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
Specialized banks provide their banking activities to their customers at interest rates that are determined according to the approved bank policy, which is almost similar to most or most banks. To satisfy the financial desires of customers and at the same time it is a source of the bank's profits, However, these banks have been introduced to new services that they provide with the funds of the Central Bank initiative launched at the beginning of (2016) to address the economic stagnation that befell the country due to the (financial security) crisis that the country faced in 2014. To put forward initiatives amounting to nearly (15) trillion dinars, which were put forward through private commercial and Islamic banks and specialized
... Show MoreDouble hydrothermal method was used to prepare nano gamma alumina using aluminum nitrate nano hydrate and sodium aluminate as an aluminum source, CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) as surfactant, and variable acids: weak acids like; citric, and acitic acids, and strong acids like; hydrochloric and nitric acids as a bridge between aluminum salts and surfactant. Different crystallization times 12, 24, 48, and 72 hrs were applied. All the batches were prepared at pH equals to 9. XRD diffraction technique was used to investigate the crystalline nano gamma alumina pure from surfactant. N2 adsorption-desorption (BET) was used to measure the surface area and pore volume of the prepared nano alumina, the average p
... Show MoreBackground: Orthodontic force is considered to stimulate cells in the periodontium to release many mediators such as cytokines which play a responsible role for periodontal and alveolar bone remodeling, bone resorption and new bone deposition. Aim of this study was carried out to estimate changes of the (interleukin-one beta, tumor necrosis factor – alpha and C-reactive protein) levels in unstimulated whole saliva during the leveling stage of orthodontic tooth movement. Materials and methods: The sample consisted of thirty adult patients (12 males and 18 females) with ages ranges (19-23) years. Each sample had Class I and Class II malocclusion dental classification and required bilateral extraction of their maxillary first premolars, und
... Show MoreTwo field experiments were conducted during the spring seasons of 2000,2001.The aim was to study the effect of hardening to drought tolerance on moisture percentage in root and stem of sunflower plant during growth stages . Asplit-split plots design was used with three replications.The main plots included irrigation treatments:irrigation to100%(full irrigation),75and50%of available soil water.The sub plots were the cultivars Euroflor and Flame.The sub-sub plots represented four seed soaking treatments :Control(unsoaked),soaking in water ,Paclobutrazol solution(250ppm),and Pix solution(500ppm). The soaking continued for 24 hours then seeds were dried at room temperature until they regained their original weight. Amount of water
... Show MoreThe effect of the tensor term in the Skyrme interaction has been estimated in calculating the static and dynamic nuclear properties in sd and fp-shell model spaces nuclei. The nuclear shell gaps have been studied with different Skyrme parameterizations; Skxta and Skxtb with tensor interaction, SkX, SkM, and SLy4 without tensor interaction, and Skxcsb with consideration of the effect of charge symmetry breaking. We have examined the stability of N = 28 for 42Si and 48Ca. The results showed that the disappearance of the magicity occurs in the shell closure of 42Si. Furthermore, excitation energy, quadrupole deformation, neutron separation energy, pairing energy, and density profile have also been calculated. Quadrupole deformation indicates a
... Show MoreProduction of the steroidal saponin digitonin in multiplied shoots of Digitalis purpurea , (var. Excelsior Mixed) has been achieved in vitro by two experiments. In the experiment 1, shoot tips ( 1cm length ) explants from the sterilized seedlings were excised and cultured on MS medium ( Murashige and Skoog medium) supplemented with 0.5 mg/L TDZ (thidiazuron) and cholesterol at the concentrations 0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 or 4.0 mg/L. After 45 day, results showed that the treatment with 0.5 mg/L TDZ and 2.0mg/L cholesterol had a positive effected on increasing the dry weight of multiplied shoots and their production of digitonin when compared with other treatments, where this treatment gave 2
... Show MoreA thin CdS Films have been evaporated by thermal evaporation technique with different thicknesses (500, 1000, 1500 and 2000Å) and different duration times of annealing (60, 120 180 minutes) under 573 K annealing temperature, the vacuum was about 8 × 10-5 mbar and substrate temperature was 423 K. The structural properties of the films have been studied by X- ray diffraction technique (XRD). The crystal growth became stronger and more oriented as the film thickness (T) and duration time of annealing ( Ta) increases.
Copper oxide thin films were deposited on glass substrate using Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR) method at room temperature. The thickness of the thin films was around 0.43?m.Copper oxide thin films were annealed in air at (200, 300 and 400°C for 45min.The film structure properties were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD patterns indicated the presence of polycrystalline CuO. The average grain size is calculated from the X-rays pattern, it is found that the grain size increased with increasing annealing temperature. Optical transmitter microscope (OTM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) was also used. Direct band gap values of 2.2 eV for an annealed sample and (2, 1.5, 1.4) eV at 200, 300,400oC respect
... Show MoreA field experiment was conducted in the growth season 2019-2020 at the botanical garden of the Biology Department at the College of Education for Pure Sciences/Ibn Al-Haitham, University of Baghdad-Iraq. The experiments’ purpose is to determine the effects of different melatonin concentrations on some morphological and physiological characteristics of mung (Vigna radiata L.) plant under the influence of three periods of drought (5, 10, 15 days). The results were showed that the increasing of water stress periods had significant effects in the reducing rates of the studied characteristics, especially at the period 15 days. The external treatment of different concentrations of melatonin reduced the drought effects and that’s led to signif
... Show MorePVC/Kaolinite composites were prepared by the melt intercalation method. Mechanical properties, thermal properties, flammability and water absorption percentage of prepared samples were tested. Mechanical characteristic such as tensile strength, elongation at break; hardness and impact strength (charpy type) were measured for all samples. It was found that the tensile strength and elongation at break of PVC composites decreased with increasing kaolinite loading. Also, the hardness of the composites increases with increase in filler content .The impact strength of the composites at the beginning increases at lower kaolinite loadings is due to the lack of kaolin adhesion to the matrix. However, at higher kaolin loadings. This severe agglom
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