No abstract

Carotenoids are a big group of phytochemicals that have a wide variety of protective and medical properties. They are widespread in plants and photosynthetic bacteria and have many medical functions. Here in this article, we studied antidiabetic and antioxidant effects of four kinds of carotenoids (lutein, lycopene, beta-carotene and astaxanthin) besides briefly defining them and also mentioned some of their plant sources. So, we can say, the aim of this study was to show some of the ways they can lower blood glucose and prevent the oxidant damages. Many articles, including originals and reviews were scanned in this way, but only a few had a suitable data. All of our references were articles has been collected electronically from valid journals and databases including PubMed, Science Direct, Elsevier, Springer and Google scholar. Beta-carotene is the most widely carotenoid in food prevent cancer and triggers the release of insulin and like lutein its antioxidant is useful for the prevention of macular degeneration. Lutein has also anticancer effects and reduces the ROS levels in the retina with diabetes. Lycopene helps to protect diabetes patients with cardiovascular disease. Astaxanthin has significant hypoglycemic effects. Both of lycopene and astaxanthin have powerful antioxidant activity. We suggest that each of these phytochemicals produces a kind of protect against diabetes and oxidative damages and also have other medical functions like anticancer, anti-inflammatory but further and deeper investigations are required in this field.

Background: Clinically, diabetes is an important risk factor or a range of diseases including nephropathy,retinopathy, angiopathy and deficiency and it is increasing in prevalence according to some estimates. (Cucurbita pepo L.) from the cucurbitaceae family has a low calorie but high nutritional and medical value. The aim of this study was to observe the effect of cucurbita extract on serum factors of STZ induced diabetic rats including glucose level AGEs, lipid profile (cholesterol, HDL, LDL, and TG) and CRP. Material and methods: Diabetes type1 was induced to Male albino-wistar rats by STZ at a dosage of 50 mg kg -1. 17 rat were divided into three groups randomly including diabetic treated with extract, diabetic control and normal group. Diabetic group were force fed orally by cucurbita extract. The animals were anesthetized with ether at the end of 30 days and the blood was collected by syringe from their hearts for estimation of plasma glucose, TG, HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, CRP and AGEs Results: After measuring the serum factors and compares the result of the three groups to each other meaningful difference that shows the positive effect of cucurbita extract has been seen. Conclusion: According to the results we suggest that squash extract could have positive effect on regulating some of blood elements like glucose which are under the bad effect of diabetes type1 in rats. But more investigations are needed in this field to demonstrate the real benefits of cucurbita in curing diabetes and its related signs.

Background and Objectives: Parents' attachment is a strong and fundamental indicator in the formation of infant secure attachment and provides a model for the present-future emotional-social functioning. Since the unwanted pregnancy has harmful consequences for the health of the mother and the child and can affect the attachment of the parent to infant, this study was to determine the relationship between unwanted pregnancy and parental attachment in Ahvaz city. Methods: The sample consisted of 320 couple (320 mothers and 320 fathers) who have visited the healthcare centers for their 2 to 6-month-old infants. The data were collected through Muller (for mothers), Condon (for fathers), and demographic-reproductive questionnaires. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS version 24. Findings: According to the scores of two distinct questionnaires, the father attachment mean score in the group of unwanted was