A new approach for achievement of inulin accumulation in suspension cultures of Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) using biotic elicitors

AbstractA promising protocol for achievement the accumulation rate of inulin compound in a suspension culture of Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) was established. The effect of incorporated of cell cultures in combining with two type of biotic elicitors Aspergillus niger extract and Methyl-Jasmonate incorporation feeding medium on leaf cell growth patterns and production of inulin was investigated. The maximum value of cell growth parameters and highest content of inulinase activity (0.395u/ml) were resulted from elicitation of augmented MS-medium with A. niger extract at the level of 0.2% in combination with Methyl-Jasmonate (150μM) as compared with other concentrations after 2weeks of cultivation. The chemical analyses of the different cell lines were spectro-photometerically performed. This study clearly indicates that combining of A. niger and Methyl-Jasmonate elicitors plays a critical role on inulin process and its accumulation in Jerusalem artichoke cell cultures

Vaginal carriage and antibiotic susceptibility profile of group B Streptococcus during late pregnancy in Ismailia, Egypt

SummaryGroup B Streptococcus (GBS) infection has long been recognized as a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality in newborn infants. The purpose of this study was to determine the colonization rate with GBS and the antibiotic susceptibility profile in pregnant women attending Gynecological clinics in Egypt. One-hundred and fifty vaginal swabs were collected from pregnant women at 35–40 weeks of gestation. In comparison to culture, direct latex agglutination testing revealed 100% sensitivity and 93.75% specificity. Thirty-eight specimens (25.3%) were found to be positive for GBS. Each isolate was tested for susceptibility to penicillin G, ampicillin, cefotaxime, erythromycin, clindamycin and vancomycin. Erythromycin-resistant isolates were further classified by double-disk method. All isolates were susceptible to penicillin G, ampicillin and vancomycin. Resistance to cefotaxime was detected in three isolates (7.89%). Five isolates (13.15%) were resistant to erythromycin and nine isolates (23.68%) were resistant to clindamycin. Four (80%) isolates had constitutive macrolide–lincosamide–StreptograminB resistance (cMLSBB) resistance and one (20%) isolate had inducible resistance (iMLSB) resistance. GBS colonization was found to be high in our region. Latex agglutination testing and Islam medium are reliable methods to detect GBS in late pregnancy; however, latex agglutination test is rapid and simpler. Penicillin G remains the first choice antibiotic for treatment of GBS infections

ANTI-TUMOR ACTIVITIES AND OIL CONSTITUENTS OF ZINGIBER OFFICINALE (ZINGIBERACEAE

The phytochemical studies on Zingiber officinale rhizomes revealed that it contains traces of flavonoid, carbohydrates, tannins, steroles or terpenoids and it is free from alkaloids.Assay of essential oil of Zingiber officinale rhizome was also carried out. The alcoholic extract of the plant rhizome, was examined against five tumor cell lines, BHK-2, HEPG-2, MCF-7, HCT-2 and HEP-2, using SRB. assay. All cell lines were growth inhibited in a dose dependent manner after exposure to the plant extract. The antitumor activity of the plant extract using E.A.C. method, showed a high activity against mice tumor

Coastline shift analysis in data deficient regions: Exploiting the high spatio-temporal resolution Sentinel-2 products

In most developing countries, coastline shift monitoring using in-situ (ground-based) data faces challenges due, e.g., to data unreliability, inconsistency, deficiency, inaccessibility or incompleteness. Even where practically applicable, the traditional “boots on the ground” methods are labour intensive and expensive, thus imposing burden on poor countries struggling to meet other urgent pressing daily needs, i.e., food and medicine. Remote sensing (RS) techniques provide a more efficient and effective way of collecting data for coastline shift analysis. However, moderate spatio-temporal resolution RS products such as the widely used Landsat products (30 m and 16 days) may be insufficient where high accuracy is desired. In 2015, Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) remotely sensed products with higher spatio-temporal resolution (10 m and 5 days) and high spectral resolution (13 bands), which promises to improve coastline movement monitoring to high accuracy, was launched. Using two war-impacted countries (Liberia and Somalia) as case studies of regions with data deficiency or of poor quality, for the period 2015–2018, this contribution aims at (i) assessing the suitability of the new freely available high spatio-temporal Sentinel-2 products to monitor coastline shift, (ii) assessing the possibility of filling the missing Sentinel-2 gaps with Landsat 8 panchromatic band (15 m) products to provide alternative data source for mapping of coastline movements where Sentinel-2 data is unusable, e.g., due to cloud cover, and (iii), undertake a comparative analysis between Sentinel-2 (10 m), Landsat panchromatic (15 m), and Landsat multi-spectral (30 m). The results of the evaluation indicate 23% (on average) improvement gained by using Sentinel-2 compared to the traditional Landsat 30 m resolution data (i.e., 32% for Liberia and 14% for Somalia). A comparison of 100 check points from Google Earth Pro (i.e., surrogate in-situ reference data) show 91% agreement for Liberia and 85% for Somalia, indicating the potential of using Sentinel-2 data for future coastal shift studies, particularly for the data deficient regions. The results of comparative studies for Sentinel-2, Landsat panchromatic (PAN), and Landsat multi-spectral (MS) show that the percentages of Sentinel-2 and Landsat PAN that falls within 10 m threshold is much higher than Landsat MS by 35% and 26%, respectively, and for the 2016–2017 period, they provide more detailed mapping of the Liberian coastline compared to Landsat MS (30 m). Finally, panchromatic Landsat data with 15 m resolution are found to be capable of filling the missing Sentinel-2 gaps, i.e., where cloud cover hampers its usability

Impact of the integration of the 63 MW wind-farm in Zafarana Egypt on the unified power-grid

This paper presents a month of measurements on the feeders connecting a 63 MW wind farm in Zafarana Egypt, to the 22 kV busbars of the 22/220 kV/2X7S MVA Zafarana substation. Voltage variations and frequency harmonics are compared with the acceptable limits of the national grid within the Egyptian standard conditions and specification of the transmission systems.Wind farm Egyptian transmission system

Karyotype analysis for date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L) compared with tissue culture derived plants

Abstract: The cytological studies on the micropropagated date palm (phoenix dactylifera var. Karama) revealed that no morphological changes occurred during microproopagation and there were 36 chromosomes arranged in 18 bivalents of chromosomes in c-meta phase profile, seventeen bivalents are autosomal chromosomes and XY bivalent in male or XX in female. Chromosome No.2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were meta centric, chromosomes No. 1,7,8,9 and 10 were submetacentric and chromosomes from No.11 to No17 were subtelocentric. While X chromosome was submetacentric and Y chromosome was subtelocentric. There were no significant differences in the chromosome length, area and centromer positions between the micropropagated plantlets and the mother plants. [Mohamed M. AbdAlla¹ and Aesha M. Abd El-Kawy. Karyotype analysis for date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L) compared with tissue culture derived plants

Determination of a novel ACE inhibitor in the presence of alkaline and oxidative degradation products using smart spectrophotometric and chemometric methods

AbstractSimple, accurate, sensitive and validated UV spectrophotometric and chemometric methods were developed for the determination of imidapril hydrochloride (IMD) in the presence of both its alkaline (AKN) and oxidative (OXI) degradation products and in its pharmaceutical formulation. Method A is the fourth derivative spectra (D4) which allows the determination of IMD in the presence of both AKN and OXD, in pure form and in tablets by measuring the peak amplitude at 243.0nm. Methods B, C and D, manipulating ratio spectra, were also developed. Method B is the double divisor–ratio difference spectrophotometric one (DD–RD) by computing the difference between the amplitudes of IMD ratio spectra at 232 and 256.3nm. Method C is the double divisor-first derivative of ratio spectra method (DD–DR1) at 243.2nm, while method D is the mean centering of ratio spectra (MCR) at 288.0nm. Methods A, B, C and D could successfully determine IMD in a concentration range of 4.0–32.0µg/mL. Methods E and F are principal component regression (PCR) and partial least-squares (PLS), respectively, for the simultaneous determination of IMD in the presence of both AKN and OXI, in pure form and in its tablets. The developed methods have the advantage of simultaneous determination of the cited components without any pre-treatment. The accuracy, precision and linearity ranges of the developed methods were determined. The results obtained were statistically compared with those of a reported HPLC method, and there was no significant difference between the proposed methods and the reported method regarding both accuracy and precision

ORIGINAL ARTICLES Effect of Heavy Metal (HgCl 2 ) on Accumulation and Production of Total Indole Alkaloids, Vinblastine And/or Vincristine from Egyptian Catharanthus Roseus

ABSTRACT Catharanthus roseus is still the only source for the powerful antitumor drugs vinblastine and vincristine. Effects of mercuric (HgCl 2 ) on enhancement the accumulation rate of total indole alkaloids; antineoplastic agents (vinblastine and/or vincristine) in calli cultures of Egyptian Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. (Don) were studied. Hgcl 2 was used at levels of 0.0, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 μm/l, added to modified alkaloid production medium (MAPM). The obtained results showed that: All tested concentrations of Hg significantly decreased the different measured growth parameters of shoot and root derived calli, however, the percentage of dry matter content significantly increased comparing the control treatment. Moreover, the percentage of total indole-alkaloids was significantly increased. The highest values of the accumulation rate of total indole-alkaloids, further, vinblastine and/or vincristine were recorded at the rate of 0.8 mM / Hg in shoot and root derived calli, respectively