A study of Zooplankton community has been carried out at four selected sites on Dukan Lake. Samples of water and zooplankton were collected monthly for the period from July 2015 to February 2016. Some physical and chemical properties of water were studied and the results showed that the air temperature were ranged from 0 to 36.16 °C, water temperature ranged from 2.83 to 34.66 °C, hydrogen ion concentration of studied sites were found to lie in alkaline side, it was ranged between 6.87 to 8.57, electrical conductivity ranged from 190.79 to 850.08 µs.cm­¹, turbidity ranged from 0.9-7.7 NTU, and dissolved oxygen from 3.3 to 6.8 mg.l-¹ while BOD5 were ranged from 0.53 to 34.66 mg.l-¹. Concerning to the zooplankton, 37 species were ident

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected disease in tropical countries, including Iraq. Several studies have sought to examine chemotherapies for leishmaniasis treatment but most of them are of toxic and/or undesirable side effect, therefore, the need for investigating new fewer toxic therapies is essential. Aim of study: In this study, the cytotoxic effect of Artemisinin (ART), a novel herbal compound, was screened against the two forms, promastigotes and amastigotes, of the Iraqi isolate of Leishmania tropica, the causative agent of Baghdad boil. Material and methods: Different concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25, 15.6 and 7.8) µM of Artemisinin were screened to investigate the leishmanicidal activity of th

The aim of the present study was to characterize the Iraqi Tribulus terrestris for the presence of biologically active phyto-chemicals using methanolic extracts of the plant (aerial parts) by Gas Chromatography –Mass spectrometry (GC/MS), while the mass spectra of the compounds found in the extract was matched with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) library , in addition to study the antioxidant activity of plant extract , results confirmed the presence of therapeutically potent compounds in the Iraqi Tribulus terrestris extract predominantly alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and terpenoids. Antioxidant potential of Iraqi Tribulus terrestris

Non-thermal (low-temperature) plasma may act as an alternative approach to control superficial wound and skin infections when the effectiveness of chemical agents is weak due to natural pathogen or biofilm resistance. In this paper an atmospheric pressure plasma needle jet device which generates a cold plasma jet is used to measure the effectiveness of plasma treatment against different pathogenic bacteria and to test the individual susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria to non-thermal argon plasma. It is found that, Gram-negative bacteria were more susceptible to plasma treatment than Gram-positive bacteria. For the Gram-negative bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, there were no survivors among the initial 1x10⁸C.F.U (Co

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected disease in tropical countries, including Iraq. Several studies have sought to examine chemotherapies for leishmaniasis treatment but most of them are of toxic and/or undesirable side effect, therefore, the need for investigating new fewer toxic therapies is essential. Aim of study: In this study, the cytotoxic effect of Artemisinin (ART), a novel herbal compound, was screened against the two forms, promastigotes and amastigotes, of the Iraqi isolate of Leishmania tropica, the causative agent of Baghdad boil. Material and methods:  Different concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25, 15.6 and 7.8) µM of Artemisinin were screened to investigate the leishmanic

The study aims to investigate the antimicrobial activity of propolis obtained from different regions of Iraq compared with that of propolis obtained from Iran. Samples were investigated for their antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Eschericha coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus cereus , Staphylococcus epidermidis and Candida albicans using standard antimicrobial assays. Marked variations in the antimicrobial activity of the different propolis samples were observed, the method of extraction selected gives the highest antimicrobial activity and the best alcohol concentration using in the extraction of propolis , then the crude extract of propolis showed synergistic effect with some antibiotics in

  Introduction and Aim: Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides that have bactericidal and/or bacteriostatic activity against other bacteria. The aim of this study was to assess the antibacterial efficiency of Klebocin a K. pneumoniae bacteriocin, against biofilm formation by clinical isolates of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus MRSA.   Materials and Methods: S. aureus isolated from clinical samples was identified according to vitek 2 system Antibiotic susceptibility test was performed according to disc diffusion method. Vitek 2 compact system was also used to detect MRSA strains. Agar well diffusion method was used to evaluate the antibacterial activity of klebocin from K. pneumoniae towards 11 strains of S. aureus by

Eleven yoghurt samples were collected from local markets in Baghdad to isolate Lactobacillus buchneri. Only 3 isolates of L. buchneri were found and the isolate No. 3 was the most producer of bacteriocin. Bacteriocin was adsorbed 100% onto silicic acid at pH 6.0-7.0. Below or above these pH values, adsorption was decreased, ranging between 35 and 90%. Therefore, pH 6.0 was used for the purification procedure. The purification procedure including silicic acid adsorption/desorption and cation-exchange chromatography (CEC) resulted in a 11.11 fold increase in the final specific activity of pure bacteriocin (1176.47 Au/mg) compared to the culture supernatant which was 32.64 Au/mg. The molecular weight was determined to be about 3.4 kDa. The bac