[In vitro evaluation of methanol extract of Agrimonia eupatoria on PBMC and 12 pathogenic bacteria]

Background: Today the use of medicinal plants to improve the immune system function and against pathogenic bacteria has been considered

Objective: In this study, the effect of methanol extract of the aerial parts of Agrimonia eupatoria on peripheral blood mononuclear cells [PBMC] and 12 pathogenic bacteria were investigated

Methods: The methanol extract of branches, stems, seeds and leaves of Agrimonia eupatoria were prepared and the effect of different concentrations of 50, 100, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 micro g/ml of the extract on proliferation of PBMC was evaluated by MTT assay. Also the effect of concentrations of 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 and 10 mg/ml of the extract was tested on 12 pathogenic bacteria by disc method and on nutrient agar media

Results: The methanol extract of the branch, stem and seed of Agrimonia eupatoria showed the most stimulatory effects on immune system and induced the proliferation of PBMCs up to 8 times. Methanol extract of Agrimonia eupatoria showed antibacterial effects against gram-positive bacteria and the most antibacterial effect was on Bacillus subtilis at a concentration of 4 mg/ml and Staphylococcus aureus at concentration of 7 mg/ml

Conclusion: The Agrimonia eupatoria methanol extract showed stimulatory effects on the immune system and also antibacterial properties against certain gram-positive pathogenic bacteria. These finding indicate that Agrimonia eupatoria can be considered to use for immunodeficiency patients and moreover to control some bacterial infections

comparison between aluminum and iron electrodes on removal of phosphate from aqueous solutions by electrocoagulation process

This study presents a comparison between aluminum and iron plate electrodes on phosphate removal from aqueous solutions by electrocoagulation process. The effectiveness of main operational parameters such as initial pH, initial phosphate concentration and current density were examined. In addition, treated solution and sludge characteristics, energy consumption and electrode mass depletion were compared for both electrodes. All experiments were done in an electrocoagulation cell with effective volume of 2 liters. It was found that the aluminum electrode has higher removal efficiency compared to the iron electrode in the same operational conditions. Phosphate removal efficiencies of 100% and 84.7% were observed for aluminum and iron electrode in a special case with optimum initial pH, maximum current density and maximum initial phosphate concentration equal to 3, 250 A/m[2], 400mg/l PO[4][-3], respectively. Furthermore, less treated solution turbidity, higher secondary pollution [remained Al] and less electrode mass depletion was observed for the aluminum electrode