Background: Spices and herbs have been used by many cultures to enhance the flavor and aroma of food and for their medicinal value. Black cardamom is one of these spices widely used in cooking because of its unique taste and powerful flavor. The aim of study was to test the effect of black cardamom on Mutans Streptococci in comparison to chlorhexidine gluconate (0.2%) and de-ionized water. Materials and methods: Dried fruits of black cardamom were extracted by using alcohol (70% ethanol). Saliva was collected from seven volunteers. Agar well technique with different concentrations of black cardamom extracts was used to test the sensitivities of Mutans Streptococci, as well black cardamom extracts effect on viable counts of Mutans Streptococci. Results: Mutans Streptococci was sensitive to different concentrations of alcohol extracts of black cardamom in vitro starting with (5%) to (40%) using agar well diffusion technique. Black cardamom was effective in inhibition of Mutans Streptococci but still weaker than chlorhexidine gluconate 0.2%. Highly significant reduction in the counts of bacteria was reported with cardamom extracts and CHX in comparison to neutral control after 2 hrs. Conclusions: Black cardamom showed an effect on Mutans Streptococci but still less than CHX.
Medicinal plants are a source for a wide variety of natural active compounds and are used for the treatment of diseases throughout the world. Conocarpus erectus L. widely planted all over Iraq and has different secondary metabolites, which has been used in treatment of anemia, cancer, fever and diarrhea. The present study aims to estimate the antibacterial activity of Conocarpus erectus leaves extracts on some microorganisms collected from patients with burn infection. The study began with the collection of Conocarpus erectus leaves in June 2018 from the trees in university of Baghdad. Maceration method was used to prepare aqueous extract, while Soxhelt apparatus was used to prepare methanolic extract. The results of phytochemical test show
... Show MoreTen isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, seven isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and nine isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, were obtained from 100 urine samples collected from Baghdad hospitals. All isolates were identified biochemically and confirmed by using VITEK 2 and were then tested for their susceptibility towards 6 antibiotics and for phenolic extracts of Thymus vulgaris and Cinnamomum cassia. All bacteria were greatly affected by T. vulgaris, especially K. pneumoniae. Viable count was performed, it was noted that the number of bacterial cells reduced from 1×108 CFU to 1.2× 103, 2×105 and 1.8×106CFU of K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus respectively. While C. cassiahad a slight effect on them. K. pneumoniae isola
... Show MoreKlebsiella pneumoniae has been found in the urinary tract of some bladder cancer patients. Bacterial presence within tumor tissue may affect the tumor-microenvironment and consequently influence cancer behavior, development, and treatment response. This study investigated mesenchymal and stemness transdifferentiation of bladder cancer cell line due to environmental stress of K. pneumoniae. Cultures of urothelial bladder cancer cell line (T24) were infected with K. pneumoniae with different multiplicity of infection (MOI) for two and four days. Transdifferentiation-associated features were morphologically assessed.
Moreover, transdifferentiation markers were estimated using Q-PCR and immunohistoc
... Show MoreThe antimicrobial potency of the crude ethanolic extracts from different Iraqi plants were evaluated . Further more, total sesquiterpene lactones and phenolic compounds were isolated and their antimicrobial activity attempted. The results indicated that crude extracts have no activity except that of Callistemon lanceolatus. Also, the sesquiterpene lactones and phenolic compounds isolated from Callistemon lanceolatus were the most significant antimicrobial active constituents of the studied plants.
The effect of subinhibitory concentration of Antibiotics on the Adherence of S.aureus (Coagulase Positive Staphylococci), and S.epidermidis (Coagulase negative Staphylococci) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacter cloacae, Citobacter freundi (Gram negative bacteria) was done and the results revealed that Rifampicin was the best antibiotic inhibiting Staphylococci adherence and Vancomycin has less effect on the adherence of Staphylococci, whereas Tetracyclin was the best antibiotic inhbiting Gram negative bacteria adherence and Amikacin has the lest less effect on inhibiting bacterial adherence.
A total of 72 specimens of the wild jungle cat Felis chaus furax De Winton, 1898 were
examined for the purpose of this study. The results show that 55.6% of the sample harbored
either single or mixed infections with ecto- and/ or endoparasites. The mode of infection
shows that only four specimens( 5.6% of the total sample) acquire single infections, the
double infections comprise 15.3%, the triple infections comprised 33.3%, while the
quadruplicate infections comprised 1.4%.
The systematic list of the parasites included six ectoparasites: Ctenocephalides felis (insect),
Sarcoptes scabiei (mite), Haemaphysalis adleri, Rhipicephalus leporis, Rhipicephalus
turanicus and Hyalomma anatolicum excavatum (ticks) and seven
Objective. This study aimed to evaluate the orthodontic bond strength and enamel-preserving ability of a hydroxyapatite nanoparticles-containingself-etch system following exposure to various ageing methods. Materials and Methods. Hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHAp) were incorporated into an orthodontic self-etch primer (SEP, Transbond™ plus) in three different concentrations (5%, 7%, and 9% wt) and tested versus the plain SEP (control) for shear bond strength (SBS), adhesive remnant index (ARI) scores, and enamel damage in range-finding experiments using premolar teeth. The best-performing formulation was further exposed to the following four artificial ageing methods: initial debonding, 24 h water storage, one-month water stora
... Show MoreThe interaction of charged particles with the chemical elements involved in the synthesis of human tissues is one of the modern techniques in radiation therapy. One of these charged particles are alpha particles, where recent studies have confirmed their ability to generate radiation in a highly toxic localized manner because of its high ionization and short its range. In this work, We focused our study on the interaction of alpha particles with liquid water; since the water represents over 80% of the most-soft tissues, as well as, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen ,because they are key chemical elements involved in the synthesis of most human tissues. The mass stopping powers of alpha particle with HଶO , COଶ, Oଶ, Hଶ and Nଶhave
... Show MoreThe Central Marshes are one of southern Iraq's most important wetlands and ecosystems. A study on evaluating soil quality and water quality in terms of chemical properties at certain sites in the southern Iraqi Central Marshes has been conducted to investigate their types and suitability for enhancing the agricultural reality of most field crops. Soil and water samples were collected from 15 sites and transferred to the laboratory. In the lab, the following parameters were determined: electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved salts (TDS), organic materials (OM), pH, gypsum, and total sulfate content (SO3). The tests conducted on the samples indicated that it could be said that the soil of the Central Marshes
... Show MoreThe study of the dynamic behavior of packed distillation column was studied by frequency response analysis using Matlab program. A packed distillation column (80 mm diameter) (2000 mm height) filled with glass packing (Raschig Rings 10mm), packing height (1500 mm) has been modified for separation of methanol-water mixture (60 vol%). The column dynamic behavior was studied experimentally under different step changes in, feed rate (±30%), reflux rate (±22%), and reboiler heat duty (±150%), the top and bottom concentration of methanol were measured. A frequency response analysis for the above step response was carried out using Bode diagram, the log modulus and the phase angle were used to analyze the process model. A Matlab progra
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