Exploring the canal environment in terms of water, bed sediments and vegetation in a reclaimed floodplain of Northern Italy.

The Po plain (Italy) is one of the largest floodplains in Europe that needs environmental restoration. To achieve this goal, the knowledge of the 'environment' (water, bed sediments and vegetation) of the canals crossing such floodplain is necessary. The water flow of the canals was kept low for hydraulic safety purposes from October to March (NIR), and high for irrigation purposes from April to September (IR).

Ecological functions provided by dung beetles are interlinked across space and time: evidence from N isotope tracing.

Maintaining multiple ecological functions ("multifunctionality") is crucial to sustain viable ecosystems. To date most studies on biodiversity-ecosystem functioning (BEF) have focused on single or few ecological functions and services. However, there is a critical need to evaluate how species and species assemblages affect multiple processes at the same time, and how these functions are interconnected.

New cerebrosides from Euphorbia peplis L.: antimicrobial activity evaluation.

The less polar fraction of the methanolic extract from the plant Euphorbia peplis L. exhibited interesting antifungal and antitubercular activity. A complex mixture of four glucocerebrosides was responsible for this activity.

Preliminary biological assay on cerebroside mixture from Euphorbia nicaeensis All. Isolation and structure determination of five glucocerebrosides.

Preliminary studies of in vitro cytostatic activity on less polar fraction of the MeOH extract of the plant Euphorbia nicaeensis All., carried out on KB cells, have evinced a relatively low ability of extract to inhibit cell growth. Successive, five glucocerebrosides were isolated from the cerebroside molecular species obtained from this extract using normal and reversed phase column 'flash-chromatography'.

Terpenoids and glycolipids from euphorbiaceae.

The family Euphorbiaceae is widely distributed throughout both hemispheres and ranges in morphological form from large desert succulents to trees and even small herbaceous types. Many species contain a milky juice which is more or less toxic, especially for cold-blooded animals, and can produce a dermatitis similar to that from poison ivy. Separation procedures and characterization of the less polar fractions of the plant extracts have been widely described in the literature for their content in diterpene derivatives.