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 present study aims to identify the role of behavioral disorders (anxiety disorder, behavior disorder "behavior", confrontation and challenge disorder, aggressive behavior) in predicting bullying patterns (verbal, physical, electronic, school) in a sample of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. For this purpose, the researcher developed scales to measure the behavioral disorders and the bullying patterns among adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. The researcher adopted the descriptive survey approach. The study sample consists of (80) adolescents with autism spectrum disorder with ages range from (15-19 years) and (45-53 years old) in association with israr association for people with special needs in the northern borders
... Show MoreAsphalt binder is a thermoplastic material that conducts as an elastic solid at lower service temperatures or throughout fast loading rate. At a high temperature or slow rate of loading, asphalt binder conducts as a different liquid. The classical duplication generates a required to assess the mechanical properties of asphalt concrete at the anticipated service temperature to reduce the stress cracking, which happens at lower temperatures, fatigue, and the plastic deformation at higher temperatures (rutting). In this study, an achievement was made to assess the effect of temperature on the mechanical characteristics of asphalt concrete mixes. A total of 132 asphalt concrete samples were attended utilizing two asphalt cement grades (40-50) a
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DBN Rashid, International Journal of Development in Social Sciences and Humanities, 2020
Expansive soil spreads in Iraq and some countries of the world. But there are many problems can be occurred to the structures that built on, so we must study the characteristics of these soils due to the problems that may be caused to these structures which built on these kinds of soil and then study the methods of treatment. The present study focuses on improving the geotechnical properties of expansive soils by treating it Metakaolin(M). Metakaolin (M) has never been used before as an improvement material for stabilizing the expansive soil . Metakaolin is a pozzolanic material. It’s obtained by calcination of kaolinite clay at temperatures from 700°C to 800°C. Kaolin chemical composition is
... Show MoreKefir is fermented milk made from kefir grains consist mainly of lactic acid bacteria and yeast, it has several health-promoting properties, such as antimicrobial ,antitumoral, and immunomodulating effects. However, there are few scientific reports about the effects of kefir on parasites. This work, studied the biological activity of kefir fermented against Entamoeba histolytica parasite in mice at concentration (100% and 50%) compared with the metronidazole (flagyl) drug at concentration (30 mg\ml). The results showed that infected mice treated with kefir(100% and 50%) complete the eradication of parasite after (6th and 8th day) respectively post inoculation while in metronidazole treated group the complete the eradication occur after (
... Show MoreIn this work, HgBa2CaCu2-xSbxO8+δ compounds with (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8) have been prepared by the solid-state reaction method. Structural, morphological, and electrical properties were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques. Using the 4-probe technique to study the effect of antimony-substitution for Copper on the electrical properties of HgBa2CaCu2-xSbxO8+δ (Hg-1212) phase was investigated by measuring the resistivity as a function of temperature. Results indicate that the addition of antimony (Sb) increases the volume fraction of the phase and changes the superconducting transition temperature Tc of the superconductor to a normal state. The dielectric loss factor and ac
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There are many neutron sources in the universe that play an important role in the stellar slow neutron capture (s-process) nucleosynthesis. Fluorine-19 is a cosmically rare isotope that is generated in a series of reactions. The aim in this paper is to perform theoretical calculations to test the variance of neutron intensity generated within stellar conditions, especially in Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars, on the production of 19F isotope. EMPIRE II program has been utilized with the aid of many Matlab programs, and experimental comparisons have been made with NACRE II and Reaclib libraries. The results has shown that the high abundances of reactant nuclei responsible for ultimately generating
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The present study aimed to investigate effect of Pregabalin (PGB) on ovary tissue and number of follicles in female albino rats. Three groups of healthy adult female albino rats, fifteen rats in each group were used in current study. The rats of groups, G2 and G3 were administered orally with two doses 150 mg and 300mg/kg b.wt/day of pregabalin, respectively. The doses were given daily for 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months. Animals of group G1 (Control) were given saline alone. After the experimental periods, the rats were sacrificed and the isolated ovaries were histologically examined. The results of histological analysis of the ovaries in treated rats (G2, and G3) showed a significant (P≤0.05) decrease in the number of preantral, antral,
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