The essential oils obtained from different officinal plants of Lebanon, belonging to the Magnoliophyta division, have been tested for their antiproliferative activity on human erythroleukemic K562 cells. Satureja montana showed the most interesting biological activity in inhibiting the cell growth and inducing erythroid differentiation of K562 cells. The essential oil of Satureja montana was th...

BACKGROUND Traditional herbal medicine is a valuable resource that provides new drugs for cancer treatment. OBJECTIVES In this study we aim to screen and investigate the in vitro anti-tumor activities of ten species of plants commonly grown in Southern Iran. MATERIALS AND METHODS We used the MTT colorimetric assay to evaluate the cytotoxic activities of the methanol extracts of these plants...

According to biologically active compounds and traditional use of the Satureja bachtiarica, seem that this plant has significant antimicrobial effects. In this study antimicrobial effect of extracts evaluated by two methods, “Collins method” and “disk agar diffusion method” on Escherichia coli PTCC 1330 and Staphylococcus aureus PTCC 1337 microorganisms. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MI...

We examined functions of residual yolk (RY) in hatchling Smooth Softshell Turtles (Apalone mutica). Removal of RY did not affect survival, shell growth, or resting metabolic rates of turtles for 40 d after hatching. Our estimates of metabolic rate suggest that RY can fuel maintenance and activity metabolism for approximately 25 days. A. mutica absorb more than 1g of water in the first 2 weeks o...

An active filter feeding organism strains suspended matter from the surrounding water using a sieving structure. Small marine filter feeders however, have to cope with the physical problems of the high viscosity as indicated by the low Reynolds number. In a highly viscous regime, organisms' appendages are surrounded by a thick boundary layer, which makes movement and filter feeding difficult. I...

The endemic South African sac spider genus Lessertina Lawrence, 1942, previously known only from the type species (L. mutica Lawrence, 1942), is revised. Both sexes of L. mutica are redescribed and the species is recorded from the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo Provinces. A new species, L. capensis sp. nov., is described from the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces.

Sexual development has long been the target of study and despite great advances in our understanding of the composition and regulation of the gene network underlying gonadogenesis, our knowledge remains incomplete. Of particular interest is the relative role that the environment and the genome play in directing gonadal formation, especially the effect of environmental temperature in directing t...