Background: Stingless bees or meliponines (family Apidae, subfamily Meliponinae, tribe Meliponini) are eusocial bees from tropical and subtropical regions. Propolis of Scaptotrigona aff. postica (Latreille, 1807) is used in the state of Maranhão (Northeast Brazil) in ointments to treat tumors and wounds. Samples of propolis of S. aff. postica (Apidae, Meliponini) were collected monthly from an apiary located in Barra do Corda (state of Maranhão, Northeast Brazil). Extracts of the 12 samples were obtained with 80% ethanol. Constituents of the samples were characterized by high performance liquid chromatography coupled to photodiode array detector and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry analysis, amounting to 100 substances. Results: Representatives of several classes of secondary metabolites were characterized, including benzoic and cinnamic acids, flavonoids (chalcones, flavone-C-glycosides, flavonol aglycones, and glycosides), alkyl and alkenyl resorcinols, xanthones, diterpenes, cycloartane-type triterpenoids, pentacyclic triterpenoids, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, and hydroxycinnamic acid amides (HCAAs). Considerable qualitative differences in chemical composition among samples were observed, depending on the year period of collection.Principal Coordinate Analysis recognized three distinct year periods (Jan-Mar, April-Sep, Oct-Dec) according to the corresponding chemical profiles. Conclusion:Compared with previous studies, the present work indicates that considerable differences in chemical composition occur also from year to year. Contrary to most propolis types reported so far, which derive exclusively or mostly from a single botanical source, the propolis from Barra do Corda seemingly depends on several resin sources. It is suggested that chalcones and flavonols stem from Mimosa tenuiflora (Mimosoideae); resorcinols, xanthones, and cycloartane-type triterpenoids, from fruits of Mangifera indica (Anacardiaceae); pyrrolizidine alkaloids, possibly from some Crotalaria species (Faboideae); HCAAs probably originate from pollen contaminating the propolis samples.The propolis of S. aff. postica poses challenges and possibilities of study for apicultural researchers, chemists, and pharmacologists.
Dalbergia nigra is a Brazilian native species with relevant economic and ecological roles. Due to its indiscriminate exploration is an endangered species. Besides the great demand for seedling production, only a few aspects of D. nigra germination have been explored. Thus, this study aimed to determine how harvesting immature fruits, fruits processing, and substrate could influence Dalbergia nigra germination process. Five thousand immature, and five thousand mature fruits evenly distributed between two replicas of each of tree 3 treatments; integral fruits, fruits with edges cut, and direct seed sowing in vermiculite. Seeking to evaluate substrate influence over germination, 252 seeds were strewed in the prepared organic substrate. No fruits harvested in visually green appearance did germinate under any of treatments. Integral fruits and cut procedure presented the same time for the first germination, almost two times the amount observed to direct seeds sowing. Besides that, the germination rate was not statistically affected. We found that different substrates also influence the germination pattern, as seen to seed processing when using vermiculite as a substrate, germination starts earlier but the germination rate was not statistically affected. Harvest of Dalbergia nigra green fruits is not an adequate procedure seeking seedling production. The reduction on germination time and better seedling quality, indicate that direct seed sowing procedure is adequate seeking seedling production. Vermiculite substrate gave better results, reducing the time required to germination process. Besides that, this substrate did not affect the germination rate during this study period.
Seed dormancy implicates on delay and hampers seedling production. The increasing demand for greater seedlings production favors techniques that overcome seed dormancy. Cassia ferruginea is an economically relevant species that seeds present tegumentar dormancy, and there is no registry of the best sowing approach. In order to evaluate the influence of the mechanical scarification procedure, and open-field production method in the germination process of Cassia ferruginea, about five thousand seeds were evenly distributed between control and mechanical scarification with emery. The control group presented a low germination rate during the period of analysis. However, mean germination time and mean time to stabilize germination were remarkably lower to scarified seeds, also presenting higher germination rates and synchronization. The sporadic and low germination pattern observed in the control group is associated with ecological implications. The open-field production process presented significant differences to important indexes when compared to the greenhouse production process. Thus, mechanical scarification with emery is an appropriate method to overcome Cassia ferruginea seed dormancy, providing a faster, synchronized, and better seed lot exploitation. Favorable aspects of commercial seedling production. While the open-field production process was not adequate for seedling production.
Hymenaea courbaril is an endangered species, promising to reforestation programs and mainly explored as a wood source. The available information concerning long-term storage methods, seed recalcitrance, parental, and substrate influence is scarce. This study focused on the seed behavior according to population origin and during one-year storage, also testing the efficiency of the low-temperature conservation. Variations between the uncertainty indexes were found to the studied populations after long-term storage. There was no significant loss of the germination potential in consequence of the prolonged storage period. Although, older seeds promoted gradually greater delayed germination. Germination speed, synchrony, and uncertainty indexes were substantially different between the -20° conservation and control. H. courbaril seeds are capable of long-term storage without losing their germination potential, indicating an orthodox behavior.
Hymenaea courbaril is an endangered Brazilian native species. Recently, this species has been used on reforestation programs. So, production techniques that propitiate faster germination are very important. Although, seed dormancy, which could hamper the seedling production process, is not extensively recognized. Thus, this study focused on evaluating the influence of early harvest technique, scarification and pre-imbibition techniques to overcome H. courbaril seed dormancy in two steps. First, evaluating green fruits harvest could influence the germination process, 137 visually healthy seeds from green fruits and 400 seeds from mature fruits were selected. Seeds from green fruits presented similar results to seeds from mature fruits. Probably due to the natural seed tegument rupture. After, the influence of mechanical scarification, pre-imbibition and the combination of both methods were measured. All studied processing methods did not affect significantly any of the germination measurement parameters. Mechanical scarification exhibits similar responses as previous studies showed when using acid scarification. The technique of harvesting green fruits from the treetop seems to be applicable to commercial seedling production. While none of the studied treatments promoted significantly benefits to germination at any of the indexes.
Morphological integrations are unknown to forestry seeds. Understanding if seed measurements could predict its future seedlings features is a central question in seedling production. Hymenaea courbaril is an important species in this context and to the applied forestry.Thus, this study aimed to understand how some seedling features, could be related to the seed weight, and be affected by the population origin. The measurements consisted of seedling collar diameter, weight, protophilus area, central and lateral vein. Seed weight consistently varied between the populations in the study. Both populations had higher weight ranges than mentioned in the literature. There was no strong evidence that greater seed weight requires lesser time to germinate, conflicting with previous information. All the measurements presented enough shreds of evidence to be considered different when comparing the populations, except for the protophilus area and lateral vein length. All the studied measurements presented low correlation indexes to seed weight, except for seedling collar diameter, and seedling weight, which presented a moderate correlation. Protophilus elongation pattern was strongly associated with the leaf width when compared to midvein.
The contents of total ashes and ethanol soluble substances were determined for propolis samples from species of two Meliponini genera: Melipona and Scaptotrigona. All Melipona samples corresponded to geopropolis (propolis containing aggregated soil material), with ash contents above 40%. Only one species of Scaptotrigona was shown to produce geopropolis, but with ash content (12%) much lower than Melipona samples. In Melipona a high negative correlation was observed between ash and ethanol solubles. Not only aggregated soil may contribute to lower the content of ethanol solubles. It is hypothesized that wax content may have a similar influence.
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