Phytochemicals of Conocarpus spp. as a Natural and Safe Source of Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidants.

Optimization of the extraction conditions of polyphenolic compounds for different parts of the Damas species, Conocarpus lancifolius and Conocarpus erectus, grown under UAE conditions was studied. The combination of ethanol concentration (50, 75, and 100%), temperature (45, 55, and 65 °C) and time (1, 2, and 3 h) was used by applying the Response Surface Methodology. The data showed that the extracts (n = 90) contained phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and tannins, and were free of alkaloids. Changing the extraction conditions had a significant effect on the detection of phytosterols, saponins, and glycosides and on the solubility of vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, sinapic acid, t-ferulic acid, rutin hydrate, protocatechuic acid, quercetin, and flavone. The data reveal that the roots and leaves of C. erectus and the leaves and fruits of C.lancifolius are the most important plant parts from which to extract these compounds. This study draws attention to the unordinary use of Conocarpus spp. as a source of natural food additive.

Power of phenotypes in discriminating Awassi sheep to pure strains and from other breeds.

The phenotypic description is the oldest method for animal taxonomic studies. In this study, we report phenotypic traits of discriminant power to assign sheep individuals into Awassi breed or other exotic breeds found in Jordan. Twenty-two and 19 phenotype traits for ewes and rams, respectively, were utilized using multivariate and discriminant analyses. Seven traits, out of them, for ewes and five for rams were qualitative traits: body color, nose shape, horn presence, ear shape, wattles presence, udder shape, and teat placement. The other 15 traits were quantitative traits: body weight, head width, head length, chest depth, chest girth, shoulder width, withers height, foreleg height, shin circumference, body length, rump width, rump length, rump height, rear leg height, and udder height. The traits were taken on 1697 and 652 adult ewes and rams of different breeds, respectively. The breeds were predefined as Awassi and three exotic breeds: Chios, Assaf, and improved Awassi sheep. The results indicated a significant relationship of the 21 and 16 studied traits in assigning and discriminating individual's sheep into their correct breed. The analysis revealed the clustering of the three strains of Awassi sheep in Jordan as the Baladi, the Naemi, and the Saqri. The genetic distances have also confirmed the findings. However, the potential of gene flow between Awassi strains and the exotic breed was reported. The phenotypic traits with discriminant power would be utilized in a guideline for sheep taxonomy in general and for Awassi sheep in particular.

Prevalence of Cardiovascular Diseases Risk Factors among Jordanians.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: One of the most common causes of death worldwide is cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). This study evaluated the prevalence of CVDs risk factors (RFs) and their constellation electively among the Jordanian population and, assessing the most prevalent RF interplay with the rest of CVDs RFs as well as the impact of age and gender dimorphism on the frequencies of coexistence of multiple CVDs risk factors (RFs) among the Jordanian population. METHODS AND RESULTS: In this observational multicenter study, a total of 1449 subjects were enrolled. The mean age (±SD) was 44.35 ± 14.46 years; 796 (54.9%) of them were females and 801 (55.28%) of the whole study pool had no family history of premature CVDs. Only 5.9% of the population did not have any of these RFs. The prevalence of CVDs MRFs within-affected subjects was as follows: there were 1081 (74.6%) subjects with overall dyslipidemia, 471 (32.51%) with obesity, 456 (31.47%) were smokers, and at the first diagnostic encounter 541 (37.47%) were with elevated blood pressure and, 310 (21.51%) were with elevated random blood sugar. The coexistence of ≥ two, ≥ three and, ≥ four RFs was observed in 75.7%, 44.4%, and 21.4% of the subjects, respectively. The constellation of multiple RFs was more frequent in men than that in women, where the presence of ≥ two RFs for men was at 86.18% vs. 67.09% for women. Similarly, the appearance of multiple RFs increases with age, starting from the existence of ≥ three, and four RFs respectively. Most notably the clustering of ≥ five RFs in the age group of 45-59 years showed the greatest frequency vs. any other age group. CONCLUSIONS: CVDs risk factors (RFs) and clusters of them are extremely prevalent in the Jordanian population. Overall dyslipidemia is the most prevalent MRF and the most favors clustering with other CVDs RFs. Combined two RFs had the highest proportional frequency between all six RFs clusters. The constellation of at least two, three, and four CVDs RFs presented at almost three-fourth, half, and around one-fourth; respectively, Middle-aged males presented significantly higher rates of ≥ five RFs occurrences than females.

Analysis of genetic diversity and differentiation of sheep populations in Jordan

Background Genetic diversity of sheep in Jordan was investigated using microsatellite markers (MS). Six ovine and bovine MS located on chromosomes 2 and 6 of sheep genome were genotyped on 294 individual from ten geographical regions. Results The number of alleles per locus (A), the expected heterozygosity (He) and observed heterozygosity (Ho) were measured. Overall A, He and Ho were 12.67, 0.820 and 0.684, respectively. On the other hand, genetic distances undoubtedly revealed the expected degree of differentiation among the studied populations. The finding showed closeness of three populations from south (Maan, Showbak and Tafeilah) to each other. Populations from the middle regions of Jordan (Karak, Madaba, Amman, AzZarqa and Mafraq) were found to be in one cluster. Only two populations of the middle region were an exception: AlSalt and Dead Sea. Finally, sheep populations from Irbid were located in separated cluster. It was clear that the studied predefined populations were subdivided from four populations and would be most probably accounted as ancestral populations. These results indicate that number of population is less than the predefined population as ten based on geographical sampling areas. Conclusions The possible inference might be that geographical location, genetic migration, similar selection forces, and common ancestor account for population admixture and subdivision of Awassi sheep breed in Jordan. Finally, the present study sheds new light on the molecular and population genetics of Awassi sheep from different regions of Jordan and to utilize the possible findings for future management of genetic conservation under conditions of climate changes and crossbreeding policy.

Phylogeny and evolutionary analysis of goat breeds in Jordan based on DNA sequencing.

Phylogeny and evolutionary analyses were performed for Jordan goat breeds based on DNA sequencing. DNA segment of 0.5-kb from sixteen goat individuals of four breeds was sequenced. The DNA sequencing was analyzed by both Arlequin and MEGA softwares. The results showed a quite evolutionary differentiation found within goat breeds between. Furthermore, phylogeny tree was reconstructed providing evidences for a close phylogenetic alliance among breeds. The resulted evolutionary sequencing and phylogeny trees provide evidences that sequencing data were worthy to describe the evolutionary and phylogeny genetics in goats breeds in Jordan. On other hand the data were given scopes for possible sequences of gene(s) and identify polymorphisms, given possibility to identify Caprine genes from other close species genome like cattle. In the future we intend, in order to clearly identify the genetic polymorphisms, to detect further genetic variation and to develop tests particularly suitable for specific interested genes genotyping.