Ethnobotanical knowledge is indispensable for the conservation of global biological integrity, and could provide irreplaceable clues for bioprospecting aiming at new food crops and medicines. This biocultural diversity requires a comprehensive documentation of such intellectual knowledge at local levels. However, without systematically capturing the data, those regional records are fragmented and can hardly be used. In this study, we develop a framework to assemble the cross-cultural ethnobotanical knowledge at a genus level, including capturing the species\' diversity and their cultural importance, integrating their traditional uses, and revealing the intercultural relationship of ethnobotanical data quantitatively. Using such a cross-cultural ethnobotanical assembly, the medicinal and culinary values of the genus Lycium are evaluated. Simultaneously, the analysis highlights the problems and options for a systematic cross-cultural ethnobotanical knowledge assembly. The framework used here could generate baseline data relevant for conservation and sustainable use of plant diversity as well as for bioprospecting within targeting taxa.

Anthocyanin composition in forty-five Lycium ruthenicum Murray (LRM) samples grown in China was identified by high-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS) and quantified by HPLC with a diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). The results showed that the overall pattern of anthocyanin composition of LRM from different provinces was the same, while the individual and total anthocyanin concentrations, were significantly different, indicating an important impact of geographical origin on anthocyanin composition, which can be considered as credible indices for LRM classification. Principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were applied to develop discrimination models for the anthocyanin concentrations. PCA clearly separated the LRM based on its geographical origins. LDA satisfactorily categorized the samples by providing a 100% success rate based on geographical origins. The results obtained could be used to trace the geographical origin of LRM.

Cardiovascular patients frequently use herbal medicinal products, in order to contribute to the improvement of their chronic condition without medical intervention. However, they are likely to suffer from adverse effects from natural products and herb-drug interactions. In this work we present the results collected from a public campaign \"Learning Health, among Plants and Medicines\", carried out by the Observatory of Herb-Drug Interactions (www.oipm.uc.pt), to alert cardiovascular patients and healthcare providers for the potential occurrence of herb-drug interactions with cardiovascular therapy. From the data received, it was highlighted the prevalence of certain natural products used by many cardiovascular patients in Portugal, particularly goji berries, green tea, mangosteen and rooibos that have significant cardiovascular effects. For this reason their intake should be carefully monitored in these patients. This prevalence of consumption suggests a pattern in their use in Portugal and a prevention of herb-drug interactions should be carried out by the health professionals. The ending results also indicate that there is still a lack of knowledge about the possible risks of herbal products intake, which may adversely affect the health of any patient. Thus becomes clear the value of the role of health professionals in the screening of such interactions.

Wang et al. (2015) employed driving force-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework to provide a robust decision-making structure for carbon emission reduction by use of wolfberry plantation in the Jingtai oasis, China. DPSIR appropriately identified the causes of problem along with adopting the responses to the barriers associated with wolfberry plantation. However, the discusser argues that, the paper could have prepared more viable outcomes, if the authors had used causal network rather than causal chains through the DPSIR framework. Furthermore, they could have quantified the mutual relationship among the relevant factors to provide a detailed economic assessment. With this knowledge in hand, the current discussion letter suggests eDPSIR and meDPSIR to address drawbacks regarding conventional DPSIR framework. Due to proper performance of eDPSIR and meDPSIR, they are recommended as practical tools in the future environmental studies.

The largest global source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions comes from the burning of fossil fuel and approximately 30% of total net emissions come from land use and land use change. Forestation and reforestation are regarded worldwide as effective options of sequestering carbon to mitigate climate change with relatively low costs compared with industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction efforts. Cash trees with a steady augmentation in size are recognized as a multiple-beneficial solution to climate change in China. The reporting of C changes and GHG emissions for sustainable land management (SLM) practices such as afforestation is required for a variety of reasons, such as devising land management options and making policy. The Carbon Benefit Project (CBP) Simple Assessment Tool was employed to estimate changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and GHG emissions for wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.) planting on secondary salinized land over a 10 year period (2004-2014) in the Jingtai oasis in Gansu with salinized barren land as baseline scenario. Results show that wolfberry plantation, an intensively managed ecosystem, served as a carbon sink with a large potential for climate change mitigation, a restorative practice for saline land and income stream generator for farmers in soil salinized regions in Gansu province. However, an increase in wolfberry production, driven by economic demands, would bring environmental pressures associated with the use of N fertilizer and irrigation. With an understanding of all of the components of an ecosystem and their interconnections using the Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework there comes a need for strategies to respond to them such as capacity building, judicious irrigation and institutional strengthening. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) suggests that wolfberry cultivation was economically profitable and socially beneficial and thus well-accepted locally in the context of carbon sequestration. This study has important implications for Gansu as it helps to understand the role cash trees can play in carbon emission reductions. Such information is necessary in devising management options for sustainable land management (SLM).