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Background: Among the secondary metabolites isolated from Allium species, steroidal saponins are more important for their cytotoxic activities on a variety of cancer cell lines. Current study has investigated the cytotoxic activity of saponin-riched butanolic fraction of Allium affine, an important edible Allium species of Iran
Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate cytotoxic activity of saponin-riched fraction of Allium affine Ledeb on breast and ovarian cancer cell lines
Methods: Bulbs of the plant were extracted respectively by hexane, chloroform, chloroformmethanol [9-1] and methanol in a stepwise method with increasing solvent polarity. The methanol extract was then partitioned between water and butanol and the final dried butanolic fraction was used for further cytotoxicity assay. MCF-7, MDA-MB231 and OVCAR-3 cell lines were tested for cytotoxic activity, using different concentrations of butanolic fraction [0.1-200 microg/ml] by MTT assay. After the incubation time [48 h], the percentage of the viable cells was determined by ELISA reader instrument in 570 nm
Results: All of the cell lines tested in this investigation exhibited a dose-dependent decrease in succinate dehydrogenase activity against the control and significant dose-dependent inhibition of the growth in all concentrations and cell lines were observed [P<0.01]. The most cytotoxic activity was observed for OVCAR-3 cell line [IC50= 7.13 +/- 0.94 microg/ml]
Conclusion: The butanolic fraction of A. affine exhibited a significant cytotoxic activity on investigated cell lines, especially OVCAR-3, which is in agreement with other studies conducted on different Allium species. According to the results, it seems that the butanolic fraction of this plant contains cytotoxic components, especially steroidal saponins, and the phytochemical study of the constituents is suggested
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Introduction: Burnout is one of the most important problems employees encounter and by which many health problems arise to be dealt with by the employees and the owners in the industry. Amongst many different ways of dealing with this problem, herbal therapy seems to be a promising solution. The present study intended to investigate the effect of cocoa [Co] on burnout in employees who work in industrial environments
Methods: A clinical trial study performed to see whether or not Co has an effect on burnout. A number of 66 employees, aged between 20 and 60, who had worked for at least 1 year in the technical wards of Iran Chemical Industry Investment Company, took part in the study. The participants randomly assigned to two groups of control [n=33] and intervention [n=33]. The data collected via Geldard [1989] Burnout Inventory before and after the treatment. T-test and test-re test conducted to analyze the collected data
Results: The results of statistical tests showed that after intervention the score of occupation burnout in intervention group has been better and a significant difference was found between the two groups [p=0.04] in favor of the intervention group
Conclusion: The results of the study revealed that cocoa has a positive effect on burnout in employees in this study and it cause to improve the level of activity about them. Further studies in this field are suggested
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Menopausal symptoms influence mental, physical and emotional health, as well as social performance and family relationships. Due to the undesirable side effects of alternated hormone-therapy, tendency toward alternative treatments in relieving these symptoms have been increased, and the use of herbs like phytoestrogens seem preferable. This study was conducted to determine the effect of red clover Isoflavones extract on menopausal symptoms. This clinical randomized, triple-blind trial was conducted on 72 menopausal women who referred to Navab Safavi health care center, Isfahan, Iran during Oct-Apr 2011. After two weeks of monitoring and determination of the baseline symptoms score including hot flushes and sweating, paresthesia, insomnia, nervousness, depression, vertigo, weakness and fatigue, arthralgia and myalgia, headache, palpitation and formication, the women were randomly divided into two groups of 36 subjects: placebo and intervention [taking 45 mg of red clover Isoflavones extract capsules]. The subjects were given one capsule daily for eight weeks and menopausal symptoms were recorded weekly. Data were analyzed using SPSS-18, independent t-test, ANOVA, chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests. 55 women completed the study: 27 subjects in the placebo and 28 in the intervention group. The mean age of subjects in placebo and intervention group was 53.92 +/- 3.21 and 52.96 +/- 3.07 years, respectively. The mean age of menopause in the placebo and intervention groups was 51.38 +/- 2.63 and 50.05 +/- 1.17 years, respectively. The mean elapsed time since menopause was determined as 2.69 +/- 1.47 years in placebo and 2.66 +/- 1.65 years in intervention group. The average score of menopausal symptoms at the end of the 10[th] week was 13.87 +/- 7.22 and 16.44 +/- 11.59 in intervention and placebo groups, this reduction was significant [P<0.05]. This study showed that consumption of capsules containing red clover Isoflavones extract for 8 weeks, reduces menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women
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In scientific meetings, researchers present their research findings specially those derived from their dissertations. The scientific identity of the universities depend on the quality of these scientific documents. The more the principles of writing are observed in these dissertations, the more easily and fluently the writer's message is transferred to the readers. This is a descriptive study in which the mistakes in MS and MB students' dissertations were classified into five groups: spelling grammar, puncutation, organization and content. The data were anayzed by descriptive statistics. 18.92% of mistakes were typographical. In 13.61% of cases Hazmzeh was not written correctly. The most frequnet mistake was organizational and the least frequent one was grammatical. The findings revealed that in order to improve the quality of dissertations, students should pay more attention to spelling of words, punctuation, how to write Hamzeh, whether to connect the letter [B] to the noun or verb and whether to connect two words or not