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
Investigation of mesomorphic properties of new 1,3,4-thiadiazolines (which are synthesised via many steps in Scheme 1) was carried out in this study. These compounds are designed to have a heterocyclic unit, a carboxylate linkage group and a polar ether chain at the end of the molecule adjacent to the benzene ring, which enhance the dipolar interactions forces (varied from one to eight carbons) to investigate the association properties of their phases. The structure of the target compounds and the intermediates were confirmed by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, mass and FTIR spectral techniques. Polarised microscopic studies revealed that all the compounds in the series exhibited enantiotropic liquid crystalline properties. This was further confirmed using
... Show MoreIn this study, the chamomile flowers (Matricaria recutitaL) which grow in Iraqi Kurdistan region during the seasons of (2008) are collected. The percentage of essential oil was determined by using steam distillation and the extraction of flowers performed with petroleum ether (70-80) ºC and methanol 70% using ultrasonic extraction. Total phenolic compounds were determined from methanol extracts by using Folin-Ciocalteu method. The extracts were evaluated by thin layer chromatography, ultraviolet absorption and the biological activities were evaluated through their antibacterial action against two types of bacteria using hole method. The flowers showed a composition of 0.071% ash, 0.4% essential oil, 3.2% non oily compounds, 4% oil, 1.9% mo
... Show MoreThe current study aimed to identify the morphological description and branches of the bronchial tree and lung for the weasel
In this study, aromatic polyamide reverse osmosis membranes were used to remove zinc ions from electroplating wastewater. Influence of different operating conditions such as time, zinc concentration and pressure on reverse osmosis process efficiency was studied. The experimental results showed, concentration of zinc in permeate increase with increases of time from 0 to 70 min, and flux of water through membrane decline with time. While, the concentrations of zinc in permeate increase with the increase in feed zinc concentration (10–300 mg/l), flux decrease with the increment of feed concentration. The raise of pressure from 1 to 4 bar, the zinc concentration decreases and the flux increase. The highest recovery percentage was found is 54.
... Show MoreA new ligand N-(methylcarbamothioyl) acetamide (AMP) was synthesized by reaction of acetyl chloride with adenine. The ligand was characterized by FT-IR, NMR spectra and the elemental analysis. The transition metal complexes of this ligand where synthesize and characterized by UV-Visible spectra, FT-IR, magnetic suscepility, conductively measurement. The general formula [M(AMP)2Cl2], where M+2 = (Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg).
The present project involves photodegrading the dye solochrom violet under advanced oxidation techniques at (25 oC) temperature and UV light. Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and UV radiation at a wavelength of 580 nm were used to conduct the photocatalytic reaction of the solochrom violet dye. One of the factors looked into was the impact of the starting conditions. pH, the amount of original hydrogen peroxide, and the dye concentration time radiation were used. For hours, the kinetics and percentages of degradation were examined at various intervals. In general, it has been discovered that the photodegradation rates of the dye were greater when H2O2 and ZnO were combined with UV light. The best wavelength to use was determined. Modern oxidation techni
... Show MoreNew types of hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalyst Re-Ni-Mo/ γ-Al2O3 was prepared and tested separately with two prepared conventional HDS catalysts (Ni-Mo/ γ-Al2O3 and Co-Mo//γ-Al2O3) by using a pilot plant hydrotreatment unit. Activities of three prepared hydrodesulfurization catalysts were examined in hydrodesulfurization (HDS) of atmospheric gas oil at different temperatures 275 to 350 °C and LHSV 1 to 4 h-1, the reactions conducted under constant pressure 40 bar and H2/HC ratio 500 ml/ml .Moreover, the hydrogenation of aromatic (HAD) in gas oil has been studied. HDS was much improved by adding promoter Re to the Ni-Mo/Al2O3
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