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The plant root-associated environments such as the rhizosphere, rhizoplane, and endosphere are different from the outer soil region (bulk soil). They establish characteristic conditions including microbiota, metabolites, and minerals, and they can directly affect plant growth and development. However, comprehensive insights into those characteristic environments, especially the rhizosphere, and molecular mechanisms of their formation are not well understood. In the present study, we investigated the spatiotemporal dynamics of the root-associated environment in actual field conditions by multi-omics analyses (mineral, microbiome, and transcriptome) of soybean plants. Mineral and microbiome analyses demonstrated a characteristic rhizosphere environment in which most of the minerals were highly accumulated and bacterial communities were distinct from those in the bulk soil. Mantel’s test and co-abundance network analysis revealed that characteristic community structures and dominant bacterial taxa in the rhizosphere significantly interact with mineral contents in the rhizosphere, but not in the bulk soil. Our field multi-omics analysis suggests a rhizosphere-specific close association between the microbiota and mineral environment.

In-time and accurate monitoring of land cover and land use are essential tools for countries to achieve sustainable food production. However, many developing countries are struggling to efficiently monitor land resources due to the lack of financial support and limited access to adequate technology. This study aims at offering a solution to fill in such a gap in developing countries, by developing a land cover solution that is free of costs. A fully automated framework for land cover mapping was developed using 10-m resolution open access satellite images and machine learning (ML) techniques for the African country of Lesotho. Sentinel-2 satellite images were accessed through Google Earth Engine (GEE) for initial processing and feature extraction at a national level. Also, Food and Agriculture Organization’s land cover of Lesotho (FAO LCL) data were used to train a support vector machine (SVM) and bagged trees (BT) classifiers. SVM successfully classified urban and agricultural lands with 62 and 67% accuracy, respectively. Also, BT could classify the two categories with 81 and 65% accuracy, correspondingly. The trained models could provide precise LC maps in minutes or hours. they can also be utilized as a viable solution for developing countries as an alternative to traditional geographic information system (GIS) methods, which are often labor intensive, require acquisition of very high-resolution commercial satellite imagery, time consuming and call for high budgets.

Safranal, the main volatile chemical of Saffron (Crocus sativus) was studied to estimate its allelopathic effects on the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll, leaf electrolyte leakage, fresh weight, catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POX) activity of the test plant Lettuce (Lactuca sativa). In this study, the effective concentration (EC50) of safranal on CAT was estimated to be 6.12 µg/cm3. CAT activity was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by the increase in the safranal concentration while POX activity was increased. Moreover, Safranal caused significant physiological changes in chlorophyll content, leaf electrolyte leakage, and fresh weight of several weed species with Lolium multiflorum being the most sensitive. Furthermore, 5 µM Safranal showed significant inhibitory activity against dicotyledonous in comparison to the monocotyledons under greenhouse conditions. The inhibition of the CAT by safranal was similar to those of uncompetitive inhibitors, and therefore the decline in carbon fixation by plants might be the mechanism behind the inhibitory activity of safranal.

The fruits of Bunium persicum (Boiss.) B. Fedtsch were collected throughout Iran from ten populations and assessed for their essential oil composition and antioxidant activity. The volatiles were analyzed by GC/MS/FID after microdistillation and SPME. All 10 accessions had the same major volatiles roughly in the order γ-terpinene = cuminal > γ-terpinen-7-al > p-cymene > limonene > α-terpinen-7-al although they origin from quite different sites. Nevertheless these plants that are able to grow in a wide range of environments may present the base for domestication with the aim to optimize essential oil yield with a high proportion of aldehydes. The methanolic extracts of the fruits showed a moderate antioxidant potential.

Use of synthetic drugs for the treatment of burn wounds has decreased due to adverse effects, and they are gradually being replaced by compounds obtained from natural products, especially medicinal plants. This review focused on pre‐clinical and clinical studies examining the efficacy of medicinal plants in promoting burn wound healing. This systematic review was performed congruent with the guidance delineated in the PRISMA statement. Databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Embase and Web of Science, along with the search engines Google Scholar and Google, were utilised to retrieve published literatures from 2000 to 2023. Articles were screened according to the determined criteria and appraised using primary evaluation checklists. A total of 108 published articles met the eligibility criteria and were selected for discussion. Of these, 72 were in vivo studies, 28 were in vitro studies and 8 were clinical trials. Various medicinal plants discussed in this review improve the burn wound healing process due to the presence of diverse biological compounds with antioxidant, anti‐inflammatory and antibacterial properties. These plants affect the four phases of wound healing. These plant species and their compounds could be potentially used for the development of effective natural remedies against burn wounds.

Weeds are rapidly developing resistance to synthetic herbicides, and this can pose a threat to the ecosystem. Exploring allelopathic species as an alternative weed control measure can help minimize the ecological threat posed by herbicide-resistant weeds. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the contribution of some polyphenols to the allelopathy of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.). The phytotoxic effects of rosemary (leaves, roots, inflorescences, and stems) crude extracts were tested on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Soils incorporated with dried rosemary leaves were also tested on test plants. Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis was used to determine the content of some polyphenols (caffeic, ferulic, gallic, rosmarinic, carnosic, and chlorogenic acids) in rosemary. The specific activity and total activity of crude extracts and individual compounds were evaluated using lettuce. The crude extract of rosemary leaves showed the highest growth inhibitory effect among the rosemary organs tested. Soil amended with rosemary leaf debris reduced the dry matter and seed emergence of lettuce. Carnosic acid was the main compound detected in rosemary leaves and had a high specific activity when tested on lettuce. During the seed germination period, there was observed filter paper coloration among the test plants treated with carnosic acid (250 μg/mL). The high concentration and strong inhibitory effect of carnosic acid could explain the inhibitory activity of the rosemary leaf extract. Hence, we conclude based on the total activity estimation that carnosic acid among the other tested compounds is the major allelochemical in rosemary leaves.

In a natural ecosystem, endophytic fungi in the internal tissues of plants help to improve the growth of the host plants and to decrease the negative effects of biotic and abiotic stresses without having adverse effects. In Japan, Vicia villosa (hairy vetch), a legume plant with a high capacity to fix nitrogen, is usually used as a cover crop before soybeans to enhance the fertility and structure of the soil. This study aimed to isolate endophytic fungi associated with different tissues of hairy vetch and to evaluate their potential for growth-promoting and biocontrol effects in plants. Thirty-three fungal endophytes belonging to Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were isolated from the leaf, stem, and root tissues of hairy vetch grown under both greenhouse and field conditions. The highest colonization frequency in both the greenhouse and field-grown hairy vetch plants was obtained from the root tissues. All isolates were checked for indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and siderophore production. The maximum IAA content in the culture filtrate (4.21 μg mL−1) was produced by the isolate hvef7 (Cladosporium cladosporioides), followed by hvef18 (Penicillium simplicissimum) (3.02 μg mL−1) and hvef1 (Cladosporium pseudocladosporioides) (2.32 μg mL−1). Nineteen isolates among a total of thirty-three isolates produced siderophores. Moreover, some of the isolated strains could solubilize phosphate and potassium. Most of the isolates showed antagonistic potential against Calonectria ilicicola. The results of this study show that endophytic fungi isolated from hairy vetch have the potential for application as plant growth promotion fungi (PGPF) to promote plant growth and control disease in sustainable agriculture.

This paper presents the first application of ethnobotanical studies to screen for allelopathic species among medicinal plants for sustainable weed management. This study assesses the possible relationship between ethnobotanical indices and allelopathy of medicinal plants. Ethnobotanical data were collected in 2016 by using semi-structured interviews with 140 informants in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality, Ghana. Data were analysed using statistical tool and ethnobotanical indices including use value (UV), Fidelity Level (FL), Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC). The Sandwich and Dish pack methods were respectively used to evaluate allelopathy through leachates and volatiles of collected samples. Ninety-five species belonging to 43 families are reported in this study, with leaves (52%) cited the most utilised plant part. Cleistopholis patens (UV = 0.54; FL = 90.7%; RFC = 0.37) and Ocimum gratissimum (UV = 0.37; FL = 38.4%; RFC = 0.35) were among the most cited species. Thirty-two species showed inhibition (≥49.3%) by leachates, while twenty-four species were found with potential volatile inhibitory compounds against lettuce radicle growth. There was a significant positive correlation (Pearson) between the UV and RFC of medicinal plants and allelopathy by leaf leachates (r = 0.639 **; p = 0.01 and r = 0.653 **; p = 0.01 respectively). This systematic documentation of medicinal plants in Ejisu-Juaben Municipality shows medicinal plants with ethnomedicinal values and potential allelopathy that can be utilised in sustainable weed control.

Plants produce several chemically diverse bioactive substances that may influence the growth and development of other organisms when released into the environment in a phenomenon called allelopathy. Several of these allelopathic species also have reported medicinal properties. In this study, the potential allelopathic effects of more than a hundred medicinal plants from Cambodia were tested using the dish pack method. The dish pack bioassay method specifically targets volatile allelochemicals. Twenty-five species were found to have significant inhibitory effects on lettuce radicle growth. Eleven different plant families, including Iridaceae (2), Apocynaceae (2), Poaceae (2), Sapindaceae, Araceae, Combretaceae, Orchidaceae, Clusiaceae, Zingiberaceae, Rutaceae and Asparagaceae had the plant species with high inhibitory effects. Allophyllus serrulatus had the highest growth inhibitory effect on lettuce radicles more than 60%, followed by Alocasia macrorrhiza, Iris pallida, Terminalia triptera, Wrightia tomentosa, Cymbidium aloifolium, Garcinia villersiana and Kaempferia parviflora. The candidate species were subjected to further studies to identify the volatile allelochemicals in the volatile constituents.

Background The inappropriate use of antibiotics increases the costs of treatment, antibiotic resistance, increased disease length and duration of hospital stay. Objectives The aim of this study was investigating the pattern of use and effectiveness of the Linezolid in COVID-19 hospitalized patients. Methods In this retrospective cross-sectional analytical study was carried out from February 2020 (from the beginning of the pandemic in Iran) to the end of September 2020, 32 COVID-19 patients that used Linezolid were included. The data retrieved from medical document’s unit and analysis was performed by SPSS statistical software version 20. Results According to the three elements of the 1- culture of resistant bacteria 2-the correct daily dose and 3-adequate duration of the drug, consumption pattern of Linezolid was irrational in 24 (75%) COVID-19 patients and it was rational only in 8 (25%) patients. Twenty-three (71.9%) patients received sufficient doses of the drug and 9 (28.1%) patients did not receive the required minimum dose. Four (50%) patients who rationally received Linezolid improved and the remaining 4 died. Leukopenia occurred in 1 patient (3.1%), anemia appeared in 24 individuals (75%), and 15 patients (46.9%) developed thrombocytopenia. Conclusion We suggest that the prescription of Linezolid is in accordance with the standard instructions and the stewardship antibiotic program to reduce the medication costs, drug side effects, and the prevalence of antibiotic resistance. Graphical abstract