Influence of elements of climate change on the growth and fecundity of Datura stramonium

New frontiers of invasive plants for biosynthesis of nanoparticles towards biomedical applications: A review

Above 1000 invasive species have been growing and developing ubiquitously on Earth. With extremely vigorous adaptability, strong reproduction, and spreading powers, invasive species have posed an alarming threat to indigenous plants, water quality, soil, as well as biodiversity. It was estimated that an economic loss of billions of dollars or equivalent to 1 % of gross domestic product as a consequence of lost crops, control efforts, and damage costs caused by invasive plants in the United States. While eradicating invasive plants from the ecosystems is practically infeasible, taking advantage of invasive plants as a sustainable, locally available, and zero-cost source to provide valuable phytochemicals for bionanoparticles fabrication is worth considering. Here, we review the harms, benefits, and role of invasive species as important botanical sources to extract natural compounds such as piceatannol, resveratrol, and quadrangularin-A, flavonoids, and triterpenoids, which are linked tightly to the formation and application of bionanoparticles. As expected, the invasive plant-mediated bionanoparticles have exhibited outstanding antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, and antioxidant activities. The mechanism of biomedical activities of the invasive plant-mediated bionanoparticles was insightfully addressed and discussed. We also expect that this review not only contributes to efforts to combat invasive plant species but also opens new frontiers of bionanoparticles in the biomedical applications, therapeutic treatment, and smart agriculture.

Emerging Issues on Tropane Alkaloid Contamination of Food in Europe

The occurrence of tropane alkaloids (TAs), toxic plant metabolites, in food in Europe was studied to identify those TAs in food most relevant for human health. Information was extracted from the literature and the 2016 study from the European Food Safety Authority. Calystegines were identified as being inherent TAs in foods common in Europe, such as Solanum tuberosum (potato), S. melongena (eggplant, aubergine), Capsicum annuum (bell pepper) and Brassica oleracea (broccoli, Brussels sprouts). In addition, some low-molecular-weight tropanes and Convolvulaceae-type TAs were found inherent to bell pepper. On the other hand, atropine, scopolamine, convolvine, pseudotropine and tropine were identified as emerging TAs resulting from the presence of associated weeds in food. The most relevant food products in this respect are unprocessed and processed cereal-based foods for infants, young children or adults, dry (herbal) teas and canned or frozen vegetables. Overall, the occurrence data on both inherent as well as on associated TAs in foods are still scarce, highlighting the need for monitoring data. It also indicates the urge for food safety authorities to work with farmers, plant breeders and food business operators to prevent the spreading of invasive weeds and to increase awareness.

Germination Response of Datura stramonium L. to Different pH and Salinity Levels under Different Temperature Conditions

Weeds can be one of the most severe threats to crop production, especially when they are widespread and highly adaptable. Part of the adaptive strategy of plants is the ability to germinate in different conditions. Germination is the first developmental phase of plant life and is fundamental for its establishment. In this work, the germination of two populations of Datura stramonium L. at two different sites in Croatia (one cropped, the other non-agricultural) was tested under a wide range of salinity stress, 4, 8, 12, and 16 dS/m, and pH stress, values 1-9, at two temperature ranges of 15-25 °C and 18-30 °C. The results show that this species can tolerate high salinity, with a high number of seeds germinating, even under the highest level of saline stress and especially at higher temperatures: 21.7% of seeds germinated at 15-25 °C and 51.2% at 18-30 °C. D. stramonium also appears to be quite acid tolerant, with a significant reduction in germination only at pH 2, and no germination only at pH 1. Germination was always higher at higher temperatures, independently of abiotic stress. Although there were some differences between the two populations in the final germination percentages, they were similar in their responses to the abiotic stresses.

Interactive effect of elevated CO2 and drought on physiological traits of Datura stramonium

Rising atmospheric CO₂ concentrations are known to influence the response of many plants under drought. This paper aimed to measure the leaf gas exchange, water use efficiency, carboxylation efficiency, and photosystem II (PS II) activity of Datura stramonium under progressive drought conditions, along with ambient conditions of 400 ppm (aCO₂) and elevated conditions of 700 ppm (eCO₂). Plants of D. stramonium were grown at 400 ppm and 700 ppm under 100 and 60% field capacity in a laboratory growth chamber. For 10 days at two-day intervals, photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, intercellular CO₂ concentration, water use efficiency, intrinsic water use efficiency, instantaneous carboxylation efficiency, PSII activity, electron transport rate, and photochemical quenching were measured. While drought stress had generally negative effects on the aforementioned physiological traits of D. stramonium, it was found that eCO₂ concentration mitigated the adverse effects of drought and most of the physiological parameters were sustained with increasing drought duration when compared to that with aCO₂. D. stramonium, which was grown under drought conditions, was re-watered on day 8 and indicated a partial recovery in all the parameters except maximum fluorescence, with this recovery being higher with eCO₂ compared to aCO₂. These results suggest that elevated CO₂ mitigates the adverse growth effects of drought, thereby enhancing the adaptive mechanism of this weed by improving its water use efficiency. It is concluded that this weed has the potential to take advantage of climate change by increasing its competitiveness with other plants in drought-prone areas, suggesting that it could expand into new localities.

Scopolamine and atropine in feeds - determination with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry

Tropane alkaloids (TAs) are naturally occurring plant toxins. Due to the fact that TA-producing plants can enter the food chain, they pose a risk for animals and human health. Therefore, sensitive analytical methods need to be developed to provide an adequate safety of feed and food. The presented method is based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry detection and enables the determination of scopolamine and atropine in compound feeds at a low level of contamination. Limits of quantification for scopolamine and atropine were 0.92 and 0.93 µg kg^-1, respectively. Scopolamine-D₃ and atropine-D₃ were used for quantification. The method was successfully validated and applied to the analysis of 42 feed samples. Among investigated feeds, 67% contained at least one of the monitored alkaloids. Soybean meals were the feed materials contaminated most often, also with the highest determined concentrations of TAs, which reached 147.9 µg kg^-1.

Effects on Photosynthetic Response and Biomass Productivity of Acacia longifolia ssp. longifolia Under Elevated CO2 and Water-Limited Regimes

It is known that the impact of elevated CO2 (eCO2) will cause differential photosynthetic responses in plants, resulting in varying magnitudes of growth and productivity of competing species. Because of the aggressive invasive nature of Acacia longifolia ssp. longifolia, this study is designed to investigate the effect of eCO2 on gas exchange parameters, water use efficiency, photosystem II (PSII) activities, and growth of this species. Plants of A. longifolia ssp. longifolia were grown at 400 ppm (ambient) and 700 ppm (elevated) CO2 under 100 and 60% field capacity. Leaf gas exchange parameters, water use efficiency, intrinsic water use efficiency, instantaneous carboxylation efficiency, and PSII activity were measured for 10 days at 2-day intervals. eCO2 mitigated the adverse effects of drought conditions on the aforementioned parameters compared to that grown under ambient CO2 (aCO2) conditions. A. longifolia, grown under drought conditions and re-watered at day 8, indicated a partial recovery in most of the parameters measured, suggesting that the recovery of this species under eCO2 will be higher than that with aCO2 concentration. This gave an increase in water use efficiency, which is one of the reasons for the observed enhanced growth of A. longifolia under drought stress. Thus, eCO2 will allow to adopt this species in the new environment, even under severe climatic conditions, and foreshadow its likelihood of invasion into new areas.

Emerging tropane alkaloid contaminations under climate change

Climate-driven invasions of toxin-producing plants compromise human health, food safety, and food security. A recent poisoning that involved cereal products distributed by the World Food Programme revealed contamination with tropane alkaloids from seeds of invasive common thorn-apple. With continued global change, plant toxin contaminations could become a more widespread phenomenon.