given plant.

Spectroscopic, Electrochemical, and Biological Assays of Copper-Binding Molecules for Screening of Different Drugs and Plant Extracts against Neurodegenerative Disorders.

Neurodegenerative disorders, caused by prone-to-aggregation proteins, such as Alzheimer disease or Huntington disease, share other traits such as disrupted homeostasis of essential metal ions, like copper. In this context, in an attempt to identify Cu chelating agents, we study several organic compounds (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, phenylenediamine, metformin, salicylate, and trehalose) and organic extracts obtained from L., which has been used in Ayurvedic therapies and presented a broad spectrum of biological properties.

Mosaic origins of Bradyrhizobium legume symbionts on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

To analyze geographic affinities of Bradyrhizobium sp. symbionts associated with the diverse legume flora on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, 39 isolates from 18 legume genera were compared to a reference set of 269 Bradyrhizobium strains from North America, Central America, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. A multilocus sequence analysis (4192 bp) showed that nucleotide diversity in Guadeloupe equaled or exceeded that found in all other regional Bradyrhizobium populations examined.

Carbon and nitrogen metabolism in mycorrhizal networks and mycoheterotrophic plants of tropical forests: a stable isotope analysis.

Most achlorophyllous mycoheterotrophic (MH) plants obtain carbon (C) from mycorrhizal networks and indirectly exploit nearby autotrophic plants. We compared overlooked tropical rainforest MH plants associating with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to well-reported temperate MH plants associating with ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes. We investigated (13)C and (15)N abundances of MH plants, green plants, and AMF spores in Caribbean rainforests.

Amblyomma variegatum in cattle in Marie Galante, French Antilles: prevalence, control measures, and infection by Ehrlichia ruminantium.

We report Marie Galante as one of the Caribbean islands most heavily infested by the tropical bont tick (TBT) Amblyomma variegatum which is associated with two major diseases of ruminants: heartwater and dermatophilosis. In 2005, a survey was undertaken to assess the prevalence of TBT infestation in cattle, the prevalence of Ehrlichia ruminantium infection in TBTs, and the tick control measures implemented by livestock owners. A random sample of 195 cattle herds out of 1885 recorded on the island was investigated by thoroughly counting adult ticks on each animal and filling a questionnaire.