Mast fruiting

Janzen, D.H. (1974) Tropical blackwater rivers, animals, and mast fruiting by the Dipterocarpaceae. Biotropica 6, 69-103. 

Hydroxytryptamine is widely distributed in plant and animal tissues, mast cells, platelets, the enterochromaffin cells located throughout the gastrointestinal tract, and in certain regions of the brain. It is also present in the venoms and stings. Some fruits such as bananas, pineapples, tomatoes and plums contain considerable amount of 5-HT. 

Physalis alkekengi L. var. francheti (Mast.) Makino Jin Deng Long (Chinese lantern) (calyx, fruit) Physanols, physalien, zeaxanthin, glycolic acid, cryptoxanthin, physoxanthin, mutaxanthin, auroxanthin, physalin A, B, and C, luteolin, tigloidine, physalins, hystonin.33-48 Antibacterial, stimulate myocardial contraction, cause vasoconstriction, uterine contraction. 

At about the time that the efforts of the chemists to synthesise selective A3 antagonists had begun to bear fruit (1995/1996), the assumption implicit in our concept that human mast cells would behave like those of the rodent was called into serious question. The first (and key) observations came from Feoktistov and Biaggioni (1995) who provided evidence that in the human mast cell line, HMC-1 (which although derived from a patient with mast cell leukaemia shows some biochemical characteristics similar to the mast cells of the lung (Feoktistov et al. 1998)), the A2B receptor and not the A3 receptor is responsible for the potentiation of phorbol... 

The authors thank MAST Carbon Ltd. for providing the Novacarb mesoporous carbon. V. Butselaar and R. Pavan are gratefully acknowledged for performing the SEM and contact angle measurements, respectively. S. Brouwer is thanked for fruitful discussions. 

Phenology of fruit production Variable some species have masting behaviour to satiate predators Regular usually annual with large seed crops... 

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