posted: September 2, 2003 | by chelsie

The Windsor bean is one of the many varieties of the fava bean (Vicia faba Linnaeus). As a favorite dish, this bean was cultivated in the garden of Fritz Hoffmann, owner of Hoffmann-La Roche Limited. In 1913 a Roche biochemist, Marcus Guggenheim analyzed Windsor beans from Hoffmann's garden. He isolated dihydroxyphenylalanine or dopa. The amino acid was thought biologically inert and little attention was paid to the discovery. [Click here to read more...]

posted: August 26, 2003 | by chelsie

March 14, 1790. Lieutenant William Bligh arrived back in England. One can only imagine his anger and embarrassment; he failed his commission and lost His Majesty's Armed Vessel, a ship specifically outfitted for the mission. On October 22, almost two years since the Bounty arrived at Tahiti, Bligh was court-martialed for the loss of the ship. He was honorably acquitted and in December was promoted to Post (full) Captain. [Click here to read more...]

posted: August 19, 2003 | by chelsie

When HMAV Bounty reached Cape Horn, Tierra del Fuego, it was summer. Seasons mean little that far south; the 'Horn' is notorious for vicious storms and treacherous waves. The Bounty crew spent a month attempting passage into the Pacific. Cold and defeated, they headed across the South Atlantic for the Cape of Good Hope, Africa. The ship put in at False Bay and spent another month repairing and restocking. [Click here to read more...]

posted: August 12, 2003 | by chelsie

Sunday morning, 8 a.m. February 14, 1779. Captain James Cook of the HMS Resolution is dead. He was killed in Hawaii in a melee with the natives when he attempted to take King Kalaniopu as a hostage until a stolen cutter (towed storage boat) was returned. Twenty-four year old William, the ship's navigator, would return the Resolution and the Discovery and their crews safely to England. ("The Death of Captain Cook", Richard P. Aulie, 1999) [Click here to read more...]

posted: August 5, 2003 | by chelsie

The Westward Expansion of the United States began in 1807. After the Mexican War in 1848, additional territories (Texas, New Mexico, and California) were opened to those seeking land. The Civil War slowed the movement; it was spurred again by immigrants and those left penniless by the war. [Click here to read more...]

posted: July 29, 2003 | by chelsie

Peptidoglycan is a polymer built of proteins and oligosaccharides. It is the main constituent of the cell wall of bacteria. Gram negative bacteria have an inner membrane, a thin wall of peptidoglycan, and an outer membrane; gram positive bacteria have an inner cell membrane surrounded by a thick layer of peptidoglycan. (Molecular Cell Biology, J. Darnell, H. Lodish, and D. Baltimore, Scientific American Books, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1990) [Click here to read more...]

posted: July 22, 2003 | by chelsie

With prejudice typical of his day, John Gerard stated that rye "...clammy...obstructing....hard to digest..." should not be eaten except by the poor, "...yet to rusticke bodies that can well digest it, it yeelds good nourishment." (The Herbal, John Gerard, 1633 edition) Although rye is not the only host plant for ergot (Claviceps purpurea (Fries) Tulasne), it was the most notorious since the grain's dark color hides the presence of the fungus. The bundle of hyphae replaces the kernel and looks like a spur. The better educated did not understand the toxicity, they only knew that rye was not always safe to consume. [Click here to read more...]

posted: July 15, 2003 | by chelsie

Ergot (Claviceps purpurea (Fries) Tulasne) is a fungus that infects grains particularly rye, but it will attack wheat and other grasses. The seeds in the grain ears are replaced by spur-shaped bundles of fungal hyphae. If these hyphae are ground with the grain and eaten, the disease ergotism ensues. Outbreaks of ergotism may manifest itself as mass insanity with suicides and murders, gangrene and loss of limbs, or St. Anthony's fire--extreme burning pain and seizures. (Medical Botany, Plants affecting Man's Health, W.H. Lewis and M.P.F. Elvin-Lewis, Wiley & Sons, 1977) [Click here to read more...]

posted: July 8, 2003 | by chelsie

Pectin is a polysaccharide, long chains of a sugar derivative, galacturonic acid. It is present in the cell walls of plant tissues. It keeps cell walls intact as well as holding the cells together somewhat like mortar holds bricks. Unlike mortar, pectin remains elastic; the cells can move relative to each other allowing the plant flexibility in the wind. [Click here to read more...]

posted: July 1, 2003 | by chelsie

The papaya (Carica papaya Linnaeus) is believed native to the lowland tropics of southern Mexico and Central America. Papayas or tree melons are now grown in every tropical country. The huge fruit comes from female trees grown on plantations, but for all the papayas produced in the world market, very few find their way to the produce section of stores. Papayas are mainly grown for their proteolytic (breaks bonds in proteins) enzyme, papain [pa pay' in]. [Click here to read more...]