Seventy- four cases of clinically diagnosed Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), fifty cases of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and thirty healthy normal controls were investigated for detection of rheumatoid factor (RF), total serum immunoglobulins (Igs), antinuclear antibody (ANA), and ANA subtype anti-double stranded DNA (anti-ds DNA).
Patients with RA showed 58.1% positive for RF comparable with 14% positivity in SLE patients and 6.6% in normal individuals. Serum Igs (IgA,IgG) were found to be elevated in RA and SLE
patients (62.2% , 36.5%) (54% , 38%) respectively. This study revealed that ANA is found in 88% of SLE patients sera and 78% of these ANA is ds DNA in comparison with only 6.8% of RA sera wer

The proximate composition, mineral contents and the effects of sodium sulphate salts on emulsion capacity (EC) and stability (ES) of mushroom species M_{1 –} Lentinus subnudus Berk, M_{2 –} Chlorophyllum molybditis, M_{3 –} Volvariella esculenta, M_{4 –} Coprinus tramentarius, M_{5 –} Pleurotus ostreatus Jacq, M_{6 –} Termitomyces microcarpus, and M_{7 –} Pleurotus pulmonarius obtained from Nigeria were investigated using standard methods for analyses.  The mean of some of the results is:  Crude protein:  9.1±0.15 -13.80±0.15%, Crude fibre: 4.15±0.02 – 7.08±0.59%, Na: 177±2.56 –

Probiotics mean live microorganisms that have beneficial effects on their host’s health. The purpose of this study was to compare aqueous, methanolic of some traditional plant extracts on the viability of dietary probiotic supplementation [a dietary probiotic (Protexin)]. Also, this study was conducted to evaluate the antibacterial effect of various extracts concentrations from 1.25 to 100 mg/ml of Rosmarinus officinal, Glycyrchiza glabra, Hibiscus sabdriffo, Curcuma longa, Citrus auratifolia swingle, Cinnamomum zeylancium, Urtica dioica, Thymus vulgaris, Punica grantum and Zingiber officinal on activities of probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus thermophillus by determining the minimum inhibitory co

    Ten species of whiteflies (Hemiptera, Aleyrodidae) representing six genera were studied from a collection from different localities in the middle of Iraq. These species are Acaudaleyrodes rachipora (Singh, 1931); Bemisia afer  (Priesner and Hosny,1934); Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius, 1889); Dialeurodes citri (Ashmead,1885); Dialeurodes kirkaldy (Kotinsky, 1907); Neomaskellia andropogonis Corbett, 1926;  Siphoninus phillyreae (Haliday, 1835); Trialeurodes ricini (Misra, 1924); Trialeurodes vapovariorum (Westwood,1856) and Trialeurodes irakeensis (Al-Malo and Abdul-Rassoul, 2000). Notes are given on their localities, date of c

The aims of this study are to explore the commercial artifacts in the following three kinds of vegetables oils, Nigella Sativa, Trigonella foenum-graecum Linn,and Zingiber officinale. These oils have been very popular medicinal plants which are commonly used in traditional medicine .These commercial oils have been compared with the extracts of these plants.
The physical properties of extracts and commercial oils of these plants have been stuied. We observed that the refractive index of the plants matches and non-significant, while specific gravity of Nigella Sativa has similar specific gravity in both extracts and commercial oil in contrast with Trigonella foenum Linn,and Zingiber officinale and we found significant difference (P&lt

Four mushrooms were used in the present study, Agaricus bisporus (B62) strain (Lelion, Varrains , France) , Pleurotus ostreatus (Blue grey-BG) and P. ostreatus (White oyster-WH) from Mushroom Box Company, United Kingdom, while P. ostreatus (P2) was the local fungus isolated and identified in this study. Radical scavenging activity of alcoholic extracts from mushrooms was found to be higher than those of aqueous extracts at the same concentration tested in all results in the present study and alcoholic extract for P. osteatus (P2) gave the highest result in concentration (25) mg/ml (60.53+0.55 %) in DPPH test , reducing power (5.4±0.1), total phenolic component (11.46+0.05) mg/g, chelating activity (75.86+16.95%) and antioxidant activity

Cigarette smoke contains a lot of toxic and oxidizing materials which causes body toxicity and reduces antioxidant that results in many diseases. In this study, levels of Zinc and Copper (which are antioxidant) were measured in serum of smokers and nonsmokers. It was found that the level of Zinc in serum of smokers was significantly lower than nonsmokers because nitric oxide which is one of cigarette contents acts to increase zinc loss, also a significantly lower copper levels were found in smokers than nonsmokers due to consumption of copper in reducing cadmium toxicity which is a cigarette smoke content

Free radicals are reactive compounds, their excessive production is considered to be an important cause of oxidative damage in biomolecules causing degenerative diseases. Polyphenols are one of the most important groups of secondary metabolites of plants, which have an antioxidant activity depending on their properties as hydrogen donors. Echinops polyceras Boiss. (Asteraceae) is one of Echinops genus species that spread in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine. Phytochemicals found in this species leaves have been extracted with gradient polarity solvents, and primary screening of the secondary metabolites was established. The phenolic compounds and flavonoids contents were determined. The free radicals scavenging activity was evaluated for all

The aim of this research is to study some functional properties and the antioxidant activity of cherry gum, collected from Serghaya and Suwayda in Syria, and to compare these features with those of Arabic gum. The values of the hydroxyl groups for the Arabic gum, Serghaya and Suwayda cherry gums were 757.1, 655.1 and 564.3 mg KOH/gm, respectively. The solubility of exudate gums ranged from 53.53 to 86.53% and was arranged as follows: Arabic gum>Serghaya cherry gum >Suwayda cherry gum. Gum solubility increased with rising the temperature. Water and oil holding capacities of cherry gums were significantly higher (p<0.05) than those of Arabic gum, while their emulsifying capacity was significantly lower than that of Arabic gum. The

This study is conducted to evaluate the therapeutic and antioxidant effect of lemon juice on some hematological and biochemical parameters. Thirty female mice used in this study were exposed to oxidative stress through giving them hydrogen peroxide in drinking water for 30 days. Animals randomly distributed over 3 groups, each group contained 10 animals and treated as follows: T1 control group (drinking distilled water only), T2 (0.75% hydrogen peroxide in drinking water) and T3 (0.75% hydrogen peroxide in drinking water with daily drenching with 1 mL lemon juice). At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected from animals for evaluating the following hematological and biochemical parameters: Haemoglobin concentration (Hb),