Wild edible fungi are collected for food and to earn money in more than 80 countries. In one of these countries, Iran, several species of edible truffle can be found growing in Bandar-e Abbas, Tabriz, Qazvin and Zanjan provinces. They are normally harvested during mid-winter and early spring, particularly from January to March. Experinced harvesters identify the location of the truffles from crevices that appear in the surface of the soil above the truffles. A yellowish species grows solitary in the soil, is about the size of a large potato and has affirm texture. This species forms 5-10 cm below the soil surface and is yellowish inside. The truffles that had been collected from these areas were investigated in laboratories. Cytological evaluations showed that each ascus contains 8 ascospores. According to morphologic and cytological characteristics, this species was identified Terfezia boudieri. This species is not ectomycorrhizal with trees. Because the vegetation in the area consists of moss, lichen and perennial sedges. The field and laboratory studies showed that Kobresia bellardii have ectomycorrhizal associations with Terfezia boudieri in studied areas.
The main aim of this study was to evaluate the yield and compliance of selected Iranian garlic (Allium sativum L.) cultivars, including Tuyserkan (TSN), Heydareh (HDH), Mouien (MUN), and Taroom (TRM), during two growing seasons. The TRM cultivar germination rate is higher than the other cultivars studied. The TRM cultivars have quite remarkable values for the dry weight, fresh weight, stem diameter, and the number of leaves present. The fresh weight and dry weight of the TRM cultivar for the second year are 33.8 t/ha and 16.7 t/ha, respectively. However, on average, the HDH cultivar is the tallest plant in the experiments. Average pyruvic acid content in fresh samples of the TRM and HDH cultivars is 78 µm/gfw and 69.3 µm/gfw, respectively. It is observed that there are remarkable differences in the level of pyruvic acid between the different cultivars. The growth, development, and yield of plants are highly dependent on their genetic characteristics; in this experiment, the TRM cultivar shows a good yield (16.7 t/ha), and the evaluated characteristics improve compared to the other cultivars studied, which could be due to the high compatibility of this cultivar to the environmental conditions of the study. The excellent performance on the yield of TRM makes this cultivar more appreciable on a commercial level.
Folk medicine such as herbal and natural products have been used for centuries in every culture throughout the world. The Chenopodiaceae family with more than 1500 species is dispersed worldwide. The Iranian wild spinach (Blitum virgatum L.) is an important traditional medicinal plant used for antiviral diseases such as pneumonia and other respiratory track infections. This plant is a mountainous herb and is growing upper than 3000 m. We performed a mass selection plant breeding program on wild populations of this Iranian wild spinach during 2013–2020. Based on experimental and field characteristics this plant was identified as B. virgatum, |abbaricum|, and related characteristics were prepared with reference to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). Mass selection program resulted from an adapted population named as medicinal spinach (MSP) population. To compare the mineral content of the mass-selected population with cultivated spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. |Varamin 88|), both plants were planted in pots and fields under similar conditions. In five leaves stage, plant samples were taken from both leaf and crown sections and used for experimental analysis. Atomic absorption spectroscopy was used to determine the mineral content including iron (Fe), zinc (Z), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu). Our results showed the selected medicinal spinach population (MSP) with about 509 ppm iron was an important iron-rich population with about 3.5–4 times more than the amount of iron in cultivated spinach in the same conditions. Because iron is an important essential element for blood production, respiration process, energy metabolisms, synthesis of collagen, and some neurotransmitters are needed for proper immune function, so the supply of absorbable adequate iron is very important. The reasons such as the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affects the amount of exchangeable oxygen in the lungs and historical local evidences of the use of this plant (MSP) for pneumonia, could open new horizons for focusing on studies related to the use of ancestral human experiences in addition to scientifically modern research.
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