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
The current study included a detail morphological study of all parts of the two species of the genus Tropaeolum L. (Tropaeolumceae) cultivated in different gardens, the roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruit were studied in detail, also the pollen grains were studied, and there are photographs for all that parts were putted. A specimens of that taxa were studied in some Iraqi herbaria. The study found that there are many characters were used in differentiation of two species under study.
COVID-19 is a coronavirus disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was responsible for 87,747,940 recorded infections and 1,891,352 confirmed deaths as of January 9, 2021. Antibodies that target the Sprotein are efficient in neutralizing the virus. Methodology: 180 samples were collected from clinical sources (Blood and Nasopharyngeal swabs) and from different ages and genders at diverse hospitals in Baghdad / IRAQ between November 5, 2021, to January 20, 2022. All samples were confirmed infected with COVID-19 disease by RT-PCR technique. Haematology analysis and blood group were done for all samples, and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay used an Ig
... Show MoreIn this study, the chamomile flowers (Matricaria recutitaL) which grow in Iraqi Kurdistan region during the seasons of (2008) are collected. The percentage of essential oil was determined by using steam distillation and the extraction of flowers performed with petroleum ether (70-80) ºC and methanol 70% using ultrasonic extraction. Total phenolic compounds were determined from methanol extracts by using Folin-Ciocalteu method. The extracts were evaluated by thin layer chromatography, ultraviolet absorption and the biological activities were evaluated through their antibacterial action against two types of bacteria using hole method. The flowers showed a composition of 0.071% ash, 0.4% essential oil, 3.2% non oily compounds, 4% oil, 1.9% mo
... Show MoreThe present project involves photodegrading the dye solochrom violet under advanced oxidation techniques at (25 oC) temperature and UV light. Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and UV radiation at a wavelength of 580 nm were used to conduct the photocatalytic reaction of the solochrom violet dye. One of the factors looked into was the impact of the starting conditions. pH, the amount of original hydrogen peroxide, and the dye concentration time radiation were used. For hours, the kinetics and percentages of degradation were examined at various intervals. In general, it has been discovered that the photodegradation rates of the dye were greater when H2O2 and ZnO were combined with UV light. The best wavelength to use was determined. Modern oxidation techni
... Show MoreA hydraulic platform was manufactured to serve palm trees and to enhance palm tree services, with a height of 12 meters, by the General Company for Hydraulic Industries, one of the Ministry of Industry's formations. This platform was tested in the field after being manufactured according to a randomized complete block design using split-split plots with three factors. The first factor represented the shape of the orchard land, with two levels (flat land and uneven land), serving as the main plots. The second factor had three levels representing palm tree heights (4, 8, and 12 meters), which served as the sub-plots. The third factor was the palm tree services, represented at three levels (pruning, pollination, and harvesting), with each trea
... Show More(Sb2S3)1-xSnx thin films with different concentrations (0, 0.05 and
0.15) and thicknesses (300,500 and 700nm) have been deposited by
single source vacuum thermal evaporation onto glass substrates at
ambient temperature to study the effect of tin content, thickness and
on its structural morphology, and electrical properties. AFM study
revealed that microstructure parameters such as crystallite size, and
roughness found to depend upon deposition conditions. The DC
conductivity of the vacuum evaporated (Sb2S3)1-x Snx thin films was
measured in the temperature range (293-473)K and was found to
increase on order of magnitude with
The anatomical features of Agave americana L. leaf have been described, transverse sections of the leaf have been examined, the epidermis is single-layered on both surfaces, the stomata are sunken and mesophyll is (2-3) layers of parenchyma cells, vascular bundles are collateral type. The pollen of A. americana was studied. The observation was made with L.M. (Light microscope) and S.E.M. (Scanning electron microscope) to determine the significance of pollen features as taxonomic characters. The pollen was monades, homopolar, monosulcate, and with large size, subprolate in shape from P/E ratio (Polar axis/ Equatorial diameter) and furrow length and width, exine thickness and ornamentation.
In this study, aromatic polyamide reverse osmosis membranes were used to remove zinc ions from electroplating wastewater. Influence of different operating conditions such as time, zinc concentration and pressure on reverse osmosis process efficiency was studied. The experimental results showed, concentration of zinc in permeate increase with increases of time from 0 to 70 min, and flux of water through membrane decline with time. While, the concentrations of zinc in permeate increase with the increase in feed zinc concentration (10–300 mg/l), flux decrease with the increment of feed concentration. The raise of pressure from 1 to 4 bar, the zinc concentration decreases and the flux increase. The highest recovery percentage was fou
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