Yunus Dogan

Trace element pollution biomonitoring using the bark of Pinus brutia (Turkish red pine) in the Western Anatolian part of Turkey

Ab stract. Back ground: Pinus brutia Ten (Turk ish red pine) is a wide spread ev er green tree in the Med i ter ra nean and Aegean re gions of Tur key. Meth ods: The barks of red pine were tested as a pos si ble biomonitor of trace el e ment pol lu tion stud ied in the West ern Ana to lian part of Tur key. Sam ples col lected from con trol, in dus try, road side, sub ur ban and ru ral ar eas from 30 lo ca tions in the study area were in ves ti gated. The con cen tra tion of cad mium, lead, chro mium, iron, nickel and cop per were de ter mined in the bark of the red pine by atomic ab sorp tion spec trom e try. Re sults: As re sults of this study, the fol low ing con cen tra tions were de ter mined: Cd: 0.60 – 0.71 μg g–1, Pb: 4.59 – 20.03 μg g–1, Cr: 0.44 – 3.17 μg g–1, Fe: 486.35 – 1274.04 μg g–1, Ni: 3.56 – 18.87 μg g–1 and Cu: 3.52 – 15.30 μg g–1. Con clu sion: The re sults of this study im ply that barks of P. brutia can be a use ful biomonitor for the de ter min ing heavy metal pol lu tion in an area.

Local knowledge of medicinal plants and wild food plants among Tatars and Romanians in Dobruja (South-East Romania)

Ethnobiological studies in South-Eastern Europe are gaining the interest of scholars and stakeholders, given that they are increasingly considered crucial for the evaluation and valorisation of local bio-cultural heritage. An ethnobotanical survey focusing on local wild food and wild and non-wild medicinal plant uses was conducted in six villages of Dobruja, Eastern Romania, among 44 elderly participants belonging to Tatar and Romanian communities. We recorded and identified 77 plant taxa, corresponding to 93 plant (use) reports. Only approximately half of the plants and one-third of the plant reports were common to both Tatars and Romanians. This demonstrates that the ethnobotanies of the two communities have remained somewhat different, despite the common history that these communities have shared over many centuries within the same social and environmental space. This finding can be explained by their different religious affiliations (Romanians are Orthodox, while Tatars are Muslims), which has limited intermarriages and relevant exchanges of knowledge, practices, and beliefs related to plants. In particular, nettle (Urtica dioica) is quite commonly used for food by Romanians, but is ignored by Tatars. Our study may be of interest to rural development programs aimed at fostering community-based management strategies of natural resources, as well as ecological and gastronomic tourism.

Medicinal Plants Used for Gastrointestinal Disorders in Some Districts of Izmir Province, Turkey

Abstract This study was carried out in order to determine which plants and the ways in which these plants are used for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders among the people of some districts of Izmir province, located in the Western Anatolian part of Turkey. Field study was carried out over a period of approximately three years (2009-2011). During the field trips, the information was collected through interviews, including various data obtained from local healers and traditional medicine men, herbalists, shepherds, patients and elderly persons. In addition, informant consensus factor (Fic) values were calculated for the medicinal plants included in the study. A total of 33 plants belonging to 25 families were documented for their therapeutic use against gastrointestinal disorders. Further analysis on the families of medicinal plants that are used against gastrointestinal disorders has shown that family Lamiaceae is represented by the highest number of species. Also, it was determined that gastrointestinal system ailments for which the folk medicinal plants are mostly used, are as follows: constipation, diarrhea, gastritis and ulcer, intestinal winds, nausea, gastralgia and indigestion. Informant consensus of medicinal plant usage within Izmir resulted in Fic values between 0.56 and 0.84 per gastrointestinal disorder category. This study showed that plants are actively used for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders in the area of Izmir.

An ethnobotanical perspective on traditional fermented plant foods and beverages in Eastern Europe

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Fermented food and beverages represent an important part of the worldwide foodscape, medicinal food domain and domestic strategies of health care, yet relevant traditional knowledge in Europe is poorly documented. METHODS Review of primary ethnographic literature, archival sources and a few ad-hoc ethnobotanical field studies in seven selected Eastern European countries (Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Kosovo, and Poland) were conducted. RESULTS Current or recently abandoned uses of 116 botanical taxa, belonging to 37 families in fermented food or medicinal food products were recorded. These findings demonstrate a rich bio-cultural diversity of use, and also a clear prevalence of the use of fruits of the tannin- and phenolic-rich Rosaceae species in alcoholic, lactic- and acetic acid fermented preparations. In the considered countries, fermentation still plays (or has played until recent years) a crucial role in folk cuisines and this heritage requires urgent and in-depth evaluation. DISCUSSION Future studies should be aimed at further documenting and also bio-evaluating the ingredients and processes involved in the preparation of homemade fermented products, as this can be used to support local, community-based development efforts to foster food security, food sovereignty, and small-scale local food-based economies.

Of the importance of a leaf: the ethnobotany of sarma in Turkey and the Balkans

BackgroundSarma - cooked leaves rolled around a filling made from rice and/or minced meat, possibly vegetables and seasoning plants – represents one of the most widespread feasting dishes of the Middle Eastern and South-Eastern European cuisines. Although cabbage and grape vine sarma is well-known worldwide, the use of alternative plant leaves remains largely unexplored. The aim of this research was to document all of the botanical taxa whose leaves are used for preparing sarma in the folk cuisines of Turkey and the Balkans.MethodsField studies were conducted during broader ethnobotanical surveys, as well as during ad-hoc investigations between the years 2011 and 2014 that included diverse rural communities in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkey. Primary ethnobotanical and folkloric literatures in each country were also considered.ResultsEighty-seven botanical taxa, mainly wild, belonging to 50 genera and 27 families, were found to represent the bio-cultural heritage of sarma in Turkey and the Balkans. The greatest plant biodiversity in sarma was found in Turkey and, to less extent, in Bulgaria and Romania.The most commonly used leaves for preparing sarma were those of cabbage (both fresh and lacto-fermented), grape vine, beet, dock, sorrel, horseradish, lime tree, bean, and spinach. In a few cases, the leaves of endemic species (Centaurea haradjianii, Rumex gracilescens, and R. olympicus in Turkey) were recorded.Other uncommon sarma preparations were based on lightly toxic taxa, such as potato leaves in NE Albania, leaves of Arum, Convolvulus, and Smilax species in Turkey, of Phytolacca americana in Macedonia, and of Tussilago farfara in diverse countries. Moreover, the use of leaves of the introduced species Reynoutria japonica in Romania, Colocasia esculenta in Turkey, and Phytolacca americana in Macedonia shows the dynamic nature of folk cuisines.ConclusionThe rich ethnobotanical diversity of sarma confirms the urgent need to record folk culinary plant knowledge. The results presented here can be implemented into initiatives aimed at re-evaluating folk cuisines and niche food markets based on local neglected ingredients, and possibly also to foster trajectories of the avant-garde cuisines inspired by ethnobotanical knowledge.

Heavy metal accumulation in the bark and leaves of Juglans regia planted in Artvin City, Turkey.

The aim of this study was to determine the level of heavy metals such as copper, iron, manganese, zinc, lead, nickel, cadmium and chromium concentrated in Juglans regia bark and leaf samples from different localities in Artvin, Turkey. Analysis of the heavy metals Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd and Cr in samples was carried out by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP–OES; Perkin Elmer, Optima 8000 DV). Statistical significance was determined by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The comparisons were performed in order to determine whether there were any differences between J. regia bark and leaf samples in terms of average heavy metal accumulation levels. As a result of this study, the following mean concentrations were determined for J. regia bark samples: the contents of Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd and Cr (μg g−1, dry weight) ranged from 72.46 to 88.14, 14.40 to 628.0, 0.896 to 67.71, 7.000 to 28.52, 0.040 to 0.905, 1.031 to 2.744, 0.011 to 0.158 and 1.192 to 3.134, respectively. On the other hand, for J. regia leaf samples, the contents of Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd and Cr (μg g−1, dry weight) ranged from 0.339 to 13.80, 12.72 to 698.2, 1.001 to 204.6, 7.362 to 56.03, 0.158 to 0.665, 0.130 to 2.744, 0.041 to 0.114 and 0.508 to 2.767, respectively. In the statistical analysis, heavy metal accumulation values of J. regia bark and leaf samples for Cu, Ni and Cr were significantly different (P < 0.05).

The Determination of Colour Intensity of Rubia Tinctorum and Chrozophora Tinctoria Distributed in Western Anatolia

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to determinate the colour intensity of Rubia tinctorum L., Rubiaceae (dyers madder) and Chrozophora tinctoria (L.) A. Juss., Euphorbiaceae (dyers croton). Rubia tinctorum and Chorozophora tinctoria distributed widely in our study area of West Anatolia were used as the research materials in our study because of their dye value. Aboveground parts of C. tinctoria and underground parts of R. tinctorum were collected from different localities in Western Anatolia for determining their colour intensity on wool. After a few procedures, the colour intensity of specimens was determined by DC 3881 Datacolor spectrophotometer and evaluation made by Kubelka-Munk equality. According to the results of the measurements; the highest and the lowest colour intensity of R. tinctorum were as 28.07 and 11.01, respectively, and the same values for C. tinctoria were 6.40 and 3.21, respectively.

SOM++: integration of self-organizing map and k-means++ algorithms

Data clustering is an important and widely used task of data mining that groups similar items together into subsets. This paper introduces a new clustering algorithm SOM++, which first uses K-Means++ method to determine the initial weight values and the starting points, and then uses Self-Organizing Map (SOM) to find the final clustering solution. The purpose of this algorithm is to provide a useful technique to improve the solution of the data clustering and data mining in terms of runtime, the rate of unstable data points and internal error. This paper also presents the comparison of our algorithm with simple SOM and K-Means + SOM by using a real world data. The results show that SOM++ has a good performance in stability and significantly outperforms three other methods training time.

Evaluation of heavy metals uptake by wheat growing in sewage water irrigated soil

ABSTRACT Present research work was carried out in Sahiwal, Sargodha, Pakistan. Diverse treatments of domestic wastewater were used for ascertaining the contamination level in grains of wheat crop. Food crop exposure to heavy metals has been a subject of great concern due to potential health risks to humans. It was observed that increased proportion of wastewater resulted in elevation of heavy metals both in soil and wheat grains. The iron was found to be higher in comparison to all other studied metals in soil. Similarly, wheat grains had high Cd level. Cadmium had the highest values for daily metal intake, health risk index, and pollution load index. Except Co, all metals were positively and significantly correlated between wheat grains and soil. Zinc had the highest bioavailability due to its highest bioconcentration factor. Value of enrichment factor was highest for Mn. It was thus concluded, on the basis of this study, that wastewater-irrigated crops accumulate more metals. Treatment of wastewater prior to application to plants must be commonly practiced to save crops from contamination.

Outlier Detection with Double-Sided Control Mechanism and Different Priority Weight Values for Network Security

A server needs strong security systems. For this goal, a new perspective to network security is won by using data mining paradigms like outlier detection, clustering and classification. This study uses K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithm for clustering and classification. KNN algorithm needs data warehouse which impersonates user profiles to cluster. Therefore, requested time intervals and requested IPs with text mining are used for user profiles. Users in the network are clustered by calculating optimum k and threshold parameters of KNN algorithm. Finally, over these clusters, new requests are separated as outlier or normal by different threshold values with different priority weight values and average similarities with different priority weight values.