Background: The interest in herbal extracts as antimicrobial agents has increased over the past few years in endodontic therapy. Nasturtium officinale (watercress) is a promising plant with great medicinal values. This study aimed to investigate the antifungal activity of watercress oil in combination with calcium hydroxide against Candida albicans as intracanal medicament. Materials and Methods: Candida albicans was isolated from patients with necrotic root canal or failed root canal treatment. The sensitivity of Candida albicans to different concentrations of watercress oil extract was determined by using the agar well diffusion method in comparison with calcium hydroxide paste. The agar plate method was used to determine the minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of the tested oil against the fungus. The combination of the oil extract of Nasturtium officinale with calcium hydroxide was evaluated and compared to calcium hydroxide paste with iodoform by using the agar well diffusion method. Results: The oil extract exhibited antifungal activity against Candida albicans, this activity was found to be increased as the concentration of extract increased. The tested combination of watercress oil extract with calcium hydroxide revealed larger inhibition zones than the ones formed by each tested agent individually. Conclusion: The oil extract of Nasturtium officinale is active against Candida albicans suggesting its potential to be used as an intracanal medicament alone or in combination with calcium hydroxide.
Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected disease in tropical countries, including Iraq. Several studies have sought to examine chemotherapies for leishmaniasis treatment but most of them are of toxic and/or undesirable side effect, therefore, the need for investigating new fewer toxic therapies is essential. Aim of study: In this study, the cytotoxic effect of Artemisinin (ART), a novel herbal compound, was screened against the two forms, promastigotes and amastigotes, of the Iraqi isolate of Leishmania tropica, the causative agent of Baghdad boil. Material and methods: Different concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25, 15.6 and 7.8) µM of Artemisinin were screened to investigate the leishmanic
... Show MoreIntroduction and Aim: Bacteriocins are antimicrobial peptides that have bactericidal and/or bacteriostatic activity against other bacteria. The aim of this study was to assess the antibacterial efficiency of Klebocin a K. pneumoniae bacteriocin, against biofilm formation by clinical isolates of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus MRSA. Materials and Methods: S. aureus isolated from clinical samples was identified according to vitek 2 system Antibiotic susceptibility test was performed according to disc diffusion method. Vitek 2 compact system was also used to detect MRSA strains. Agar well diffusion method was used to evaluate the antibacterial activity of klebocin from K. pneumoniae towards 11 strains of S. aureus by
... Show MoreBackground: Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected disease in tropical countries, including Iraq. Several studies have sought to examine chemotherapies for leishmaniasis treatment but most of them are of toxic and/or undesirable side effect, therefore, the need for investigating new fewer toxic therapies is essential. Aim of study: In this study, the cytotoxic effect of Artemisinin (ART), a novel herbal compound, was screened against the two forms, promastigotes and amastigotes, of the Iraqi isolate of Leishmania tropica, the causative agent of Baghdad boil. Material and methods: Different concentrations (1000, 500, 250, 125, 62.5, 31.25, 15.6 and 7.8) µM of Artemisinin were screened to investigate the leishmanicidal activity of th
... Show MoreEleven yoghurt samples were collected from local markets in Baghdad to isolate Lactobacillus buchneri. Only 3 isolates of L. buchneri were found and the isolate No. 3 was the most producer of bacteriocin. Bacteriocin was adsorbed 100% onto silicic acid at pH 6.0-7.0. Below or above these pH values, adsorption was decreased, ranging between 35 and 90%. Therefore, pH 6.0 was used for the purification procedure. The purification procedure including silicic acid adsorption/desorption and cation-exchange chromatography (CEC) resulted in a 11.11 fold increase in the final specific activity of pure bacteriocin (1176.47 Au/mg) compared to the culture supernatant which was 32.64 Au/mg. The molecular weight was determined to be about 3.4 kDa. The bac
... Show MoreIsolation of fungi was performed from February to July, 2019. One hundred clinical specimens were collected from King Abdullah Hospital (KAH) Bisha, Saudi Arabia. Samples were collected from twenty patients of different ages (30 - 70 years old) ten males and ten females. The samples were collected from patients with the two types of diabetics. Specimens included blood, hair, nail, oral swabs and skin. Specimens were inoculated on Sabourauds Dextrose agar containing chloramphenicol. Thirteen fungal species were isolated and identified. The isolated species were: Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. terrus, A. nidulans, A. fumigatus, Candida albicans, C. krusei, C. parapsilosis, C. Tropicalis, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium solani, Penicill
... Show MoreThis 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),
... Show MoreBackground: L. sativum, are traditionally used for the treatment of various diseases and thought to have medicinal value. Isolates from many part of the world is now multidrug resistant. Therefore, there is an urgent need to look for and test an alternative herbal drug.
Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity of L. Sativum seed extract against multi drug resistant (MDR) and sensitive Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates.
Subjects and Methods: An ethanolic and aqueous stock extracts were prepared from L. sativum seed plant then serial dilutions were prepared and the obtained concentrations (50, 25, 12.5 and 6.2 mg/ml) were tested against 30 multidrug-resistan
... Show MoreOne of the most opportunistic mycosis globally is the Candida ssp., which is considered as the most agent that cause nosocomial urinary tract infections (UTIs), oral candidiasis and genitourinary candidiasis. This study included 100 samples of Iraqi subjects suffering from urinary tract infections. Identification of Candida have been done by different methods such as; characteristic of colony on culture, gram stain, and microscopically. This study aimed to isolation and identification of Candida spp from urine sample of UTI patients and find the relevance of ages and blood group of patients with the infections rate, also determine the effect of age on ESR and CRP levels in the patients. The results showed the higher frequency of
... Show MoreThe functional properties of the defatted powder and protein isolate of germinated mung bean seeds were studied and the estimation of the amino acids was carried out. The results showed a significant increase in the values of the amino acids leucine, lysine, phenylalanine and valine. The results of studying the functional properties of the protein isolate and defatted powder showed that there were significant differences between the sample The defatted and protein isolate, if the water absorption capacity of the defatted mung powder was 2.5% water/gm protein and the water absorption capacity of the protein isolate was 3%ml water/g protein, the fat binding capacity of the defatted powder was 0.3 ml fat/g protein and the isolate The ratio was
... Show MoreDietary components and changes cause shifts in the gastrointestinal microbial ecology that can play a role in animal health and a wide range of diseases. However, most information about the microbial populations in the gut of horses has not been quantitative. The objective of this study was to characterize the fecal bacterial and its prevalence in healthy horses and diarrheal one in a period from September 2010 to July 2013. Out of 100 Fecal samples of horses (from farms in Al-furusyia club) in Baghdad were examined for microbial differentiation founded eighty percent of the fecal samples isolated from healthy horses. The most common pathogen found were Streptococcus spp. (33.7%), Escherichia coli (20.9%), , and Staphylococcus aureus (9.2
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