No abstract

Artemisia abrotanum L. is recently introduced plant in Iraq, in this study we conducted GS/MS for detection of terpene that are group of constituents abundant in this species qualitatively and quantatively. We used hexane extract for the detection depending on the like dissolve like proce-  dure of extraction since they are mostly nonpolar compounds, they dissolve in nonpolar solvent like hexane thus the extraction procedure is conducted with this solvent. New compound was detected with hexane extract that wasn't present in previous studies.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is resulted from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, which initiated in China in December 2019. Parasites are efficient immune modulators because their ability to stimulate an immune response in infected persons. AIM: This study aims to detect if there is a probable relationship between intestinal parasitic infections and COVID-19. METHODS: Ninety patients consulted at Al-Kindy Teaching Hospital (Al-Shifa center) from October 2020 till April 2021, confirmed infection with COVID-19 by PCR. Stool examination was done for detecting intestinal parasites. RESULTS: From 90 patients, males were 63 (70%), with median age 32 years, while females were 27 (30%), with age 24–44 years. Asymptomatic patients were 8.1 (9%), patients with moderate symptoms 22.5 (25%) cases, while the rest were 59.4 (66%) cases who required enter to the intensive care unit, with symptoms including cough (80%), dyspnea (74%), fever (56%), headache (43%), chest pain (37%), sore throat (35%), myalgia (32%), diarrhea (27%), and hemoptysis (3%). CONCLUSION: There is inverse relationship between parasitic infection and COVID-19 infections, and it is significant to understand the action between parasites and microbiome, also its function in COVID-19 pathogenicity.

Conocarpus erectus L. is a perennial, evergreen shrub belonging to Combretaceae family. Conocarpus plant reported to contain phenolic acid, flavonoids, lignan, terpenes and tannins. Aim of study was to isolate lupeol from hexane fraction and gallic acid from ethyl acetate fraction and investigate the effects of (hexane and ethyl acetate) fractions on viability of pancreatic AsPC-1 and breast MCF-7 cell lines by MTT assay. The presence of lupeol in the hexane and gallic acid in the ethyl acetate extracts was detected by TLC. The identification of isolated lupeol and gallic acid by HPTLC and HPLC comparing with standard lupeol and gallic acid. Structural elucidation of isolated compounds done by FTIR and UV spectrophotometer. The cytotoxic activity showed more at high concentration (30µg/ml) in both ethyl acetate and hexane fractions against MCF-7 cell line, the percentage of cellular inhibition for ethyl acetate at 30mg/ml was (73% and 79%) more than the hexane fraction in which the inhibition was (60% and 76%) at 48hr and 72 hr respectively. Furthermore, the cytotoxic activity more at high concentration (30µg/ml) in both fractions against AsPC-1 cell line with cellular inhibition (58% and 70%) for ethyl acetate fraction and (50% and 66%) for hexane fraction in compared with Cisplatin.

Conocarpus erectus L. is a perennial, evergreen shrub belonging to Combretaceae family. In this study we investigate the phytoconstituents in the leaves of C.erectus. Preliminary tests of alcoholic extract proved the presence of flavonoids, coumarins, saponin, terpens, tannin and absence of alkaloids. Umbelliferone was detected in the ethyl acetate fraction of the extracted plant by TLC and isolated as a light yellowish powder by preparative TLC. Identification of it was done by HPLC, HPTLC and chemical structure elucidated by IR and UV.