Rose Petals Research Articles

Bioinspired Ultrahigh Water Pinning Nanostructures

Rose petal mimetic surfaces with ultrahigh water pinning forces have been fabricated via nanoimprinting process onto three different polymer films. Water pinning forces ranging from 104 to 690 μN are obtained on free-standing polycarbonate films with imprinted nanostructures. Through a systematic variation of the surface structures, this study provides experimental evidence that an ultrahigh water pinning force can be achieved by combining two surface topographical designs: (1) conical- or parabolic-shaped nanoprotrusions and (2) isotropic and continuous nanoprotrusions. These design criteria ensure that a continuous solid-liquid contact line is achieved and provide a rule-of-thumb to engineer surfaces with tunable water pinning forces. The ultrahigh water pinning film is further demonstrated to mitigate the "coffee ring" effect, a phenomenon associated with nonuniform deposition from a drying solute-laden liquid droplet.

Mimicking the Wettability of the Rose Petal using Self-assembly of Waterborne Polymer Particles

In this work, we present a novel platform to synthesize polymeric “raspberry” particles and explore their use to fabricate surfaces with low wettability and high water adhesion, resembling the properties of naturally occurring surfaces such as the rose petal. The raspberry particles were obtained by layer-by-layer self-assembly of 850 nm core polystyrene particles bearing surface carboxylate groups and corona nanoparticles of different sizes and polymers (polystyrene, poly(para-fluorostyrene) or poly(2,3,4,5,6-penta-fluorostyrene), also bearing surface carboxylates), interleaved with positively charged poly(ally amine) hydrochloride. The raspberry particles were then bound together by covalent coupling of the carboxylate groups with the amine groups of the polymeric interlayer. The films produced by drop-casting the raspberry particles exhibited static water contact angles between ∼135° and ∼146°, depending on the nature of the corona, hysteresis of ∼135° and high adhesion of water droplets. Since all particles were synthesized from scratch by surfactant free emulsion polymerization in air and every step of the protocol was performed in water, this platform is up-scalable and environmentally friendly.

Cooking in the Books: Cookbooks and Cookery in Popular Fiction

Cooking in the Books: Cookbooks and Cookery in Popular Fiction

Rose (Rosa sp.) Petals Assisted Green Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles

Rose (<i>Rosa sp.</i>) Petals Assisted Green Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles

Integrative Analysis of miRNA and mRNA Profiles in Response to Ethylene in Rose Petals during Flower Opening

MicroRNAs play an important role in plant development and plant responses to various biotic and abiotic stimuli. As one of the most important ornamental crops, rose (Rosa hybrida) possesses several specific morphological and physiological features, including recurrent flowering, highly divergent flower shapes, colors and volatiles. Ethylene plays an important role in regulating petal cell expansion during rose flower opening. Here, we report the population and expression profiles of miRNAs in rose petals during flower opening and in response to ethylene based on high throughput sequencing. We identified a total of 33 conserved miRNAs, as well as 47 putative novel miRNAs were identified from rose petals. The conserved and novel targets to those miRNAs were predicted using the rose floral transcriptome database. Expression profiling revealed that expression of 28 known (84.8% of known miRNAs) and 39 novel (83.0% of novel miRNAs) miRNAs was substantially changed in rose petals during the earlier opening period. We also found that 28 known and 22 novel miRNAs showed expression changes in response to ethylene treatment. Furthermore, we performed integrative analysis of expression profiles of miRNAs and their targets. We found that ethylene-caused expression changes of five miRNAs (miR156, miR164, miR166, miR5139 and rhy-miRC1) were inversely correlated to those of their seven target genes. These results indicate that these miRNA/target modules might be regulated by ethylene and were involved in ethylene-regulated petal growth.

Identification of Antimutagenic Properties of Anthocyanins and Other Polyphenols from Rose (Rosa centifolia) Petals and Tea

Petals from different rose (Rosa centifolia) cultivars ("passion," "pink noblesse," and "sphinx") were assessed for antimutagenicity using Escherichia coli RNA polymerase B (rpoB)-based Rif (S) →Rif (R) (rifampicin sensitive to resistant) forward mutation assay against ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-induced mutagenesis. The aqueous extracts of rose petals from different cultivars exhibited a wide variation in their antimutagenicity. Among these, cv. "passion" was found to display maximum antimutagenicity. Upon further fractionation, the anthocyanin extract of cv. "passion" displayed significantly higher antimutagenicity than its phenolic extract. During thin-layer chromatography (TLC) analysis, the anthocyanin extract got resolved into 3 spots: yellow (Rf : 0.14), blue (Rf : 0.30), and pink (Rf : 0.49). Among these spots, the blue one displayed significantly higher antimutagenicity than the other 2. Upon high-performance liquid chromatography analysis, this blue spot further got resolved into 2 peaks (Rt : 2.7 and 3.8 min). The 2nd peak (Rt : 3.8 min) displaying high antimutagenicity was identified by ESI-IT-MS/MS analysis as peonidin 3-glucoside, whereas less antimutagenic peak 1 (Rt : 2.7) was identified as cyanidin 3, 5-diglucoside. The other TLC bands were also characterized by ESI-IT-MS/MS analysis. The least antimutagenic pink band (Rf : 0.49) was identified as malvidin 3-acetylglucoside-4-vinylcatechol, whereas non-antimutagenic yellow band (Rf : 0.14) was identified as luteolinidin anthocyanin derivative. Interestingly, the anthocyanin extracted from rose tea of cv. "passion" exhibited a similar antimutagenicity as that of the raw rose petal indicating the thermal stability of the contributing bioactive(s). The findings thus indicated the health protective property of differently colored rose cultivars and the nature of their active bioingredients.

Silver‐Coated Rose Petal: Green, Facile, Low‐Cost and Sustainable Fabrication of a SERS Substrate with Unique Superhydrophobicity and High Efficiency

The green, facile, low-cost and sustainable fabrication of a SERS substrate is reported, through physical vapor deposition of silver on rose petals. The hierarchical structures on the petal contribute to not only the superhydrophobicity, but also E-field enhancements. Therefore, the rose-petal-based SERS substrate shows high efficiency in the detection of R6G, and a detection limit of 10-9 M is achieved.

SERS Substrates: Silver-Coated Rose Petal: Green, Facile, Low-Cost and Sustainable Fabrication of a SERS Substrate with Unique Superhydrophobicity and High Efficiency (Advanced Optical Materials 1/2013)

Y.-L. Zhang, H.-B. Sun and co-workers report the facile fabrication of highly efficient SERS substrates from natural rose petals. The unique surface superhydrophobicity and the hierarchical nature of the structures contribute to their high sensitivity and low detection limit.

RhNAC2 and RhEXPA4 Are Involved in the Regulation of Dehydration Tolerance during the Expansion of Rose Petals

Dehydration inhibits petal expansion resulting in abnormal flower opening and results in quality loss during the marketing of cut flowers. We constructed a suppression subtractive hybridization library from rose (Rosa hybrida) flowers containing 3,513 unique expressed sequence tags and analyzed their expression profiles during cycles of dehydration. We found that 54 genes were up-regulated by the first dehydration, restored or even down-regulated by rehydration, and once again up-regulated by the second dehydration. Among them, we identified a putative NAC family transcription factor (RhNAC2). With transactivation activity of its carboxyl-terminal domain in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) cell and Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) protoplast, RhNAC2 belongs to the NAC transcription factor clade related to plant development in Arabidopsis. A putative expansin gene named RhEXPA4 was also dramatically up-regulated by dehydration. Silencing RhNAC2 or RhEXPA4 in rose petals by virus-induced gene silencing significantly decreased the recovery of intact petals and petal discs during rehydration. Overexpression of RhNAC2 or RhEXPA4 in Arabidopsis conferred strong drought tolerance in the transgenic plants. RhEXPA4 expression was repressed in RhNAC2-silenced rose petals, and the amino-terminal binding domain of RhNAC2 bound to the RhEXPA4 promoter. Twenty cell wall-related genes, including seven expansin family members, were up-regulated in Arabidopsis plants overexpressing RhNAC2. These data indicate that RhNAC2 and RhEXPA4 are involved in the regulation of dehydration tolerance during the expansion of rose petals and that RhEXPA4 expression may be regulated by RhNAC2.

Rose petals with a novel and steady air bubble pinning effect in aqueous media

Many well-known natural superhydrophobic surfaces exhibit unique characteristics when immersed in the aqueous medium. In the present paper, the phenomenon of the steady pinning effect of air bubbles on a rose petal with a combination of hierarchical rough structures (i.e., micropapillae and nanofolds) is described. The pinning force of a 2 μL air bubble is ca. 101.2 μN, and the critical flow velocity of water leading the three-phase contact line (TPCL) to slide is as quick as 124.7 mm s−1. The artificial rose petal surface was prepared from polydimethlsiloxane (PDMS) by a casting technique. It has the same nanofolds and micropapillae as the rose petal surface, and shows a similar air bubble pinning effect. The pinning force and the critical flow velocity of the artificial rose petal surface are 140.7 μN and 156.7 mm s−1, respectively. Smooth and rough PDMS films with an ordered nanostructure or patterned microstructure are utilized to study the contribution of the micro/nano hierarchical structures to the air bubble pinning effect. Particularly, the facility that the captured air pockets in the nanostructure of the rose petals (ca. 500–600 nm in width on each micropapilla tip) coalesce with the air bubble is shown. The process where a periodic array of microstructures (diameter: 16 μm, height: 7 μm) construct “absorbed” islands to avoid the coalescence between the adjacent air pockets on the nanofolds is demonstrated as well. The important roles of the size and distribution of the microstructure of the rose petal in the air bubble pinning process are highlighted. This steady pinning effect induced on superhydrophobic surfaces with micro/nano hierarchical rough structures should spark further theoretical study on other bubble-related interfacial phenomena and should open a new avenue for their application in industrial processes, including the cleaning of boats contaminated by plankton and oil, reduction of drag friction on ships and submarine hulls, and the foaming control process.

Przyroda(i)kultura w epoce antropocenu

The article deals with a New Understanding of nature and culture, which is being crystallized in the intellectual current defined by the name of post-humanities. The starting point for the analysis of work of art from the area of bioart – transgenic plant named Edunia, which is a part of a larger project Natural History of the Enigma. Edunia, which does not occur in nature but was created by the artist Eduardo Kac by means of specialists in the field of genetic engineering. A new form of life defined as plantimal shows a DNA expression of the artist included into decorative flowers of petunia. Rose petals of flowers are “interspersed” by dark red vessels the feature of which is the expression of Kac’s gene; this because the artist took care of that that his DNA was found just in the venation of the flower. In the article I present two interpretation paths of this work of bioart which, however, are not a sharp counterpoint to one another, but somewhat differently place accents between nature and culture in their mutual entanglements. One of these paths may be defined as an attempt at making others realise or reminding them about our evolutional species condition, while the other one as an attempt at treating nature as an important actor of the sociopolitical activities.

Biochemical and molecular characterization of anthocyanidin/flavonol 3-glucosylation pathways in Rosa×hybrida

Rose petals contain 3-glucosylated anthocyanidins and flavonols. We isolated three flavonoid 3-glucosyltransferase (UF3GT) homolog genes (RhUF3GT1, RhUF3GT2, and RhUF3GT3) from rose. RhUF3GT1 encoded an amino acid sequence that is almost identical to the reported rose partial UF3GT homologs and highly homologous to strawberry and apple UF3GTs. Recombinant RhUF3GT1 expressed in yeast catalyzes 3-glucosylation of anthocyanidins but not flavonols. RhUF3GT1 was not expressed in the petals of many cultivars even when anthocyanin biosynthesis was active, while it was expressed in the mature petals of cultivars that synthesize cyanidin 3-glucoside in the mature petals. RhUF3GT2 and RhUF3GT3, sharing 79% identity, exhibit only 42% and 41% identities to RhUF3GT1, respectively, and are distantly related to strawberry and apple UF3GTs. They were expressed in coordination with the flavonol synthase gene in the petal. The recombinant RhUF3GT2 expressed in yeast catalyzed 3-glucosylation of flavonol much more efficiently than that of anthocyanidins. We suggest that RhUF3GT2 catalyzes flavonol 3-glucosylation in rose petals and that it also contributes to accumulation of anthocyanidin 3-glucoside in the petals.

Adhesion Mechanism of Water Droplets on Hierarchically Rough Superhydrophobic Rose Petal Surface

Extremely hydrophobic surfaces, on which water droplets sit in a spherical shape leaving air entrapped into the roughness of the solid, are often called superhydrophobic. Hierarchically rough superhydrophobic surfaces that possess submicron scale fine structures combined with micron scale structures are generally more hydrophobic, and water droplet adhesion to those surfaces is lower in comparison with surfaces possessing purely micrometric structures. In other words, usually a fine structure on a superhydrophobic surface reduces liquid-solid contact area and water droplet adhesion. Here we show that this does not apply to a high-adhesive superhydrophobic rose petal surface. Contrary to the present knowledge, the function of the fine structure on the petal surface is to build up the high adhesion to water droplets. Understanding of the specific adhesion mechanism on the rose petal gives insight into an interesting natural phenomenon of simultaneous superhydrophobicity and high water droplet adhesion, but, in addition, it contributes to more precise comprehension of wetting and adhesion mechanisms of superhydrophobic surfaces overall.

The Structural Color of Red Rose Petals and Their Duplicates

The observation of the surface of a red rose petal indicates that there are micropapillae on the surface and many nanofolders exist on each papilla. Here, much tinier nanorods with periodic pattern on the nanofolders can be seen by in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM). Angle-resolved UV-vis spectral measurement and reflectance UV-vis spectra by immersion red rose petal in solvents with different refractive indices demonstrate that such periodic nanostructures can induce structural color. The combination of structural color, driven by the nanostructures, and chemical color, driven by pigments, provide flowers bright color and special functions for human and animals' visual system. Biomimic polymer films, that fabricated by duplicating the petal's hierarchical micro/nano structures, exhibit only structural color by UV-vis spectra since there is no pigment introduced.

Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Surfaces with High and Low Adhesion Inspired from Rose Petal

Certain rose petals are known to be superhydrophobic with high adhesion. There also exist rose petals which are superhydrophobic with low adhesion similar to lotus leaf. The purpose of this study is to characterize systematically the superhydrophobic rose petal with high and low adhesion surfaces and understand the mechanism for adhesion characteristics. Based on these, artificial superhydrophobic surfaces with high and low adhesion are fabricated using a two-step molding process and wax evaporation method. It is shown that the pitch values of microstructures and density of nanostructures play an important role in real rose petals and artificial surfaces to control their adhesion properties.

Shifts in macropod home ranges in response to wildlife management interventions

Context. Understanding how the individual movement patterns and dispersion of a population change following wildlife management interventions is crucial for effective population management. Aims. We quantified the impacts of two wildlife management strategies, a lethal intervention and a subsequent barrier intervention, on localised populations of the two most common macropod species in Tasmania, the Tasmanian pademelon (Thylogale billardierii) and the red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus rufogriseus). This manipulation allowed us to examine two competing hypotheses concerning the distribution of individuals in animal populations – the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) hypothesis and the Rose Petal (RP) hypothesis. We predicted that the RP would be supported if individuals maintained their previous home ranges following intervention, whereas the IFD would be supported if individuals redistributed following the management interventions. Methods. The movement patterns of T. billardierii and M. r. rufogriseus were tracked using GPS technology before and after the two management interventions. Key results. Following lethal intervention, pademelons and wallabies (1) maintained their home-range area, (2) increased their utilisation of agricultural habitat and (3) shifted their mean centroid locations compared with the pre-intervention period. Following barrier intervention, pademelons and wallabies (1) maintained their home-range area, (2) decreased their utilisation of agricultural habitat and (3) shifted their mean centroid locations compared with the pre-intervention period. Conclusions. On the basis of the individual responses of macropods to the management strategies (1) lethal intervention appeared to induce small shifts in home-range distributions of those remaining individuals in the population with home ranges overlapping the areas of lethal intervention and (2) barrier intervention is likely to induce whole-scale population movements of the animals that survive the lethal intervention in their search of an alternative food source. Both species displayed spatial and temporal shifts in their home-range distributions in response to lethal and barrier interventions that appear to conform broadly to predictions of IFD, at least in the timeframe of the present experiment. Implications. Wildlife management strategies, which are increasingly constrained by ethical, socio-political and financial considerations, should be based on ecological and behavioural data regarding the likely responses of the target population.

Developing an Invisible Message about Relative Acidities of Alcohols in the Natural Products Henna, Turmeric, Rose Petals, and Vitamin A

An engaging and colorful demonstration was developed that illustrates the utility of resonance theory in predicting the relative acidities of alcohols. The demonstration can be used as an introduction to exercises that provide students with practice in writing resonance structures and in predicting relative acidities. The demonstration exploits the pH-dependent structural and color changes that result in three naturally occurring dyes. Dilute basic solutions are used to write invisible messages and ethanolic extracts from henna, turmeric, and roses are used as developing solutions. The demonstration can be quickly, easily, and safely prepared for use and was found to be effective in attracting students’ attention and leading to lively discussions of resonance stabilization, keto−enol tautomerization, and relative acidities.

Cell Division and Expansion Growth during Rose Petal Development

There have been few reports on the morphology of flower opening, despite its horticultural significance. It is not clear when cell division stops during rose petal development or what changes occur in cell morphology. This study aims to clarify the details of cell morphological changes during rose petal development. Rose (Rosa hybrida L. ‘Sonia’) petals were sampled in six flower bud stages. Cell morphological changes were observed by light microscopy, transmission and scanning electron microscopy using cross sections of the petals, and the number of epidermal cells was measured using Nomarski differential interference contrast microscopy. The number of epidermal cells increased with flower opening, but the rate of increase in the number of abaxial epidermal cells slowed down at an earlier stage than in adaxial epidermal cells. The increase in the epidermal cell area was much more rapid in later stages compared with the increase in cell number, suggesting that petal growth in later stages is mainly due to cell expansion. During flower opening, the unique expansion of spongy parenchyma cells produced large air spaces. Epidermal cells of the upper part showed obvious lateral expansion. In particular, marked expansion of adaxial epidermal cells with enlargement of the central vacuole was observed. Differences in the patterns of cell expansion among cell types and locations would contribute to the reflex of petals during rose flower opening.

A Comparative Clinical Trial of Rose Petal (Gul Gulaab), Rose Hydrosol Diluted (Arq Gulaab), and Rose Hydrosol (Ruh Gulaab) in Insomnia.

Insomnia or lack of sleep is a sleeping disorder that is taking the form of an epidemic worldwide with competitive life replacing the traditional lifestyles. Therefore a lot is in turmoil including sleep. The National Sleep Foundation estimates 47 million American adults to be at risk of injury and physical and emotional difficulty because they do not get enough sleep. Presently no specific treatment is available for this ailment. The sleeping pills and other sedatives available in the market cause psychological and physical dependence besides they are also reported to cause some memory and conginitive disturbances. As such a study was conducted to evaluate the response of gul gulaab (powdered rose petals), arq gulaab (rose distillate diluted) and ruh gulaab (rose distillate) given through oral route in 36 cases.The present article deals with the response of these patients to the three different types of rose mediated medications.

Rose Petal Tea as an Antioxidant‐rich Beverage: Cultivar Effects

ABSTRACT Twelve rose cultivars were selected by field tasting as potential sources of edible flowers. Hot water infusions (teas) of air‐dried petals of these cultivars were assayed for antioxidant activity, total phenols, and total anthocyanins contents. Their composition was analyzed by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Green tea was tested in parallel as a reference antioxidant‐rich beverage. Rose petal teas from different cultivars exhibited scavenging capacity toward 2,2′‐azino‐bis‐(3‐ethylbenzothiazoline)‐6‐sulfonate cation radical (ABTS+) ranging between 712.7 and 1770.7 μM Trolox equivalents (TE) per gram of dry petals, as compared with 1227.6 μM TE/g dry weight in the green tea. The range of total phenols content in rose teas was 50.7 to 119.5 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE) per gram of dry matter, as compared with 62.1 mg GAE/g dry weight in the green tea. The rose teas were rich in free gallic acid. The highest values of antioxidant activity, total phenols, and gallic acid contents were found in the cultivars San Francisco, Katharina Zeimet, and Mercedes and in the essential‐oil‐bearing rose Rosa damascena. The correlation coefficients between antioxidant activity, on the 1 hand, and the contents of total phenols and of gallic acid in various rose cultivars, on the other hand, were 0.79 and 0.81, respectively. No clear relationship between anthocyanin level and radical‐scavenging activity was revealed. Teas from different rose cultivars significantly differed in their sensory properties. It was concluded that dried rose petals may be used for preparing antioxidant‐rich caffeine‐free beverages, either separately or in combination with other herbal materials.