Symbolic plant(s) of the Olympic Games

From Biodiversity to Musketry: Detection of Plant Diversity in Pre-Industrial Peloponnese during the Flora Graeca Expedition

As the interest in natural, sustainable ecosystems arises in many fields, wild plant diversity is reconsidered. The present study is based on extant literature evidence from the journey of John Sibthorp (Professor of Botany, Oxford University) to Peloponnese (Greece) in pre-industrial time. In the year 1795, Peloponnese was a botanically unknown region, very dangerous for travellers and under civil unrest, in conjuncture with a pre-rebellion period. Our study reveals approximately 200 wild plant taxa that were collected from Peloponnese localities in 1795, transported to Oxford University (UK), and quoted in the magnificent edition Flora Graeca Sibthorpiana of the 19th century. Moreover, these plants currently constitute a living collection in Peloponnese, confirmed according to updated data on the vascular Flora of Greece. The presented lists constitute a source of information for plant biologists, linking the past to the present, shedding light on the study of adaptive traits of wild Mediterranean plants and revealing the temporal dimension of natural history. Nowadays, increasing and thorough understanding of the considered plants' functionality to abiotic and biotic environmental stimuli provides a new framework of sustainability and management options.

Special designed deep eutectic solvents for the recovery of high added-value products from olive leaf: a sustainable environment for bioactive materials

Deep Eutectic Solvents have been specially designed, and used for the extraction of phenolics from olive tree (Olea europea) leaves. 11 deep eutectic solvents containing a hydrogen bond donor (glycerol, ethylene glycol, lactic acid, urea, dimethyl urea and D-sorbitol) and a hydrogen bond acceptor (L-proline, citric acid, glycerol, ethylimidazole and methylimidazole) with several molar ratios have been designed. Addition of water into the solvent system increased the extraction efficiency by a remarkable difference (45%). After the best combination has been decided to extract the primary phenolic (oleuropein), operation conditions (water content in the deep eutectic solvent, speed of the homogenizer and time for the extraction) of the homogenizer-aided extraction (HAEX) for olive leaf extract has been optimized through Box-Behnken design of Response Surface Approach. The experimental yields of oleuropein, verbascoside and rutin were 15.50, 5.51 and 0.98 mg per gram dried leaf under the optimal conditions (48.9% of water in DES for 60 sec at 13310 rpm). Our best DES (citric acid/lactic acid) has yielded the most efficient extract rich in oleuropein, even with an ≈8% higher performance than that of a most commonly used solvent (75% ethanol).