Tyrosinase
Tyrosinase is an oxidase, the rate-limiting enzyme for controlling the production of melanin. The enzyme is involved in two distinct reactions of melanin synthesis. O-Quinone undergoes several reactions to form melanin. Tyrosinase is a copper-containing enzyme present in plant and animal tissues that catalyzes the production of melanin and other pigments from tyrosine by oxidation, as in the blackening of a peeled or sliced potato exposed to air, it is found inside melanosomes. In humans, the tyrosinase enzyme is encoded by the TYR gene. A mutation in the tyrosinase gene resulting in impaired tyrosinase production leads to type I oculocutaneous albinism, a hereditary disorder that affects one in every 20,000 people. Tyrosinase activity is important. If uncontrolled during the synthesis of melanin, it results in increased melanin synthesis. Decreasing tyrosinase activity has been targeted for the betterment or prevention of conditions related to the hyperpigmentation of the skin, such as melasma and age spots.
Several polyphenols, including flavonoids or stilbenoid, substrate analogues, free radical scavengers, copper chelators, have been known to inhibit tyrosinase. Henceforth, the medical and cosmetic industries are focusing research on tyrosinase inhibitors to treat skin disorders. In food industry, tyrosinase inhibition is desired as tyrosinase catalyzes the oxidation of phenolic compounds found in fruits and vegetables into quinones, which gives an undesirable taste and color and decreases the availability of certain essential amino acids as well as the digestibility of the products; as such effective tyrosinase inhibitors are needed in agriculture and the food industry. Well known tyrosinase inhibitors include kojic acid, coumarins, vanillic acid and vanillic alcohol. Tyrosinase has a wide range of functions in insects, including wound healing, melanin synthesis and parasite encapsulation; as a result, it is an important enzyme. Some insecticides are aimed to inhibit tyrosinase. Tyrosinase dopamine using dioxygen.
In the presence of catechol, benzoquinone is formed. Hydrogens removed from catechol combine with oxygen to form water; the substrate specificity becomes restricted in mammalian tyrosinase which uses only L-form of tyrosine or DOPA as substrates, has restricted requirement for L-DOPA as cofactor. Tyrosinases have been isolated and studied from a wide variety of plant and fungal species. Tyrosinases from different species are diverse in terms of their structural properties, tissue distribution, cellular location. No common tyrosinase protein structure occurring across all species has been found; the enzymes found in plant and fungal tissue differ with respect to their primary structure, glycosylation pattern, activation characteristics. However, all tyrosinases have in type 3 copper centre within their active sites. Here, two copper atoms are each coordinated with three histidine residues. Human tyrosinase is a single membrane-spanning transmembrane protein. In humans, tyrosinase is sorted into melanosomes and the catalytically active domain of the protein resides within melanosomes.
Only a small, enzymatically inessential part of the protein extends into the cytoplasm of the melanocyte. As opposed to fungal tyrosinase, human tyrosinase is a membrane-bound glycoprotein and has 13% carbohydrate content; the derived TYR allele is associated with lighter skin pigmentation in human populations. It is most common in Europe, but is found at lower, moderate frequencies in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, among the San and Mbuti Pygmies; the two copper atoms within the active site of tyrosinase enzymes interact with dioxygen to form a reactive chemical intermediate that oxidizes the substrate. The activity of tyrosinase is similar to a related class of copper oxidase. Tyrosinases and catechol oxidases are collectively termed polyphenol oxidases; the gene for tyrosinase is regulated by the microphthalmia-associated transcription factor. GeneReviews/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on Oculocutaneous Albinism Type 1 Tyrosinase at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings
Vanilla
Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla from the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla. The word vanilla, derived from vainilla, the diminutive of the Spanish word vaina, is translated as "little pod". Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people cultivated the vine of the vanilla orchid, called tlīlxochitl by the Aztecs. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is credited with introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s. Pollination is required to set the vanilla fruit from. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François Antoine Morren discovered this fact and pioneered a method of artificially pollinating the plant; the method was not deployed commercially. In 1841, Edmond Albius, a slave who lived on the French island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean, discovered at the age of 12 that the plant could be hand-pollinated. Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant. Three major species of vanilla are grown globally, all of which derive from a species found in Mesoamerica, including parts of modern-day Mexico.
They are V. planifolia, grown on Madagascar, Réunion, other tropical areas along the Indian Ocean. The majority of the world's vanilla is the V. planifolia species, more known as Bourbon vanilla or Madagascar vanilla, produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern Indian Ocean, in Indonesia. Combined and Indonesia produce two-thirds of the world's supply of vanilla. Vanilla is the second-most expensive spice after saffron because growing the vanilla seed pods is labor-intensive. Despite the expense, vanilla is valued for its flavor; as a result, vanilla is used in both commercial and domestic baking, perfume manufacture, aromatherapy. According to other popular belief, the Totonac Aztec-age people, who inhabit the east coast of Mexico in the present-day state of Veracruz, were among the first people to cultivate vanilla in the 15th century. Aztecs invading from the central highlands of Mexico conquered the Totonacs, developed a taste for the vanilla pods, they named the fruit tlilxochitl, or "black flower", after the matured fruit, which shrivels and turns black shortly after it is picked.
Until the mid-19th century, Mexico was the chief producer of vanilla. In 1819, French entrepreneurs shipped vanilla fruits to the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in hopes of producing vanilla there. After Edmond Albius discovered how to pollinate the flowers by hand, the pods began to thrive. Soon, the tropical orchids were sent from Réunion to the Comoros Islands and Madagascar, along with instructions for pollinating them. By 1898, Madagascar, Réunion, the Comoros Islands produced 200 metric tons of vanilla beans, about 80% of world production. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Indonesia is responsible for the vast majority of the world's Bourbon vanilla production and 58% of the world total vanilla fruit production; the market price of vanilla rose in the late 1970s after a tropical cyclone ravaged key croplands. Prices remained high through the early 1980s despite the introduction of Indonesian vanilla. In the mid-1980s, the cartel that had controlled vanilla prices and distribution since its creation in 1930 disbanded.
Prices dropped 70 % to nearly US$20 per kilogram. The cyclone, political instability, poor weather in the third year drove vanilla prices to an astonishing US$500/kg in 2004, bringing new countries into the vanilla industry. A good crop, coupled with decreased demand caused by the production of imitation vanilla, pushed the market price down to the $40/kg range in the middle of 2005. By 2010, prices were down to $20/kg. Cyclone Enawo caused in similar spike to $500/kg in 2017. Madagascar accounts for much of the global production of vanilla. Mexico, once the leading producer of natural vanilla with an annual yield of 500 tons of cured beans, produced only 10 tons in 2006. An estimated 95% of "vanilla" products are artificially flavored with vanillin derived from lignin instead of vanilla fruits. Vanilla was unknown in the Old World before Cortés. Spanish explorers arriving on the Gulf Coast of Mexico in the early 16th century gave vanilla its current name. Portuguese sailors and explorers brought vanilla into Africa and Asia that century.
They called it vainilla, or "little pod". The word vanilla entered the English language in 1754, when the botanist Philip Miller wrote about the genus in his Gardener’s Dictionary. Vainilla is from the Latin vagina to describe the shape of the pods; the main species harvested for vanilla is V. planifolia. Although it is native to Mexico, it is now grown throughout the tropics. Indonesia and Madagascar are the world's largest producers. Additional sources include V. pompona and V. tahitiensis, although the vanillin content of these species is much less than V. planifolia. Vanilla grows as a vine, climbing up pole, or other support, it can be grown in a plantation, or in a "shader", in increasing orders of productivity. Its growth environment is referred to as its terroir, includes not only the adjacent plants, but the climate and local geology. Left alone, it will grow as h
Chambord (liqueur)
Chambord Liqueur is a 16.5% abv raspberry liqueur modelled after a liqueur produced in the Loire Valley of France during the late 17th century. The Chambord product brand has been owned and produced by the Brown-Forman Corporation since 2006. Chambord is made from red and black raspberries, Madagascar vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel and cognac; the Chambord brand was founded in 1982. The drink was inspired by raspberry liqueur made in the Loire Valley in the late 1600s, said to have been introduced to Louis XIV during one of his visits to the château de Chambord, it was common during that time for liqueurs and cognac to be consumed with elegant meals. In 2006, the Chambord product brand was acquired by the Brown-Forman Corporation. Chambord is produced in the Loire Valley from red and black raspberries, Madagascar vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel and cognac. Whole raspberries and blackberries are steeped in French spirits for a period of several weeks to produce a fruit infusion. After the infusion is extracted, a second set of spirits is added to the fruit and allowed to rest for a few weeks.
After this second infusion is drawn off, the remaining fruit is pressed to obtain the natural sugars and juice. The fruit-infused spirits and juices from the final pressing are combined, the berry infusion is married with a proprietary blend of cognac, natural vanilla extract, black raspberries, citrus peel and herbs and spices; the liqueur is 16.5% alcohol by volume. Chambord comes in a spherical bottle; until mid-2010, the bottle came with a metallic gold plastic lettered'belt' around the middle, a crown atop its lid. The bottle was modeled after a globus cruciger. In the U. S. market, the manufacturer began using a different bottle design in summer 2010, with modifications to the belt and other elements. In addition to redesigning the bottle for the traditional Chambord liqueur, the manufacturer has begun using the Chambord brand name on a flavoured vodka. Common drinks made from Chambord include the Raspberry Margarita, French Manhattan, Rolling Green Butler Miller, Kir Impérial, Chambord Daiquiri, Chambord Royal Spritzer, Little Purple Men, The Purple Hooter Shooter, Sour Grapes, Black Opal, Peanut Butter and Jelly, Grape Crush, the "Blood of Christ", Grateful Dead, the French Martini.
The French Martini started the "cocktails as a Martini" craze. Since 2007, Chambord has earned silver and bronze medals from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Other spirit ratings organizations have rated Chambord highly as well. Based on Chambord's reviews from various professional raters, Proof66 has categorized Chambord as a "First Tier" liqueur. Official website
Botany
Botany called plant science, plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist; the term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη meaning "pasture", "grass", or "fodder". Traditionally, botany has included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists study 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants, 20,000 are bryophytes. Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify – and cultivate – edible and poisonous plants, making it one of the oldest branches of science. Medieval physic gardens attached to monasteries, contained plants of medical importance, they were forerunners of the first botanical gardens attached to universities, founded from the 1540s onwards.
One of the earliest was the Padua botanical garden. These gardens facilitated the academic study of plants. Efforts to catalogue and describe their collections were the beginnings of plant taxonomy, led in 1753 to the binomial system of Carl Linnaeus that remains in use to this day. In the 19th and 20th centuries, new techniques were developed for the study of plants, including methods of optical microscopy and live cell imaging, electron microscopy, analysis of chromosome number, plant chemistry and the structure and function of enzymes and other proteins. In the last two decades of the 20th century, botanists exploited the techniques of molecular genetic analysis, including genomics and proteomics and DNA sequences to classify plants more accurately. Modern botany is a broad, multidisciplinary subject with inputs from most other areas of science and technology. Research topics include the study of plant structure and differentiation, reproduction and primary metabolism, chemical products, diseases, evolutionary relationships and plant taxonomy.
Dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues. Botanical research has diverse applications in providing staple foods, materials such as timber, rubber and drugs, in modern horticulture and forestry, plant propagation and genetic modification, in the synthesis of chemicals and raw materials for construction and energy production, in environmental management, the maintenance of biodiversity. Botany originated as the study and use of plants for their medicinal properties. Many records of the Holocene period date early botanical knowledge as far back as 10,000 years ago; this early unrecorded knowledge of plants was discovered in ancient sites of human occupation within Tennessee, which make up much of the Cherokee land today. The early recorded history of botany includes many ancient writings and plant classifications. Examples of early botanical works have been found in ancient texts from India dating back to before 1100 BC, in archaic Avestan writings, in works from China before it was unified in 221 BC.
Modern botany traces its roots back to Ancient Greece to Theophrastus, a student of Aristotle who invented and described many of its principles and is regarded in the scientific community as the "Father of Botany". His major works, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, constitute the most important contributions to botanical science until the Middle Ages seventeen centuries later. Another work from Ancient Greece that made an early impact on botany is De Materia Medica, a five-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine written in the middle of the first century by Greek physician and pharmacologist Pedanius Dioscorides. De Materia Medica was read for more than 1,500 years. Important contributions from the medieval Muslim world include Ibn Wahshiyya's Nabatean Agriculture, Abū Ḥanīfa Dīnawarī's the Book of Plants, Ibn Bassal's The Classification of Soils. In the early 13th century, Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany in a systematic and scientific manner. In the mid-16th century, "botanical gardens" were founded in a number of Italian universities – the Padua botanical garden in 1545 is considered to be the first, still in its original location.
These gardens continued the practical value of earlier "physic gardens" associated with monasteries, in which plants were cultivated for medical use. They supported the growth of botany as an academic subject. Lectures were given about the plants grown in the gardens and their medical uses demonstrated. Botanical gardens came much to northern Europe. Throughout this period, botany remained subordinate to medicine. German physician Leonhart Fuchs was one of "the three German fathers of botany", along with theologian Otto Brunfels and physician Hieronymus Bock. Fuchs and Brunfels broke away from the tradition of copying earlier works to make original observations of their own. Bock created his own system of plant classification. Physician Valerius Cordus authored a botanically and pharmacologically important herbal Historia Plantarum in 1544 and a pharmacopoeia of lasting importance, the Dispensatorium
Biennial plant
A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year, the plant grows leaves and roots it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months; the stem remains short and the leaves are low to the ground, forming a rosette. Many biennials require vernalization, before they will flower. During the next spring or summer, the stem of the biennial plant elongates or "bolts"; the plant flowers, producing fruits and seeds before it dies. There are far fewer biennials than annual plants. Under extreme climatic conditions, a biennial plant may complete its life cycle rapidly; this is quite common in vegetable or flower seedlings that were vernalized before they were planted in the ground. This behavior leads to many biennial plants being treated as annuals in some areas. Conversely, an annual grown under favorable conditions may have successful seed propagation, giving it the appearance of being biennial or perennial; some short-lived perennials may appear to be biennial rather than perennial.
True biennials flower only once. From a gardener's perspective, a plant's status as annual, biennial, or perennial varies based on location or purpose. Biennials grown for flowers, fruits, or seeds need to be grown for two years. Biennials that are grown for edible leaves or roots are grown for just one year. Examples of biennial plants are members of the onion family including leek, some members of the cabbage family, common mullein, fennel, silverbeet, Black-eyed Susan, Sweet William, colic weed and some hollyhocks. Plant breeders have produced annual cultivars of several biennials that will flower the first year from seed, for example and stock. Annual plant – Plant that completes its life cycle within one year, dies Perennial plant – Plant that lives for more than two years
Cranford, New Jersey
Cranford is a township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. In 2018, The Star-Ledger named Cranford the best downtown in New Jersey, calling it "adorable snowglobe-like." New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Cranford as its 34th best place to live in its 2010 rankings of the "Best Places To Live". As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 22,625, reflecting an increase of 47 from the 22,578 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn declined by 55 from the 22,633 counted in the 1990 Census. Cranford was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 14, 1871, from portions of the Townships of Clark, Springfield and Westfield. Portions of the township were taken to form Kenilworth; the township's name is said to derive from the Crane family, including John Crane, who built a mill in 1720 along the Rahway River. Historic sites in the township are overseen by the Cranford Historic Preservation Advisory Board, whose purpose is to identify and maintain a system for survey and inventory of all building sites and landmarks and structures of historical or architectural significance based on the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation.
The Cranford Historical Society, a private entity founded in 1927 and located in Hanson Park on Springfield Avenue, maintains the Crane-Phillips House, located at 124 North Union Avenue, as a museum. James E. Warner is a former sheriff of Union County, the namesake of the James E. Warner Plaza at the Cranford Train Station. Appalled by the growing pollution of the Rahway given the pristine waters of his youth, Sheriff Warner advocated for the preservation of the Rahway River and Rahway River Parkway parkland. One of Sheriff Warner's successful targets in fighting Rahway River pollution was his battle against the discharge of paper makers. Charles Hansel was co-founder of the Union County Parks Commission that preserved parkland all along the Rahway River and its tributaries in the 1920s, a greenway now known as the Rahway River Parkway, he was an engineer for the Pennsylvania Central Railroad of New Jersey. Hansel lived in the 300 block of North Union Avenue in a home that still stands today moving to what is now Gray's Funeral Home, near what is now called Hansel's Dam by Sperry Park.
For his Rahway River preservation efforts, a memorial copper plaque was placed to Hansel in Echo Lake Park. Joshua Bryant was Cranford's first African-American law enforcement officer and the township's first African-American citizen to hold elective office. According to the United States Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 4.869 square miles, including 4.830 square miles of land and 0.039 square miles of water,There are nine municipalities bordering the township: Garwood and Westfield to the west, Springfield Township to the north, Kenilworth to the northeast and Roselle Park to the east, Linden to the southeast, Winfield Park and Clark to the south. Parks run by the township and overseen by the Cranford Recreation and Parks Department include: Adams Park – Adams Avenue and Lambert Street. Morses Creek dips into Cranford behind this park. Buchanan Park – Centennial Avenue and Buchanan Avenue Canoe Club – Springfield Avenue and Orange Avenue The Cranford Canoe Club rents canoes and kayaks for trips on the Rahway River in Cranford.
The current structure was built as a private canoe club in 1908. Community Center – Walnut Avenue Josiah Crane Park – Springfield Avenue and North Union Avenue. In 1971, the Cranford Historical Society marked the farm and village home of Josiah Crane Sr. in a park across from the First Presbyterian Church on the Rahway River. This park now features Cranford's 9/11 Memorial. Cranford West – Hope, N. J; the home of the Cranford Boys Club on Silver Lake from the 1920s to the 1960s Girl Scout Park – Springfield Avenue and Orange Avenue. This was once the site of a canoe club the Neva Sykes Girl Scout House, demolished in the 1950s. Hampton Park – Eastman Street and Hampton Street Hanson Park – Springfield Avenue and Holly Street. Home of the Hanson Park Conservancy. Johnson Park – Johnson Avenue; the Johnson Avenue playground opened in July 1957. Lincoln Park – Lincoln Avenue at South Union. What is now Lincoln Park was the Cranford Golf Club in 1899, now moved to Westfield and called the Echo Lake Country Club.
The Lincoln Avenue grounds were designed by Willie Dunn. Lincoln Park was originally a former estate said to have supplied lumber to build the USS Constitution in the 1700s; the grounds, at the corner of the Old York Road and Benjamin Street included the largest sour gum recorded in the Northeastern states, known as the Cranford Pepperidge Tree or "Old Peppy." The park has hosted bocce ball tournaments since the mid-1960s. Mayor's Park – Springfield Avenue and North Union Avenue Memorial Park – Springfield Avenue and Central Avenue Roosevelt Park – Orange Avenue and Pacific Avenue Sherman Park – Lincoln Avenue East. Former site of Sherman located on the Old York Road. Parks run by the county inside Cranford's borders include: Lenape Park in Cranford, Springfield and Westfield. Two tusks from an ancient American mastodon were found in 1936 north of Kenilworth Boulevard in what is now Lenape Park. MacConnell Park (fo
Rubus strigosus
Rubus strigosus, the American red raspberry or American raspberry, is a species of Rubus native to much of North America. It has been treated as a variety or subspecies of the related Eurasian Rubus idaeus, but is more treated as a distinct species. Many of the commercial raspberry cultivars grown for their fruit derive from hybrids between R. strigosus and R. idaeus. Botanists have long debated the taxonomic treatment of the Eurasian and American red raspberries, with some viewing all of these plants as members of a single, circumboreal species Rubus idaeus, others recognizing two species within this group; the two species share many similarities, recently diverged from a common ancestor, leading to differences in taxonomic interpretation regarding the more intermediate eastern Asian plants. A common current treatment, followed here, is to classify the North American red raspberries as Rubus strigosus, include only the Eurasian plants in Rubus idaeus; when the species are combined, as done in some recent publications, the Eurasian plants are Rubus idaeus ssp. idaeus, the American plants R. idaeus ssp. strigosus.
Different interpretations are sometimes made regarding placement of various eastern Asian populations of this group, by some considered to represent additional varieties or subspecies, if not different species altogether. The most distinctive physical difference among these plants is usual presence of gland-tipped hairs on first-year canes, petioles and calyces of R. strigosus, lacking in R. idaeus. Rubus strigosus, as treated here, is distributed in North America the more boreal regions; some authors treat various raspberries in eastern Asia, east from the Aerhtal Shan Mountain Range in Mongolia to Dongbei and Japan in this taxon, but others include all Asian raspberries in R. idaeus. with the Eurasian plants being Rubus idaeus ssp. idaeus. R. strigosus is a perennial plant. In its first year, a new stem grows vigorously to its full height of 0.5–2 m, bearing large pinnate leaves with three or five leaflets. In its second year, the stem does not grow taller, but produces several side shoots, which bear smaller leaves with three leaflets.
The flowers are produced in late spring on short racemes on the tips of these side shoots, each flower with five white petals 4–7 mm long. The fruit is 1–1.2 cm diameter, edible, sweet but tart-flavored, produced in summer or early autumn.
Data related to Rubus idaeus at Wikispecies
Media related to Rubus idaeus at Wikimedia Commons
