Ethnic minorities living in Yunnan of China have accumulated a wealth of traditional botanical knowledge (TBK). Recently, a field survey in south and southeast of Yunnan was conducted by the LONG Chunlin group from Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The group found that the local people such as De’ang and Ji’nuo had traditional ways of using Piper (Piperaceae) plan...
A rare tree in Southwest China's Yunnan province has bloomed for the first time since it was transferred to a botanical garden 30 years ago.
The tree, a 13-meter-high Chinese manglietiastrum, was transplanted for conservation in 1983 from Xichou county to Kunming Botanical Garden in Kunming, Yunnan's capital.
Experts say the blossom shows that the experiment has succeeded, and the metho...
Cremastra malipoensis G. W. Hu, a new rare species in Orchidaceae, was recently discovered by Dr. HU Guangwan from Kunming Institute of Botany. It occurs in southeastern Yunnan, China, near the border of Vietnam. It is most similar to C. appendiculata, but its inflorescences have fewer flowers, only 4-7; its flowers are positioned horizontally and become slightly pendulous; lateral lobes of lip...
Since Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) was chosen as a model organism to study genetics, the worms have been widely used in many research areas, either as research or drug screening model, such as in development, lipid metabolism and obesity, aging, neurodegenerative disease, antimicrobials, virulence and parasites, biomedical and environmental toxicology, and cancer. Treating worms with too...
Since the discovery of aspirin as one of nonsterodial anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) more than a century ago, aspirin has become the most widely administered medicine in the treatment of conditions such as pain, fever, and inflammation. In addition to its anti-inflammatory effects, it was reported that long-term use of aspirin could improve many aspects of health status, but the molecular mec...
Vibralactone (1), a rare fused bicyclic β-lactone from the basidiomycete fungus Boreostereum vibrans (syn. Stereum vibrans), was found to inhibit pancreatic lipases highly relevant to fat absorption. While vibralactone seems structurally simple for its small size, contradicting biosynthetic origins, including sesquiterpenoid and polyketide, of this bicyclic β-lactone have been proposed. Furth...
Over the past decades, biodiversity conservation in China has achieved a number of successes. However, due to inadequate conservation policies, poor implementation and lack of financial support, these conservation achievements are not sufficient to protect China’s high level of plant species diversity. One of the most important is that there is no clear concept of which wild species should rec...
There are only two endemic species of Poncirus (Rutaceae) in China, P. trifoliate and P. polyandra. P. trifoliate was originated in central China. P. polyandra, which is endemic to Yunnan Province, was first found in Fumin County in 1984. It is a precious breeding germplasm resource of citrus as its fruits are a medical substitute of fructus aurantii, so it’s named as "Anti-tussive tree" by th...
Mushrooms of Boletaceae are with important economic and ecological values. Many species in this fungal family are famous edible mushrooms, while some others are poisonous. Ecologically, most species in this group are ectomycorrhizal fungi. However, the systematics of Boletaceae has been problematic due to its wide distribution range, phenotypic plasticity and complicated evolutionary history.
...
