Antibiotic resistance is the major growing threat facing the pharmacological treatment of bacterial infections. Therefore, bioprospecting the medicinal plants could provide potential sources for antimicrobial agents. Mimusops, the biggest and widely distributed plant genus of family Sapotaceae, is used in traditional medicines due to its promising pharmacological activities. This study was conducted to elucidate the antimicrobial effect of three unexplored Mimusops spp. (M. kummel, M. laurifolia and M. zeyheri). Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying such antibacterial activity were studied. The Mimusops leaf extracts revealed significant antibacterial activities against the five tested bacterial strains with a maximum inhibition zone diameter of 22.0 mm against B. subtilis compared with standard antibiotic ciprofloxacin. The minimal inhibitory and bactericidal concentration values against tested Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains ranged from 3.15-12.5 µg/ml. However, weak antifungal effect was recorded against Candida albicans with MIC value ˃25 µg/ml. The 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay showed that M. caffra was the best antioxidant (IC50=14.75±0.028 µg/ml), while M. laurifolia was the least one (IC50=34.22±0.014 µg/ml). The phenolics in plant leaves extracts were identified and quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) which revealed the presence of seven phenolic acids and four flavonoids. The abundant phenolic compounds were rutin (5.216±0.067 mg/g dried wt.) and gallic acid (0.296±0.068 mg/g) followed by myricetin (0.317±0.091 mg/g) then kaempferol (0.113±0.049 mg/g) as flavonoids. The antibacterial mechanism of M. laurifolia extract, as a representative species, induces ultrastructural changes in the model bacterium Staphylococcus aureus with cell wall and plasma membrane lysis as revealed by transmission electron microscopy. Overall, Mimusops species (M. laurifolia, M. kummel and M. zeyheri) are promising natural alternative sources for antimicrobial agents.
Background: Obesity is a serious public health concern that has reached epidemic proportions; the prevalence, as well as the severity of obesity in adolescents is increasing at an alarming rate. A close relationship was found between weight status and dental caries. Thus this research aimed to assess the prevalence and severity of dental caries among overweight adolescent females in relation to physicochemical characteristics of stimulated whole saliva in comparison with normal weight adolescent females. Materials and methods: The total sample involved for nutritional status assessment is composed of 2678 females aged 13-15 years. This was performed using Body Mass Index specific for age and gender according to CDC growth chart (2000). The
... Show MoreBackground: A Catheter-associated with candidiasis infection is the most common nosocomial infection and the objective of this work is to isolate and identify Candida species from catheterized patients by ordinary culture and PCR.Objective:To study the isolation and identification of Candida species from catheterized patients by culture media and polymerase chain reaction(PCR).Methods: One hundred and thirty five Candida species isolates were obtained from urine culture of catheterized specimens from male and female patients , During the period between October 2011 to April 2012 , attending AL-Ramadi general teaching Hospital. A quantitative urine culture for isolation and identification of Candida species was. The isolation of Candida s
... Show MoreVagrancy is global problem, but its geographical distribution differs from one society
to another and from one place to another inside the same society.Till now there isn't a real factor that can explain the phenomenon, spite that economy plays aconstituent and distinguishing part, and spite the fact that Vagrancy is considered a realdeviation that can be compared with criminality level, and cannot be separated from its effecton family, local society and school. In addition to unprecedented work under heavily pressurethat attack to a minimum protection and safety. Vagrant may be a child, a teen, a young, or
even an old man. Vagrancy thus means different people with different ages and not onlyprecisely children. Vagrant is not neces
Unconfined Compressive Strength is considered the most important parameter of rock strength properties affecting the rock failure criteria. Various research have developed rock strength for specific lithology to estimate high-accuracy value without a core. Previous analyses did not account for the formation's numerous lithologies and interbedded layers. The main aim of the present study is to select the suitable correlation to predict the UCS for hole depth of formation without separating the lithology. Furthermore, the second aim is to detect an adequate input parameter among set wireline to determine the UCS by using data of three wells along ten formations (Tanuma, Khasib, Mishrif, Rumaila, Ahmady, Maudud, Nahr Um
... Show MoreBackground: Lowering the amount of iodinated contrast material and tube voltage may increase pulmonary artery opacification and thrombus identification without compromising picture quality.
Objectives: To explore the efficiency of using lower tube voltage and a lower contrast medium dose for conducting computed tomography for pulmonary angiography (CTPA) aiming to increase its accuracy in detecting pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE).
Subjects and Methods:100 patients scheduled for CTPA with a preoperative diagnosis of PTE were grouped into two: group A, (50 patients) got 1 mL/kg at 120 kV and group B, (50 patients) received 0.5 mL/kg at 80 kV.The tec
... Show MoreA simple, economical and selective method employing ion pair dispersive liquid−liquid microextraction (DLLME) coupled with spectrophotometric determination of carbamazepine (CBZ) in pharmaceutical preparations and biological samples was developed. The method is based on reduction of Mo(VI) to Mo(V) using a combination of ammonium thiocyanate and ascorbic acid in acidic medium to form a red binary Mo(V) thiocyanate complex. After addition of CBZ to the complex, extraction of the formed CBZ−Mo(V)−(SCN)6 was performed using a mixture of methylene chloride and methanol. Then, the measurement of target complex was performed at the wavelength of 470 nm. The important extraction parameters affecting the efficiency of DLLME were studied and o
... Show MoreThis research deals with the study of top soil electrical conductive regions located within Baghdad City. The research included measuring the dissolved soil material extraction Electrical Conductivity (EC) with an aqueous solution for the top (0-30 cm) soil layer of the study area. As the electrical conductivity values increase by increasing the amount of dissolved salts in principle, we can consider that the aim of this research is to predict the amount and distribution of (soil contamination with salts) which is represented by the (Salt Index), this factor calculated for each soil representative sample taken from the region with a depth of (30 cm). Laboratory (EC) test values measured by the use of solutions (EC) digital meter for the ex
... Show MoreEnglish is spoken by its native speakers in two different forms. Reduced form which marks the colloquial and rapid speech so that it is easily produced and a citation or unreduced form which is a characteristic of careful, emphasized and slow speech.
This paper investigates Iraqi EFL university students’ production of the two forms mentioned above. The sample chosen includes twenty fourth year students, of which ten are males and the other ten are females from the Department of English of the College of Languages of the University of Duhok in Kurdistan Region of Iraq in the academic year 2020-2021. The material tested is six connective words which represent the commonest ones in every-day co
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