Drosera rotundifolia and Drosera tokaiensis suppress the activation of HMC-1 human mast cells.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Several Northern Hemisphere Drosera species have been used in the therapy of respiratory tract infections as the traditional medicine Droserae Herba.

Aim Of The Study: To determine the anti-inflammatory effects of Drosera species and to investigate a substitute material for Droserae Herba, we examined the effect of extracts of Drosera rotundifolia, Drosera tokaiensis and Drosera spatulata on activated T cell membrane (aTc-m)-induced inflammatory gene expression in HMC-1 human mast cells.

Materials And Methods: Drosera rotundifolia, Drosera spatulata and Drosera tokaiensis were collected in Japan.

Allelic diversification at the C (OsC1) locus of wild and cultivated rice: nucleotide changes associated with phenotypes.

Divergent phenotypes are often detected in domesticated plants despite the existence of invariant phenotypes in their wild forms. One such example in rice is the occurrence of varying degrees of apiculus coloration due to anthocyanin pigmentation, which was previously reported to be caused by a series of alleles at the C locus. The present study reveals, on the basis of comparison of its maps, that the C gene appears to be the rice homolog (OsC1) of maize C1, which belongs to the group of R2R3-Myb factors.