fatemeh kouhestani

Scorpion sting (SS) is an important public health hazard that may cause a potentially lethal condition especially in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Although scorpions are locally abundant in some parts of North Khorasan Province, SS has been poorly studied in this region. The current survey was carried out to investigate the epidemiological aspects of SS in North Khorasan Province, Iran.

This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study collected and analyzed the data of SS cases admitted to medical centers of different counties in North Khorasan Province including Bojnurd, Shirvan, Esfarayen, Jajarm, and Raz from 2007 to 2018. The descriptive statistical analyses were carried out with SPSS software (version 24), and logistic regression analyses were performed using the STATA software.

During the study period, 540 SS cases were admitted to hospitals, of whom 44 persons were hospitalized, and nearly half of them were male (50.2%). Most SS cases occurred indoors (58.4%). The mean age of the patients was 35±18.0 years. Furthermore, the annual number of SS cases varied with an increase in 2013. The most common site of the sting was in the hands (41.8%) followed by feet (40.5%). The most common time for SS occurrence was 12 a.m. to 6 a.m. (38%). The majority of victims admitted to the hospital less than 3 hours after the sting (84.6%) and all of them were recovered. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that the risk of hospitalization in people who had more than one bite was significantly higher than those who had been bitten once.

Given the low average number of SS cases reported in the area compared to the south of Iran, SS does not seem to be an important health issue in this area except for Jajarm County.

The excessive and repetitive application of chemical insecticides has been associated with environmental and health issues. Nowadays, the use of medicinal and aromatic plants, as natural resources of each country, has been developed significantly in herbal medicine. Many studies have been carried out towards the application of essential oils. Among the medicinal plants, Mentha longifolia belongs to the family Lamiaceae, is one of the most common herb which grows wildly in wet plains like riversides and even in the water. Various therapeutic effects and biological activities have been reported for some species of Mentha such as antibacterial, antifungal and insecticidal. The oils of M. longifolia consist of chemical mixtures involving pulegone, alpha terpineol, menthone, menthofuran, 1, 8 cineol, cis iso pulegone, cineol, piperitenone, piperitenone oxide, cis piperitenone epoxid, eucalyptole, and thymol. Herein, we review insecticidal efficacy of Mentha in Iran.

The selection of studies referenced in this review was based on searches in Pubmed, Medline, Magiran, SID, Google Scholar and Civilica databases, from 2007 to 2018.

After the initial search, a total of 47 articles were found. Which led to the selection of 9 studies by employing the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Based on the results, LC50 is relatively low in comparison with other plants, indicating a higher toxicity for insects, and a 96.6% insect mortality rate for Mentha longifolia.

Nevertheless, further studies on application of Mentha longifolia to control of grain pests and vectors are still needed.

In this paper, natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) was desilicated to remove water from diesel fuel. Optimization of desilication conditions was done using Design-Expert 7.0.0 software and using response surface methodology. The parameters studied, the concentration of sodium hydroxide solution and the temperature and time of the desilication process were considered. After optimization of desilication process conditions, the water sorption percentage was 95.32% under the optimized conditions, the concentration of sodium hydroxide solution 0.47 molar, temperature 84.05 °C and time of 2.42 hours. To carry out the process of water sorption from fuel, amount of 0.5% w/v of the desilicated zeolite (5 g zeolite/1000 mL of the fuel) was mixed with diesel fuel for 2 h and the water content was measured by the volumetric Karl Fischer technique. The natural zeolite and the desilicated zeolite in the optimum conditions were characterized by XRD, XRF, FTIR and SEM analyses which indicate well desilication process. The results of water sorption before and after the sorption process indicate the acceptable performance of desilicated zeolite.

Chemical insecticides application for pest control pose serious impacts on human health and environment. Nowadays, intensified efforts to find safer and environmentally friendly alternatives have resulted in identification and production of some plant-derived natural ingredients that can use against insect pests. Amongst these plants, feverfew, Tanacetum parthenium (L.) Sch.Bip., from Asteraceae family is reputed to have insecticidal properties in addition to its excellent medicinal values. In this study, we quantitatively evaluated the extract of T. parthenium collected from Northern Khorasan province (Northeast of Iran) for its pyrethrin content using RP-HPLC chromatography.
Flowers and leaves of T. parthenium harvested at flowering stage were dried at cool and dark place and subjected to 3 steps maceration with (30ml) chloroform and shaking for 1 hr. followed by filtration. Pyrethrin contents were then read by chromatographic method at 230 nm wavelength against the background of calibration regression equations. Our results indicated that dry flowers contain 0.46% total pyrethrin (I II), whereas leaves and stems include 0.06% pyrethrum. Pyrethrin was more concentrated in flower than stem. The wild population of T. parthenium of Northern Khorasan province demonstrates high potentiality to be commercially cultivated if it undergoes a plant-breeding program to manipulate phenotypic variation in the concentration of bioactive compounds present at harvest.