Effect of Addition Stachys Lamiaceae Water Extract on Chilling Sheep Sperms Derived from the Vas Deference’s

The main objective of this study was to find out the effect of adding Stacy’s Lamiaceae plant water extract on the traits of sperms derived from the transport channels of sheep kept cold. This study was conducted using 50 ducts of adult domestic rams slaughtered at the local Al-Shula slaughterhouse. The study was carried at the College of Agriculture, University of Al-Qadisiyah, during the period from December 2020 to March 2021. This study consists of one experiment showing the effect of adding water extract of Stachys Lamiaceae on the characteristics of chilling sperms taken from the sheep Vas Deferenses. 100 VasDeferenses were divided randomly into five groups 20 Vas deferens for each group. Spermatozoa were extracted from the Vas deferens and diluted with tris extender and egg yolk, and according to the treated groups, the control group (T1) was left untreated. The second group (T2) was added 100 international units/ml of penicillin with 100 mg/ml of streptomycin. The groups (T3;1%, T4; 2% and T5; 3%, respectively) were added to the water extract of Stachys Lamiaceae and stored in the refrigerator at 5C° for one hour across one day, two days and three days. The sperms were examined (mass activity, individual motility, progressive motility, non-progressive motility, immotile sperm, dead sperm, abnormal sperm, HOST test and water test. The results indicated a significant improvement ((P<0.05) in the parameters of sperms where sperms of T5 treatment achieved the best value compared with the control group after cold storage for one, two and three days, A significant difference was noticed (P<0.05) across the treated groups with antibiotics compared with other groups. From the current study, we conclude that the addition of the water extract of the Stachys Lamiaceae led to an improvement in the environment of sperm chilling storage, which led to an improvement in the parameters of sperm fluid.

Phytochemical and biological studies of Stachys species in relation to chemotaxonomy: a review

The genus Stachys is comprised of about 300 species spread throughout the world, hence representing one of the largest genera of the Lamiaceae. Several Stachys species have been exploited in traditional medicine as astringent, wound-healing, anti-diarrhoeal, anti-nephritic and anti-inflammatory agents. Moreover, antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of some Stachys species are documented. Iridoids, flavonoids, phenolic acids and diterpenoids are reported as secondary metabolites of different species of this genus. The aim of the present review is to summarize and to highlight the recent advances in current knowledge on Stachys species and to compile reports of chemical constituents isolated from the genus Stachys over the past decades, together with their structural features, biological activities, and structure-activity relationships. Diversity of chemical constituents is discussed in relationship with current Stachys infrageneric taxonomy, classification and relationships with systematically close genera.

Biota: sediment partitioning of aluminium smelter related PAHs and pulp mill related diterpenes by intertidal clams at Kitimat, British Columbia

The question of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) bioavailability and its relationship to specific PAH sources with different PAH binding characteristics is an important one, because bioavailability drives PAH accumulation in biota and ultimately the biochemical responses to the PAH contaminants. The industrial harbour at Kitimat (British Columbia, Canada) provides an ideal location to study the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of sediment hydrocarbons to low trophic level biota. Samples of soft shell clams (Mya arenaria) and intertidal sediment collected from multiple sites over six years at various distances from an aluminium smelter and a pulp and paper mill were analysed for 106 PAHs, plant diterpenes and other aromatic fraction hydrocarbons. Interpretation using PAH source ratios and multivariate data analysis reveals six principal hydrocarbon sources: PAHs in coke, pitch and emissions from anode combustion from the aluminium smelter, vascular plant terpenes and aromatised terpenes from the pulp and paper mill, petroleum PAHs from shipping and other anthropogenic activities and PAHs from natural plant detritus. Harbour sediments predominantly contain either pitch or pyrogenic PAHs from the smelter, while clams predominantly contain plant derived PAHs and diterpenes from the adjacent pulp mill. PAHs from the smelter have low bioavailability to clams (Biota-Sediment Accumulation Factors; BSAFs <1 for pitch and coke; <10 for anode combustion, decreasing to ∼0.1 for the mass 300 and 302 PAHs), possibly due to binding to pitch or soot carbon matrices. Decreases in PAH isomer ratios between sediments and clams likely reflect a combination of variation in uptake kinetics of petroleum PAHs and compound specific metabolism, with the importance of petroleum PAHs decreasing with increasing molecular weight. Plant derived compounds exhibit little natural bioaccumulation at reference sites, but unsaturated and aromatised diterpenes released from resins by industrial pulping processes are readily accumulated by the clams (BSAFs >500). Thus while most of the smelter associated PAHs in sediments may not be bioavailable to benthic organisms, the plant terpenes (including retene, totarol, ferruginol, manool, dehydroabietane and other plant terpenes that form the chemical defence mechanism of conifers) released by pulp mills are bioavailable and possess demonstrated toxic properties. The large scale release of plant terpenes by some of the many pulp mills located in British Columbia and elsewhere represents a largely undocumented risk to aquatic biota.

Behavioural characterization of four endemic Stachys taxa

We performed a basic behavioral characterization of methanol extracts of four Balkan endemic Stachys taxa: S. anisochila (SA), S. beckeana (SB), S. plumosa (SP) and S. alpina subsp. dinarica (SAD). The behavioral activity of extracts dosed intraperitoneally in the range 100-400 mg/kg was examined in adult male Wistar rats, in the elevated plus maze, spontaneous locomotor activity, and grip strength tests, mainly predictive of anxiolytic, sedative and myorelaxant actions, respectively. All investigated Stachys extracts lacked anxiolytic or myorelaxant activities, while SB at 400 mg/kg exerted an anxiogenic-like effect. The study with the selective antagonist beta-CCt showed that the sedative effect of SAD was only partially mediated by GABAA receptors containing the alpha1-subunit. While discernible, the behavioral effects of SA and SP were not distinct. In all extracts, chlorogenic acid and verbascoside were identified. In SA, SB, and SAD the flavonoid fraction was constituted of isoscutellarein and hypolaetine glycosides, while in SP chrysoeriol and apigenin glycosides were present. The results reveal the psychotropic potential of four endemic Stachys taxa, of which SAD appeared most promising as a natural sedative.

Chemical composition of the essential oil of Stachys menthifolia Vis

Stachys menthifolia Vis. (Lamiaceae) is an endemic species from the Balkan Peninsula spread throughout Albania, Greece, Montenegro, and Croatia. This article presents the first investigation of the essential oil composition of this species from Croatia. Aerial parts of the plant were collected from three different natural habitats in the region of Biokovo Mountain. The studied populations showed similarity in qualitative, but not in quantitative, composition of their essential oils. Hydrodistilled volatile oil obtained from the plant material of S. menthifolia was subjected to gas chromatographic analysis coupled to mass spectrometry. More than 100 compounds were identified in the three samples, representing 86.8-90.8% of the total oil. The terpene profile of S. menthifolia is characterized by a high content of oxygenated sesquiterpenes (48.4-58.9%) and diterpene hydrocarbons (3.5-25.2%), with 8-alpha-acetoxyelemol (6.9-21.3%), abietatriene (3.5-21.1%), and 4'-methoxyacetophenone (4.5-17.0%) as the main constituents.

Chemical composition and screening of the antimicrobial and anti-oxidative activity of extracts of Stachys species

GC and GC/MS analyses of the diethyl ether and ethyl acetate extracts obtained from the aerial parts of Stachys germanica subsp. heldreichii (Boiss) Hayek, Stachys iva Griseb., Stachys plumosa Griseb. and Stachys scardica Griseb., Balkan peninsula endemics, were performed. One hundred and seventy-nine constituents, accounting for 88.8-98.1% of the total composition of the extracts, were identified. The common feature of the diethyl ether extracts was the high content of terpenoids and fatty acidderived compounds, while the common feature of the ethyl acetate extracts was the prevalence of fatty acid-derived compounds. A disk diffusion method was used for the evaluation of the antimicrobial activities of the extracts against a panel of microorganisms (bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Salmonella enteritidis; fungi: Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans). The total antioxidant capacity of the extracts was evaluated by the phosphomolybdenum method. The preliminary bioassay results indicated that the diethyl ether extract of S. plumosa could be a possible source of antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds.