The present work aimed to investigate the effect of salinity in natural habitats in Egypt on the main secondary metabolites of Rosmarinus officinalis L. and Artemisia monosperma L. plants compared to ...plants grown at normal conditions. Plants grown under salinity were collected from Egyptian Western Coastal region habitats irrigated with underground water. Results showed that salinity increased the essential oil percentage of R. officinalis L. by 52.7% and A. monosperma L by 0.29% in addition to the total phenolics and flavonoids content in dry leaves compared to control plants. GC/MS analysis of rosemary essential oils revealed that salinity decreased the amount of some major oil monoterpenes component as verbenone, with a slight effect on 1,8 cineole and increased Camphor, endo- Boreneol, and linalool in addition to the appearance of new specific components such as Chrysanthenone monoterpene ketone and Caryophyllene sesquiterpene, while, in the case of Artemisia, the GC/MS showed that Artemisia ketone, Camphor, β -phellandrene monoterpenes andα-Bisabolol sesquiterpenewere the major oil components; salinity decreased Camphor and β -phellandrene content and increased artemisia ketone and α-Bisabolol oil content. About 11 new oil constituents were detected such as ( +)-2-Bornanone and Sesquisabinene hydrate. Mineral ions (N, K
, Ca
, P, and Mg
) uptake by R. officinalis and A. monosperma decreased in plants grown under salinity, while Na content increased compared to corresponding controls. Results demonstrated that both plants could tolerate the high salinity level in natural Western Coastal region soil which promoted more production of valuable secondary metabolites. The antimicrobial effect of R. officinalis L. and A. monosperma L. leaf methanolic extracts, results showed that R. officinalis extracts had an inhibitory response against all tested gram-positive and negative bacteria, in addition to the yeast (Candida albicans), whereas there was no any inhibitory effect concerning A. monosperma L extract on the tested species.
In this work Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, which was isolated from a deteriorated photograph of an old Egyptian archive, was used to investigate the microbial role as an important factor in photograph ...deterioration. B. amyloliquefaciens was investigated for its proteolytic and cellulolytic activities to support its ability to degrade gelatin and cellulose, the key components of photographic material. Induced contamination of freshly prepared photographs by B. amyloliquefaciens was performed. The physical and chemical changes that happened to the photographs were evaluated using visual observation, SEM with EDX analysis and FTIR. The evaluation was performed at RH value of around 40% and at two different incubation temperatures, room temperature (24°C) and 37°C to determine the effect of the temperature change on the rate of deterioration. The findings showed that at the higher temperature, the rate of degradation was increased. Visual examination shows the deterioration of the gelatin layer in the contaminated sections of the photographs that were incubated at room temperature, with almost complete degradation of the entire layer for photographs incubated at 37°C. SEM analysis revealed the presence of cracking of all contaminated images in the gelatin binder. Furthermore, the EDX study revealed a decline or total loss of silver in the cracked regions. In addition, the FTIR analysis of all contaminated photographs confirmed the damage in the gelatin layer.
Chaetomiaceae fungi are ascosporulating fungi whose importance as human pathogens has been frequently ignored. In the current study, a new isolate of the genus Subramaniula was described. The fungus ...was isolated from the soil of Wadi Om Nefa’a, Hurghada in the Red Sea Governorate, Egypt. Previously, Subramaniula were misidentified as Papulaspora spp. According to molecular analysis, the fungus was identified as Subramaniula asteroids OP484336. Remarkably, this species has been found among other fungi responsible for keratitis in humans and has been recorded for the first time in Egypt. Analysing the Subramaniula asteroids’ metabolic profile was one of the objectives of the current study because little is known about this family’s metabolome. The fungal extract’s untargeted metabolic profiling was carried out by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC/MS), 1H and 1H-HSQC nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data, and their corresponding databases. In total, fifty-nine metabolites have been reported in the polar and non-polar extracts. The majority of polar metabolites are amino acids and carbohydrates. The non-polar extract’s main components were 1-dodecanamine, N,N-dimethyl-, 1-tetradecanamine, N,N-dimethyl-, and 9-octadecenoic acid ethyl ester. The current study is the first to provide a metabolic profile of Subramaniula asteroids, which can be used in chemotaxonomical classification, antifungal drug development, and biological activity investigation of the studied species.
