Fischer's Plants in folk beliefs and customs: a previously unknown contribution to the ethnobotany of the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderland.

Background: Historical ethnobotanical studies are useful starting points for further diachronic analysis. The aim of this contribution is to present archival data from the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian borderland, which were collected by Adam Fischer, a Polish ethnographer from Lviv, in the 1930s. These data were originally gathered for publication in the first part of the Lexicon of Slavic beliefs and customs, dedicated to plant uses in traditional Slavonic culture.

Identification and determination of ergot alkaloids in Morning Glory cultivars.

Seeds of plants from Ipomoea genera contain numerous ergot alkaloids, including psychoactive ergine and ergometrine, and are often abused as so-called "legal highs." In this work, an analytical method for determination of ergine and ergometrine, and identification of other alkaloids was developed, optimized, and validated. Three extraction techniques, ultrasound-assisted extraction in bath, or with sonotrode, and microwave-assisted extraction were evaluated, and it was concluded that ultrasonic bath is the most suitable technique for extraction of ergot alkaloids.