Traditional Chinese medicinal plant yields new insecticide compounds
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

For hundreds of years, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have used an herb called Stemona sessilifolia as a remedy for parasitic infections, such as those caused by pinworms and lice. Now, researchers reporting in ACS` Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have identified 10 compounds that might be responsible for the herb`s effectiveness. But there`s a twist: The insecticides are produced by symbiotic microbes that live within the plant`s cells-not by S. sessilifolia itself.