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.
Multispectral remote sensing image segmentation can be achieved using a multithresholding technique. This paper studies the effect of changing the window size of the two dimensional (2D) fast Otsu algorithm that presented by Zhang. From the results, it shown that this method behaves as a search machine for the valleys (an automatic threshold), between the gray levels of the histogram with changing the size of slide window.
Keywords Image Segmentation, (2D) Fast Otsu method, Multithresholding, Automatic thresholding, (2D) histogram image.
Visceral leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease on the rise in different regions of Iraq, especially in areas with poor hygiene and among refugee populations. The effectiveness of existing chemotherapy for leishmaniasis is constrained by its high toxicity, cost, and the development of drug resistance. The current research examined various concentrations (ranging from 125 to 1000 μM) of lupeol to evaluate its ability to boost the generation of nitric oxide, which has anti-leishmanial properties, in an ex-vivo macrophage model. Griess assay was used to detect the nitric oxide (NO) production in Leishmania donovani infected U937 cell-line macrophages along 24 and 48 hours post treated. The nitric oxide concentration was signifi
... Show MoreIn this study, gold nanoparticle samples were prepared by the chemical reduction method (seed-growth) with 4 ratios (10, 12, 15 and 18) ml of seed, and the growth was stationary at 40 ml. The optical and structural properties of these samples were studied. The 18 ml seed sample showed the highest absorbance. The X- ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of these samples showed clear peaks at (38.25o, 44.5o, 64.4o, and 77.95o). The UV-visible showed that the absorbance of all the samples was in the same range as the standard AuNPs. The field emission-scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) showed the shape of AuNPs as nanorods and the particle size between 30-50 nm. Rhodamine-610 (RhB) was prepared at 10<
... Show MoreThe acute phase response is a major pathophysiologic phenomenon that accompanies inflammation whether acute or chronic. Complement (C3 and C4) and C - reactive protein (CRP) are positive acute phase proteins (+ ve APPs ). Their production takes place in hepatocyte and the blood concentration of these parameters are increased in osteoarthritis (OA). Chloroquine (CQ) is a diprotic weak base traditionally used to treat malaria. Recently the phosphate salt of CQ is used to decrease this type of (+ve APPs) . In this study, patients who suffered from knee osteoarthritis (KOA) are treated with oral dosage form of chloroquine phosphate (CQP) for one month, twice daily. Our results demonstrate that CQP improves the patient status by decreas
... Show MoreIn this research, the mechanism of cracks propagation for epoxy/ chopped carbon fibers composites have been investigated .Carbon fibers (5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%) by weight were used to reinforce epoxy resin. Bending test was carried out to evaluate the flexural strength in order to explain the mechanism of cracks propagation. It was found that, the flexural strength will increase with increasing the percentage weight for carbon fibers. At low stresses, the cracks will state at the lower surface for the specimen. Increasing the stresses will accelerate the speed of cracks until fracture accorded .The path of cracks is changed according to the distributions of carbon fibers
Objective: This study aims to assess the efficacy of CT-guided true-cut biopsy as a less invasive and cost-effective diagnostic technique for peripherally placed lung lesions.
This research analyzes the level of the short circuit effect of the Iraqi super network and decides the suitable location for the High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) connections in order to obtain the best short circuit reduction of the total currents of the buses in the network. The proposed method depends on choosing the transmission lines for Alternating current (AC) system that suffers from high Short Circuit Levels (SCLs) in order to reduce its impact on the transmission system and on the lines adjacent to it and this after replacing the alternating current (AC) line by direct current (DC) line. In this paper, Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS/E) is used to model two types of HVDC lines in an effective regi
... Show MoreObjective: To measure the effect of the pharmacist-led medication reconciliation service before hospital discharge on preventing potential medication errors. Methods: This behavioral interventional study took place in a public teaching hospital in Iraq between December 2022 and January 2023. It included inpatients who were taking four or more medications upon discharge from the internal medicine ward and the cardiac care unit. The researcher provided the patients with a medication reconciliation form and reconciliation form (including medication regimen and pharmacist instructions) before discharging them home. Any discrepancies between the patients’ understanding and the actual medication recommendations prescribed by the physici
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