Silymarin, a bioactive compound derived primarily from the seeds and fruit of the milk thistle (Silybum marianum) plant, has garnered increasing attention in recent years due to its potential applications in agriculture. This comprehensive review explores the multifaceted role of silymarin in agricultural practices, shedding light on its chemistry, biological activities, and diverse applications. The chemical structure and properties of silymarin are elucidated, emphasizing its unique solubility, stability, and bioavailability, which render it suitable for agricultural use. A significant portion of the review is dedicated to examining the biological activities of silymarin, which encompasses its antioxidant properties. The underlying mechanisms responsible for these activities are explored, highlighting their potential as a natural solution for mitigating environmental stressors that adversely affect crop health and productivity. Illustrative examples from research studies and practical applications underscore its effectiveness in safeguarding agricultural yields and ensuring food security. Furthermore, the review delves into the potential of silymarin to enhance crop growth, yield, and quality. Mechanisms through which silymarin influences plant physiology and metabolism are examined, providing valuable insights into its role as a growth-promoting agent in agriculture. The review concludes with a forward-looking examination of the prospects of silymarin in agriculture, highlighting emerging trends and areas of innovation that hold promise for sustainable and resilient farming systems. In summary, this review consolidates the current body of knowledge surrounding silymarin’s potential in agriculture. It underscores the versatility of silymarin as a natural tool for crop protection, growth enhancement, and environmental sustainability, offering valuable insights for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers seeking innovative approaches to address the challenges of modern agriculture.
Graphene oxide can be referred to as oxidized graphene. Similar to graphene, oxidized graphene possesses remarkable structural features, advantageous properties, and technical applications. Among polymeric matrices, conducting polymers have been categorized for p conjugated backbone and semiconducting features. In this context, doping, or nano-additive inclusion, has been found to enhance the electrical conduction features of conjugated polymers. Like other carbon nanostructures (fullerene, carbon nanotube, etc.), graphene has been used to reinforce the conjugated matrices. Graphene can be further modified into several derived forms, including graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and functionalized graphene. Among these, graphene oxide has been identified as an important graphene derivative and nanofiller for conducting matrices. This overview covers essential aspects and progressions in the sector of conjugated polymers and graphene oxide derived nanomaterials. Since the importance of graphene oxide derived nanocomposites, this overview has been developed aiming at conductive polymer/graphene oxide nanocomposites. The novelty of this article relies on the originality and design of the outline, the review framework, and recent literature gathering compared with previous literature reviews. To the best of our knowledge, such an all-inclusive overview of conducting polymer/graphene oxide focusing on fundamentals and essential technical developments has not been seen in the literature before. Due to advantageous structural, morphological, conducting, and other specific properties, conductive polymer/graphene oxide nanomaterials have been applied for a range of technical applications such as supercapacitors, photovoltaics, corrosion resistance, etc. Future research on these high-performance nanocomposites may overcome the design and performance-related challenges facing industrial utilization.
Under the background of green economic transformation, the sustainable utilization of ecological resources has become a trend, and bamboo all-for-one tourism has become a new development direction for bamboo-resource-rich areas. Based on the all-for-one tourism model and characteristics of bamboo resources, this paper puts forward a bamboo all-for-one tourism model, which shows the relationship between resources, products, and markets, and elaborates on the joint effect mechanism of industrial environment, governance environment, and external environment. Taking Yibin City, Sichuan Province as an example, this paper also analyzes existing problems of developing bamboo all-for-one tourism and then proposes suggestions to provide effective analytical ideas and reference, such as establishing a market-oriented all-product development model, introducing the sustainable development concept of bamboo management, establishing the management concept of sharing by all people, and driving all industries developing in a coordinated way.
In order to scientifically evaluate the germplasm resources of Momordica charantia in southern China, the diversity, correlation and cluster analysis were carried out on the main botanical characters of 56 Momordica charantia varieties, such as melon length, melon transverse diameter, single melon weight, internode length, stem diameter, leaf length and leaf width. The results showed that the variation coefficients of 7 agronomic characters of 56 Momordica charantia varieties ranged from 8.81% to 19.44%, the average variation coefficient was 14.21%, the maximum variation coefficient of single melon weight was 19.44%, and the minimum variation coefficient of melon cross diameter was 8.81%. The correlation analysis showed that there were correlations among the agronomic traits. The positive correlation coefficient between leaf length and leaf width was up to 0.978, and the negative correlation coefficient between single melon weight and internode length was up to 0.451. The 56 varieties were divided into 3 groups by cluster analysis, of which 92.86% of the materials were concentrated in the first and second groups, and there were only 4 materials in the third group. The results can provide a reference for the cultivation, utilization and genetic improvement of Momordica charantia resources in southern China.
Amyloidosis is a systemic disorder produced by the deposition of insoluble protein fibrils that fold and deposit in the myocardium. Patients with amyloidosis and cardiac involvement have higher mortality than patients without cardiac involvement. The two most prevalent forms of amyloidosis associated with cardiac involvement are AL amyloidosis, due to the deposition of immunoglobulin light chains, and ATTR amyloidosis, due to the deposition of the transthyretin (TTR) protein in mutated or senile form. This article aims to review the different cardiac imaging modalities (echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear medicine and tomography) that allow to determine the severity of cardiac involvement in patients with amyloidosis, the type of amyloidosis and its prognosis. Finally, we suggest a diagnostic algorithm to determine cardiac involvement in amyloidosis adapted to locally available diagnostic tools, with a practical and clinical approach.
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