The leaves of globe artichoke, Cynara scolymus Family Asteraceae/ compositea have long – used in traditional medicine and now included in British and European Pharmacopeia, the British Harbal Pharmacopeia and complete German Commission E monographs.The plant originally comes from Mediterranean region and North Africa and cultivated around the world. The flowers are used worldwide for nutrition purposes and the leaves for medical purposes including hepatic affections. The plant wildly distributed in Iraq in the watery lines and boundary of the field.The plant contains many phytochemicals such as the bitter phenolic acids whose choleretic and hypocholestremic as these compounds are antioxidant. Other materials to h

Human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) infection has increased recently in Arabic countries. HHV-8 in healthy persons does not necessarily cause life-threatening infection, and however, it causes a more severe infection among immunocompromised patients. The distribution of HHV-8 genotypes varies according to ethnicity and depends on the geographic region prior rapid development of global travel. A cross sectional prospective study included a hundred healthy blood donor samples with a mean age of (36.60±10.381), 81% were positive for molecular detection of HHV-8 DNA. PCR results for HHV-8 were strongly related with risk factors such as the number of sexual relations, previous surgeries, blood transfusion, dental operation, and the number of b

Archives of Razi Institute (ARI)

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of magnetized water on the histological structure of heart, lung and spleen. For this purpose, twenty five albino rats were divided into five equal groups, the first group was considered as control group. The other groups were given magnetized water with intensity of 250, 750, 1000, 1500 gause every day for 30 days. Then the animals were sacrificed and the histological change on heart, lung and spleen was studied. Histopathology of heart in rats treated with magnetic water with intensity of 250, 750, 1000, 1500 gause showed no clear pathological lesion. Lung section of rats treated with 250 gause of magnetic water showed no pathological lesion, while lung section belongs to rats group given

In this study the rate of infection in acute and chronic Toxoplasma gondii parasite that causes toxoplasmosis was determined. This study was Included 120 blood samples that collected from pregnant women revisions to some clinics and laboratories in Baghdad civil as well as 10 blood samples from non-infected women as a control group. All blood samples were collected in the first three months of the pregnancy period for detection toxoplasmosis by using serological tests of test kit ( Toxo , IgG.,Toxo , IgM ). To detect antibodies specialized type of IgG &IgM in acute and the chronic infection by Electro Clia manner using a Roche Cobas e411. The results showed that the total infection rate was (55.83)%, the rate of infection in acu

Metronidazole therapy is recommended in the treatment of giardiasis,athough some clinical reports mention the resistance to this drug from many pathogens. Many studies were applied to show the effect of probiotic to prevent or to heal diseases of gastrointestine, but only few is known about probiotic activity against infections of protozoa. This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of Bifidobacterium against infection with Giardia lamblia   in experimental mice. It was found that daily application of viable Bifidobacterium cells with a single dose (0.1ml∕mice∕day) significantly reduced the shedding of Giardia lamblia parasite cysts in feces, and infection completely disappeared at the da

Psoriasis is a common chronic skin condition characterized by infiltration of inflammatory cells into the epidermis and altered keratinocyte differentiation.

In this work, psoriasis was induced by an imiquimod 5% cream, an immune response modifier that can induce psoriasis-like skin inflammation when applied topically in mice. Guggulsterone prepared as a suspension and has been orally given to mice before imiquimod application. The results of the current study showed that guggulsterone suspension can significantly reduce psoriasis area and severity index in (guggul suspension+imiquimod group as compared with both control group and (vehicle suspension+imiquimod ) group.