[Antifungal activity of total extract and chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous fractions of aerial parts of Ephedra pachyclada against fungal strains]

Increased consumption of synthetic antifungal compounds has created serious side effects and wide spread anti fungal resistance. This persuades researchers to look for effective herbal plants as an alternative option. We report the results of anti fungal properties of different crude extract and relevant fraction of aerial parts of Ephedra pachyclada. In this experimental study, extracts and fractions of Ephedra pachyclada were obtained by maceration standard methods. The crude extract and fractions were diluted in defferent values from 31.25 to 500mg/ml. Candida albicans, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Fusarium oxysporium were used for anti fungal activity assessment using standard agar diffusion methods. Total extract and chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and aqueous fractions had antifungal effects against Candida albicans only. We concluded that this plant contains antifungal compounds on Candida albicans, so this experiments and evaluation are pre-requirement of any applicable recommendation

[Evaluation of antibiotic resistance in bacteria isolated from patients hospitalized in imam khomeini and burn hospitals in Ahvaz City, Iran]

In recent years the emergence of antibiotic resistance has a high prevalence, so that it has become one of the complexities in modern medicine. This study was performed with the aim of evaluating the bacteria isolated from clinical samples of the patients with various infections and estimating the prevalence of various bacteria and also antibiotic resistance pattern. At first, culture was prepared from wounds of the patients with nosocomial infection in Imam Khomeini and Burn hospitals in 2008-2009. Then, after isolation of bacteria, antibiotic susceptibility was determined using antibiotic discs. Data were analyzed using statistical tests [ratio] at the significance level of p

Detection of Brucella abortus by alkB and IS711 based primers

Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease, which involves both animals and human. Although the conventional methods have been widely used for its laboratory diagnosis, the PCR techniques have proved to be useful due to specificity, sensitivity and the rapidness. Various target sequences of brucella bacterium such as OMP2, 16s RNA and IS711 have been used for the primer designing. All primer sets have shown different sensitivities and specificities. In present investigation, PCR protocol and primer designated based on IS711 and a fragment of chromosomal DNA all were optimized with standard genome and clinical samples. Numerous tissue samples [liver, kidney, lymph node, and uterus] were prepared and were cultured by the bacteriological standard methods along with the serology positive human samples. PCR protocol was optimized and the primer's sensitivity and the specificity were checked using pure genome of B. abortus. All samples were tested by the standard bacteriological methods. The samples were then subject to PCR amplification and the PCR product was confirmed using the RFLP technique. The culture results indicated a poor sensitivity as it was previously reported. The PCR product 157 bp was observed on the agarose gel indicating that significant number of clinical samples [human brucellosis cases] were positive by PCR but not by the culture method. Although B. abortus DNA was detected in all the culture positive veterinary specimens, some cross-reactions with close related bacteria were observed that might influence the interpretation of the results. The sensitivity of the present PCR protocol was significantly higher when alk B and IS711 based primers were used in compare to each of the alkB and IS711 based primers alone. More research will be needed to improve the specificity and sensitivity of the PCR protocol before recommending for routine laboratory works