Antimicrobial Activity of Tulsi (Ocimum tenuiflorum) Essential Oil and Their Major Constituents against Three Species of Bacteria.

In recent years scientists worldwide have realized that the effective life span of any antimicrobial agent is limited, due to increasing development of resistance by microorganisms. Consequently, numerous studies have been conducted to find new alternative sources of antimicrobial agents, especially from plants. The aims of this project were to examine the antimicrobial properties of essential oils distilled from Australian-grown Ocimum tenuiflorum (Tulsi), to quantify the volatile components present in flower spikes, leaves and the essential oil, and to investigate the compounds responsible for any activity.

Subtracted diversity array identifies novel molecular markers including retrotransposons for fingerprinting Echinacea species.

Echinacea, native to the Canadian prairies and the prairie states of the United States, has a long tradition as a folk medicine for the Native Americans. Currently, Echinacea are among the top 10 selling herbal medicines in the U.S.

Fingerprinting the Asterid species using subtracted diversity array reveals novel species-specific sequences.

Background: Asterids is one of the major plant clades comprising of many commercially important medicinal species. One of the major concerns in medicinal plant industry is adulteration/contamination resulting from misidentification of herbal plants. This study reports the construction and validation of a microarray capable of fingerprinting medicinally important species from the Asterids clade.

Detection of Panax quinquefolius in Panax ginseng using 'subtracted diversity array'.

Background: Food adulteration remains a major global concern. DNA fingerprinting has several advantages over chemical and morphological identification techniques. DNA microarray-based fingerprinting techniques have not been used previously to detect adulteration involving dried commercial samples of closely related species.

HPLC profiles and biomarker contents of Australian-grown Salvia miltiorrhiza f. alba roots.

Salvia miltiorrhiza f. alba (Baihua Danshen) is a Chinese medicinal herb commonly used for treating cardiovascular disease. It has been grown in Australia, although the quality of its main medicinal part (dried root) has not been assessed.

Seasonal variations in bioactive marker contents in Australian-grown Salvia miltiorrhiza roots.

Seasonal variations in contents of bioactive markers in Australian-grown Salvia miltiorrhiza roots were investigated in a two-year field trial. Cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, and salvianolic acid B were quantitatively determined by reversed-phase (RP) HPLC. Similar accumulation patterns were observed for the three tanshinones throughout the trial period, although roots harvested in the first year was found to contain relatively higher contents of these compounds.

Cultivar variations of Australian-grown Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza): bioactive markers and root yields.

Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge, Lamiaceae) is a commonly used and highly valued Chinese medicinal herb grown widely in China. In the present work, we studied cultivar variations of Australian-grown Danshen in order to select optimal cultivars for local herbal production. Root yields of seven cultivars, V1-V7, were monitored in a one-year field trial, and bioactive markers, including cryptotanshinone, tanshinone I, tanshinone IIA, and salvianolic acid B, were quantitatively determined using a validated RP-HPLC method.

Transcriptional profiling of chickpea genes differentially regulated in response to high-salinity, cold and drought.

Background: Cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum) has a narrow genetic base making it difficult for breeders to produce new elite cultivars with durable resistance to major biotic and abiotic stresses. As an alternative to genome mapping, microarrays have recently been applied in crop species to identify and assess the function of putative genes thought to be involved in plant abiotic stress and defence responses. In the present study, a cDNA microarray approach was taken in order to determine if the transcription of genes, from a set of previously identified putative stress-responsive genes from chickpea and its close relative Lathyrus sativus, were altered in chickpea by the three abiotic stresses; drought, cold and high-salinity.

Expression profiling of chickpea genes differentially regulated during a resistance response to Ascochyta rabiei.

Using microarray technology and a set of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) unigenes, grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and lentil (Lens culinaris Med.

Construction and validation of a prototype microarray for efficient and high-throughput genotyping of angiosperms.

Until recently, the identification of plants relied on conventional techniques, such as morphological, anatomical and chemical profiling, that are often inefficient or unfeasible in certain situations. Extensive literature exists describing the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA-based identification techniques, which offer a reliable platform, but their broad application is often limited by a low throughput. However, hybridization-based microarray technology represents a rapid and high-throughput tool for genotype identification at a molecular level.