Antibiotic 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 bacterial strains with a maximum inhibition zone diameter of 22.0 mm against B. subtilis compared with standard antibiotic ciprofloxacin. The minimal inhibitory and bactericidal concentration values against tested Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains ranged from 3.15-12.5 µg/ml. However, weak antifungal effect was recorded against Candida albicans with MIC value ˃25 µg/ml. The 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay showed that M. caffra was the best antioxidant (IC50=14.75±0.028 µg/ml), while M. laurifolia was the least one (IC50=34.22±0.014 µg/ml). The phenolics in plant leaves extracts were identified and quantified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) which revealed the presence of seven phenolic acids and four flavonoids. The abundant phenolic compounds were rutin (5.216±0.067 mg/g dried wt.) and gallic acid (0.296±0.068 mg/g) followed by myricetin (0.317±0.091 mg/g) then kaempferol (0.113±0.049 mg/g) as flavonoids. The antibacterial mechanism of M. laurifolia extract, as a representative species, induces ultrastructural changes in the model bacterium Staphylococcus aureus with cell wall and plasma membrane lysis as revealed by transmission electron microscopy. Overall, Mimusops species (M. laurifolia, M. kummel and M. zeyheri) are promising natural alternative sources for antimicrobial agents.
A characteristic study of a passively Q-switched diode pumped solid state laser system is presented in this work. For laser a comparison study for the theoretically calculated results with a simulation results using a software which calculates the Q-switched solid state laser parameters was such as energy, peak power and pulse width were performed. There was a good agreement between our theoretical calculations and the simulation values.
Twenty five vaginal swabs from outpatients' healthy women were collected from Kamal Al-Samarai Hospital, Baghdad, to isolate and identify of Lactobacillus acidophilus. Three isolates were diagnosed as L. acidophilus which represents 15% of the total number of lactic acid bacterial (LAB) isolates; other LAB types represent 65% (20 isolates).The ability of L. acidophilus to produce surlactin was detected after measuring its biological activity to inhibit the adhesion of biofilm formed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa to surfaces using test tube method. It was found that all isolates were able to produce surlactin but the activity of surlactin was varying in each isolate. Surlactin produced by isolates 1 and 13 was the most effective. Biological appl
... Show MoreThe purpose of this study is to demonstrate a simple high sensitivity vapor sensor for propanol ((CH3)2CHOH). A free space gap was employed in two arms of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to serve as the sensing mechanism by adding propanol volume (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1) ml and to set the phase reference with a physical spacing of (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2) mm. The propagation constant of transmitted light in the Mach-Zehnder interferometer’s gap changes due to the small variation in the refractive index inside sensing arm that will further shift the optical phase of the signal. Experimental results indicated that the highest sensitivity of propanol was about 0.0275 nm/ml in different liquid volume while highest phase shift was 0.182×103 i
... Show MoreThis study aims to reveal the semiotic of “March of Return” cartoon in the Palestinian journalism, topics, Symbols and semantics that were covered.
This study is descriptive. It uses the survey method. Content analysis, and methodological comparison was also used.
The researcher chose an intentional sample of Palestine and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspapers for one year from March 30, 2018 to March 31, 2019, through a comprehensive inventory of all cartoons of the return marches during this period, which amounted to 59 cartoons.
The study has reached the following findings:
Newspapers cartoons focused on the topics of durability of the protester
... Show MoreConstruction projects need methods and techniques to ensure the level of quality and commensurate with the level required and documented in the project contract. The quality of the project is affected by the quality of the inputs and accompanying procedures in the construction of the project.
Al-Rumaitha residential project found that the quality of the concrete for the ceilings in the research sample (the roof of the third floor of buildings A25 and A26) and (roof of the second floor of buildings A27, A28, A29, A30, A31, A32 and A33) and roof of buildings A15 and A16 A19)) is not the required quality level.
The idea of the research came after the need to improve the performance o
... Show MoreThe issue of increasing the range covered by a wireless sensor network with restricted sensors is addressed utilizing improved CS employing the PSO algorithm and opposition-based learning (ICS-PSO-OBL). At first, the iteration is carried out by updating the old solution dimension by dimension to achieve independent updating across the dimensions in the high-dimensional optimization problem. The PSO operator is then incorporated to lessen the preference random walk stage's imbalance between exploration and exploitation ability. Exceptional individuals are selected from the population using OBL to boost the chance of finding the optimal solution based on the fitness value. The ICS-PSO-OBL is used to maximize coverage in WSN by converting r
... Show MoreThe effect of heat treatment using different annealing temperatures on optical properties of bulk heterojunction blend (BHJ) Alq3: C60 thin films which are fabricated by the spin coating technique were investigated in this study. The films have been coated on a glass substrate with speed of 2000 rpm for one min and treated with different annealing temperature (373, 423 and 473) K under vacuum. The optical properties and the chemical bonds structure of blends as-deposited and heat treated have been studied by UV-Vis spectroscopic and Fourier Transform-Infra Red (FTIR) measurements respectively. The results of UV visible show that the optical energy gap decreasing with increasing the annealing temperature for the ratio (100:1) while decrea
... Show MoreThe research shows the importance of orientation towards the formulation of the green strategy and its effect in determining the behavior of the green municipal institution in Babel governorate. The research highlighted the formulation of the green strategy as an important variable, especially today, the trend towards protecting the environment and minimizing the damage resulting from the delivery of services, and through it also the type of green behavior or performance adopted by the municipal institution and the emergence of the need for a strategy that is not harmful to the environment. The research took the sample intentionally comprehensive size of 222 personnel of municipal institutions and some formations concerned with t
... Show MoreNot necessarily to be malnutrition is a result of poverty and lack of food, it may be the outcome of the wrong food practices; and the lack of knowledge in nutrition basis and chronic diseases. Some studies have confirmed that the more the knowledge in nutrition basis increased, the more the child has well-balanced food.
Unhealthy eating habits spread among children at an early age, which is one of the negative factors affecting the nutritional status they have causing various disorders as a result of lack or increase of food or lack of balance. The signs and symptoms of these disorders can be simple or can lead to deadly diseases.
Training children on proper eating habits in different fields of life is considered the mos
... Show MoreThe current research aims to adopt production quality decisions as the most important decisions , because they are accompanied by customer satisfaction through monitoring the quality of drinking water in iraq which reach through the pipeline network associated with water treatment projects of Tigris and Euphrates rivers. One of the indicators of quality control was the drawing of the C-chart by specifying the central line and the upper and lower limit of the control and the diagnosis of whether the production system as a whole within the scope of quality control or not and determine the strength and significance of the correlation between the quantities of water And actual needs for customers , the research has reached a number o
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