Tassonomia, Nomenclatura E Herbarium

The curators of the herbarium G, W, CUP, F, K, MICH, and NYS are thanked for providing herbarium specimens on loan and for their assistance in locating specimens. YZ and YD thank the Beijing Forestry University for research support.

Tassonomia, Nomenclatura e Herbarium

The course aims to give the theoretical and practical bases for the study of plant diversity and evolution, with particular reference to the flora of the Mediterranean and of Italy. Cladistic and phenetic approaches to the study of morphological, karyological and molecular data will be evaluated. Moreover, the students will learn the identification techniques of Italian plants and will realize a small thematic herbarium. In the laboratory activity the students will learn the basic techniques for the study of chromosomes in plants and the use of software for phylogenetic and biometric analysis

The achievement of the teaching objectives is certified by passing an exam with an evaluation expressed in thirtieths. The exam relating to the fist part consists of a written test and an oral test that take place on scheduled days, to be taken in the same appeal and provides for a 30th evaluation for both. Each test is rated at thirty and is considered passed with the minimum grade of 18/30. The final grade is given by the average of the marks obtained in each test. The written test is preparatory to the oral test and consists of the administration of a questionnaire with multiple choice and open-ended questions (30 questions, 90 minutes duration). Attending students who, during the course, have taken and passed the periodic examinations by means of written verification tests, each lasting 45 minutes, with multiple choice and open answer questions, are exempt from taking the written test. The oral exam consists of a discussion lasting no longer than about 30 minutes, aimed at ascertaining the level of knowledge of the theoretical contents and the one of competence in the exhibition.The final evaluation will be expressed in thirtieths and will take into account the outcome of the written test (25%) and the oral exam (75%).For the second part, the exam aims to ascertain knowledge of plant systematics.The test will take place through an interview divided into 3 questions aimed at ascertaining the knowledge on botanical systematics, understanding the characteristics of the most important plant families treated during the lessons and exercises. Here, the student must also present an exiccata herbarium, made up of representative entities of the most important medicinal plant families and critically report on it.The criteria considered for the purposes of the student's evaluation will be: scientific and technical knowledge about plant systematics, critical ability and individual re-elaboration, properties of the technical-scientific language adopted.The final evaluation will be expressed out of 30th and will take into account the outcome of the oral exam (80%) and the quality of the herbarium presented (20%).The final grade will be expressed as a weighted average of the results obtained in the interview on the two parts.

PART IHistory of pharmacognosy and phytochemistry; Medicinal and officinal plants; Plant drug; Organized and unorganized drugs, phytocomplex. Active principles. Secondary metabolism. Factors that influence the content and quality of active ingredients (endogenous genetic factors (selection, hybridization, mutation, polyploidy) and non-genetic factors (age and stage of development, balsamic time)); exogenous factors (abiotic factors - climate, temperature, light, soil, latitude, altitude -, biotic factors - allelopathy); Cell cultures and production of active ingredients. The different characters of plant drugs. Preparation and conservation of plant drugs - harvest time; cleaning and drying; stabilization; sterilization; storage. Quality control of plant drugs - examination of organoleptic characteristics; examination of morphological characters; microscopic examination; chemical-physical analyzes; biological control tests; activity essays; biological dosages; toxicological analysis. Preparations with vegetable drugs: mechanical preparations; extractive preparations; pharmaceutical forms. Solid-liquid extraction techniques; liquid-liquid, in solid phase. Chromatographic techniques. Techniques for the structural characterization of phytochemicals: Infrared Spectroscopy (IR); Ultraviolet and Visible Spectroscopy (UV-VIS); Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR); Mass spectrometry (MS). Secondary metabolism. Biosynthetic bricks. General mechanisms of metabolic reactions Metabolic pathway of acetate. Fatty acid biogenesis. Biogenesis of unsaturated fatty acids. Polyunsaturated fatty acids. Branched fatty acids. Macrolide polypropionates and antibiotics. Essential fatty acids and biogenesis of eicosanoids. Polyketides. Cyclization mechanisms of polyketide chains. Synthesis of aromatic metabolites. Cannabinoids. Endocannabinoid system. Plant drugs containing acetate acid metabolites and their activity. Metabolic pathway of mevalonic acid. Biogenesis of isopentenyl units and dimerization mechanism. Monoterpenes. Sesquiterpenes. Diterpenes. Triterpenes. Tetraterpenes. Sterols and Steroids. Corticosteroids and hormones. Glycosidic derivatives: triterpene saponins (glycyrrhizic acid; ginsenosides); steroidal saponins. Cardioactive glycosides (cardenolides). Plant drugs containing metabolites from mevalonate and their activity. Metabolic pathway of shikimic acid. Biogenesis of aromatic compounds. Benzoic Acids. Phenylpropanoids. Cinnamic acids and cinnamyl alcohols. Aromatic amino acids. Lignans and lignin. Coumarins, Pterocarpanes, Flavonoids, Isoflavonoids, Stilbens. Chemical action mechanism of antioxidants. Terpenoid quinones. Plant drugs containing shikimic acid metabolites and their activity. Biosynthetic pathway of the main classes of alkaloids. Pseudoalkaloids. Protoalkaloids. Alkaloids deriving from ornithine (tropano alkaloids). Alkaloids deriving from lysine. Alkaloids deriving from nicotinic acid (nicotine). Alkaloids deriving from tyrosine. Alkaloids deriving from tryptophan. Plant drugs containing alkaloids. Alkaloid drugs with antitumor action.PART IISystematics, Taxonomy and Botanical Nomenclature. Artificial, natural and phylogenetic classification methods. Taxonomic ranks. Binomial nomenclature and nomenclature code. Structural and biochemical characters with taxonomic value. Plant morphology and histology. Cariology. Secondary metabolites. Spermatophytes (seed plants). Main diagnostic characters. General and systematic features of the main plant family of medicinal interest: Gingkoaceae, Taxaceae, Ranunculaceae, Papaveraceae, Cannabaceae, Malvaceae, Tiliaceae, Brassicaceae, Salicaceae, Rosaceae, Fabaceae, Vitaceae, Apiaceae, Solanaceae, Lamiaceae, Oleaceae, Valerianaceae, Asteraceae, Liliaceae, Erythroxylaceae. Berberidaceae, Rutaceae, Apocynaceae. Identification methods of Spermatophytes. The different plant identification systems. The dichotomous keys. Herbarium. Scientific importance and preparation techniques.PRACTICAL LABORATORY EXPERIENCES1) Extraction of caffeine from tea leaves2) Extraction and separation of the pigments present in spinach3) Evaluation of the antioxidant activity of natural extracts4) Preparation of herbarium samples

Molti testi dedicati alla botanica e curiosità inerenti sono conservati presso la Biblioteca storica "Giuseppe Grosso". Alcuni provengono dal Fondo Giulio, il cui proprietario era una nota figura di scienziato con larghi interessi. Fra questi materiali per esempio si trovano La Théorie e la pratique du jardinage, manuale di giardinaggio dell'abate Roger Shabol, stampato a Parigi nel 1767, e il trattato di botanica Pinax Theatri Botanici di Gaspard Bauhin, Basilea 1671. Al Bauhin si deve l'introduzione nella tassonomia della nomenclatura binomiale che sarà poi adottata da Linneo. Tra le collezioni della Biblioteca sono reperibili inoltre scritti dei più noti botanici piemontesi, da Carlo Allioni a Giovanni Battista Balbis, da Lorenzo Freylino a Luigi Colla, di cui esiste un Fondo specifico. Tra le curiosità in possesso della biblioteca anche un erbario con esemplari specifici del territorio.

Giurista di professione, e laureatosi con una tesi ispirata all'opera del Beccaria, Luigi Colla fu, come Balbis (al quale era legato da amicizia) e Freylino, uomo politico di idee giacobine che prese parte all'epopea napoleonica, e grande botanico piemontese (nacque a Torino nel 1766 e vi morì nel 1848). Ritiratosi a vita privata, acquistò a Rivoli una villa con un ampio podere che trasformò in un orto botanico. Lo descrive nella sua prima importante opera, l'Antolegista botanico, edita nel 1813 in sei volumi e 17 tavole incise, tirata in 500 copie. Distinta in varie sezioni (nomenclatura teorica, anatomia vegetale, morfologia degli organismi, sistemografia, tassonomia, antologia e descrizione delle piante coltivate), si conclude con un'appendice che fornisce istruzioni per creare orti e giardini. Il Colla nota che la maggior parte delle opere di botanica è scritta in latino o in altre lingue moderne, non in italiano, e quindi risulta di non agevole consultazione per i "Dilettanti della Botanica e i Fioristi" per i quali la sua opera è invece pensata. Colla diede anche un notevole contributo alla descrizione di nuove specie esotiche coltivate nel suo orto di Rivoli, come nell'opera monografica Memoria sul genere Musa, sull'albero del banano, pubblicata nel 1822, di cui la Biblioteca storica conserva un'edizione in folio con tre tavole acquerellate, probabilmente dalla figlia Teofila, che a lungo collaborò con il padre. L'erbario del Colla è oggi conservato a Torino presso l'Orto Botanico.

For botanical and mycological data, please use "Collection number" instead of "collector [followed by "leg."]". The collection number encompasses all gatherings from a single specimen (e.g., leaves, flowers, piece of wood) which may be preserved on different herbarium sheets and in different herbaria. 041b061a72