Bread is a staple food for many nations globally. It is prepared by mixing wheat or barley flour with water and other additives. Potassium bromate (KBrO3) is the most used additive in bread industry, because of its efficiency to make the bread cost-effective and favourable to consume. However, KBrO3 is toxic to human and animals due to its ability to affect several body organs, e.g., liver, bones, blood, renal and hepatic, therefore KBrO3 is classified as a carcinogenic chemical and banned for using in the bread industries in most countries. Even though, this material is still in use as bread improver in several countries, nevertheless several oxidising agents was suggested to use as replacements instead of KBrO3 that doesn’t have harmful effects to the consumers. Many technologies have been developed and applied to evaluate the residues of KBrO3 in bakery products. This review paper explored the use of potassium bromate as a flour additive, and its effect on human, animal and environment, and the chemical methods to assess its remains in bread industries.

The demand for drinking water is increasing daily due to the rising world population, alongside the leakage of water, overuse of groundwater, and occurrence of several pollution issues that led to reducing the quality of groundwater. Consequently, in most countries purifying water technologies have been used to obtain drinkable water. Nationally, Libyans use the purified water extensively in their daily needs. Accordingly, to ensure that our citizen utilize harmless water, the quality of the used water and the efficiency of purification units was assessed by analyzing several physical and chemical characteristics of purified water and raw water supplied to the purification units from some local wells and man-made river (MMR) using recommended standard methods. The study results showed that the quality of purified water is excellent, and the purification process reduced the pH, electro conductivity and the concentration of studied chemical properties significantly to values less than the optimum levels (OL) suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Libyan standards (LS) for drinking water. As a conclusion, the studied purified water may use in the daily needs of human with continuously analytical monitoring.

AbstractIntroduction

The endemic species Nepeta cyrenaica Quézel & Zaffran, native to northeastern Libya, is valued as an important honey-bearing plant.

Objectives

This study was aimed to examine the micromorphology, phytochemistry, and bioactivity of in vitro-propagated N. cyrenaica for the first time.

Materials and Methods

The leaf indumentum was examined using light and scanning electron microscopy and further characterised for histochemistry. The chemical composition of essential oil (EO) was performed using GC-MS analysis, while dichloromethane (DCM), methanol (ME), ethanol (ET), and aqueous (AQ) extracts were analysed using qualitative and quantitative LC/MS analyses. The antioxidant activities of EO and extracts were assessed using three parallel assays, while enzyme-inhibiting effects were evaluated against four enzymes.

Results

The leaves bear various types of glandular trichomes, with lipophilic secretion predominating. The main EO component of EO was 1,8-cineole. A considerable number of phenolics and iridoids were tentatively identified in the ME extract. Quantitative LC/MS analysis confirmed that ferulic acid, rosmarinic acid, and epigallocatechin gallate were present in the highest amount in the extracts, in which three iridoids were also quantified. Although the ME extract contained the highest amount of polyphenolics and iridoids, the DCM extract showed the best overall biological potential. Additionally, EO exerted the strongest acetylcholinesterase and tyrosinase inhibition.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that the endemic N. cyrenaica can be efficiently grown under in vitro conditions, where it develops various glandular trichomes that are thought to secrete and/or accumulate bioactive compounds with valuable medicinal potential.

The pollution of the Earth-system by microplastics (MPs) has attracted the scientific community's attention during the last decade due to the ability of MPs to alter the soil and agronomic lands properties and affect the soil flora and fauna, and thus via food chain may harm human health. The current review attempted to survey several previous studies to demonstrate the possible sources of MPs in soil characterised as primary and secondary sources depending on the way MPs are generated. Most of MPs released from these sources ended into the soil and can emigrate within soil profile, which negatively affects several physiochemical soil properties, soil biota, and plants that may alter biodiversity and agronomic land productivity. The bioremediation of MPs-polluted terrestrial environment using some microorganisms is an optimum economic and eco-friendly technology. This review is a first step to help researchers identify the main sources and effects of MPs pollution in Libyan farmlands to stand up on the current levels of these substances in soil and suggest future strategies to avoid possible harm impacts of MPs pollution over our country. ا

Abstract:

Nepeta cyrenaica Quézel & Zaffran (Lamiaceae), an endemic species of Libyan flora, is here characterized for the first time for its phytochemical composition and biological activities. Phenolic composition, antioxidant and enzyme inhibiting effects of extracts, prepared from five-week-old in vitro propagated N. cyrenaica shoots, were evaluated. Extraction was performed using dichloromethane, methanol, 96% ethanol or hot distilled water. LC-MS analysis showed that the methanol extract contained the highest amount of phenolic components, especially ferulic and rosmarinic acids (1300.73 mg/kg and 528.88 mg/kg, respectively), and epigallocatechin gallate (719.05 mg/kg). The strongest antioxidant activity was recorded for aqueous extract in DPPH assay (66.91%) and dichloromethane extract in β-carotene bleaching assay (81.06%), both tested at the concentration of 2 mg/mL. Concerning α-glucosidase inhibition, dichloromethane extract was shown to possess a higher inhibition capacity than acarbose at the concentration of 2 mg/mL (95.33% vs. 88.29%). The aqueous extract exhibited higher acetylcholinesterase inhibition than the other tested extracts, which was lower compared to the positive control, galantamine. Although methanol extract contained the highest amount of polyphenolics, dichloromethane and aqueous extracts were shown to be more suitable for the extraction of bioactive components. In conclusion, endemic N. cyrenaica could be efficiently propagated through in vitro propagation protocols as a polyphenolic-rich plant with valuable medicinal potential.

Keywords: biological activities; extracts; in vitro propagation; Nepeta cyrenaica

Abstract

Abstract

Introduction:

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious res-

piratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. The disease was first broke out in

Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China and subsequently spread to all countries

and was considered by WHO as a worldwide pandemic. This study is aimed

to determine the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 and the presence of UK va-

riants in Zintan city of Libya taking some risk factors into account. Me-

thods: In a cross-sectional retrospective study, a total of 15486 nasopha-

ryngeal swabs were collected from COVID-19 suspected patients, travelers

and people need disease-free certificates for hospital admission, etc. The

samples were collected during the period from August 2020 to June 2021

and tested using real-time RT -PCR (rRT-PCR) kits for SARS-CoV-2 and

UK variants. Age groups, sex, and monthly weather were considered as risk

factors. Results: The positivity rate of COVID-19 in Zintan city was esti-

mated to be (3891; 25.12%) for the period from August 2020 to June 2021.

Females showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher positivity rate (2100; 54%) as

compared to males (1791; 46%). Out of the 3891 positive cases, 52 were de-

ceased. The Case Fatality Rate (CFR) was 1.33 recorded significantly in cas-

es aged ≥ 65 years which was higher in males (56.66%) than females (43.33%).

The peak of the first wave of infection was recorded in October 2020 (590;

15.15%) whereas the peak of the second wave of infection was recorded in

April 2021 (727; 18.71%). The positivity rate was decreased as the tempera-

ture increased. UK variant is detected firstly in May 2021 with the percen-

tage of 6.2% of tested samples. Conclusions: Health Authorities are en-

crease phase of infection to stop transmission of the virus in the next wave.

Early detection of new variants and studying their genetic characteristics

play a valuable role in prevention and control.

Keywords

SARS

-

CoV

-

2, UK Variant, Epidemiology, Zintan,

Libya, rRT

-

PCR.