Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 199-221). Also available on the Internet in PDF format.

Since prehistoric times medicinal plants have been an invaluable source of medicinal preparations to mankind due to their respective chemical constituents. The family of the Mesembryanthemaceae is almost entirely endemic to southern Africa, and the subfamily Mesembryanthemoideae is a key source of previous reports of plants with traditional uses, both medicinal and culinary. In this thesis, phytochemical investigations were performed on a representative sample of the Mesembryanthemaceae genera and species, with emphasis on the subfamily Mesembryanthemoideae. The aims of this study were to record all ethnobotanical information on the medicinal and culinary uses of the Mesembryanthemaceae, and to isolate and identify alkaloids from selected taxa (especially those of medicinal interest) with specific emphasis on mesembrane alkaloids A review on the structural classification, biosynthesis and biological properties of the mesembrane alkaloids is presented in this dissertation. Experimentally, extracts of the 67 plants encompassing 15 genera and approximately 26 species which were investigated were prepared using one of two alkaloid extraction procedures, following which the extracts were screened for the presence of alkaloids by thin-layer chromatography. The extracts in which alkaloids were detected were analysed further using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Where possible, pure alkaloids were isolated from the crude alkaloid extracts and the pure compounds characterised using 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Six of the mesembrane alkaloids as well as the tyrosine-derived non-mesembrane alkaloid hordenine were found to be distributed amongst the various genera and species of the Mesembryanthemoideae. The mesembrane alkaloids detected include mesembrine, mesembrenone, mesembrenol, mesembranol, 4’-Omethylsceletenone and 4,5-dihydro-4’-O-methylsceletenone. Within the genus Sceletium mesembrine, mesembrenone, mesembrenol, mesembranol and hordenine were identified. Mesembrine, mesembrenone, mesembranol and hordenine were also detected in Aridaria. The sceletenone derivatives 4’-Omethylsceletenone and 4,5-dihydro-4’-O-methylsceletenone as well as hordenine were identified as the major alkaloid constituents of the genus Aptenia. No alkaloids were detected in the species of Brownanthus and Prenia investigated in this study. Amongst the genera Mesembryanthemum, Phyllobolus and Psilocaulon, a random distribution of the alkaloid hordenine was observed. During the course of this study, the isolation and characterisation of 4’-O-methylsceletenone and 4,5-dihydro-4’-O-methylsceletenone from both Aptenia cordifolia and Aptenia lancifolia, as well as the non-mesembrane alkaloid hordenine from a number of species, was achieved. The two mesembrane alkaloids have been prepared synthetically, but this is the first report of the presence of the compounds in a natural source. / Prof. F.R. van Heerden

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Geography. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 301-324). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR32068

Today, ecology-oriented thinking is increasing in people’s minds. However, urbanisation, with its accompanying character of environmental depletion, impacts on society, ecology, and economy. It makes me think about where places in nature are situated in our everyday lives. What is nature in our lives? In our mind now, how do we think about nature? My project, How Plants Think is to address the question how city inhabitants can begin to recognise a new way of looking at plants, the human relationship to nature in everyday life in the urban domestic space. This thesis examines the design field in the context of sustainability on the environmental and societal aspects. Observing relationships between humans and plants makes a different design perspective from emotion and design to posthumanism and design that enables designers to engage with complex issues. The resulting project displays a space where people to rethink about human-plant relationships, as well as the meaning of we, humans and nature, are tangled. It is not so much about design does itself, itis about what it can show us about what it has not been done.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-149). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-149). Also available on the Internet.

This study uses two independent surveys of the Alpine/Sub-alpine environmental zones of the Clear Range and Pavilion Mountain to explore the nature of the archaeological record in the higher elevations of the Southern Interior Plateau of British Columbia. The archaeological site information is derived from the original site records as well as a lithic analysis of associated assemblages. The archaeological material is examined in relation to ethnographic subsistence and settlement patterns, archaeological pattering in Upland Valleys (Upper Hat Creek Valley), and to other investigated Alpine/Sub-alpine areas such as the Cornwall Hills and Potato Mountain. Neither the Ethnographic nor Upland Valley Models provided a perfect fit for the archaeological information, but these two models did provide the foundation upon which the archaeological site classes could be derived. The results were clear in that the Alpine/Sub-alpine zones were an important part of the seasonal round for both hunting and plant food gathering/processing activities and were not just an extension of the Upland Valley zones. The diagnostic artifacts recovered from the Clear Range and Pavilion Mountain suggest that this area, and more specifically the Alpine/Sub-alpine environmental zones, have been used for hunting purposes for approximately 7000 years, though most of the dates are concentrated between 3500 and 200 BP. There are fewer dates for plant gathering and processing activities, but the radiocarbon dates suggest that plant processing started approximately 2000 BP. The majority of the archaeological sites for both the Clear Range and Pavilion Mountain are situated within the Montane Parkland environmental zone. Even so, the Alpine/Sub-alpine zones in the Clear Range and Pavilion Mountain were used differently. The Clear Range was used for both hunting and plant gathering/processing activities, while Pavilion Mountain and the Cornwall Hills were used primarily for hunting activities. Only on Potato Mountain were the majority of sites related to plant gathering/processing activities.

M.Sc. / This study aimed to systematically record and thus preserve indigenous plant use information of the Agter-Hantam area in a scientifically accurate way and to make a contribution to the knowledge of Khoi-San ethnobotany. The research work met all the minimum standards for ethnobotanical research as proposed by Heinrich et al. (2009), which includes that field studies should be built on a clear conceptual framework and hypothesis testing, that ethical clearance should be obtained, the methodology/ research procedures should adhere to minimum requirements, and the research should comply with data standards that will make it possible to use specific information in future experimental and applied research. The study area was the Agter-Hantam region, Calvinia district, Northern Cape Province of South Africa, where the ancestors of the supervisor have had a well-recorded presence since the 1770’s. The rapid appraisal methodology was initially used and this was followed by a new rigorous and practical quantitative approach developed during this study ̶ here referred to as the Matrix Method in conducting ethnobotanical field work. The survey has revealed a wealth of traditional knowledge on useful plants amongst people of Khoi-San decent in the Agter-Hantam. The traditional and contemporary uses of 64 plant species were accurately recorded. Previously unpublished information on indigenous plant use revealed by this study includes 14 new species records of useful plants, 20 new vernacular names not recorded in literature, and 99 new uses for 46 of the plant species. Although some work has been done in what Prance et al. (1987) coined as “quantitative ethnobotany”, this study also introduced two new terms- the Ethnobotanical Knowledge Index (EKI), a quantitative measure of a person’s knowledge of local plant use (with a value between 0 and 1), and the Species Popularity Index (SPI), a quantitative measure of the popularity of each species (value between 0 and 1). In the Agter-Hantam, the EKI of participants varied from 0.20 to 0.93. The best known and most popular indigenous plants in the Agter-Hantam are Aloe microstigma (a new species record, with a SPI of 0.97), Hoodia gordonii (SPI = 0.94), Microloma sagittatum (0.94), Sutherlandia frutescens (0.92), Quaqua incarnata (0.92) and Galenia africana (0.85).