Phytochemical and Biological Study of Tamarix nilotica Growing in Saudi Arabia

MastersTamarix nilotica, is a member of the family Tamaricaceae. It is a shrub that grown in Saudi Arabia, the aerial parts of the plant has been subjected to a phytochemical study and the following results has been concluded: a. Isolation and structure elucidation of eleven compounds present in Tamarix nilotica using physical, chemical and spectral techniques, they are: 1- Three sterols and triterpenoids identified as: β-sitosterol, lupeol and 3-O-caffeoyl isomyricadiol (isolated for the first time from nature). 2- Six flavonoids identified as: clematine, naringenin, kaempferol- 7-methyl ether, kaempferol-7, 4`-dimethyl ether, kaempferide and dillenetin. 3- A cinnamic acid derivative identified as: isoferulic acid methyl ester. 4- An acid amide identified as: N-trans-feruloyltyramine (III). b. Investigations of 28 components from the essential oil of the plant. c. Evaluation of the biological activities of different extracts and isolated compounds especially for their cytotoxicity, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. 3-O-caffeoyl isomyricadiol (the new isolated compound) has the highest anticancer activity

Independent of DAZL-T54A variant and AZF microdeletion in a sample of Egyptian patients with idiopathic non-obstructed azoospermia

Mohammed M El Shafae,1 Jehan H Sabry,1 Eman G Behiry,1 Hanan H Sabry,2 Mona A Salim,1 Alaaeldin G Fayez3 1Department of Clinical and Chemical Pathology, Benha Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Benha, Egypt; 2Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Andrology, Benha Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Benha, Egypt; 3Department of Molecular Genetics and Enzymology, Human Genetics and Genome Research Division, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt Background: The microdeletion events that occur in the Y chromosome-azoospermia factor (AZF) region may lead to dyszoospermia. Also, the deleted azoospermia (DAZ) gene on AZFc and autosomal deleted azoospermia like gene (DAZL) are suggested to represent impairment, so it is interesting to determine the independency pattern of the AZF region and DAZL gene in azoospermic patients. Aim: To study the molecular characterization of AZFc and DAZL in 64 idiopathic non-obstructed azoospermia patients and 30 sexually reproductive men. Methods: SYBR Green I (Q-PCR) and AZF-STS analysis was used for DAZ gene, and SNV-PCR and confirmative Sanger sequencing for DAZL gene. Results: The present study observed that 15.6% had AZFc microdeletion, out of which 10% had DAZ1/2 deletion, and no T54A variant in the DAZL gene was found. Conclusion: In the current work, the novelty is that spermatogenic impairment phenotype, present with AZFc microdeletions, is independent of the T54A variant in the DAZL gene, and AZFc microdeletions could be a causative agent in spermatogenic impairment. Keywords: male infertility, azoospermia, AZF, DAZL, deletio

Bioactive Phenolic Amides from Celtis africana

Nine compounds have been isolated for the first time from Celtis africana, namely trans-N-coumaroyltyramine (1), trans-N-feruloyltyramine (2), trans-N-caffeoyltyramine (3), lauric acid (4), oleic acid (5), palmitic acid (6), lupeol (7), β-sitosterol (8) and oleanolic acid (9), respectively. Their structures have been elucidated by different spectroscopic techniques. The isolated compounds were screened for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and acetylcholinestrease enzyme inhibitory activities. Compounds 1–3 showed significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities and weak to moderate acetylcholinestrease enzyme inhibition activity

Acylated pregnane glycosides from Caralluma sinaica

Caralluma sinaica is sold on local markets of Saudi Arabia for various health benefits however no phytochemical study has specifically been performed on this species. NMR and UHPLC-ESI-TOF-MS profilings of the ethanolic extract of the whole plant reveal a very complex phytochemical composition dominated by pregnanes. Detailed information on its constituents was obtained after isolation. Six pregnane glycosides were obtained and characterized based on the extensive spectroscopic analysis (including IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and MS data), in addition to ten known compounds (seven pregnanes and three flavonoids). The compounds were identified as 12b-O-benzoyl-20-O-acetyl boucerin-3-O-6-deoxy-3-Omethyl-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranoside, 12b-O-tigloyl-20-O-acetyl boucerin-3-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranoside, 12b-O-benzoyl-20-O-acetyl boucerin-3-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-digitalopyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranosyl-(1?4)-b-Dcymaropyranoside,12b-O-benzoyl-20-O-acetyl boucerin-3-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1?4)-thevetopyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranoside, 12b-O-benzoyl-20-O-tigloyl boucerin-3-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranoside, 12b-20-O-dibenzoyl boucerin-3-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranosyl-(1?4)-b-D-cymaropyranoside. Finally, the isolated compounds were evaluated for their quinone reductase induction

Hierarchyless simplification, stripification and compression of triangulated two-manifolds

In this paper we explore the algorithmic space in which stripification, simplification and geometric compression of triangulated 2-manifolds overlap. Edge-collapse/uncollapse based geometric simplification algorithms develop a hierarchy of collapses such that during uncollapse the reverse order has to be maintained. We show that restricting the simplification and refinement operations only to, what we call, the collapsible edges creates hierarchyless simplification in which the operations on one edge can be performed independent of those on another. Although only a restricted set of edges is used for simplification operations, we prove topological results to show that, with minor retriangulation, any triangulated 2-manifold can be reduced to either a single vertex or a single edge using the hierarchyless simplification, resulting in extreme simplification. The set of collapsible edges helps us analyze and relate the similarities between simplification, stripification and geometric compression algorithms. We show that the maximal set of collapsible edges implicitly describes a triangle strip representation of the original model. Further, these strips can be effortlessly maintained on multiresolution models obtained through any sequence of hierarchyless simplifications on these collapsible edges. Due to natural relationship between stripification and geometric compression, these multi-resolution models can also be efficiently compressed using traditional compression algorithms. We present algorithms to find the maximal set of collapsible edges and to reorganize these edges to get the minimum number of connected components of these edges. An order-independent simplification and refinement of these edges is achieved by our novel data structure and we show the results of our implementation of view-dependent, dynamic, hierarchyless simplification. We maintain a single triangle strip across all multi-resolution models created by the view-dependent simplification process. We present a new algorithm to compress the models using the triangle strips implicitly defined by the collapsible edges