Aerva

Abstract: IN recent years several attempts have been made to culture the ovules1 and ovaries2 of some angiosperms. While there has been considerable success in raising viable seeds in test-tubes from normally fertilized ovaries3, the results have not been so encouraging when unfertilized ovules1,4 or ovaries are cultured. The present communication outlines the results of my experiments on an apomictic species, Aerva tomentosa 5.

Abstract: Some members of the family Amaranthaceae, which has mostly been reported as non-mycorrhizal, were examined for a symbiotic association with mycorrhizae in the semiarid and arid zones. Ten species belonging to five genera, Achyranthes, Aerva, Alternanthera, Amaranthus, and Celosia were examined, using 1.0-cm long root standards. Intercellular hyphae, vesicles and arbuscules were observed in the root cortex. The number of different types of spores in the rhizosphere soil of different plants ranged from one to three. The spores isolated represented nine species belonging to four genera, Glomus, Gigaspora, Sclerocystis, and Scutellospora. No correlation could be established between spore counts and either soil pH or soil moisture.

Abstract: We investigated the colonization of the Indian Ocean archipelago of Socotra through phylogenetic analysis of Aerva (Amaranthaceae) based on nuclear and plastid DNA sequence data. The biogeographic history of the genus was tracked using ancestral area reconstructions and molecular dating. Three independent colonization lineages from the Eritreo-Arabian subregion of the Sudano-Zambesian Region were revealed: one endemic clade comprising Aerva revoluta/A. microphylla and once within A. lanata and A. javanica. Our results provide further support for the dominance of Eritreo-Arabian affinities in the flora of Socotra, in contrast to more rare affinities to Madagascar, the Mascarenes, southern Africa, and tropical Asia. Our data point towards colonization via dispersal, rather than a vicariance origin of the island elements. The overall biogeographic patterns of Aerva show only limited concordance with other taxonomic groups distributed on Indian Ocean islands.

Abstract: Cancer is responsible for millions of deaths each year worldwide. Pharmacological intervention with plant-derived products alone or in combination to reverse, suppress, or prevent the cancer progression plays a key role in the fight against this terrible disease. Aerva lanata is an important medicinal plant widely used in traditional systems of medicine like ayurveda and siddha. Ethanolic extract of whole plant of A. lanata exhibited immunomodulatory and antitumor activity. Intraperitoneal administration of five doses of the extract (10 mg/kg body weight) was found to enhance the total WBC count (14,238 cells/mm3), bone marrow cellularity (22.33 × 106 cells/femur), and number of α-esterase-positive cells (1276 cells/4000 cells). Aerva treatment also showed enhanced proliferation of splenocytes, thymocytes, and bone marrow cells both in the presence and absence of specific mitogens in vitro and in vivo. The number of plaque-forming cells (PFC) in spleen (243.33 PFC/106 spleen cells) and circulating antibod...