Endophytic fungi live inside plants or any part of them without creating any visible pathogenic signs. Endophytic fungi are found within medicinal plants and have shown strong biologic activity, such as anticancer and antioxidant activities, as well as producing extracellular enzymes. In this study, different fungal strains were isolated from the leaves of the medicinal plant Ziziphus spina, including Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Cladosporium sp., Rhizopus sp., and Mucor sp. Extracellular enzymes have been quantified using agar plate-based methods in which fungi were grown in specified growth media to detect the enzymes produced. The results showed that A. niger has the highest ability to produce amylase, Cladosporium sp. has the highest ability to produce protease and pectinase, Rhizopus and Mucor sp. have the highest ability to produce cellulase, and A. niger and Cladosporium sp. have the same ability to produce lipase and laccase. The ability of medicinal plant endophytic fungi to produce extracellular enzymes has great therapeutic potential in clinical microbiology. Some of the isolates showed great activity in secreting particular enzymes, indicating that the enzymes of these fungi could be used in a variety of applications.
Fabrication of porous clay refractory insulating specimens from Iraqi kaolin with different percentage of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) waste crumbs additions were investigated. After mixing and forming by hand molding, the specimens was dried and fired at 1300 oC. The structural, physical, mechanical and thermal properties of the refractory insulating products were measured. Maximum addition of EPS (1.25 wt%) lead to reduce the linear shrinkage to less than 1.7% and increased apparent porosity up to 50 %. As well as, the density, Modulus of rupture and thermal conductivity were reduced to 1.39 g/cm3, 4.1 MPa and 0.21 W/m.K, respectively. The final outcome, addition of EPS showed good results in the formation of pores without distorting the
... Show MoreThe characteristics of sulfur nanoparticles were studied by using atomic force microscope (AFM) analysis. The atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements showed that the average size of sulfur nanoparticles synthesized using thiosulfate sodium solution through the extract of cucurbita pepo extra was 93.62 nm. Protecting galvanized steel from corrosion in salt media was achieved by using sulfur nanoparticles in different temperatures. The obtained data of thermodynamic in the presence of sulfur nanoparticles referred to high value as compares to counterpart in the absence of sulfur nanoparticles, the high inhibition efficiency (%IE) and corrosion resistance were at high temperature, the corrosion rate or weig
... Show MoreRecovery of time-dependent thermal conductivity has been numerically investigated. The problem of identification in one-dimensional heat equation from Cauchy boundary data and mass/energy specification has been considered. The inverse problem recasted as a nonlinear optimization problem. The regularized least-squares functional is minimised through lsqnonlin routine from MATLAB to retrieve the unknown coefficient. We investigate the stability and accuracy for numerical solution for two examples with various noise level and regularization parameter.
Levan is an exopolysaccharide produced by various microorganisms and has a variety of applications. In this research, the aim was to demonstrate the biological activity of levan which produced from B. phenoliresistens KX139300. These were done via study the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antileishmanial activities in vitro. The antioxidant levan was shown 80.9% activity at 1250 µg/mL concentration. The efficient anti-inflammatory activity of 88% protein inhibition was noticed with levan concentration at 35 µg/mL. The cytotoxic activity of levan at 2500 µg/mL concentration showed a maximum cytotoxic effect on L20B cell line and promastigotes of Leishmani tropica. Levan has dose-dependent anticancer and antileishman
... Show MoreLactiplantibacillus plantarum, one of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), is found in various foods, including dairy products, meat, and vegetables, and most of these bacteria offer beneficial effects to humans and animals as potential probiotics with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities. The aim of this study was evaluating the antibacterial efficacy of L. plantarum against some foodborne bacteria isolated from dairy products. This research involved 34 dairy products, including local and imported milk, cheese, and yogurt sold locally in Baghdad province, Iraq, during May 2022. For the isolation of L. plantarum, a special medium called MRS (de Man Rogosa and Sharpe) was applied. Colonie
... Show MoreBackground: Hyperplastic polyps account for 30–93% of gastric polyps. Recently, there have been studies about the development of dysplasia in this type of polyp. Every cell in the body contains the p53 gene, which has anti-cancer properties. Objective: The sensitivity of immunohistochemical expression of p53 is evaluated among gastric hyperplastic polyps with and without dysplasia and gastric adenomatous polyps to know its usefulness as a diagnostic marker. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done on fifty formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded blocks of gastric polyps (44 hyperplastic polyps without dysplasia, 3 hyperplastic polyps with dysplasia, and 3 adenomas). Cases were collected from the archives of the pathology d
... Show MoreAlbizia lebbeck biomass was used as an adsorbent material in the present study to remove methyl red dye from an aqueous solution. A central composite rotatable design model was used to predict the dye removal efficiency. The optimization was accomplished under a temperature and mixing control system (37?C) with different particle size of 300 and 600 ?m. Highest adsorption efficiencies were obtained at lower dye concentrations and lower weight of adsorbent. The adsorption time, more than 48 h, was found to have a negative effect on the removal efficiency due to secondary metabolites compounds. However, the adsorption time was found to have a positive effect at high dye concentrations and high adsorbent weight. The colour removal effi
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