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
Cosmetic products contain variable amounts of nutrients that support microbial growth. Most contaminants in cosmetic products include bacteria such as Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Achromobacter and Alcaligenes. Contaminated water is a likely source of organisms found in cosmetic products. Products such as shampoo, hand and body lotion, facial cleanser, and liquid soaps were analyzed. In this study, out of 60 cosmetic products analyzed, 26.4% were found to be contaminated. Most of the contamination was from bacteria and no fungal contamination was detected. The highest level o
... Show MoreBackground: The risk of antibiotics resistance (AR) increases due to excessive of antibiotics either by health care provider or by the patients.
Objective: The assessment of the self-medication Practice of over the counter drugs and other prescription drugs and its associated risk factor.
Subjects and Methods: Study design: A descriptive study was conducted from “20th December 2019 to 08th January 2021”. A pre validated and structured questionnaire in English and Urdu language was created to avoid language barrier including personal detail, reasons and source and knowledge about over the counter drugs and Antibiotics. Sample of the study was randomly selected.
... Show MoreWomen’s empowerment is defined as fostering women’s self-esteem and their ability to make their own decisions to affect societal change for themselves and for healthy communities. This study aims to examine the language of online media that aims to boost Iraqi women’s empowerment from a corpus pragmatic perspective. The study particularly seeks to investigate the linguistic strategies and dominant language patterns that focus on the empowerment theme. It attempts to shed light on the field of corpus pragmatics as suggested by O’Keeffe et al. (2020) to portray the empowerment of Iraqi women on online media. Corpus pragmatics is a recent linguistic field that integrates pragm
A new Schiff base [I] was prepared by refluxing Amoxicillin trihydrate and 4-Hydroxy- 3,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde in aqueous methanol solution using glacial acetic acid as a catalyst. The new 1,3-oxazepine derivative [II] was obtained by Diels- Alder reaction of Schiff base [I] with phthalic anhydride in dry benzene. The reaction of Schiff base [I] with thioglycolic acid in dry benzene led to the formation of thiazolidin-4-one derivative [III]. While the imidazolidin-4-one [IV] derivative was produced by reacting the mentioned Schiff base [I] with glycine and triethylamine in ethanol for 9 hrs. Tetrazole derivative [V] was synthesized by refluxing Schiff base [I] with sodium azide in dimethylformamid DMF. The structure of synthesized compound
... Show MoreWatermelon is known to be infested by multiple insect pests both simultaneously and in sequence. Interactions by pests have been shown to have positive or negative, additive or non additive, compensatory or over compensatory effects on yields. Hardly has this sort of relationship been defined for watermelon vis-à-vis insect herbivores. A 2-year, 2-season (4 trials) field experiments were laid in the Research Farm of Federal University Wukari, to investigate the interactive effects of key insect pests of watermelon on fruit yield of Watermelon in 2016 and 2017 using natural infestations. The relationship between the dominant insect pests and fruit yield were determined by correlation (r) and linear regression (simple and multiple) analys
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to investigate the antibacterial capabilities of different coating durations of three nanoparticle (NP) coatings: molybdenum (Mo), tantalum (Ta), and zinc oxide (ZnO), and their effects on the surface characteristics of 316L stainless steel (SS). The coated substrates underwent characterization utilizing field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) techniques. The antibacterial efficacy of NPs was evaluated using the agar diffusion method. The FE-SEM and EDX images confirmed the presence of nano-sized particles of Mo, Ta, and ZnO on the surface of the substrates with perfectly symmetrical spheres and a uniform distribution of
... Show MoreA new Schiff base [I] was prepared by refluxing Amoxicillin trihydrate and 4-Hydroxy- 3,5-dimethoxybenzaldehyde in aqueous methanol solution using glacial acetic acid as a catalyst. The new 1,3-oxazepine derivative [II] was obtained by Diels- Alder reaction of Schiff base [I] with phthalic anhydride in dry benzene. The reaction of Schiff base [I] with thioglycolic acid in dry benzene led to the formation of thiazolidin-4-one derivative [III]. While the imidazolidin-4-one [IV] derivative was produced by reacting the mentioned Schiff base [I] with glycine and triethylamine in ethanol for 9 hrs. Tetrazole derivative [V] was synthesized by refluxing Schiff base [I] with sodium azide in dimethylformamid DMF. The structure of synthesized compound
... Show MoreBuilding natural period, T, is a key character in building response for wind and seismic induced forces. In design practice, the period, T, is either estimated from empirical relations proposed by the design codes or determined from analytical or numerical models. The effect of the soil-structure interaction is usually neglected in the design practice and analysis models. This paper uses a sophisticated finite element simulation to investigate the effect of soil-structure modeling on the fundamental period of RC buildings subjected to wind and seismic induced forces. A typical interior building frame has been imitated using the frame element for beams and columns with constrains to mo
This study investigates the impact of varying glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) stirrup spacing on the performance of doubly GFRP-reinforced concrete beams. The research focuses on assessing the behavior of GFRP-reinforced concrete beams, including load-carrying capacity, cracking, and deformability. It explores the feasibility and effectiveness of GFRP bars as an alternative to traditional steel reinforcement in concrete structures. Six concrete beams with a cross-section of 300 mm (wide) × 250 mm (deep), simply supported on a 2100 mm span, were tested. The beams underwent four-point bending with two concentrated loads applied symmetrically at one-third of the span length, resulting in a shear span (a)-to-depth (h) ratio of 2.
... Show MoreYucca gloriosa Variegata L. is a stemless. The whole plant of Y. gloriosa L. has vast medicinal uses. TheNative Americans and North New Mexico used a tea from the leaves and roots to treat asthma, headache,wound healing. As well as it was being consumed as daily dietary. All part of Y. gloriosa L. is rich in saponinsteroidal glycosides. Saponin extracts are well-known to be highly toxic. Hence, present study was carriedout to investigate the toxicity of saponin and estimate the LD50 value which helps in determining the safedose range for the drug that be used, as well as to determine hematological aspects and examine histologicaleffect. Different concentrations of saponin extract were injected into male mice (10,000, 8000, 6000, 400
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