Psychoactive Plant Database - Neuroactive Phytochemical Collection

1. PLoS One. 2020 Nov 4;15(11):e0241666. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241666. 
eCollection 2020.

Sub-lethal effects of the consumption of Eupatorium buniifolium essential oil in 
honeybees.

Rossini C(1), Rodrigo F(1), Davyt B(1)(2), Umpiérrez ML(1)(2), González A(1), 
Garrido PM(2), Cuniolo A(2), Porrini LP(2), Eguaras MJ(2), Porrini MP(1)(2).

Author information:
(1)Laboratorio de Ecología Química, Facultad de Química, Universidad de la 
República de Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay.
(2)Centro de Investigación en Abejas Sociales (CIAS), Instituto de 
Investigaciones en Producción Sanidad y Ambiente (IIPROSAM), Facultad de 
Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Mar del 
Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

When developing new products to be used in honeybee colonies, further than acute 
toxicity, it is imperative to perform an assessment of risks, including various 
sublethal effects. The long-term sublethal effects of xenobiotics on honeybees, 
more specifically of acaricides used in honeybee hives, have been scarcely 
studied, particularly so in the case of essential oils and their components. In 
this work, chronic effects of the ingestion of Eupatorium buniifolium 
(Asteraceae) essential oil were studied on nurse honeybees using laboratory 
assays. Survival, food consumption, and the effect on the composition of 
cuticular hydrocarbons (CHC) were assessed. CHC were chosen due to their key 
role as pheromones involved in honeybee social recognition. While food 
consumption and survival were not affected by the consumption of the essential 
oil, CHC amounts and profiles showed dose-dependent changes. All groups of CHC 
(linear and branched alkanes, alkenes and alkadienes) were altered when 
honeybees were fed with the highest essential oil dose tested (6000 ppm). The 
compounds that significantly varied include n-docosane, n-tricosane, 
n-tetracosane, n-triacontane, n-tritriacontane, 9-tricosene, 7-pentacosene, 
9-pentacosene, 9-heptacosene, tritriacontene, pentacosadiene, hentriacontadiene, 
tritriacontadiene and all methyl alkanes. All of them but pentacosadiene were 
up-regulated. On the other hand, CHC profiles were similar in healthy and 
Nosema-infected honeybees when diets included the essential oil at 300 and 3000 
ppm. Our results show that the ingestion of an essential oil can impact CHC and 
that the effect is dose-dependent. Changes in CHC could affect the signaling 
process mediated by these pheromonal compounds. To our knowledge this is the 
first report of changes in honeybee cuticular hydrocarbons as a result of 
essential oil ingestion.

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241666
PMCID: PMC7641371
PMID: 33147299 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Conflict of interest statement: The authors have declared that no competing 
interests exist.


2. Nano Lett. 2020 Aug 12;20(8):6059-6066. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02098.
Epub  2020 Jul 9.

Visualization of Crystallographic Orientation and Twist Angles in 
Two-Dimensional Crystals with an Optical Microscope.

Cui X(1)(2)(3), Sun L(1), Zeng Y(1), Hao Y(1)(2), Liu Y(4), Wang D(5), Yi Y(1), 
Loh KP(4), Zheng J(1)(3), Liu Y(1).

Author information:
(1)Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Organic 
Solids, Institute of Chemistry, CAS, Beijing 100190, China.
(2)University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
(3)Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
(4)Department of Chemistry and Graphene Research Centre, National University of 
Singapore, 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543.
(5)Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, Institute of 
Chemistry, CAS, Beijing 100190, China.

Recently, twisted two-dimensional (2D) bilayers have attracted intense interest 
due to the emergence of exotic physics in moiré superlattices arising from 
strong interactions between electrons in the two misaligned lattices. Accurate 
determination and control of crystallographic orientation is vital to construct 
twisted 2D bilayers. Here, we demonstrate a very simple method to visualize 
crystallographic orientation in various 2D crystals by directly imaging 
n-tritriacontane crystallites epitaxially grown on 2D crystals using an ordinary 
optical microscope. The specific orientation of the molecular assembly allows 
the lattice orientation of the underlying 2D crystals to be determined with a 
high precision using an optical microscope. When tested on a 2D bilayer 
comprising staggered stacked MoS2 crystals, the twist angle can also be 
determined accurately. Our findings offer a nondestructive method for 
determining the lattice structure of 2D crystals and their bilayers and can also 
be a metrology tool for establishing large-area surface crystalline order.

DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c02098
PMID: 32584585


3. Chem Biodivers. 2014 Dec;11(12):1923-38. doi: 10.1002/cbdv.201400048.

Biogeographic variation of foliar n-alkanes of Juniperus communis var. saxatilis 
Pallas from the Balkans.

Rajčević N(1), Janaćković P, Dodoš T, Tešević V, Marin PD.

Author information:
(1)University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Botany and Botanical 
Garden 'Jevremovac', Studentski trg 16, RS-11000 Belgrade. nemanja@bio.bg.ac.rs.

The composition of the epicuticular n-alkanes isolated from the leaves of ten 
populations of Juniperus communis L. var. saxatilis Pallas from central 
(continental) and western (coastal) areas of the Balkan Peninsula was 
characterized by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses. In the leaf waxes, 14 n-alkane 
homologues with chain-lengths ranging from C22 to C35 were identified. All 
samples were dominated by n-tritriacontane (C33 ), but differences in two other 
dominant n-alkanes allowed separating the coastal from the continental 
populations. Several statistical methods (ANOVA, principal component, 
discriminant, and cluster analyses as well as the Mantel test) were deployed to 
analyze the diversity and variability of the epicuticular-leaf-n-alkane patterns 
of the ten natural populations of J. communis var. saxatilis and their relation 
to different geographic and bioclimatic parameters. Cluster analysis showed a 
high correlation of the leaf-n-alkane patterns with the geographical 
distribution of the investigated samples, differentiating the coastal from the 
continental populations of this taxon. Several bioclimatic parameters related to 
aridity were highly correlated with this differentiation.

Copyright © 2014 Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta AG, Zürich.

DOI: 10.1002/cbdv.201400048
PMID: 25491336 [Indexed for MEDLINE]


4. Chem Biodivers. 2014 Jul;11(7):1042-52. doi: 10.1002/cbdv.201300363.

Leaf n-alkanes as characters differentiating coastal and continental Juniperus 
deltoides populations from the Balkan Peninsula.

Rajčević N(1), Janaćković P, Dodoš T, Tešević V, Bojović S, Marin PD.

Author information:
(1)University of Belgrade, Faculty of Biology, Institute of Botany and Botanical 
Garden 'Jevremovac', Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. 
nemanja@bio.bg.ac.rs.

The composition of the cuticular n-alkanes isolated from the leaves of nine 
populations of Juniperus deltoides R.P.Adams from continental and coastal areas 
of the Balkan Peninsula was characterized by GC-FID and GC/MS analyses. In the 
leaf waxes, 14 n-alkane homologues with chain-lengths ranging from C22 to C35 
were identified. n-Tritriacontane (C33 ) was dominant in the waxes of all 
populations, but variations between the populations in the contents of all 
n-alkanes were observed. Several statistical methods (ANOVA, principal 
component, discriminant, and cluster analyses) were used to investigate the 
diversity and variability of the cuticular-leaf-n-alkane patterns of the nine J. 
deltoides populations. This is the first report on the n-alkane composition for 
this species. The multivariate statistical analyses evidenced a high correlation 
of the leaf-n-alkane pattern with the geographical distribution of the 
investigated samples, differentiating the coastal from the continental 
populations of this taxon.

Copyright © 2014 Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta AG, Zürich.

DOI: 10.1002/cbdv.201300363
PMID: 25044590 [Indexed for MEDLINE]


5. J Econ Entomol. 2006 Feb;99(1):38-47. doi: 10.1093/jee/99.1.38.

Mode of action of a novel nonchemical method of insect control: atmospheric 
pressure plasma discharge.

Donohue KV(1), Bures BL, Bourham MA, Roe RM.

Author information:
(1)Department of Entomology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7647, 
Raleigh, NC 27695-7647, USA.

Atmospheric pressure plasma discharge (APPD) has been applied to a number of 
industrial applications, including the bacterial sterilization of medical 
equipment of bacteria. APPD may also have applications in insect control. A 
positive correlation was found between exposure time to APPD and mortality of 
western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande); tobacco thrips, 
Frankliniella fusca (Hinds); Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse); 
twospotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch; and German cockroach, 
Blattella germanica (L.), with the level of mortality also increasing with time 
after treatment. Cockroaches exposed to APPD for 60, 90, 120, and 180 s lost on 
average 7.5 +/- 0.8, 8.1 +/- 0.6, 8.7 +/- 0.4, and 10.1 +/- 1.1 (+/-1 SEM) mg of 
water weight, respectively, which was an increase over that of the controls. The 
metabolic rate of cockroaches exposed to plasma for 180 s increased from 0.79 
+/- 0.03 to 1.07 +/- 0.04 ml of oxygen consumed mg-cockroach(-1) h(-1) at 
standard temperature and pressure. The level of cuticular hydrocarbons 
identified by electron impact gas chromatography-mass spectrometry were not 
significantly affected by plasma exposure in the green peach aphid, Myzus 
persicae (Sulzer), German cockroach, and citrus mealybug, Planococcus citri 
(Risso), except for a reduction in n-tritriacontane in the latter. However, 
changes in the behavior of cockroaches after plasma exposure, including the loss 
of photo-, vibro-, and thigmotropic responses, inability to right themselves, 
and hyperexcitatory symptoms, suggest that the site of action of APPD in insects 
is the nervous and/or neuromuscular system.

DOI: 10.1093/jee/99.1.38
PMID: 16573321 [Indexed for MEDLINE]