Onion Hybrid Seed Production: Relation with Nectar Composition and Flower Traits.

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the main vegetable crops. Pollinators are required for onion seed production, being honeybees the most used.

Catechin and quercetin attenuate adipose inflammation in fructose-fed rats and 3T3-L1 adipocytes.

Scope: This study evaluated the capacity of dietary catechin (C), quercetin (Q), and the combination of both (CQ), to attenuate adipose inflammation triggered by high fructose (HFr) consumption in rats and by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.

Methods And Results: In rats, HFr consumption for 6 wk caused dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, reduced plasma adiponectin, adiposity, and adipose tissue inflammation. Dietary supplementation with 20 mg/kg/day of C, Q, and CQ improved all these parameters.

Nectar and flower traits of different onion male sterile lines related to pollination efficiency and seed yield of F1 hybrids.

Honey bees are the main pollinators of onion crops for seed production, but owing to low attractiveness of flowers, pollination is often inadequate. Pollination problems result in low seed yields. This problem is accentuated when male sterile lines (MSL) are used to produce hybrid onion seeds.

Variability of solids, organosulfur compounds, pungency and health-enhancing traits in garlic (Allium sativum L.) cultivars belonging to different ecophysiological groups.

Garlic is a vegetable mainly agamically propagated, and it has been dispersed all around the world. Garlic cultivars have been classified in different ecophysiological groups (EG) according to their bulbing requirements. The variability in organosulfur composition (ACSOs), solids content (SC), pungency (PC) and antiplatelet activity (IAA) and the correlation among these traits in garlic clones belonging to three EG was studied.