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
The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of economic, social and institutional factors on adoption within the national program for the propagation of high-rank seeds of wheat crop. 170 questionnaires were collected, 50% of them were participants in the program from Wasit and Babil governorates. Probabilistic regression models were used to know this effect, and the possibility of adopting Farmers of improved seeds produced from the national program for the multiplication of seeds of higher grades using the (ADOPT) program. The adoption rate was 0.12%, and the total number of adopters were 12 farmers, at a rate of 14.2%. Tobit model was estimated to find out the impact of the profitability of the dunum, capital, farm si
... Show MoreObjectives To compare the clinical efficacy of microvascular decompression surgery (MVD) and gamma knife radiosurgery (GKR) as a treatment for patients with primary trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and evaluate the outcome regarding pain relief, recurrence, and complications with both modalities of treatment. Patients and Methods A randomized prospective study conducted in SaadAlwitry Neurosciences Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq. Eighty-four patients with TN from January 2016 to January 2018, 45 patients had GKR while 39 patients treated with MVD. The pain evaluated pre-and post-operatively using the Barrow Neurological Institute Pain Intensity scale (BNIPI), visual analog scale (VAS) and Brief Pain Inventory Facial (BPI-Facial) scoring systems. In GKR p
... Show MoreA study conducted a laboratory experiment to measure the release of potassium and the dissolution of feldspar minerals in soils from different locations in Karbala Province (Ain Al-tamur, Qasr Al-Akhyar, Fadak Farm). The study involved the addition of organic acids (fulvic and humic) and mineral acids (sulfuric and phosphoric) at concentrations of 5% and 10% to sand-separated soil samples obtained through wet sieving. Feldspar minerals were identified using a polarized light microscope, and the percentage of each type of feldspar mineral was calculated. The results demonstrated that organic acids outperformed mineral acids in releasing potassium at both concentrations. Among the organ
تعد الملابس وسيلة هامة لكل مايقوم به الانسان في حياته العامة ، فهي الانطباع والكلمة الخارجية عن ذاته الداخلية فهي تعكس فكرة الفرد عن ذاته وعن شخصيته , كما تعد وسيلة تعبير جمالية وفنية , فهي تساعد على اخفاء عيوب الجسد وابراز محاسنه . ويتوقف اختيار الفرد لملابسه على مجموعة عوامل منها احتياجه , قدراته المالية , سنه , مركزه الاجتماعي , طبيعة عمله ,الظروف الجوية التي يعيش فيها وعلى مايُؤمن به من قيم و
... Show MoreThe increasing complexity of how humans interact with and process information has demonstrated significant advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP), transitioning from task-specific architectures to generalized frameworks applicable across multiple tasks. Despite their success, challenges persist in specialized domains such as translation, where instruction tuning may prioritize fluency over accuracy. Against this backdrop, the present study conducts a comparative evaluation of ChatGPT-Plus and DeepSeek (R1) on a high-fidelity bilingual retrieval-and-translation task. A single standardize prompt directs each model to access the Arabic-language news section of the College of Medicine, University of Baghdad, retrieve the three most r
... Show MoreBackground: Community pharmacists endure significantly elevated levels of work-related stress and depression, posing a threat to their overall well-being and possibly affecting the quality of patient care. Objectives: To explore workplace-associated stress and depression in Iraqi community pharmacists. Methods: This observational study was conducted using a cross-sectional design. Information was gathered through the utilization of an internet-based survey. The study involved a community pharmacist with a minimum of one year of experience working at community pharmacies. The survey utilized pre-validated questionnaires. The level of stress experienced was assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)-10, while the level of depression was
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The subject of this research is the study of the formal alienation of contemporary English sculpture, by comparing the most important sculptors of the new contemporary generation. This research problem is to look for the important factors in the formation of the contemporary sculptural structure of the exotic, and what is the mechanism of formation and output of these forms. The research seeks to explore (Alienation in contemporary sculpture between the works of Anthony Caro and Tony Cragg) in a comparative study. The importance of the research is to identify the concept of alien forms in contemporary British sculpture, especially in the cases of Anthony Caro and Tony Cragg that this research is considered a know
The measurements of major and trace elements in different brands of milk powder selected from the Iraqis market via the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) Technique have been studied in the present work. The result of the measurements reveals the high concentrations of sodium, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, calcium and magnesium. Furthermore, low concentrations of aluminum, silicon, iron, bromine, molybdenum, iodine, barium, titanium, manganese, cobalt, chrome, nickel, copper, zinc and lead were detected. Neutron activation analysis (NAA) and Kjeldahl technique were also employed to determine the concentrations of nitrogen. It was found that the nitrogen concentration was in the range of (1.96 - 3.23) % which is within the permissible li
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