Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is a delicious nutrient-rich fruit widely cultivated in countries such as China, America, Chile, and Italy. However, the yield often drops severely due to the frequently-abnormal fruitlet abscission, and few studies on the metabolism during its ripening process at the proteomic level have been executed so far. To get a better understanding regarding the sweet cherry abscission mechanism, proteomic analysis between the abscising carpopodium and non-abscising carpopodium of sweet cherry was accomplished using a newly developed Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry with Tandem Mass Tag (TMT-LC-MS/MS) methodology. The embryo viability experiments showed that the vigor of the abscission embryos was significantly lower than that of retention embryo. The activity of cell wall degrading enzymes in abscising carpopodium was significantly higher than that in non-abscising carpopodium. The anatomy results suggested that cells in the abscission zone were small and separated. In total, 6280 proteins were identified, among which 5681 were quantified. It has been observed that differentially accumulated proteins (DAPs) influenced several biological functions and various subcellular localizations. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis showed that plenty of metabolic pathways were notably enriched, particularly those involved in phytohormone biosynthesis, cell wall metabolism, and cytoskeletal metabolism, including 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase proteins which promote ethylene synthesis, and proteins promoting cell wall degradation, such as endoglucanases, pectinase, and polygalacturonase. Differential expression of proteins concerning phytohormone biosynthesis might activate the shedding regulation signals. Up-regulation of several cell wall degradation-related proteins possibly regulated the shedding of plant organs. Variations of the phytohormone biosynthesis and cell wall degradation-related proteins were explored during the abscission process. Furthermore, changes in cytoskeleton-associated proteins might contribute to the abscission of carpopodium. The current work represented the first study using comparative proteomics between abscising carpopodium and non-abscising carpopodium. These results indicated that embryo abortion might lead to phytohormone synthesis disorder, which effected signal transduction pathways, and hereby controlled genes involved in cell wall degradation and then caused the abscission of fruitlet. Overall, our data may give an intrinsic explanation of the variations in metabolism during the abscission of carpopodium.

Auxin response factors (ARFs) play a vital role in plant growth and development. In the current study, 16 ARF members have been identified in the sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) genome. These genes are all located in the nucleus. Sequence analysis showed that genes in the same subgroup have similar exon-intron structures. A phylogenetic tree has been divided into five groups. The promoter sequence includes six kinds of plant hormone-related elements, as well as abiotic stress response elements such as low temperature or drought. The expression patterns of PavARF in different tissues, fruitlet abscission, cold and drought treatment were comprehensively analyzed. PavARF10/13 was up-regulated and PavARF4/7/11/12/15 was down-regulated in fruitlet abscising. These genes may be involved in the regulation of fruit drop in sweet cherry fruits. This study comprehensively analyzed the bioinformatics and expression pattern of PavARF, which can lay the foundation for further understanding the PavARF family in plant growth development and fruit abscission.

Hedychium puerense, a perennial rhizomatous herb, is used as an ornamental, medicinal, and edible plant in Yunnan Province, China. Essential oils from Hedychium plants are widely used in perfumes and traditional medicine, but there are no studies on the constituents and bioactivities of H. puerense essential oil (EO). Therefore, this study was designed to explore the chemical composition, antibacterial, enzyme-inhibitory, and anti-inflammatory activities of H. puerense rhizome EO. The gas chromatography with flame ionization or mass selective detection (GC-FID/MS) results indicated that H. puerense EO was mainly composed of linalool (26.5%), β-pinene (18.6%), γ-terpinene (12.1%), terpinen-4-ol (7.7%), α-pinene (5.8%), sabinene (4.9%), E-nerolidol (4.1%), and p-cymene (3.6%). For biological activities, H. puerense EO displayed broad-spectrum antibacterial properties against Enterococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli with diameter of inhibition zone (DIZ) values ranging from 7.44 to 10.30 mm, a minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 3.13–6.25 mg/m), and a minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 3.13–12.50 mg/mL. Moreover, the EO significantly inhibited acetylcholinesterase (AChE) (IC₅₀ = 0.94 ± 0.02 mg/mL) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) (IC₅₀ = 1.32 ± 0.06 mg/mL) activities, and exhibited a moderate inhibitory effect on α-glucosidase (IC₅₀ = 5.42 ± 0.32 mg/mL) and tyrosinase (IC₅₀ = 3.23 ± 0.21 mg/mL). Furthermore, the EO significantly suppressed the secretion of the pro-inflammatory mediator, nitric oxide (NO) (99.23 ± 0.26%), cytokines tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) (97.14 ± 0.11%), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) (82.42 ± 0.16%) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW264.7 cells at 250 μg/mL without cytotoxicity. Hence, H. puerense EO can be considered a bioactive, natural product that has great potential for utilization in the fields of food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutics.

The chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oil from Ficus tikoua Bur. were reported for the first time. Fifty-three compounds, accounting for 99.60% of the total essential oil composition, were identified and the main components were palmitic acid (51.13%) and linoleic acid (47.54%). The essential oil revealed significant antibacterial activity with the inhibition zones (7.89–10.59 mm), MIC (0.20–6.25 mg/mL) and MBC (0.20–12.50 mg/mL) against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus vulgaris. The essential oil exhibited significant cytotoxicity against A549, NCI-H1299, PC-3 and K562 tumor cells with the IC50 values of 131.08, 50.32, 120.58 and 31.68 μg/mL, respectively. The essential oil exhibited selective cytotoxic activity to human tumor cell lines, with a significantly lower cytotoxicity to human normal cell line (MRC-5, IC50 = 161.75 μg/mL) than to tumor cells. Additionally, palmitic acid, as the major compound, aslo revealed significant antibacterial and cytotoxic activities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate chemical composition and cytotoxic activities of essential oils from Zingiber striolatum Diels flowers, leaves and stems. 73, 68 and 66 compounds representing 97.0%, 94.8% and 93.7% of flowers, leaves and stems essential oils were identified using GC-FID and GC-MS, respectively. The main constituents of the flowers oil were β-phellandrene (28.5%), α-humulene (14.7%), β-pinene (8.2%), β-elemene (5.5%), humulene oxide II (3.5%), cryptone (3.3%) and tricosane (3.2%). The predominant components in the leaves oil were hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (24.7%), α-humulene (12.2%), phytol (11.9%), humulene oxide II (6.3%), β-pinene (4.3%), sandaracopimaradiene (3.1%) and β-elemene (3.0%). The stems oil contained mainly α-humulene (15.6%), humulene oxide II (7.9%), hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (7.4%), phytol (7.2%), humulene oxide I (4.1%), β-elemene (3.8%) and 4-terpineol (3.2%). The cytotoxic activity against human leukemic (K562), prostatic carcinoma (PC-3) and lung cancer (A549) cell lines of essential oils was assessed using MTT assay. The essential oils of flowers, leaves and stems exhibited significant cytotoxicity against K562 (IC50: 12.94–37.89 μg/mL), PC-3 (IC50: 69.06–82.56 μg/mL) and A549 (IC50: 45.73–66.12 μg/mL) cell lines. This is the first report on the chemical constituents and cytotoxic activities of Z. striolatum flowers, leaves and stems essential oils.

Rhynchanthus beesianus is a medicinal, ornamental, and edible plant, and its essential oil has been used as an aromatic stomachic in China. In this study, the chemical constituents, antibacterial, and anti‐inflammatory properties of flower essential oil (F‐EO), leaf essential oil (L‐EO), and stem essential oil (S‐EO) of R. beesianus were investigated for the first time. According to the GC‐FID/MS assay, the F‐EO was mainly composed of bornyl formate (21.7%), 1,8‐cineole (21.6%), borneol (9.7%), methyleugenol (7.7%), β‐myrcene (5.4%), limonene (4.7%), camphene (4.5%), linalool (3.4%), and α‐pinene (3.1%). The predominant components of L‐EO were bornyl formate (33.9%), borneol (13.2%), 1,8‐cineole (12.1%), methyleugenol (8.0%), camphene (7.8%), bornyl acetate (6.2%), and α‐pinene (4.3%). The main components of S‐EO were borneol (22.5%), 1,8‐cineole (21.3%), methyleugenol (14.6%), bornyl formate (11.6%), and bornyl acetate (3.9%). For the bioactivities, the F‐EO, L‐EO, and S‐EO exhibited significant antibacterial property against Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Escherichia coli with the inhibition zones (7.28–9.69 mm), MIC (3.13–12.50 mg/mL), and MBC (6.25–12.50 mg/mL). Besides, the F‐EO, L‐EO, and S‐EO significantly inhibited the production of proinflammatory mediator nitric oxide (NO) (93.15–94.72%) and cytokines interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) (23.99–77.81%) and tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) (17.69–24.93%) in LPS‐stimulated RAW264.7 cells at the dose of 128 μg/mL in the absence of cytotoxicity. Hence, the essential oils of R. beesianus flower, leaf, and stem could be used as natural antibacterial and anti‐inflammatory agents with a high application potential in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic fields.