Analyzing factors that influence the folk use and phytonomy of 18 medicinal plants in Navarra

BACKGROUND: This article analyzes whether the distribution or area of use of 18 medicinal plants is influenced by ecological and cultural factors which might account for their traditional use and/or phytonymy in Navarra. This discussion may be helpful for comparative studies, touching as it does on other ethnopharmacological issues: a) which cultural and ecological factors affect the selection of medicinal plants; b) substitutions of medicinal plants in popular medicine; c) the relation between local nomenclature and uses. To analyze these questions, this paper presents an example of a species used for digestive disorders (tea and camomile: Jasonia glutinosa, J. tuberosa, Sideritis hyssopifolia, Bidens aurea, Chamaemelum nobile, Santolina chamaecyparissus...), high blood pressure (Rhamnus alaternus, Olea europaea...) or skin diseases (Hylotelephium maximum, H. telephium, Anagallis arvensis, A. foemina). METHODS: Fieldwork began on January 2004 and continued until December 2006. During that time we interviewed 505 informants in 218 locations in Navarra. Information was collected using semi-structured ethnobotanical interviews, and we subsequently made maps using Arc-View 8.0 program to determine the area of use of each taxon. Each map was then compared with the bioclimatic and linguistic map of Navarra, using the soil and ethnographic data for the region, and with other ethnobotanical and ethnopharmacological studies carried out in Europe. RESULTS: The results clearly show that ecological and cultural factors influence the selection of medicinal plants in this region. Climate and substrate are the most important ecological factors that influence the distribution and abundance of plants, which are the biological factors that affect medicinal plant selection. CONCLUSION: The study of edaphological and climatological factors, on the one hand, and culture, on the other, can help us to understand why a plant is replaced by another one for the same purposes, either in the same or in a different area. In many cases, the cultural factor means that the use of a species is more widespread than its ecological distribution. This may also explain the presence of synonyms and polysemies which are useful for discussing ethnopharmacological data

Feeding and energy budget of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba at the onset of winter - II. Juveniles and adults -

The overwintering success of Euphausia superba is a key factor that dictates population size, but there is uncertainty over how they cope with the scarcity of pelagic food. Both nonfeeding strategies (reduced metabolism, lipid use, or shrinkage in size) and switching to other foods (carnivory, ice algae, or detritus) have been suggested. We examined these alternatives in the southwest Lazarev Sea in autumn (April 1999), when sea ice was forming and phytoplankton was at winter concentrations. Both juveniles and adults had a very high lipid content (36% and 44% of dry mass, respectively) of which >40% was phospholipid. However, their low O:N ratios suggested that these reserves were not being used. Results from gut contents analysis and large volume incubations agreed that juveniles fed mainly on phytoplankton and adults fed on small (<3 mm) copepods. This dietary difference was supported possibly by elevated concentrations of 20:1 and 22:1 fatty acids in the adults. The feeding methods also confirmed that feeding rates were low compared with those in summer. Even when acclimated to high food concentrations, clearance and ingestion rates were <30% of summer rates. Respiration and ammonium excretion rates of freshly caught krill were 60%-80% of those in summer and declined significantly during 18 d of starvation. These findings suggest both switch feeding and energy conservation strategies, with a trend of reduced and more carnivorous feeding with ontogeny. This points to a "compromise" strategy for postlarvae, but there are alternative explanations. First, the krill may have reduced their feeding in an autumn transition to a nonfeeding mode, and, second, some of the population may have maintained a high feeding effort whereas the remainder was not feeding

Effect of short-term starvation of adult Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, at the onset of summer

We investigated the effect of short-term starvation (18 days) on the physiology of adult Euphausia superba from the Lazarev Sea at the onset of summer. Metabolic data, elemental and biochemical composition as well as morphological parameters revealed that, at the beginning of the experiment, krill was in transition from winter to summer physiology, with some features typical for late winter/spring (low lipid reserves, low C:N ratio, elevated ON ratio) and others for summer (high respiration rates, high MDH activity, large green digestive gland, short intermoult period (IMP) and fast growth). Starvation reduced body reserves drastically by more than 1% C per day. In relative terms, lipids (40%) and glycogen (30%) were reduced most and proteins by 10% of the initial value. Absolute consumption, however, was approximately 4% DM for lipids and proteins each, whereas contribution of glycogen was negligible. Within lipids, triacylglycerols (TAG) and phospholipids (PL) fell most dramatically from already low levels by 84% and 39%, respectively. Phosphatylcholine (PC) constituted 57% of PL and declined by 46%. As a result, proportions of the lipid classes changed with sterols increasing relatively. Metabolite changes were similar in cephalothorax and abdomen, although TAG in the cephalothorax fell more drastically. High metabolic activity at the beginning of starvation was quickly reduced to reach 53% after 18 days, accompanied by a reduction in the abdominal activity of malate dehydrogenase (MDH) by 25%. Our results may provide some explanation why recruitment of some year-classes of krill fails. Despite execution of the experiment in spring (i.e. transitional physiology state) and its short duration, some changes in the activity of metabolic enzymes in the abdomen, representing lipolytic, glycolytic and proteolytic pathways, respectively, were measured. Rising activities of 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (HOAD) and glyceralaldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) indicated increased lipolytic and glycolytic fluxes, respectively, whereas declining glutamate dehydrogenase (GluDH) activity suggests reduced proteolytic flux. Activities of other enzymes from protein catabolism, alanine aminotransferase (AlaAT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AspAT), however, remained unchanged. Ratios calculated from these trends indicated a declining importance of protein use during the course of starvation compared with consumption of lipids and glycogen. These results suggest that constant-proportion enzymes from different catabolic pathways, and calculated ratios thereof, may be useful in detecting shifts between the consumption of different body reserves. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved