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The late Middle Ages
Published in Michael J. O’Dowd, The History of Medications for Women, 2020
The iris is one of the oldest cultivated plants. Its name came from the Greek, Iris, the Rainbow goddess, messenger to the gods, because it appeared in many different colors. The iris was also dedicated to Juno and the flower, with its stem, gave rise to the scepter. In her Flowers and their Histories, Alice Coates (1956) wrote that an iris (possibly Iris florentina) was among the plants brought from Syria to Egypt by Thutmose III (1501–1447 BC) and is recognizably represented in bas-relief on the wall of the ‘Botanical Chamber’ in his temple at Karnak. The yellow water flag, Iris pseudacorus, is the origin of the fleur-de-lis. First adopted as an emblem in the sixth century by Clovis, the first king of the Francs, the iris flower was chosen by Louis VII as his blazon during the Crusades in the twelfth century. The iris flower thus became the Fleur de Louis, but in time became known as the ‘fleur de luce’ or ‘fleur de lis’.
UV Reflectance Photography
Published in Adrian Davies, Digital Ultraviolet and Infrared Photography, 2017
Photographing flowers and other plant structures in UV often reveals otherwise unseen patterns in the petals (often known as their UV signature), acting as guides to insects and leading them to the source of nectar in the flower. A lot of research has been carried out into the relationship between flowers in UV and insects, for example, and various plant groups, from orchids (it has been found that the majority of orchid species exhibit different patterns when photographed in UV) to carnivorous plants, have been examined in detail. Around 7 per cent of all flowers studied have patterns visible only in UV, all of which seem to use these patterns to attract pollinators. Good examples for photography are the marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus), winter aconite (Eranthis spp.), dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), evening primrose (Oenothera spp.), ragwort (Senecio spp.), sunflower (Helianthus spp.), beggarticks (Bidens spp.) and, probably the most striking, black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia spp.).
Current advances in nanocarriers for biomedical research and their applications
Published in Artificial Cells, Nanomedicine, and Biotechnology, 2018
George Kerry Rout, Han-Seung Shin, Sushanto Gouda, Sabuj Sahoo, Gitishree Das, Leonardo Fernandes Fraceto, Jayanta Kumar Patra
Enormous researches in the nanotechnology field have provided a list of various routes for synthesizing MNPs at present such as photochemical synthesis, electrochemical synthesis, template-directed growth and solution phase synthesis, but in addition to this all synthesis techniques, Green synthesis has stood more remarkable one due to its environment friendly, less expensive properties. In this technique, many biological systems such as plants, fungi, diatoms, bacteria, yeast and human cells are used to form MNPs by reducing the proteins and metabolites of organisms. MNPs can be synthesized from those plants, which have high capacity for the reduction and accumulation of strong metal ion, and the accumulated metals can be recovered after harvesting via smelting and sintering methods. The capacity of various plants Medicago sativa (alfalfa) and Brassica juncea (Mustard greens) to synthesize MNPs has been studied, and it has also been seen that metals gathered in the plants are in their nano form. For example, M. sativa and Iris pseudacorus (Yellow iris) accumulate icosahedra gold of 4 nm and semispherical copper of 2 nm were found respectively when grown on their respective metals [12]. Furthermore, their modification with heterogeneous functional groups opens a wide area to be conjugated to various biological ligands, antibodies and desired therapeutic drugs for their potential applications pharmacology, biotechnology and other related applied sciences, more specifically, tasks such as magnetic separation, preconcentration of the targeted analytes, targeted drug/gene delivery and biosensors for disease diagnosis and finally for various imaging modalities as an aid to image various disease states [13].