Introduction: In eastern Thailand, Amomum verum and Cinnamomum parthenoxylon are native plants used by local communities for their medical and culinary properties. This study determined the chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oils from A. verum shoots (AVSEO) and C. parthenoxylon wood (CPW-EO). Methods: Essential oils were extracted using hydro-distillation and analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). The antimicrobial activity was evaluated using the disc diffusion method and broth microdilution assay. The cytotoxic activity of the essential oils was assessed against the human prostate adenocarcinoma (DU145) cell line using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The antioxidant activity of the essential oils was determined using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) radical scavenging assays. The expression of antioxidant genes in the DU145 cells was evaluated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: 1,8-Cineole was the main component in AVS-EO and CPW-EO with 84.38, and 45.65 %, respectively. AVS-EO had stronger antimicrobial activity than CPW-EO. The lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum microbicidal concentration (MMC) values of AVSEO against Candida albicans were 0.3125 and 2.5 mg/mL, respectively. Both essential oils had timedependent and dose-dependent cytotoxic effects on the DU145 human prostate adenocarcinoma cells. CPW-EO had high antioxidant activity toward DPPH and ABTS radicals with IC50 values of 4.528±0.233 and 0.045±0.007 mg/mL, respectively. The two essential oils up-regulated glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione reductase (GRx) mRNA expression in the oxidative stress response of DU145 cells. Conclusion: AVS-EO and CPW-EO might be added as natural ingredients in food or dietary supplement products for the benefit of microbial and prostate cancer inhibition.

The in vitro biological activities of the ethyl acetate extract of the culture filtrate from Streptomyces achromogenes TCH4 (TCH4 extract) were evaluated. The ethyl acetate extract of TCH4 produced a bacteriostatic effect against Enterobacter cloacae, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Bacillus subtilis, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The extract had bactericidal activity against S. aureus, S. saprophyticus, S. aureus (MRSA) and K. pneumoniae with minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values in the range of 500-1000 ?g/mL. The total phenolic and flavonoid contents in TCH4 were 107.20?2.57 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g and 44.91?0.84 mg quercetin equivalent (QE)/g of dry extract. Antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH radical (IC50 299.64?6.83 ?g/mL) and ABTS radical scavenging (IC50 65.53?0.95 ?g/mL), and the ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) (822.76?9.12 mM FeSO4.7H2O/g dry extract) assays. TCH4 exhibited cytotoxic activity in the DU-145 cell line (IC50 9.36?0.37 ?g/mL). Analysis of extract constituents by GC-MS revealed pyrrolo[1,2-a]pyrazine-1,4-dione, hexahydro-3-(2-methylpropyl) (36.85%), benzeneacetamide (23.76%), and deferoxamine (12.85%) as the major compounds, which have been reported to possess pharmaceutical properties. S. achromogenes TCH4 could be a potential source of bioactive metabolites with antibacterial, antioxidant and anticancer activities for pharmaceutical applications.

The purposes of this research were 1) to analyze the educational provision quality scores at graduate level of Rajabhat universities by programs and to analyze the guideline for improving no quality programs at graduate level of Rajabhat universities using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and 2) to analyze 2 level variables (micro level and macro level) that affected to the educational provision quality at graduate level of Rajabhat universities using multi-level analysis. The DEA and multi-level analysis collected by questionnaires from 1,608 of 5 groups of stakeholders (administrators, faculty members, students, alumni and employers). The estimated educational provision quality scores of 27 programs ranged from 45.52–100.00%. The numbers of educational provision quality programs were 11, 9, 10, 9 and 7 evaluating from administrators, faculty members, students, alumni and employers. Of those improving no quality programs, they were increased outputs/outcomes; percentage of a student who graduates within period of time, numbers of published of faculty members’ researches, numbers of alumni award, numbers of utilization of faculty members’ researches and value-added of students in order to enhance their performance to increase their quality. The result of multi-level analysis indicated that factors explaining the quality of programs were numbers of university campus, administrator academic leadership and Office of the Higher Education Commission monitoring

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Zinc-solubilizing bacteria can convert the insoluble form of zinc into soluble forms available to plants. This study was conducted to isolate and screen zinc-solubilizing actinobacteria from rhizosphere soils and to assess their effect on vegetable soybean growth. In total, 200 actinobacteria strains belonging to 10 genera were isolated from rhizosphere soil samples. Among these isolates, four showed zinc solubilization with solubilizing index values ranging from 3.11 to 3.78 on Bunt and Rovira agar supplemented with 0.1% zinc oxide. For the quantitative assay, in broth culture, strains CME34 and EX51 solubilized maximum available zinc contents of 529.71 and 243.58 μg/ml. Furthermore, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and ammonia were produced by these two strains, the strain CME34 produced the highest amount of IAA 4.62 μg/ml and the strain EX51 produced the highest amount of ammonia 361.04 μg/ml. In addition, the phosphate-solubilizing abilities in Pikovskaya’s medium of CME34 and EX51 were 64.67 and 115.67 μg/ml. Based on morphological and biochemical characterization and 16S rDNA sequencing, the strains CME34 and EX51 were closely related to the genus Streptomyces . In a greenhouse experiment, single-strain inoculation of Streptomyces sp. CME34 or EX51 significantly increased the shoot length, root length, plant dry weight, number of pods per plant and number of seeds per plant of vegetable soybean plants compared to the uninoculated control. These findings facilitated the conclusion that the two Streptomyces strains have potential as zinc solubilizers and can be suggested as bioinoculants to promote the growth and yield of soybean.