Genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis in Asian and European Asparagus subgenus species

Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution - Garden asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) is a diploid (2n?=?2x?=?20), perennial and dioecious species belonging to Asparagus...     

Prevalence of asthma in elementary school age children in Iran--a systematic review and meta analysis study

Asthma is a common chronic disease of childhood which causes considerable morbidity. Asthma affects 1 in 13 school-age children and is a leading cause of office and emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and school absenteeism. Estimating the prevalence of asthma in the community is important in assessing the impact of asthma at the level of population. Since the pooled prevalence of asthma in Iranian elementary school age children (6-12 years old) was not identified, we decide to conduct a meta-analysis study to estimate the prevalence of asthma in elementary school age children in Iran. In order to gather the data, we searched a number of international electronic sources such as Pub Med, Embase, science direct, and ISI for English articles, and Iranian National Knowledge Infrastructure (scientific information) sources such as Iranmedx, Iran-doc, and SID for Persian articles from February 1995 to January 2010 to access the data. We used the words childhood, asthma, prevalence, and Iranian for searching relevant papers and used a data extraction form for the extracted data. The outcome in this Meta analysis study was response to the question, "Ever had asthma", based on the ISSAC program questionnaire. Eleven relevant articles were included for the Meta analysis. The pooled prevalence for girls, boys, and the two genders was obtained as 3.2% (CI; 2.5 to 3.9%), 4.3% (CI; 3.5 to 5.1%) and 3.9% (CI; 3.2 to 4.7%), respectively. The pooled prevalence of asthma in Iranian elementary school age children is low in comparison to the other reports.     

Essential oils as reducing agents of cabbage peroxidase

Based on the antioxidant properties of essential oils, the effect of thyme, coriander, and rosemary was evaluated on the reduction of peroxidase in white cabbage “Brassica oleraceae var.capitata f. alba” and red cabbage “B. oleraceae var. capitata f. rubra”. To do this, pure, 50, 75, 100 and 200 μl/100 ml concentrations of essential oils were applied in vivo and in vitro of cabbages. Antioxidant activity of the essential oils was compared with that of ascorbic acid. Results revealed that the highest percentage of antioxidant activity was achieved in vitro using a pure concentration of coriander (52.65%) and rosemary (54.64%), and in vivo applying thyme (60.07%) of white cabbage. Applying in vitro pure concentration of coriander (46.39%) and 50 μl/100 ml of rosemary (41.64%), and in vivo 75 μl/100 ml of thyme (42.64%) in red cabbage showed high antioxidant activity. A high reduction of peroxidase was obtained in vitro using of essential oils in red and white cabbages.