ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Estrogens has traditionally been known as the female hormone, but this idea has been challenged in early 1990’s and an essential physiological role for estrogen in male fertility was identified. Phytoestrogens are naturally occurring non-steroidal plant chemicals that can act like the female hormone estrogen. The herbs ( anise alfalfa and vervain ) chosen in this study contain phytoestrogens. OBJECTIVE: Previous studies demonstrated controversy of the effects of phytoestrogens on the rat testes .Hence, the present investigation was undertaken to investigate the influence of typical dose of herbs containing phytoestrogen on the rat testis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four apparently normal mature male rats were divided into four groups of 6 animals each. The first "control" group received only 4ml of distilled water as a placebo. The second group received 40mg/kg of anise seed; the third group received 53.3 mg/kg of dried herb of vervain and the fourth group received 400 mg /kg of alfalfa seeds. All experimental groups received the doses through orogastric tube daily for fourteen days. Testicular histology was evaluated by light and enzyme histochemistry. Plasma FSH and testosterone concentrations were taken to support our results. RESULTS: Histological examination of anise, alfalfa and vervain – treated groups showed an increase in the height of germinal epithelia. There was marked lipoprotein lipase activity in the whole of the interstitial tissue which is more in amount in experimental groups than that in control group. Acid phosphatase granules were infiltered the seminiferous epithelia mildly in control group , moderately in anise and vervain groups and markedly in alfalfa group. The number of interstitial cells showing marked acid phosphatase activity was higher in all experimental groups than that in control group. Alkaline phosphatase exhibited intense activity in the boundary tissue of the seminiferous tubules in testes of control and experimental groups but it appeared thicker in the latter. CONCLUSION: The low dose and short duration of treatment used in our study made these phytoestrogen – containing herbs to have a stimulatory effect on leydig cell steroidogenesis. This study also demonstrated that aniseed being the most potent of the three herbs followed by alfalfa in stimulating testosterone synthesis. This is possibly attributed to the coumarin constituent of aniseed and alfalfa. KEY WORDS: phytoestrogen-containing herbs, testis, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase, lipoprotein lipase
In this paper, analyzing the non-dimensional Magnesium-hydrodynamics problem Using nanoparticles in Jeffrey-Hamel flow (JHF) has been studied. The fundamental equations for this issue are reduced to a three-order ordinary differential equation. The current project investigated the effect of the angles between the plates, Reynolds number, nanoparticles volume fraction parameter, and magnetic number on the velocity distribution by using analytical technique known as a perturbation iteration scheme (PIS). The effect of these parameters is similar in the converging and diverging channels except magnetic number that it is different in the divergent channel. Furthermore, the resulting solutions with good convergence and high accuracy for the d
... Show MoreThe Catharanthus roseus plant was extracted and converted to nanoparticles in this work. The Soxhlet method was used to extract alkaloid compounds from the Catharanthus roseus plant and converted them to the nanoscale. Chitosan polymer was used as a linking material and converted to Chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs). The extracted alkaloids were linked with Chitosan nanoparticles by maleic anhydride to get the final product (CSNPs-Linker-alkaloids). The pure Chitosan, Chitosan nanoparticles, and CSNPs-Linker-alkaloids were characterized by X-ray diffractometer, and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. X-ray results show that all samples have an orthorhombic structure with crystallite size in nanodimensions. FTIR spectra prove that
... Show MoreThis research focused on clarifying the relationship strategic decisions for operations management & performance excellence organizational, The research emerges from a problem which explained by many application questions. Special questionnaire has been prepared for this purpose distributed (72) to sample of management levels (Top, middle) in the General company for mining industries and aquatic Insullation & the General company of batteries industry, The research has tried to test a number hypotheses related to the relation and regression among the variables of the research, and the differences among the <
... Show MoreABSTRACT Fifty extremely halophilic bacteria were isolated from local high salient soils named Al-Massab Al-Aam in south of iraq and were identified by using numerical taxonomy. Fourty strains were belong to the genus Halobacterium which included Hb. halobium (10%). Hb. salinarium (12.5%), Hb.cutirubrum (17.5%), Hb-saccharovorum (12.5%), Hb. valismortis (10%) and Hb. volcanii (37.5%). Growth curves were determined. Generation time (hr) in complex media and logarithmic phase were measured and found to be 10.37±0.59 for Hb. salinarium. 6.49 ± 0.24 for Hb.cutirubrum. 6.70±0.48 for Hb-valismonis, and 11.24 ± 0.96 for Hb. volcanii
The Phenomenon of Euphemism in the Translon Activity Euphemism is the replacement of a harsh word with a less harsh or more acceptable one. Most languages are affected by ideological, cultural, social, or religious perspectives which in turn would reflect different linguistic levels. On such a basis, translation is affected by its medium,i.e. language, and consequently what is acceptably expressed by a nation may not be acceptable by another. In this paper, we try to
... Show MoreThe predator Melanthrips pallidior Priesner regarded as a new record in Baghdad. The specimens were collected from alfalfa field during April 2010 to April 2011 in Abu-Gharib. Morphological characters of different body parts were studied and compared with other specimens by using taxonomic keys.
Tensile strength is a critical property of Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) pavements and is closely related to distresses such as fatigue cracking. This study aims to evaluate methods for assessing fatigue cracking in Asphalt Concrete (AC) mixes. In order to achieve optimum density at different binder contents, the mixes were compressed using a gyratory compactor. Tensile strength was assessed using the Indirect Tensile (IDT) and Semi-Circular Bend (SCB) tests. The results showed that the tensile strength measured by the SCB test was consistently higher than that measured by the IDT test at 25 °C. In addition, the SCB test showed a stronger correlation between increasing binder content and tensile strength. For binder contents ranging from 4
... Show MoreHerpes simplex virus (HSV) is a common human pathogen that causes severe infections in newborns and immunocompromised patients. Conjunctivitis or corneal epithelial keratitis is caused by HSV type 1 all over the world and at all times of the year. The present study was aimed at detecting HSV in patients suffering from conjunctivitis. One hundred and ten (110) clinical samples (90 patients and 20 controls, both males and females) of eye conjunctiva swabs were collected from patients of different ages. The samples were analyzed using qPCR and ELISA techniques. The qPCR results revealed that HSV was present in 47 (52.2%) of the 90 patients who were infected. Of these patients, 25 (48.0%) were males and 22 (57.8%) were females, indicati
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is modeling the transport of industrial wastewater in sandy soil by using finite element method. A washing technique was used to remove the industrial wastewater from the soil. The washing technique applied with an efficient hydraulic gradient to help in transport of contaminant mass by advection. Also, the mass transport equation used in modeling the transport of industrial wastewater from soil includes the sorption and chemical reactions. The sandy soil samples obtained from Al-Najaf Governorate/Iraq. The wastewater contaminant was obtained from Al- Musyiebelectricity power plant. The soil samples were synthetically contaminated with four percentages of 10, 20, 30 and 40% of the contaminant and these percentages calc
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