Over the past few decades, the health benefits are under threat as many commonly used antibiotics have become less and less effective against certain illnesses not only because many of them produce toxic reactions but also due to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. The clinical use of a combination of antibiotic therapy for Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections is probably more effective than monotherapy. The present study aims to estimate the antibacterial and antibiofilm activity of Conocarpus erectus leaves extracts against multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa isolated from different hospitals in Baghdad city. One hundred fifty different clinical specimens were collected from patients from September 2021 to January 2022. All samples were cultured on specific and differential media, only 83 isolates were able to grow on cetrimide agar and at 42˚C, and then the VITEK 2 compact system was dependent to complete the identification. The results showed that the high resistance of the isolates was to the two antibiotics Ceftriaxone and Amoxicillin-Clavulanic acid with a percentage of (92.7%) and (89.2%) respectively, followed by Trimethoprim with a resistance rate of (79.5%). Ten isolates with multi-drug resistance are selected to evaluate the antibacterial activity of plant extracts and the combination between Conocarpus erectus extract and antibiotics. Maceration and Soxhlet apparatus were used to prepare the methanolic and aqueous extracts. The results of the radical scavenging ability showed that the methanolic and aqueous extracts (96.44 and 94.13%) in 10 mg/ml respectively, were more than the artificial antioxidant (BHT) which was 93.11% and the approach with the vitamin C which was 97.20%. The results of the total phenolic content were observed at 51.58 and 65.60 mg/g in 5 mg/ml for the aqueous and methanolic extracts respectively. The antibacterial activity of C. erectus leaves extracts showed that the methanolic extract was more effective than the aqueous extract at a concentration of 100 mg/ml. The results of the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the methanolic extract against P. aeruginosa were between 8-32 mg\ml. While the MIC values of the aqueous extract were 128-256 mg\ml. The synergistic activity between C. erectus methanolic extract and antibiotics against multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa was assessed using the checkerboard analysis technique. The methanolic extract showed a synergistic effect with Cefepime against six isolates (FICI: ≤0.5), and an additive effect against four isolates (FICI: (≥ 0.5–1.0). Furthermore, a synergistic effect with Ceftriaxone against seven isolates and additive interaction was found against three isolates.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), a leafy plant used for fresh food, medicinal purposes, and aromatic purposes (including the extraction of volatile essential oil and active compounds), was the subject of a worker experiment at the College of Education for Pure Sciences Ibn Al-Haitham / University of Baghdad during the 2023 growing season. The experiment aimed to determine the effects of spraying the basil plant’s vegetative system with aqueous extracts of watercress and parsley on the plant’s growth characteristics and the production of active compounds. The experiment included two factors, the first factor, the aqueous extract of the watercress plant in three concentrations (0, 5, 10
This study examined the effect of essential oils extracted from peel of Citrus paradisi and Citrus sinensis on two species of fungi: Penicillium oxalicum and Fusarium oxysporum as well as effect of two fungicides: Carbendazim and Thiophanatemethyl against above fungi. Results showed that the essential oil of Citrus paradisi inhibited the radial growth of Penicillium oxalicum and Fusarium oxysporum at concentration 4%. Nevertheless, the essential oil of Citrus sinensis inhibited the radial growth at concentration 5 and 4%, respectively. Furthermore, the two studied fungicides inhibited radial growth of these fungi too. Therefore, there are a positive relationship between the evaluating of concentration and the percentage of inhibiting of rad
... Show MoreA polycrystalline PbxS1-x alloys with various Pb content ( 0.54 and 0.55) has been prepared successfully. The structure and composition of alloys are determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) respectively. The X-ray diffraction results shows that the structure is polycrystalline with cubic structure, and there are strong peaks at the direction (200) and (111), the grain size varies between 20 and 82 nm. From AAS and XRF result, the concentrations of Pb content for these alloys were determined. The results show high accuracy and very close to the theoretical values. A photoconductive detector as a bulk has been fabricated by taking pieces of prepared alloys and polished chemic
... Show MoreBackground: White spot lesions (WSLs) are subsurface enamel demineralization manifested as white opacities which had an esthetic problem. The purpose of this in-vitro study was to evaluate the lesion depth improvement of WSLs following application of fluoride varnish, tooth mousse and resin infiltration (ICON). Materials and methods: Artificial WSLs were created on 120 premolar teeth using demineralization solution with pH (4-4.5). Samples randomly allocated into four groups; fluoride varnish, tooth mousse, ICON and untreated group. Groups were discolored in Cola and orange juice for 24 hours. Teeth were ground sectioned by longitudinal cutting then these sections examined and photographed under stereomicroscope at 12X magnification then an
... Show MoreThis study has been carried out in the Station of Poultry Researches which is affiliated to the General Office of Agricultural Researches / Ministry of Agriculture during the period from 25/02/2019 to 08/04/2019 (42)days .Five hundred unsexed one day old chick of type (Ross 308) used in this study, and has been fed on diets which oleuropeinin has been added to it with the levels 2,2.5,3 and3.5 g/kg as a feed for the treatments T2 , T3 , T4 and T5 respectively and compared to the control treatment T1 which is devoid of addition, every treatment included Four replicates each one has 25 birds in order to study the effect of adding a various levels of oleuropein into the diet on the production and physiological performance for broilers. The res
... Show MoreThe present study was conducted in order to focus on the effect of the addition of Carnitine and Niacin on some blood serum parameters of Common Carp Cyprinus Carpio. 48 fish carp mean weight 44.13 gm were distributed randomly on four feeding treatments (12 fish each) with replicates (6 fish each) in 8 glass aquaria. Treatments were as follows: fish were fed on basic diet without any addition and conducted as control (T1); addition of 200 mg Carnitine/ Kg diet, (T2) addition of 28 mg Niacin/Kg diet (T3), addition of a mixture of 200 mg Carnitine and 28 mg Niacin/ Kg diet as (T4). The experiment was conducted for 70 days and the results showed an increase in the Cholesterol concentration of T1 (187.6 mg/ 100 ml) and differed s
... Show MoreGiardia lamblia is one of most common protozoan cause diarrheas, and the most health problem in development countries worldwide. Our work aimed to assess activity and toxicity of metronidazole loaded silver nanoparticles in treatment of acute giardiasis in mice. After inoculated mice with Giardia cysts in a dose of 105 cyst for acute infection, treatments were given for eight days. Number Giardia cysts in stool were discovered. Toxicity nanoparticles was estimated by Measurement oxidative stress markers (GSH) and (MDA) in liver, kidney tissue homogenate. The results showed single therapy was better effect by silver nanoparticles, highest percentages of reduction in number of cysts Giardia lamblia of infected mice treated with silver nanopar
... Show MoreIn earthquake engineering problems, uncertainty exists not only in the seismic excitations but also in the structure's parameters. This study investigates the influence of structural geometry, elastic modulus, mass density, and section dimension uncertainty on the stochastic earthquake response of a multi-story moment resisting frame subjected to random ground motion. The North-south component of the Ali Gharbi earthquake in 2012, Iraq, is selected as ground excitation. Using the power spectral density function (PSD), the two-dimensional finite element model of the moment resisting frame's base motion is modified to account for random ground motion. The probabilistic study of the moment resisting frame structure using stochastic fin
... Show More