Heavy metal (HM) pollution has long been a significant source of environmental deterioration and a problem for the safety of food. Iraqis prefer rice over any other food, and since heavy metals have a direct impact on health, their traces in rice have drawn particular attention. Before cooking rice, it is usual in Iraq to wash and soak it. Some 55 varieties of imported and local rice were sampled from Erbil city markets in 2022 with the aim of determining the concentration of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb before and after soaking. Standard procedure of acid digestions was applied on the raw and soaked samples. The solutions were analyzed using ICPE-9820 Shimadzu. The mean concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb (in mg/kg) in the rice samples before soaking was 0.655, 0.170, 0.160, 0.387, 0.489, respectively and after soaking 0.421, 0.109, 0.115, 0.124 and 0.336, respectively. The concentration of As and Pb was found to be beyond the optimum level of 0.2 mg/kg codex standards for rice; whereas Cd and Cr were within the proposed level of codex standards. Moreover, local rice showed higher concentration of (Cd and Cr), whereas (AS and Pb) concentration in imported rice was higher. Further, results validated that rice soaking can decrease levels of As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb (32.5%, 40.2%, 27.9%, 61.6% and 31.3%, respectively). These findings suggest that soaking as a kitchen practice has efficiency to evaporate metals and has a great influence on the reduction of toxic heavy metals and thus reduces exposure to toxic metals in rice
The antiviral activity of leaf extracts from Datura stramonium and tomato plants inoculated with TMV, combined with 20% skimmed milk, was investigated. A TMV isolate was confirmed using bioassay, serological, and molecular approaches and subsequently used to inoculate plants. Tomato plants, both pre- and post-inoculated with TMV, were sprayed with leaf extracts from either TMV-free or infected plants, alone or mixed with 20% skimmed milk. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using tobamovirus-specific antibodies and local lesion tests were conducted to assess antiviral activity based on virus concentration and infectivity in treated plants. The experiment followed a completely randomized design (CRD), and the Least Significant
... Show MoreThe Lamiaceae L. family grows and widely distributed in Iraq. The study aimed to enumerate the species that has been preserved in several botanical herbariums: National Herbarium of Iraq- Ministry of Agriculture (BAG), University of Baghdad Herbarium (BUH), Iraq Natural History Research Center& Museum- University of Baghdad Herbarium (BUNH), College of Agricultural Engineering- University of Baghdad Herbarium (BUG), College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences- Duhok Province University Herbarium (DPUH) and College of Science - Salahddin University Herbarium (SUH). This family has not yet been registered in the Flora of Iraq. After examining more than 1000 herbarium specimens, the study found 139 species belonging to 33 genera h
... Show MoreA general and accurate morphological study was carried out for the species Calotropis procera which belongs to the family Asclepiadaceae. The research included the phenotypic characteristics of the root, stem and leaves the leaves were studied morphologically and anatomically, Flowers, fruits and seeds, as well as the geographical distribution of the genus were studied also. In general, there are no previous taxonomic study of this genus under consideration, according to the available sources and it is the first one has been done in Iraq, perhaps Because of its low prevalence previously, where it was recently noticed its spread in last two to three years ago. Keywords: Apocynaceae, Apple Sodom, Poisonous Plant, Anatomy
The study evaluated the recovery performance of any home herbs group as first aid in some emergency cases. The study involved 10 items of herbs (chamomile, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and anise) which used in acute cases such as cold, colic, inflammation of the intestine and tonsillitis, and (hibiscus, catnip, dried lime, cress seed, and ginger) were used for chronic cases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis. The results showed the herbs had healing power and efficiency in the primary remedy for the above-mentioned diseases. The side effects, the contradictions, and the overdoses of these substances were discussed. It was concluded that home herbs could be used for treatment in emergency cases until moder
... Show Morestudy was conducted on a stretch of Tigris river crossing Baghdad city to determine the concentration of some chlorophenols pollutants. Aqueous samples were preliminary enriched about 500 times and the chlorophenols have determined using high performance liquid chromatography HPLC. Limits of detection LOD were (0.007–0.012 mg L-1), relative standard deviations RSD% were 2.4%–5.59% and relative recoveries were 51.06%– 104.07%. The existence of chlorophenols in Tigris river was in the range 0.023–4.596 mg L-1. The developed method suggested in this study can be applied for routine analysis and monitoring of chlorinated phenols in environmental aqueous samples.
Hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, has a number of infectious and non-infectious causes. Two of the viruses that cause hepatitis (hepatitis A and E) can be transmitted through water and food; hygiene is therefore important in their control. First, to assess the importance of HAV and HEV as a possible diagnosis for clinically diagnosed patients with acute viral hepatitis. Second, to assess the prevalence of hepatitis A and E in all provinces of Iraq and study its association with age, gender. This study consisted of two groups: The first group consisted of 2975 patients with a clinical diagnosis of acute viral hepatitis. The second group consisted of a total of 9610 persons, which were recruited by surveying a nationally representative
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The research aims to identify the strategic leadership and its role in activating the Organisational Performance, which is an analytical study of the views of the heads of scientific departments at General Authority of groundwater researcher's quest focused towards building a theoretical framework suitable for strategic leadership and performance Organisational and itُs dimensions.To achieve the aims of the research is designed to identify the researcher included (35) items to collect the raw data from the research sample consisting of 33 of the heads of departments. Data was collected by questionnaire, field visits, interviews and some official documents to complete the search data. It has also been used a numb
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