Jornal of Al-Muthanna for Agricultural Sciences

Ginger is a medicinal and nutritional plant characterized by its rich composition of bioactive compounds. It contains approximately 40 antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds, including phenols. Therefore, the current study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant efficacy of ginger\'s alcoholic extract and to estimate its phenolic compound content. The alcoholic extraction of ginger root was performed by soaking it in 70% ethanol. Using DPPH and ABTS assays, the antioxidant activity of the plant extract was evaluated in vitro. The total phenolic content was estimated using the Follin-Cioalto method, and IC₅₀ values were calculated based on dose-response curves. Our results indicate that the alcoholic ginger extract exhibited concentration-dependent antioxidant activity in both the DPPH and ABTS assays, the highest concentration (400 micrograms/ml) recorded inhibition rates of 82.2% in the DPPH and 87.8% in the ABTS.
IC₅₀ values were recorded at 93.6 ± 3.9 µg/mL for the DPPH assay and 79.2 ± 3.3 µg/mL for the ABTS assay, reflecting the extract\'s higher efficiency in neutralizing the ABTS free radical. The total phenolic content yielded 78.5 ± 2.7 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry weight, indicating the major role of phenolic compounds in the antioxidant activity. These results, taken together, indicate the potential use of ginger root extract in food and pharmaceutical applications and confirm that it is a promising natural source of antioxidants.

A total of twenty-four drinking water samples were collected from several areas at northern Thi-Qar Governorate: Al-Fajr, Al-Qalaa, Al-Rifai, Al-Nasr, Al-Shatra, and Al-Gharraf. Four replicates were taken from each area to study microbial contamination. The efficiency of water treatment plants in the study areas was assessed according to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards and Iraqi Standard 417 of 2001. The results showed that the sampled areas were contaminated with Total coliform and Fecal coliform bacteria at very high levels in most of them. The presence of these bacteria indicates a malfunction in the water treatment plants serving these areas, either in their filtration and purification processes or in the contamination of the water source supplying these plants, thus negatively impacting consumer health.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the biofertilizer Azospirillum brasilense and the chemical foliar fertilizer Growmore, individually and in combination, on improving some vegetative growth characteristics of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Wonderful seedlings under the Najaf Governorate environmental conditions. The experiment was RCBD factorial included 3 levels of biofertilizer and the commercial balanced Growmore foliar fertilizer, to study the effect of each and their interaction on a number of vegetative growth indicators. The findings showed that the treatments differently affected studied growth parameters namely the increase in seedling height, number of leaves, stem diameter, number of branches, leaf area, and leaf content of macronutrients NPK. The soil applied biofertilizer A. brasilense resulted in significantly higher values in most traits especially at 12 ml seedling⁻¹ compared to the control. Similar but lower effectiveness was detected in the individual treatments with foliar balanced Growmore where the best results were obtained at 300 mg L-1. Overall findings indicate that the highest percentage increase was in the interaction treatment of 12 ml seedling-1 bacterial fertilizer and 300 ml L-1 Growmore, which achieved an increase over the control in seedling height by 120% and stem diameter by 180%. The the leaf area and leaf carbohydrates content recorded an increase over the control by 189% and 200% respectively. This study is confirming that biofertilization with A. brasilense and/or commercial foliar balanced NPK were effective for producing vigor fast growing pomegranate seedlings.