Background: Herbs are being widely explored to discover alternatives to synthetic antibacterial agents.Small Cardamom often referred to as queen of spices because of its very pleasant aroma and taste, have a history as old as human race. Most people use cardamom as a spice and are largely unaware of its numerous health benefits. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of water and alcoholic cardamom extracts on sensitivities, growth, and adherence of Mutans streptococci in vitro. Materials and Methods: In this study, saliva was collected from ten volunteers (College students 18-22 years). Agar well technique was used to study the sensitivities of Mutans streptococci to different concentrations of small cardamom extracts and other control agents, also the effects of small cardamom extracts on viable counts, adherence of Mutans streptococci were studied Results: According to agar well diffusion methods, both cardamom extracts were effective in inhibition of Mutans streptococci, but still weaker than chlorhexidine gluconate 0.2%. Alcoholic extracts showed higher zone of inhibition compared to the same concentration of water with high significance differences (P<0.01). The effects of 10%, 15%, and 20% of both water and alcohol extracts of small cardamom were tested on the viability counts of Mutans streptococci in vitro. Highly significant reduction in the counts of bacteria was reported of both cardamom extracts and CHX in comparison to control without agents after 24 hr. Both cardamom extracts less effective than CHX. All the concentration of water and alcohol cardamom mouth washes tested was not effective in prevention the adherence of bacteria on teeth surface in vitro, while CHX was effective in prevention the adherence of bacteria. Conclusion: Cardamom extracts were effective against Mutans streptococci, but still less than CHX.
Hypercholesterolemia is a predominant risk factor for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The World Health Organization (WHO), ) recommended reducing the intake of cholesterol and saturated fats. On the other hand, limited evidence is available on the benefits of vegetables in the diet to reduce these risk factors, so this research was conducted to compare the hypolipidemic effect between the extracts of two different types of Iraqi peppers, the fruit of the genus Capsicum traditionally known as red pepper extract (RPE), and Piper nigrum as black pepper extract (BPE), respectively, in different parameters and histology of the liver of the experimental animals. The red pepper was extracted by ethyl acetate, while the black pepp
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The experiment was conducted at the plant tissue culture laboratory of the Department of Horticulture and Garden Engineering College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad, in order to study the effect of some growth regulators on propagation an stimulation production of volatile oil compounds of rosemary plant Rosmarinus officinlis using two vegetative parts (apical and lateral buds). Factorial experiment was implemented in completely randomized design with twenty replications. The results indicated that culturing the apical meristem on the medium Murashige and Skoog (MS) media with 0.5 mg.l-1 (BA) with 0.1 mg.l-1 of NAA gave the highest response rate of 100%. As for the doubling stage, the levels of BAA and IAA (Indol
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Background: Coated aesthetic archwires are currently the existing solutions for the esthetic problem, but the color of these archwires tends to change overtime. This study was aimed to evaluate the color stability of different types of esthetic archwires from four different companies at different time periods after immersion of two different staining drinks which are tea and Pepsi cola. Materials and methods: 48 specimens were prepared, each specimen contains 10 aesthetic archwires; and were divided according to type of solution into two groups: A (tea) &B (Pepsi cola); each group contained 24 specimens (12 specimens were immersed in the staining solution as 4 specimens for each time intervals and 12 specimens were immersed in distilled wa
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Background: The aim of this study was to measure the radiopacity (RO) of modified microhybrid composite resins by adding 2 types of nanofillers (Zinc Oxide and Calcium Carbonate) in two concentrations 3% and 5% and comparing them to unmodified microhybrid composite resins and to nanofilled composite resin. Materials and Methods: Two types of composite resin were used (Microhybrid composite MH Quadrent anterior shine and Nanofilled composite resin Filtek Z350 XT), for each tested group five disk-shaped specimens (1-mm-thick and 15 mm diameter) were fabricated. The material samples were radiographed together with the aluminum step wedge. The density of the specimens was determined with a transmission densitometer and was expressed in term of
... Show MoreBackground: Cross contamination of dental appliances in the dental clinics and laboratories may potentially be a health hazard to the dental team and the patient. This study aimed to evaluate bacterial contamination of acrylic complete denture as received from dental laboratory before delivery to the patient, and then to evaluate the effectiveness of disinfection with 2% chlorhexidine and Kin denture cleaner tablet. Materials and methods: 45 newly made upper complete dentures undergone biaacterial examination for contamination before delivered to the patient. Samples were examined in two stages, first after finishing and polishing; when collected from the laboratory and before inserting to the patient mouth, second; after the samples were
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This study was aimed to reduce the amount of the sprayed solution lost during trees spraying. At the same time, the concentration of the sprayed solution on the target (tree or bush) must be ensured and to find the best combination of treatments. Two factors controls the spraying process: (i) spraying speed (1.2 km/h, 2.4 km/h, 3.6 km/h), and (ii) the type of sensor. The test results showed a significant loss reduction percentage. It reached (6.05%, 5.39% and 2.05%) at the speed (1.2 km/h, 2.4 km/h, 3.6 km/h), respectively. It was noticed that when the speed becomes higher the loss becomes less accordingly. The interaction between the 3.6 km/h speed and the type of Ultrasonic sensor led to a decrease in the percentage of the spray
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Four local hemolysin producer bacterial isolates were selected, tow of them gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli ,Pseudomonas aeruginosa ) and the other two were gram positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus , Bacillus cereus ). Minimum inhibitory concentration of the aqueous and alcoholic extracts of Punica granatum L. pericarp were determined towards the four bacterial isolates ,results obtaind showed that MICs of the aqueous extract were 200 mg/ml for E .coli and P. aeruginosa isolates while were 5 mg/ml and 2 mg/ml for B. cereus, S. aureus , respectively The MICs for the ethanolic extract were 50 mg/ml , 20 mg/ml ,1 mg/ml ,0.5 mg/ml for E. coli ,P. aeruginosa ,B. cereus ,S. aureus , respectively. The effect of Sub-MICs o
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