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: Recently increasing number of people are using mouthwashes for general and oral care while the primary appeal of a mouthwash is an aid to breath freshness and cleansing the mouth, the majority of mouthwashes also claim to have antiseptic properties. The aim of this study is to determine the antimicrobial effectiveness of eight types of mouthwashes against Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans in vitro. Materials and methods: Agar diffusion technique was used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of eight types of mouthwashes against Streptococcus mutans, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans isolated from the oral cavities of patients attending dental clinics at college of dentistry - Baghdad Uni
... Show MoreSeven [35%] and five [25%] Serratia marcescens isolates were obtained out of 20 samples of lettuce and 20 samples of spinach, respectively, taken from different locations in a farm in Baghdad city. The isolate that produced chitinase in higher level was chosen to purify chitinase through several stages of purification including: ammonium sulfate precipitation, DEAE- sephadex ion exchange chromatograpgy and sephadex G-200 gel filtration with 89.5- fold purification and 30% recovery. The purified chitinase was characterized and the molecular weight of enzyme was 59000 daltons by using gel filtration chromatography. The optimum pH and temperature of the purified chitinase were 6.0 and 50°
... Show MoreBackground: Invasive fungal infections have become more common during the past two decades. Candida species are the most common human fungal infections. Internal injuries characterize these infections because of virulence factors, such as gliotoxin, which is a fungal toxin that is thought to be antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral.
Objectives: To test the ability of Candida species obtained from clinical sources to produce gliotoxin as a virulence factor and investigate its cytotoxicity effects against some selected cell lines.
Materials and Methods: One hundred and ten clinical isolates of Candida species were obtained from patients attendi
... Show MoreNowadays, the use of medicinal plants is being practiced at a wide range as a result of antibiotics resistant for the vast majority of microorganisms. Eucalyptus camaldulensis essential oil and hydrosol were used in this study against planktonic forms and biofilms of some species of Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria. The antibacterial and antibiofilm activities of this plant were detected using the microtiter plate and MIC approaches. The results proposed that the oil and hydrosol preparations have antibacterial activities against planktonic cells in different concentrations depending on the type of isolate. For antibiofilm activity, the results showed that E. camaldulensis oil was highly effective against bacter
... Show MoreInfluential, organized groups with natural antimicrobial and anti-biofilm broad-spectrum power exist within the food chain, like a hidden dormant mimic hygienic bio life nanobodies that can terminate multiple opportunistic disease entities owing multi-stress resistant forbidden recalcitrant power, such as Candida albicans. These wonderful dynamic forces created by ALLAH Almighty are the Mycophages or fungi-eating state of fungi foodborne phages, and this project was redirected to be a dare to leap from us towards the future. Multi-stress resistant C. albicans that are resistant to different antifungal agents with their genetic tolerance plasticity to thermal pasteurization decontamination module as well as to ultraviolet irradiation
... Show MoreThe study was conducted to evaluate the anti fungal activity of
water and alcohol ic extracts (cold and hot) and the crude alkaloid
extracts of leaves, seeds and roots of Zygophyllum fabago plant against a standard isolate of C. albicans and an isolate of A. jlavus which was proved to produce aflatoxins. Investigation of presence of active antimicrobial compounds in this plant parts was carried out, crude al kaloid extract was also separated using TLC technique. The antifungal activity of all these extracts was estimated against the two fungi. Results showed variation in anti fungal
... Show MoreThis research presents a study for precipitating phosphorus (as phosphate ion) from simulated wastewater (5ppm initial concentration of phosphorus) using calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)2 solution. The removal of phosphorus by Ca (OH)2 solution is expected to be very effective since the chemical reaction is of acid-base type but Ca(OH)2 forms complex compound with phosphate ions called. Hydroxyapatite Ca5 (PO4)3OH. hydroxyapatite is slightly soluble in water. This research was directed towards sustainable elements as phosphorus. Kinetics of the dissolution reaction of hydroxyapatite was investigated to find the best factors to recover phosphorus. The effect of con
... Show MoreBackground: Many previous studies were concerned with
the relationship between gestational diabetes and the
development of vaginal candidiasis in pregnant women. In
this study, our aim is directed to uncover glucose tolerance
status in non-diabetic pregnant women inflicted with
candida albicans.
Methods: Thirty-four pregnant women with vaginal
condidiasis (as demonstrated by microscopy) were enrolled
in this study. The patients were nearly similar in their
anthropometric and demographic criteria with those of the
healthy pregnant women (control group, forty –two
women). Fasting plasma sugar and glucose tolerance test
were alone for all patients and control group.
Results: fasting plasma sugar was
Detection of virulence gene agglutinin-like sequence (ALS) 1 by using molecular technology from clinical samples (
In order to screen antifungal activity of lactobacilli that produce bacteriocin against the yeast Candida, ninety-two food and clinical samples were collected. Also, several commercial brands of Lactobacillus probiotics and ready-made isolates of Lactobacillus were used. The isolated lactobacilli were subjected to microscopic, macroscopic, and biochemical tests. Moreover, molecular identification was performed for the best producer isolate. For Candida spp. isolation, seventy- two samples were collected from different clinical sources; in addition, nine of ready-made isolates were also used. All the isolated Candida spp. were subjected to microscopic and macroscopic ex
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