Efek Protektif Madu Hutan Terhadap Kerusakan Hepar Tikus Putih (Rattus novergicus) yang Diinduksi Etanol

ABSTRACT Background: Illegal alcohol is one of the big problems in Indonesia. The victims by drinking these kind of alcohols were found  in every place on this country every month. Alcohol gives the most harmful effect to the liver, its cells will die and become a scar. One of its effect is fatty liver. WHO recommends the using of traditional treatment for health community care, prevention of disease and disease treatment. One of the most well known traditional treatment is the using of honey. Objectives: The goal of this research is to know the protective effect of the forest honey to the white rat’s (Rattus norvegicus) damaged liver which is inducted by ethanol Methods: This experimental laboratory research used random controlled design method with the post test-only control group design pattern. The subjects of this research were 25 adult male white rats (Rattus norvegicus) Sprague Dawley strain which were divided in to five groups with 5 treatment groups. Result: The result of ANOVA test shows, there is a mean difference between those five treatment groups with p value = 0,000. Post-Hoc test shows, there is a mean difference between group 1 (normal control) with other four groups (p= 0,000), group 2 (pathologic control) and group 3 (dose I) with group 4 (dose II) and group 5 (dose III) (p=0,000). Conclusion: There is a protective effect of the forest honey to the white rat’s (Rattus norvegicus) damaged liver which is inducted by ethanol Key words: Ethanol, forest honey, fatty degenaratio

Efek Protektif Madu Hutan Terhadap Kerusakan Hepar Tikus Putih (Rattus Novergicus) Yang Diinduksi Etanol

Background: Illegal alcohol is one of the big problems in Indonesia. The victims by drinking these kind of alcohols were found in every place on this country every month. Alcohol gives the most harmful effect to the liver, its cells will die and become a scar. One of its effect is fatty liver. WHO recommends the using of traditional treatment for health community care, prevention of disease and disease treatment. One of the most well known traditional treatment is the using of honey. Objectives: The goal of this research is to know the protective effect of the forest honey to the white rat's (Rattus norvegicus) damaged liver which is inducted by ethanol Methods: This experimental laboratory research used random controlled design method with the post test-only control group design pattern. The subjects of this research were 25 adult male white rats (Rattus norvegicus) Sprague Dawley strain which were divided in to five groups with 5 treatment groups. Result: The result of ANOVA test shows, there is a mean difference between those five treatment groups with p value = 0,000. Post-Hoc test shows, there is a mean difference between group 1 (normal control) with other four groups (p= 0,000), group 2 (pathologic control) and group 3 (dose I) with group 4 (dose II) and group 5 (dose III) (p=0,000). Conclusion: There is a protective effect of the forest honey to the white rat's (Rattus norvegicus) damaged liver which is inducted by ethano

Correspondence Between Urban Bird Roosts and the Presence of Aerosolised Fungal Pathogens

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Habitat fragmentation in urban environments concentrates bird populations that have managed to adapt to these newly developed areas. Consequently, the roosts of these birds are potentially creating environments conducive to fungal growth and dissemination. Airborne fungi derived from these environments are relatively unstudied, as is the potential health risk arising from these fungi. This study documented the diversity of culturable airborne fungal propagules associated with forty urban bird roosts. Environmental variables from each site were recorded to allow us to analyse the correspondence between different bird species, the substrate they occupy and airborne fungal propagules. Associations were established between Rhodotorula and Pacific black ducks, wood ducks, myna birds and miner birds when in the presence of bare soil as a substrate. Further associations were established between Penicillium, Scopulariopsis and Cunninghamella and pigeons, sparrows and swallows living in areas with hard surfaces such as bitumen and rocks

The botanical biofiltration of VOCs with active airflow: is removal efficiency related to chemical properties?

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Botanical biofiltration using active green walls is showing increasing promise as a viable method for the filtration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from ambient air; however there is a high level of heterogeneity reported amongst VOC removal efficiencies, and the reasons for these observations have yet to be explained. Comparisons of removal efficiencies amongst studies is also difficult due to the use of many different VOCs, and systems that have been tested under different conditions. The current work describes a procedure to determine whether some of these differences may be related to the chemical properties of the VOCs themselves. This work used an active green wall system to test the single pass removal efficiency (SPRE) of nine different VOCs (acetone, benzene, cyclohexane, ethanol, ethyl acetate, hexane, isopentane, isopropanol and toluene) and explored which chemical properties were meaningful predictor variables of their biofiltration efficiencies. Ethanol was removed most efficiently (average SPRE of 96.34% ± 1.61), while benzene was least efficiently removed (average SPRE of 19.76% ± 2.93). Multiple stepwise linear regression was used to determine that the dipole moment and molecular mass were significant predictors of VOC SPRE, in combination accounting for 54.6% of the variability in SPREs amongst VOCs. The octanol water partition coefficient, proton affinity, Henry's law constant and vapour pressure were not significant predictors of SPRE. The most influential predictor variable was the dipole moment, alone accounting for 49.8% of the SPRE variability. The model thus allows for an estimation of VOC removal efficiency based on a VOC's chemical properties, and supports the idea that system optimisation could be achieved through methods that promote both VOC partitioning into the biofilter's aqueous phase, and substrate development to enhance adsorption.

Testing the single-pass VOC removal efficiency of an active green wall using methyl ethyl ketone (MEK)

© 2017, The Author(s). In recent years, research into the efficacy of indoor air biofiltration mechanisms, notably living green walls, has become more prevalent. Whilst green walls are often utilised within the built environment for their biophilic effects, there is little evidence demonstrating the efficacy of active green wall biofiltration for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at concentrations found within an interior environment. The current work describes a novel approach to quantifying the VOC removal effectiveness by an active living green wall, which uses a mechanical system to force air through the substrate and plant foliage. After developing a single-pass efficiency protocol to understand the immediate effects of the system, the active green wall was installed into a 30-m3 chamber representative of a single room and presented with the contaminant 2-butanone (methyl ethyl ketone; MEK), a VOC commonly found in interior environments through its use in textile and plastic manufacture. Chamber inlet levels of MEK remained steady at 33.91 ± 0.541 ppbv. Utilising a forced-air system to draw the contaminated air through a green wall based on a soil-less growing medium containing activated carbon, the combined effects of substrate media and botanical component within the biofiltration system showed statistically significant VOC reduction, averaging 57% single-pass removal efficiency over multiple test procedures. These results indicate a high level of VOC removal efficiency for the active green wall biofilter tested and provide evidence that active biofiltration may aid in reducing exposure to VOCs in the indoor environment

Impacts of soil use and management on water quality in agricultural watersheds in Southern Brazil.

Worldwide, agriculture is considered one of the main activities that influence water quality. The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of soil use and management on water quality at the small watershed scale, in Southern Brazil. One watershed is characterized by production of annual crop seeds under no-tillage (zero tillage), with crop rotation and with terraces (Sarandi watershed?SW), while the other is characterized by production of grains in the summer and pasture with grazing in the winter, under no-tillage, without crop rotation and without terraces (Coxilha watershed?CW). Flow and climatic data were measured during 2 years. Water samples were manually taken at precipitation events and base flow over 1 year for laboratory analysis. During events of high volume, most of the rainfall was converted to base flow in SW, while in CW, most of the rainfall was transformed into overland flow. Overall, higher concentrations and losses of sediments and nutrients occurred in the CW, mainly during precipitation events in the winter crops season. Of the total nitrogen concentration in water, approximately 3% was ammonium-N and 58% was nitrate-N, on average, in both watersheds. For total phosphorus concentration in water, more than 75% was particulate in both watersheds, however, the bioavailable phosphorus accounted for 70% of the total phosphorus in the SW and for 35% in the CW. The higher concentration of bioavailable phosphorus in the SW indicates a short-term pollution potential, but in both watersheds, the water quality was impaired by the high concentrations of total phosphorus. In general, even with no-tillage, the results highlight the importance of best management practices as terracing, riparian vegetation, crop rotation, better crop systems and fertilizer management to avoid degradation of water resources

Interaction between plant species and substrate type in the removal of CO2 indoors

Elevated indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide [CO2] cause health issues, increase workplace absenteeism and reduce cognitive performance. Plants can be part of the solution, reducing indoor [CO2] and acting as a low-cost supplement to building ventilation systems. Our earlier work on a selection of structurally and functionally different indoor plants identified a range of leaf-level CO2 removal rates, when plants were grown in one type of substrate. The work presented here brings the research much closer to real indoor environments by investigating CO2 removal at a whole-plant level and in different substrates. Specifically, we measured how the change of growing substrate affects plants’ capacity to reduce CO2 concentrations. Spathiphyllum wallisii 'Verdi', Dracaena fragrans 'Golden Coast' and Hedera helix, representing a range of leaf types and sizes and potted in two different substrates, were tested. Potted plants were studied in a 0.15 m3 chamber under ‘very high’ (22000 lux), ‘low’ (~ 500 lux) and ‘no’ light (0 lux) in ‘wet’ (> 30 %) and ‘dry’ (< 20 %) substrate. At ‘no’ and ‘low’ indoor light, houseplants increased the CO2 concentration in both substrates; respiration rates, however, were deemed negligible in terms of the contribution to a room-level concentration, as they added ~ 0.6% of a human’s contribution. In ‘very high’ light D. fragrans, in substrate 2, showed potential to reduce [CO2] to a near-ambient (600 ppm) concentration in a shorter timeframe (12 hrs, e.g. overnight) and S. wallisii over a longer period (36 hrs, e.g. weekend)