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The chemical composition of the essential oils from the needles of Pinus ponderosa (north american pine), P. resinosa (red pine) and P. strobus (eastern white pine) has been determined by GC/MS (FID). The essential oils from P. resinosa and P. ponderosa in comparison to P. strobus have been characterized by the higher content of β-pinene (42.4%, 45.7% and 7.9% respectively). On the other hand, α-pinene (17.7%) and germacrene D (12.2%) were dominant compounds of P. strobus. Moreover the essential oil from P. resinosa was more rich in myrcene-15.9%. Estragole and Δ-3-carene, each one in amount ca 8% were identified only in P. ponderosa. The content of essential oils in the needles slightly varied - 0.65% - P. resinosa, 0.4% - P. strobus, 0.3% - P. ponderosa. The antifungal activity has been investigated towards Fusarium culmorum, F. solani and F. poae. The strongest activity was observed for the essential oil from P. ponderosa, which fully inhibited the growth of fungi at the following concentrations - F. culmorum, F. solani at 2% and F. poae at 5%.

Modern automated and semi-automated methods of shape analysis depart from the coordinates of the points in the outline of a figure and obtain, based on artificial vision algorithms, descriptive parameters (i.e., the length, width, area, and circularity index). These methods omit an important factor: the resemblance of the examined images to a geometric figure. We have described a method based on the comparison of the outline of seed images with geometric figures. The J index is the percentage of similarity between a seed image and a geometric figure used as a model. This allows the description and classification of wheat kernels based on their similarity to geometric models. The figures used are the ellipse and the lens of different major/minor axis ratios. Kernels of different species, subspecies and varieties of wheat adjust to different figures. A relationship is found between their ploidy levels and morphological type. Kernels of diploid einkorn and ancient tetraploid emmer varieties adjust to the lens and have curvature values in their poles superior to modern “bread” varieties. Kernels of modern varieties (hexaploid common wheat) adjust to an ellipse of aspect ratio = 1.6, while varieties of tetraploid durum and Polish wheat and hexaploid spelt adjust to an ellipse of aspect ratio = 2.4.

Bilobetin and 4‴-O-methylamentoflavone were isolated and identified in the needles of Taxus baccata, for the first time in this species. The antifungal activity of biflavones from T. baccata and Ginkgo biloba, namely amentoflavone, 7-O-methylamentoflavone, bilobetin, ginkgetin, sciadopitysin and 2,3-dihydrosciadopitysin towards the fungi Alternaria alternata, Fusarium culmorum, Cladosporium oxysporum was determined employing computer-aided image analysis couplet to a microscope. Bilobetin exhibited a significant antifungal activity with values of ED₅₀ 14, 11 and 17 μm respectively. This compound completely inhibited the growth of germinating tubes of Cladosporium oxysporum and Fusarium culmorum at a concentration 100 μm. Activity of ginkgetin and 7-O-methylamentoflavone towards Alternaria alternata was stronger than that of bilobetin. Moreover, slight structural changes in the cell wall of Alternaria alternata exposed to ginkgetin at concentration of 200 μm were observed