The experiments were conducted in laboratory conditions of a temperature of 25± 2C and relative moisture of 40± 5 % to evaluate the effectiveness of the cinnamon, lavender and clove essential oils on some biological life aspects of cowpea beetle, C. maculates. Results of the obligative experiment for the effect of the oils on insect adult killing showed that the concentration of 5% caused a mortality percentage averaged 13.33% of the insect males. The mortality percentage of the insect females was 11.3% for the cinnamon and lavender oils. The lavender oil had the lowest effect on adult killing, not exceeding 0. For the effect of the oils on egg laying, clove oil affected the number of eggs highly at the concentration of 5%, resulting in 2.00 eggs on average. The lowest oil effect on egg number was for the lavender oil at the concentration of 1%, leading to an average of 14.73 eggs. The clove oil at the concentration of 5% showed effectiveness in adult emergence prevention as it was not observed that any insect emerged. In contrast, the same oil at the concentration of 1% had less effect, resulting in the highest emergence percentage reaching 13.33%. The same applies to the effect of the plant oils on insect productivity as the clove oil at the concentration of 5% was the most effective; no insect productivity was recorded, unlike the concentration of 1%, recorded productivity of 110.2 %. In the facultative experiment, the highest mortality percentage was recorded using clove oil against females, as the mortality percentage reached 4.00%. In contrast, the lowest mortality percentage was recorded using lavender oil against males, where no killing occurred, as the mortality percentage did not exceed 0.00%. For the effect of the oils on egg laying, the highest affected oil was cinnamon at a concentration of 5% as the number of eggs reached 5.60, while lavender oil at 3% was the least effective; the average number of eggs was 25. Clove oil at a concentration of 5% had the highest effect in reducing the emergence of the insect, so the emergence percentage did not exceed 0.33%. In comparison, its influence was low at 1%, recording the highest emergence percentage (18.67%). The lowest recorded insect productivity average was from the treatment of the clove oil at a concentration of 5%, which did not exceed 5.20%, while the highest productivity average was from the treatment of the lavender oil at 1%, which reached 89.6%. Keywords: essential oils, Cowpea beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus
The presence of hydrocarbons in the soil is considered one of the main problems of pollution. In our current study, eight samples isolated from soil saturated with hydrocarbons were taken from different areas of Baghdad, Iraq. In this study, 5 isolates belonging to Pseudomonas aeruginosa by 99%, 4 isolates to Klebsiella pneumoniae by 98%, and 3 isolates to Enterobacter hormaechei by 97% were diagnosed in different ways. A molecular examination was also conducted by 16sRNA. We recorded P. aeruginosa, K. Pneumoniae and E. hormaechei as new local isolates in NCBI. In addition, a comparison was made between our isolates and the global isolates to determine the degree of convergence in the evolutionary line. The genes alkB and nahAc7 were diagno
... Show MoreThe aim of the current study was to optimize different cultural and environmental conditions for production the antibacterial bioactive metabolites by Streptomyces rochei M78 isolated from agriculture soil, in Baghdad, Iraq. The effect of various parameters such as, culture media, incubation time, pH, carbon and nitrogen sources, C: N ratios and inducers on antibacterial metabolite production was studied by varying single parameter at a time. It was found from the results that higher metabolite production by isolate observed using starch casein broth (SCB) as the best production medium, at initial pH 7.0.Starch andcasein +yeast extract + peptone appeared to be the best carbon and nitrogen sources respectively and C: N ratio of 4: 1 after
... Show MoreIn this work, a novel biocatalytic process for the production of 7-methylxanthines from theobromine, an economic feedstock has been developed. Bench scale production of 7-methlxanthine has been demonstrated. The biocatalytic process used in this work operates at 30 OC and atmospheric pressure, and is environmentally friendly. The biocatalyst was E. coli BL21(DE3) engineered with ndmB/D genes combinations. These modifications enabled specific N7- demethylation of theobromine to 7-methylxanthine. This production process consists of uniform fermentation conditions with a specific metabolically engineered strain, uniform induction of specific enzymes for 7-methylxanthine production, uniform recovery an
... Show MoreWater hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a free-floating plant, growing plentifully in the tropical water bodies. It is being speculated that the large biomass can be used in wastewater treatment, heavy steel and dye remediation, as a substrate for bioethanol and biogas production, electrical energy generation, industrial uses, human food and antioxidants, medicines, feed, agriculture, and sustainable improvement. In this work, the adsorption of Congo Red (CR) from aqueous solution onto EC biomass was investigated through a series of batch experiments. The effects of operating parameters such as pH (3-9), dosage (0.1-0.9 g. /100 ml), agitated velocity (100-300), size particle (88-353μm), temperature (10-50˚C), initial dye
... Show MorePharmaceuticals are widely distributed in different applications and also released into the environment. Adsorption of Ciprofloxacin HCl (CIPH) on Porcelinaite was studied at ambient conditions. The adsorption isotherms can be well described using the Freundlich and Temkin equations. The pH of the solution influences significantly the adsorption capacity of Porcelinaite, the adsorption of CIPH increased from the initial pH 1.3 and then decreased over the pH rang of 3.8-9. The adsorption is sensitive to the change in ionic Strength, which indicate that electrostatic attraction is a significant mechanism for sorption process. The enthalpy change (∆H) for the adsorption of CIPH onto Porcelinaite signifies an endothermic adsorption. The ∆G
... Show MorePharmaceuticals are widely distributed in different applications and also released into the environment. Adsorption of Ciprofloxacin HCl (CIPH) on Porcelinaite was studied at ambient conditions. The adsorption isotherms can be well described using the Freundlich and Temkin equations. The pH of the solution influences significantly the adsorption capacity of Porcelinaite, the adsorption of CIPH increased from the initial pH 1.3 and then decreased over the pH rang of 3.8-9. The adsorption is sensitive to the change in ionic Strength, which indicate that electrostatic attraction is a significant mechanism for sorption process. The enthalpy change (ΔH) for the adsorption of CIPH onto Porcelinaite signifies an endothermic adsorption. The ΔG va
... Show MoreThe activity of peroxidase (POD) in cabbage was evaluated using
spectrophotometric method. The enzyme was extracted from the cabbage leaves
with 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution pH 7. 0 . POD activity was determined using
(O-dianisidine) as a substrate. The effects of the amounts of enzyme extract,
substrate concentration, pH and temperature were investigated. The highest activity
of POD was recored at 2 mg/ml. The highest activity of POD was optimized with
16 mM O-dianisidine, The optimum pH was 7.0 for POD , The optimum
temperature was 30°C for POD. These optimum conditions were used to
determined the enzyme activities in cabbage sample. Acetone fractionated
peroxidase from crude extract of Brassica oleracea
Water flow into unsaturated porous media is governed by the Richards’ partial differential equation expressing the mass conservation and Darcy’s laws. The Richards’ equation may be written in three forms,where the dependent variable is pressure head or moisture content, and the constitutive relationships between water content and pressure head allow for conversion of one form into the other. In the present paper, the “moisture-based" form of Richards’ equation is linearized by applying Kirchhoff’s transformation, which
combines the soil water diffusivity and soil water content. Then the similarity method is used to obtain the analytical solution of wetting front position. This exact solution is obtained by means of Lie’s
The hydrolysis of urea by the enzyme urease is significant for increasing the irroles in human pathogenicity, biocementation, soil fertilizer, and subsequently in soil improvement. This study devoted to the isolation of urease from urea-rich soil samples collected from seven different locations. Isolation of the various bacterial species was conducted using nutrient agar. The identity of isolated urease was based on morphological characteristics and standard microbiological and biochemical procedures. The urease producing strains of bacteria were obtained using the urease hydrolysis test. The bacterial isolates produced from soil samples collected from different environments and treat
Due to the broad range uses of chromium for industrial purposes, besides its carcinogenic effect, an efficient, cost effective removal method should be obtained. In this study, cow bones as a cheap raw material were utilized to produce active carbon (CBAC) by physiochemical activation, which was characterized using: SEM to investigate surface morphology and BET to estimate the specific surface area. The best surface area of CBAC was 595.9 m2/gm which was prepared at 600 ᵒC activation temperature and impregnation ratio of 1:1.5. CBAC was used in aqueous chromium ions adsorption. The investigated factors and their ranges are: initial concentration (10-50 mg/L), adsorption time (30-300 min), temperature (20-50
... Show More