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.
A comparative study was carried out to evaluate alkaloid antibacterial activity which was extracted from the root bark Punica granatum L. by liquid membrane techniques (SA) and organic solvent traditional techniques (SB). The screening of the antimicrobial activity was conducted by agar well diffusion method against Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter cloacae, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Proteus mirabilis at three concentration levels (5, 10 and 15 mg/ml). Alkaloid extracts were analyzed by a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Among the tested extractions, SB showed the highest antibacterial activity against all five bacterial strains, especially at 15 mg/ml concentration. However, all the B type solution
... Show MoreSeventy five E. coli isolates were collected from urine of patients with urinary tract infections in AL-Kadhimia and AL-Yarmook teaching hospitals in Baghdad for a period between 22/11/2009 to 15/3/2010, from these samples twenty five isolates were selected according to their pattern of the highest resistance as these showing multi-drug resistances and tested to specify their minimum inhibitory concentration for (meropenem, gentamicin and amikacin), meropenem was found having the lowest MIC comparing with others. This study also includes in vitro effects of various combinations of three types of antimicrobials (meropenem, gentamicin and amikacin) against twenty five E. c
... Show MoreMedicinal 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 MoreAlkaloids are regarded as important nitrogen-containing chemical compounds that serve as a rich source for discovering and developing new drugs where most plant-origin alkaloids have antiproliferation effects on different kinds of cancers. Alkaloids’ continence of Calotropis procera leaves are detected by two biochemical alkaloid reagents. Also GC-MS analysis for leaf alkaloid extract was done that showed the existence of one type of alkaloid compound at retention time12.8min detected as colchicine (C22H25N06( by comparing it with colchicine standard reference (Sigma Aldrich) with M.wt 399g/mol and percentage area 7.1%. Furthermore, identification, separation, and purification
... Show MoreThree isolates of P. aeruginosa were isolated from burnt patients. The ability of these isolates for adhesion and formation of slime layer were tested, the result showed that all isolates were able to adherence on the smooth surface. The sensitivity of P. aeruginosa isolates for antibiotics were tested , all isolates were sensitive to Gentamycin, Piperacillin and Amikacin Ciprofloxacin, and resist to Tetracyclin, Amoxicillin, Cephalexine , Ceftriaxone. Ciprofloxacin and Amikacin were found effective against P. aeruginosa isolates with MIC values of 3.8 μg/ ml for Ciprofloxacin and 0.244 μg/ ml for Amikacin The antibacterial effect of Different concentrations of Aloe
... Show MoreThe water scarcity that Iraq suffers from and the low irrigation efficiency in irrigation projects, therefore, it was necessary to evaluate the performance of the irrigation system of the western canal for the Ishaqi irrigation project in Salah al-Din Governorate to determine the water management strategies that can be used to improve the irrigation efficiency in the project. The performance of the field irrigation system was evaluated on two fields of different crops and irrigation methods according to the agricultural reality of the study area in the Western canal for the Al-Ishaqi Irrigation Project in Salah Al-Din Governorate. The fieldwork included measurements of the moisture content before and after irrigation, fi
... Show MoreThe applications of herbal medicine have recently acquired growing interest in range of the prophylaxis and treatment of diseases. Olibanum has been used since ancient eras and several reports studied the pharmacological characteristics of boswellic acid, particularly their effect on the inflammatory response, analgesic properties, and anti-arthritic activity mostly in cell lines, but new approaches include animal models to assess these natural derivatives effects taking into consideration of being safer than synthetic preparations. The impact of olibanum oil on several parameters was studied in rats during this study. These included white blood cell (WBC) count, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and C reactive protein (CRP), as well a
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