Categories
Herbs & Plants

Setaria viridis pycnocoma

 

Botanical Name : Setaria viridis pycnocoma
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Setaria
Species: S. viridis
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Poales
Synonyms: Panicum pycnocomum, Setaria pycnocoma

Common Names: Ju da gou wei cao, Panicum pycnocomum Steudel.

Habitat : Setaria viridis pycnocoma is native to E. Asia – Japan. It grows on roadsides, forest margins and as a crop weed, especially in S. italica fields, at elevations below 2700 metres.

Description:
Setaria viridis pycnocoma is an annual plant. Culms little branched at base, 60–150 cm tall. Leaf blades 15–40 × 1–2.5 cm, glabrous on both surfaces. Panicle sometimes lobed, 7–24 × 1.5–2.5 cm; bristles green, brownish or purplish, 7–12 mm. Spikelets 2.5–3 mm. This robust form of Setaria viridis may be of hybrid origin, resulting from crossing with S. italica. Unlike Setaria italica, the spikelets are shed whole….CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

It is hardy to zone (UK) 6. It is in flower from Aug to October, and the seeds ripen from Sep to October. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Wind.

Cultivation :
Succeeds in any well-drained soil in full sun. This robust form of S. viridis may be of hybrid origin, resulting from crossing with S. italica. Unlike S. italica the spikelets are shed whole.

Propagation:
Seed – sow early spring in a greenhouse and only just cover the seed. Germination is usually quick and good. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle and grow them on fast. Plant them out in late spring, after the last expected frosts. Whilst this is fine for small quantities, it would be an extremely labour intensive method if larger amounts were to be grown. The seed can be sown in situ in the middle of spring though it is then later in coming into flower and may not ripen its seed in a cool summer

Edible Uses: Seed – cooked. It can be eaten as a sweet or savoury food in all the ways that rice is used, or ground into a flour and made into porridge, cakes, puddings etc.

Medicinal Uses: Could not find much.

Resources:

Setaria viridis


http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=242348807
http://www.naturalmedicinalherbs.net/herbs/s/setaria-viridis-pycnocoma.php
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Setaria+viridis+pycnocoma

Categories
News on Health & Science

Leukemia stem cells to map how disease begins

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In a major breakthrough that could help devise better treatment for blood cancer and aid the development of drugs that would stop the process before it advances, Canadian scientists have for the first time converted normal human blood cells to leukemia stem cells in the lab.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

The team then transplanted the converted cells into lab mice and watched it replicate the entire disease process, from the very moment it begins. Till now, most human leukemia research involved studying a patient’s diseased cells. But because cancer takes months to develop, “just studying the cells at the end of the process does not tell us the series of changes that caused the cells to become leukemic and when they happened. We have now duplicated the natural process of cell death, as it happens. This will help us understand how cancer begins,” Dr John Dick at Ontario Cancer Institute said.

According to Dick, this peek into leukemia’s development will allow scientists to ask questions that include: Is the childhood disease different from that in adults? In which cell type does leukemia arise? And which genes are involved and in which order do they have to operate?

Reacting to the study, former head of Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute Dr Y P Bhatia told TOI, “Once the basic cellular structure is known, better treatment solutions can be devised. This is a major breakthrough. Scientists can now see the first cells that will give birth to leukemia and then watch as the disease as it slowly progresses.”

The groundbreaking research involved infecting cells from umbilical cord blood with a virus engineered to carry one of the genes known to cause certain types of leukemia. Dr Dick’s team introduced a specific leukemia gene into normal stem cells and injected the genetically altered cells into mice that lacked immune systems. This resulted in the mices developing leukemia, displaying the same characteristics and patterns of human disease.

He said, “We are studying how leukemia arises in the first place. We found that with the leukemia gene we were using, the disease only arose from immature stem and progenitor cells. The leukemic stem cells that were created seemed to change as the human leukemia was grown for longer times in a series of transplanted mice.”

Source:The Times Of India

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