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
Iraq is one of the most important countries in the world that has received its share of terrorist acts by the terrorist organization the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which has caused instability, especially during the period of ISIS's control of seven Iraqi provinces (2014-2017). This stage has caused a decline in the levels of human and economic development and its inconsistency with the capabilities and needs of the Iraqi population. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the hypothesis that there is a close relationship between the decline in development in Iraq and the brutal practices of ISIS that it committed during his period of control over many Iraqi cities and regions. This study used several method
... Show MoreImmunization is one of the most cost-effective and successful public health applications. The results of immunization are difficult to see as the incidence of disease occurrence is low while adverse effects following the immunization are noticeable, particularly if the vaccine was given to apparently healthy person. High safety expectations of population regarding the vaccines so they are more prone to hesitancy regarding presence of even small risk of adverse events which may lead to loss of pub
... Show MoreIn this work, the adsorption of crystal violet dye from aqueous solution on charcoal and rice husk has been investigated, where the impact of variable factors (contact time; the dosage of adsorbent, pH, temperature, and ionic strength) have been studied. It has been found that charcoal and rice husk have an appropriate adsorption limit with regards to the expulsion of crystal violet dye from fluid arrangements. The harmony adsorption is for all intents and purposes accomplished in 45 min for charcoal and 60 min for rice husk. The amount of crystal violet dye adsorbed (0.4 g of charcoal and 0.5 g of rice husk) increased with an increasing pH and the value of 11 is the best
... Show MoreThe current study was designed to investigate the histological structure of the cerebellum in the Iraqi frog
For many years controlled shot peening was considered as a surface treatment. It is now clear that the performance of control shot peening in terms of fatigue depends on the balance between its beneficial (compressive residual stress and work hardening) and beneficial effects (surface hardening).
The overall aim of this paper is to study the effects of aggressive shot peening on fatigue life of 7075 – T6 aluminum alloy. The fatigue life reduction factor (LRF) due to the aggressive shot peening was established and empirical relations were proposed to describe the behavior of LRF, roughness and fatigue life. The benefits of shot peering in terms of fatigue life are dependent on the shot peening time (SPT).
... Show MoreMethotrexate (MTX) is widely used chemotherapeutic agent with different side effects including germ cells toxicities. Silibinin is one of the structural isomers of silymarin, with different phytotherapeutic applications, and its possible protective effects against MTX induced germ cells damage were investigated in this work. Twenty five male mice were divided into five groups (n=5) allocated as follows: Group 1 received buffer for five days given by single intraperitoneal (IP) injection per day; Group 2 in addition to buffer for five days, animals received at day five single dose of 20mg/kg of MTX IP. Groups (3, 4, and 5) received respectively, (50, 100, or 150mg/kg body weight) of silibinin IP single daily dose for five days then at day fi
... Show MorePurpose - This study relies on the descriptive and analytical approach through collecting and analyzing the necessary data, as this approach focuses on polling the opinions of the research sample and its directions, and aims to develop a model that studies the relationship between knowledge creation and organizational ambidexterity in Iraqi private banks and verifying its validity experimentally.
Design / Methodology / Introduction - A survey was conducted through a questionnaire form to collect data from a sample of (113) managers in private commercial banks. In addition, this study used the AMOS program and the ready-to-use statistical program package (SPSS V.25) to test the proposed hypotheses of the t
... Show MoreAntibiotic resistance is the major growing threat facing the pharmacological treatment of bacterial infections. Therefore, bioprospecting the medicinal plants could provide potential sources for antimicrobial agents. Mimusops, the biggest and widely distributed plant genus of family Sapotaceae, is used in traditional medicines due to its promising pharmacological activities. This study was conducted to elucidate the antimicrobial effect of three unexplored Mimusops spp. (M. kummel, M. laurifolia and M. zeyheri). Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying such antibacterial activity were studied. The Mimusops leaf extracts revealed significant antibacterial activities against the five tested bacter
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