Plants have been used for centuries to improve dental health and to promote oral hygiene, and this practice persists in several communities throughout the world. "Miswak" is an Arabic word meaning "tooth-cleaning stick," and Salvadora persica miswak has a wide geographic distribution. It was used by ancient Arabs to whiten and polish the teeth. This review discusses the history and chemical com...

In this study, the hepatoprotective effect of the methanol extract of aerial parts (shoot) from Otostegia persica Boiss (Golder) was investigated against the carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced acute hepatotoxicity in male rats. Liver damage was induced through the oral administration of 50% CCl4 in liquid paraffin (2.5 mL/Kg bw, per os) 60 min after the administration of the methanol extract o...

Miswak is a traditional chewing stick prepared from the roots, twigs, and stem of Salvadora persica and has been used as a natural method for tooth cleaning in many parts of the world for thousands of years. A number of scientific studies have demonstrated that the miswak (Salvadora persica) possesses antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral, anti-cariogenic, and anti-plaque properties. Several s...

Evolutionary processes are routinely modelled using 'ideal' Wright-Fisher populations of constant size N in which each individual has an equal expectation of reproductive success. In a hypothetical ideal population, variance in reproductive success (V(k)) is binomial and effective population size (N(e)) = N. However, in any actual implementation of the Wright-Fisher model (e.g., in a computer),...

An infestation of Cicadatra persica KirKaldy (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) on apple trees, Malus domestica Borkhausen (Rosales: Rosaceae), was reported for the first time in the apple fruit orchards of Erneh, Syria. Nymphs, adults, exuvia, and exit holes in the soil were observed. The species was identified as C. persica based on morphological characters. Some biological observations and an acoustic a...

Let X1, . . . , Xn and Y1, . . . , Yn be two independent sequences of i.i.d Bernoulli variables with parameter > 0. Let X designate the string X := X1X2 . . . Xn and let Y := Y1Y2 . . . Yn. Let Ln designate the length of the longest common subsequence (LCS) of X and Y . We prove that for a constant c > 0, VAR[Ln] > cn if > 0 is taken small enough. Hence for small , the order of magnitude of VAR...

The Gonioctena nivosa species-group of the genus Gonioctena Chevrolat, 1836 is defined and reviewed. It contains six species including two new to science: Gonioctena gracilicornis (Kraatz, 1879), Gonioctena nivosa (Suffrian, 1851), Gonioctena norvegica (Strand, 1936), Gonioctena springlovae (Bechyně, 1948), Gonioctena amurensis Cho & Borowiec, sp. n. and Gonioctena jani Cho & Borowiec, sp. n. S...

dracocephalum kotschyi boiss, a member of labiatae family, is a native plant to iran, which has been reported to have immunomodulatory, antihyperlipidemic and antispasmodic activities. the objective of this research was to study the antispasmodic and antidiarrhoeal activities of hydroalcoholic and hexane extracts of d. kotschyi in mice. furthermore, the antidiarrhoeal and antispasmodic effect o...