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
Grass carp at a weight of 34.68 + 2 g were gradually exposed to four saline concentrations: tap water (0.1), 3, 6, 9, and 12 gm/litter, and the first concentration represented a control treatment. Fish were fed on a diet with a protein content of 30% for ten weeks. Results of the growth experiment showed that the feed conversion rate was 2.46, 3.58, 4.84, 6.77, and -8.56 in the first to fifth treatments, respectively, and the rate feed conversion efficiency was 40.65, 27. 93, 20.66, 14.77 and 11.68 %, while the protein intake was 22.38, 20.44, 18.86, 17.47 and 16.56 g in salt concentrations of 0.1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 g/L, respectively. In another experiment to study the effect of salt acc
This study evaluated the influence of administering different levels of L-arginine into eggs of 0-day-old Japanese quail embryos. On day 0 of incubation, 480 eggs (120 for each treatment group) were injected with 0% arginine (C group), 1% arginine (T1), 2% arginine (T2) or 3% arginine (T3). After hatching, 336 quail chicks (84 chicks produced from each in ovo injection treatment) were placed in an experimental quail house and allocated to four treatment groups of three replicates, with 16 quail chicks for each replicate. Traits involved in this study were hatchability rate, initial body weight (7 days of age), final body weight (42 days old), feed intake, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and blood serum glucose, protein, cholesterol, tota
... Show MoreThere are Islamic sources and books that deal with the different doctrinal and differential framework of the Islamic religion with a monistic approach, describing them with embarrassing jurisprudential titles such as: excommunication and expiation, and epithets that carry the characteristics of hatred and rejection, in addition to removing them from the sect and religion, and the reason for that is that the doctrine (A) or (b) considers itself the doctrine that represents only the Islamic religion, and other doctrines are misguided and disbelieving. the reasons behind this - besides the attempt to establish doctrinal and fiqih rooting in claiming truth and escaping from within the foundational differential doctrinal system – is the pol
... Show MoreAbstract : Tin oxide SnO2 films were prepared by atmospheric chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) technique. Our study focus on prepare SnO2 films by using capillary tube as deposition nozzle and the effect of these tubes on the structural properties and optical properties of the prepared samples. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed to find the crystallite size. (XRD) studies show that the structure of a thin films changes from polycrystalline to amorphous by increasing the number of capillary tubes used in sample preparation. Maximum transmission can be measured is (95%) at three capillary tube. (AFM) where use to analyze the morphology of the tin oxides surface. Roughness and average grain size for different number of capillary tubes have b
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Variation orders are an on-going phenomenon in construction and industry projects worldwide, particularly in the province of Sulaimani, where the project's damage from cost and schedule overrun because of variation orders. However, the effect on project costs and time overrun of variation order has yet to be identified. This study evaluates the impact of variation orders on the cost and time off in the Sulaimani governorate. Two hundred twenty-eight projects from various construction sectors built between 2007-2012 were adopted to calculate the contract cost and schedule overruns due to variation orders. Data analysis was applied in the study were descriptive statistics. One-way ANOVA was also applied to determine w
... Show MoreOne of the most important phenomenon that occurs in sheet metal forming processes is the spring-back, which causes several geometrical alterations in the parts. The accurate prediction of springback after bending unloading is the key to the tool design, operation control, and precision estimate concerning the part geometry. This study investigated experimentally the effect of pretension in three rolling direction (0, 90, 45 degree) on the springback behavior of the yellow brass, sheet under V shape bending die. The pre-tension ranges from five different levels starting of 11% to 55% from the total strain in each rolling direction by regular increase of 11 %, then bent on a V-die 90 degree for the springback estimate. From experiment the
... Show MoreThe current research discusses “The impact of the critical factors for the transfer of knowledge on opportunities and strategic success ", the attention have been increased on knowledge transfer and strategic success subjects because on being one of the important and contemporary issues, which have a significant impact on the existence of organizations and its future. The research aims to identify the critical factors for knowledge transfer in private high education environment which enables (the college community surveyed) to achieve strategic success, also the research sought to answer questions related to research problem by testing a number of major and minor hypothes in impact, in order to test the hypotheses I used a fiel
... Show MoreIn this study, the effect of the combination of micro steel fibers and additives (calcium hydroxide and sodium carbonate) on the size of cracks formation and healing them were investigated. This study aims to apply the use of self-healing phenomenon to repair cracks and to enhance the service life of the concrete structures. Micro steel fibers straight type were used in this research with 0.2% and 0.4% by volume of concrete. A weight of 20 and 30 kg/m3 of Ca(OH)2 and 2 and 3 kg/m3 of Na2CO3 were used as a partial cement replacement. The results confirm that the concrete cracks were significantly self-healed up to 30 days re-curing. Cracks width up to 0.2 mm were comp
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