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Aristolochia Californica
''Aristolochia californica'', the California pipevine, California Dutchman's-pipe, or California snakeroot is a perennial woody vine of western North America. Distribution and habitat The vine is endemic to northern California. It is native to the Sacramento Valley, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, San Francisco Bay Area, Northern Inner California Coast Ranges, southeastern Klamath Mountains. The plant grows along riparian streambank areas, in chaparral, oak woodland, and mixed evergreen forest habitats. It is found below in elevation. Description ''Aristolochia californica'' is a deciduous vine. It grows from rhizomes, to a length usually around , but can reach over . The twining trunk can become quite thick in circumference at maturity. It sends out new green heart-shaped leaves after it blooms. The bloom period is January through April. The plant produces large green to pale brown curving pipe-shaped flowers, with purple veins and a yellow to red lining. The U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Torrey
John Torrey (August 15, 1796 – March 10, 1873) was an American botany, botanist, chemist, and physician. Throughout much of his career, he was a teacher of chemistry, often at multiple universities, while he also pursued botanical work, focusing on the flora of North America. His most renowned works include studies of the New York flora, the Mexican Boundary, the Pacific railroad surveys, and the uncompleted ''Flora of North America''. Biography Torrey was born in New York City, the second child of Capt. William and Margaret (née Nichols) Torrey.Robbins, C. C. (1968). John Torrey (1796–1873), His Life & Times. ''Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club''. Vol. 95, No. Nov. 6–Dec. 1968, 515–645. Torrey Botanical Club, New York. He showed a fondness for mechanics, and at one time planned to become a machinist. When he was 15 or 16, his father received an appointment to the state prison at Greenwich Village, New York, where he was tutored by Amos Eaton, then a pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrion
Carrion () is the decaying flesh of dead animals, including human flesh. Overview Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters (or scavengers) include crows, vultures, condors, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia opossum, Tasmanian devils, coyotes and Komodo dragons. Many invertebrates, such as the carrion and burying beetles, as well as maggots of calliphorid flies (such as one of the most important species in '' Calliphora vomitoria'') and flesh-flies, also eat carrion, playing an important role in recycling nitrogen and carbon in animal remains. Carrion begins to decay at the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria. Not long after the animal has died, its body will begin to exude a foul odor caused by the presence of bacteria and the emission of cadaverine and putrescine. Some plants and fungi smell like decomposing carrion and attract insects that a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battus Philenor Hirsuta
''Battus philenor hirsuta'', the California pipevine swallowtail or hairy pipevine swallowtail, is a subspecies of the pipevine swallowtail that is endemic to Northern California in the United States. The butterfly is black with hindwings that have iridescent green-blue coloring above and a row of red spots below; the caterpillars are black with fleshy protrusions and orange spots. This subspecies is smaller in size, hairier, and lays eggs in larger clutch sizes than the nominate subspecies. The egg clutches are deposited on the shoot tips of the California pipevine, a perennial vine native to riparian, chaparral, and woodland ecosystems of the California Coast Ranges, Sacramento Valley, and Sierra Nevada foothills. The larvae feed exclusively on the foliage and shoot tips of the pipevine, although adults eat floral nectar from a variety of plants. The plant contains a toxic substance, aristolochic acid. The larvae sequester the toxin, and both the juvenile and adult butterf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The larva's appearance is generally very different from the adult form (''e.g.'' caterpillars and butterflies) including different unique structures and organs that do not occur in the adult form. Their diet may also be considerably different. Larvae are frequently adapted to different environments than adults. For example, some larvae such as tadpoles live almost exclusively in aquatic environments, but can live outside water as adult frogs. By living in a distinct environment, larvae may be given shelter from predators and reduce competition for resources with the adult population. Animals in the larval stage will consume food to fuel their transition into the adult form. In some organisms like polychaetes and barnacles, adults are immobil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mutagen
In genetics, a mutagen is a physical or chemical agent that permanently changes nucleic acid, genetic material, usually DNA, in an organism and thus increases the frequency of mutations above the natural background level. As many mutations can cause cancer in animals, such mutagens can therefore be carcinogens, although not all necessarily are. All mutagens have characteristic mutational signatures with some chemicals becoming mutagenic through cellular processes. The process of DNA becoming modified is called mutagenesis. Not all mutations are caused by mutagens: so-called "spontaneous mutations" occur due to spontaneous hydrolysis, DNA error, errors in DNA replication, repair and Genetic recombination, recombination. Discovery The first mutagens to be identified were carcinogens, substances that were shown to be linked to cancer. Tumors were described more than 2,000 years before the discovery of chromosomes and DNA; in 500 B.C., the Greece, Greek physician Hippocrates named tu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nephrotoxicity
Nephrotoxicity is toxicity in the kidneys. It is a poisonous effect of some substances, both toxic chemicals and medications, on kidney function. There are various forms, and some drugs may affect kidney function in more than one way. Nephrotoxins are substances displaying nephrotoxicity. Nephrotoxicity should not be confused with some medications predominantly excreted by the kidneys needing their dose adjusted for the decreased kidney function (e.g., heparin, lithium). Types of toxicity Cardiovascular * General: diuretics, β-blockers, vasodilator agents * Local: ACE inhibitors, ciclosporin, tacrolimus. Direct tubular effect * Proximal convoluted tubule: Aminoglycoside antibiotics (e.g., gentamicin), amphotericin B, cisplatin, radiocontrast media, immunoglobulins, mannitol * Distal tubule: NSAIDs (e.g. aspirin, ibuprofen, diclofenac), ACE inhibitors, ciclosporin, lithium salts, cyclophosphamide, amphotericin B * Tubular obstruction: sulphonamides, methotrexate, acicl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substances are considered carcinogens, but their carcinogenic activity is attributed to the radiation, for example gamma rays and alpha particles, which they emit. Common examples of non-radioactive carcinogens are inhaled asbestos, certain dioxins, and tobacco smoke. Although the public generally associates carcinogenicity with synthetic chemicals, it is equally likely to arise from both natural and synthetic substances. Carcinogens are not necessarily immediately toxic; thus, their effect can be insidious. Carcinogens, as mentioned, are agents in the environment capable of contributing to cancer growth. Carcinogens can be categorized into two different types: activation-dependent and activation-independent, and each nature impacts their level ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Food And Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food safety, tobacco products, caffeine products, dietary supplements, Prescription drug, prescription and Over-the-counter drug, over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs (medications), vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, blood transfusions, medical devices, electromagnetic radiation emitting devices (ERED), cosmetics, Animal feed, animal foods & feed and Veterinary medicine, veterinary products. The FDA's primary focus is enforcement of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C), but the agency also enforces other laws, notably Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act, as well as associated regulations. Much of this regulatory-enforcement work is not d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristolochic Acid
Aristolochic acids () are a family of carcinogenic, mutagenic, and nephrotoxic phytochemicals commonly found in the flowering plant family Aristolochiaceae (birthworts). Aristolochic acid (AA) I is the most abundant one. The family Aristolochiaceae includes the genera ''Aristolochia'' and '' Asarum'' (wild ginger), which are commonly used in Chinese herbal medicine. Although these compounds are widely associated with kidney problems, liver and urothelial cancers, the use of AA-containing plants for medicinal purposes has a long history. The FDA has issued warnings regarding consumption of AA-containing supplements. History Early medical uses Birthwort plants, and the aristolochic acids they contain, were quite common in ancient Greek and Roman medical texts, well-established as an herb there by the fifth century BC. Birthworts appeared in Ayurvedic texts by 400 AD, and in Chinese texts later in the fifth century. In these ancient times, it was used to treat kidney and urinary pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aristolochiaceae
The Aristolochiaceae () are a family, the birthwort family, of flowering plants with seven genera and about 400 known species belonging to the order Piperales. The type genus is ''Aristolochia'' L. Description They are mostly perennial, herbaceous plants, shrubs, or lianas. The membranous, cordate simple leaves are spread out, growing alternately along the stem on leaf stalks. The margins are commonly entire. No stipules are present. The bizarre flowers are large to medium-sized, growing in the leaf axils. They are bilaterally or radially symmetrical. Classification Aristolochiaceae are magnoliids, a basal group of angiosperms which are not part of the large categories of monocots or eudicots. As of APG IV (2016), the former families Hydnoraceae and Lactoridaceae are included, because exclusion would make Aristolochiaceae in the traditional sense paraphyletic. Some newer classification schemes, such as the update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, place the family Aristol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemical Composition - Aristolochic Acid
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., without breaking chemical bonds. Chemical substances can be simple substances (substances consisting of a single chemical element), chemical compounds, or alloys. Chemical substances are often called 'pure' to set them apart from mixtures. A common example of a chemical substance is pure water; it has the same properties and the same ratio of hydrogen to oxygen whether it is isolated from a river or made in a laboratory. Other chemical substances commonly encountered in pure form are diamond (carbon), gold, table salt ( sodium chloride) and refined sugar ( sucrose). However, in practice, no substance is entirely pure, and chemical purity is specified according to the intended use of the chemical. Chemical substances exist as solids, liqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California Native Plant Society
The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is a California environmental non-profit organization (501(c)3) that seeks to increase understanding of California's native flora and to preserve it for future generations. The mission of CNPS is to conserve California native plants and their natural habitats, and increase understanding, appreciation, and horticultural use of native plants throughout the entire state and California Floristic Province. History California Native Plant Society was founded in 1965 by professional botanists and grassroots activists who, after saving an important native plant garden in Berkeley's Tilden Regional Park, were inspired to create an ongoing organization with the mission to save and promote the native plants of California. Structure For 50 years, professional CNPS staff and volunteers have worked alongside scientists, government officials, and regional planners to protect habitats and species, and to advocate for well-informed environmental practic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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