Blue Egyptian Lotus
''Nymphaea nouchali'' var. ''caerulea'', is a water lily in the genus ''Nymphaea'', a botanical variety of '' Nymphaea nouchali''. It is an aquatic plant of freshwater lakes, pools and rivers, naturally found throughout most of the eastern half of Africa, as well as parts of southern Arabia, but has also been spread to other regions as an ornamental plant. It can tolerate the roots being in anoxic mud in nutritionally poor conditions, and can become a dominant plant in deeper water in such habitats. The underwater rhizomes are edible. It features prominently in Egyptian mythology and art, symbolizing the sun and rebirth and has been found in pharaohs’ tombs. It may have been used for aphrodisiac and religious purposes, including in rituals like Hathor’s Festival of Drunkenness. Recent research by UC Berkeley confirmed that the authentic ''Nymphaea caerulea'' is chemically distinct from many products sold online, which contain significantly less of the psychoactive alkaloid ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Marie Jules César Savigny
Marie Jules César Lelorgne de Savigny (; 5 April 1777 – 5 October 1851) was a French zoologist and naturalist who served on Emperor Napoleon's Egypt expedition in 1798. He published descriptions of numerous taxa and was among the first to propose that the mouth-parts of insects are derived from the jointed legs of segmented arthropods. Life and work Savigny was born at Provins to Jean-Jacques Lelorgne de Savigny and Françoise Josèphe de Barbaud. He was educated at the Collège des Oratoriens in classical languages with a view to becoming a priest, but learned a bit of botany and the use of microscope. He then studied with a local apothecary when he passed an exam to study in Paris at the École de Santé (school of health) in 1793. He also attended lectures at the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle where he was noticed by Lamarck. Georges Cuvier suggested that he join an expedition. In 1798 he travelled to Egypt under the sponsorship of Emperor Napoleon as part of the French sci ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ecological niche. Thus "habitat" is a species-specific term, fundamentally different from concepts such as Biophysical environment, environment or vegetation assemblages, for which the term "habitat-type" is more appropriate. The physical factors may include (for example): soil, moisture, range of temperature, and Luminous intensity, light intensity. Biotic index, Biotic factors include the availability of food and the presence or absence of Predation, predators. Every species has particular habitat requirements, habitat generalist species are able to thrive in a wide array of environmental conditions while habitat specialist species require a very limited set of factors to survive. The habitat of a species is not necessarily found in a ge ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aswan Dam
The Aswan Dam, or Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. When it was completed, it was the tallest earthen dam in the world, surpassing the Chatuge Dam in the United States. The dam, which created the Lake Nasser reservoir, was built upstream of the Aswan Low Dam, which had been completed in 1902 and was already at its maximum utilization. Construction of the High Dam became a key objective of the military regime that took power following the 1952 Egyptian revolution. With its ability to better control flooding, provide increased water storage for irrigation and generate hydroelectricity, the dam was seen as pivotal to Egypt's planned industrialization. Like the earlier implementation, the High Dam has had a significant effect on the Economy of Egypt, economy and culture of Egypt. Before the High Dam was built, even with the old dam in place, the annual flooding of the Nile during la ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nymphaea Capensis
''Nymphaea nouchali'' var. ''caerulea'', is a water lily in the genus ''Nymphaea'', a botanical variety of '' Nymphaea nouchali''. It is an aquatic plant of freshwater lakes, pools and rivers, naturally found throughout most of the eastern half of Africa, as well as parts of southern Arabia, but has also been spread to other regions as an ornamental plant. It can tolerate the roots being in anoxic mud in nutritionally poor conditions, and can become a dominant plant in deeper water in such habitats. The underwater rhizomes are edible. It features prominently in Egyptian mythology and art, symbolizing the sun and rebirth and has been found in pharaohs’ tombs. It may have been used for aphrodisiac and religious purposes, including in rituals like Hathor’s Festival of Drunkenness. Recent research by UC Berkeley confirmed that the authentic ''Nymphaea caerulea'' is chemically distinct from many products sold online, which contain significantly less of the psychoactive alkaloid ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data and observed heritable traits of DNA sequences, protein amino acid sequences, and morphology. The results are a phylogenetic tree—a diagram depicting the hypothetical relationships among the organisms, reflecting their inferred evolutionary history. The tips of a phylogenetic tree represent the observed entities, which can be living taxa or fossils. A phylogenetic diagram can be rooted or unrooted. A rooted tree diagram indicates the hypothetical common ancestor of the taxa represented on the tree. An unrooted tree diagram (a network) makes no assumption about directionality of character state transformation, and does not show the origin or "root" of the taxa in question. In addition to their use for inferring phylogenetic pa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bernard Verdcourt
Bernard Verdcourt (20 January 1925 – 25 October 2011) was a biologist and taxonomist, most widely known as a botanist and latterly an honorary research fellow at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London. Prior to coming to Kew in 1964, he was associated with the East African Herbarium for 15 years. Although his best-known work probably consists of his many studies of the East African flora, he has also made extensive contributions relating to African terrestrial mollusks and to entomology. Dr. Verdcourt received the Linnean Medal for botany from the Linnean Society of London in 2000.Award to Bernard Vercourt. Kew Scientist: Apr 2000(17):4. Kew Gardenshttp://www.linnean.org/index.php?id=347 Linnean Society of London His list of publications includes more than 1,000 scientific works. Eponymy In 2012, botanists H.Ohashi & K.Ohashi published '' Verdesmum'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants from Malaysia belonging to the family Fabaceae, it was named in Bernard Verdcourt's h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nuciferine
Nuciferine is an alkaloid found within the plants ''Nymphaea caerulea'' and ''Nelumbo nucifera''. Preliminary psychopharmacological research in 1978 was unable to conclusively determine the compound's classification regarding dopamine-receptor activity. On one hand, investigative studies found evidence of behavior traditionally associated with ''dopamine-receptor'' ''stimulation'': stereotypy, increase in spontaneous motor activity, inhibition of conditioned avoidance response, and an increase in pain sensitivity resulting in an inhibition of morphine analgesia. On the other hand, these early investigative studies also found evidence of behavior traditionally associated with ''dopamine-receptor'' ''blockade'': decrease of spontaneous motor activity, chills, catalepsy, trance-like states of consciousness. Nuciferine exhibits a receptor profile similar to atypical antipsychotics, demonstrating antipsychotic-like effects in rodent models without inducing catalepsy. Pharmacology ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms including bacteria, fungus, fungi, Medicinal plant, plants, and animals. They can be purified from crude extracts of these organisms by acid-base extraction, or solvent extractions followed by silica-gel column chromatography. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacology, pharmacological activities including antimalarial medication, antimalarial (e.g. quinine), asthma, antiasthma (e.g. ephedrine), chemotherapy, anticancer (e.g. omacetaxine mepesuccinate, homoharringtonine), cholinomimetic (e.g. galantamine), vasodilation, vasodilatory (e.g. vincamine), Antiarrhythmic agent, antiarrhythmic (e.g. quinidine), analgesic (e.g. morphine), antibacterial (e.g. chelerythrine), and anti-diabetic, antihyperglycemic activities (e.g. berb ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Psychoactive
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, mind-altering drug, consciousness-altering drug, psychoactive substance, or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that alters psychological functioning by modulating central nervous system activity. Psychoactive and psychotropic drugs both affect the brain, with psychotropics sometimes referring to psychiatric drugs or high-abuse substances, while “drug” can have negative connotations. Novel psychoactive substances are designer drugs made to mimic illegal ones and bypass laws. Psychoactive drug use dates back to prehistory for medicinal and consciousness-altering purposes, with evidence of widespread cultural use. Many animals intentionally consume psychoactive substances, and some traditional legends suggest animals first introduced humans to their use. Psychoactive substances are used across cultures for purposes ranging from medicinal and therapeutic treatment of mental disorders and pain, to performance enhancement. T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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UC Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, it is the state's first land-grant university and is the founding campus of the University of California system. Berkeley has an enrollment of more than 45,000 students. The university is organized around fifteen schools of study on the same campus, including the College of Chemistry, the College of Engineering, College of Letters and Science, and the Haas School of Business. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was originally founded as part of the university. Berkeley was a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was one of the original eight " Public Ivy" schools. In 2021, the federal funding for campus research and dev ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hathor
Hathor (, , , Meroitic language, Meroitic: ') was a major ancient Egyptian deities, goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god Ra, both of whom were connected with kingship, and thus she was the mother goddess, symbolic mother of their earthly representatives, the pharaohs. She was one of several goddesses who acted as the Eye of Ra, Ra's feminine counterpart, and in this form, she had a vengeful Aspect (religion), aspect that protected him from his enemies. Her beneficent side represented music, dance, joy, love, sexuality, and maternal care, and she acted as the consort of several male deities and the mother of their sons. These two aspects of the goddess exemplified the women in ancient Egypt, Egyptian conception of femininity. Hathor crossed boundaries between worlds, helping deceased ancient Egyptian conception of the soul, souls in the transition to the ancien ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Aphrodisiac
An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases libido, sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. These substances range from a variety of plants, spices, and foods to synthetic chemicals. Natural aphrodisiacs, such as cannabis (drug), cannabis or cocaine, are classified into plant-based and non-plant-based substances. Synthetic aphrodisiacs include MDMA and methamphetamine. Aphrodisiacs can be classified by their type of effects (psychological or physiological). Aphrodisiacs that contain hallucinogenic properties, such as bufotenin, have psychological effects that can increase sexual desire and sexual pleasure. Aphrodisiacs that have smooth muscle relaxing properties, such as yohimbine, have physiological effects that can affect hormone concentrations and increase blood flow. Substances that have the opposite effects on libido are called anaphrodisiacs. Aphrodisiac effects can also be due to the Placebo, placebo effect. Both males and females can po ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |