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.
The study investigates the relationship between the volatility of the Iraqi Stock Exchange Index (ISX), and the volatility of global oil prices benchmarks, Brent and West Intermediate Texas (WTI), in additional to the Iraqi Oil, Basra Crude Light (BSL) which represents the most exported Iraqi oil and the major influential factor on the Iraqi governmental revenues. Using monthly data covering the period: 1/2005-12/1205, econometrical and technical tools represented by Co-incretion, Vector Error Correction Model – VECM, Granger Causality, and Bollinger band were employed in order to explore the relationship between the variables.
The econometric analysis revealed the impact of the oil prices volatility on
... Show MoreIt seems that the features of the theatrical discourse , since its early establishment by the Greeks, were cultural features specifically confined to that society. Such features determined the direction of the theatrical discourse for this state instead of that state. There could be some sort of similarity among those features , nevertheless they remained within the general humanitarian framework . What achieved relatedness were those features and particularities that distinguished the theatrical community. Such features and particularities vary from one show to another. This is what we call " Local Specificity" .The Iraqi theatrical memory has always emphasized the concept of Experimentation through originality and renewal since the arr
... Show MoreThe objective of the work was to study the changes in height and stem diameter of sunflower plants during growth stages under hardening conditions to drought tolerance. Field experiments were carried out during the spring season of 2000 and2001. Agricultural practices were made according to recommendations.Asplit-split plots design was used with three replications.The main plots included irrigation treatments:irrigation to100%(full irrigation),75and50%of available water.The sub plots were the cultivars Euroflor and Flame.The sub-sub plots represented four seed soaking treatments:Control(unsoaking), soaking in water ,Paclobutrazol solution(250ppm),and Pix solution(500ppm). The soaking continued for 24 hours then seeds were dried at room
... Show MoreMost studies indicated that the values of atmospheric variables have changed from their general rates due to pollution or global warming etc. Hence, the research indicates the changes of direct solar radiation values over a whole century i.e. from 1900 to 2000 depending on registered data for four cities, namely (Mosul - Baghdad - Rutba - Basra. Moreover, attemptsto correlate the direct solar radiation with the temperature values have been recorded over that period. The results showed that there is a decreasing pattern of radiation quantities over time throughout the study period, where the value of direct radiation over the city of Baghdad 5550 w/m2 was recorded in the year 1900, but this ratio decreased cle
... Show MoreThe results shows existence of metals such as copper, iron, Cadmium, lead and zinc in most of examined samples , the highest concentration are up to (2.26, 40.82, 282.5, 31.02, 19.26, 4.34) Part per million) ppm) in pasta hot (Zer brand), Indomie with chicken, granule (Zer brand), brand (Zer brand), and rice (mahmood brand) respectively, with presence nickel in spaghetti( Zer brand), granule, Zer brand with concentration reached to 4.34 ppm and 1.06 ppm respectively.
The results of cereals group and its products show that two kinds of fungi, Aspergillus spp. and Penicillin spp. were found in rice (Mahmood brand) with numbers got to 1.5×103 Colony Forming Unit/ gram (c.f.u./g),while Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus were isola
Video copyright protection is the most generally acknowledged method of preventing data piracy. This paper proposes a blind video copyright protection technique based on the Fast Walsh Hadamard Transform (FWHT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and Arnold Map. The proposed method chooses only frames with maximum and minimum energy features to host the watermark. It also exploits the advantages of both the fast Walsh Hadamard transform (FWHT) and discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) for watermark embedding. The Arnold map encrypts watermarks before the embedding process and decrypts watermarks after extraction. The results show that the proposed method can achieve a fast embedding time, good transparency, and robustness against various
... Show MorePseudomonas aeruginosa gram-negative, bacilli and facultative aerobic, P. aeruginosa cause cystic fibrosis patients, wounds, burns, and immunodeficienct patients, that have many virulence factors such as pyocyanin , cytotoxic ,biofilm formation and motility, Eighty-eight isolates belonging to P. aeruginosa were collected including the 66 clinical isolates obtained from different hospitals in Baghdad and were from different sources and 22 environmental isolates from previous studies of soil near oil fields. Microscopical and cultural characteristics were studied and diagnosed using biochemical tests, VITEC device, their ability to adhere to non-living (Polystyrene), living cell line (A549) and cytotoxicity of bacterial filtrate
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