No abstract

Date palm (phoenix dactylifera), which is mostly found in the middle east countries such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States (California) that play a significant role in the economical and the environmental condition in those areas. The main purpose of planting dates is its fruit, which is consumed as fresh, dried or processed forms. There are approximately 100 million date palm trees in the worldwide that 62 million of these trees located in the Middle East and North Africa. In Saudi Arabia only, 15000 tons of date palm leaves is prepared as waste materials. The leaves of date palm tree are used in several applications such as making ropes, baskets, and mats in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, the huge amount of the non-food products from the date palm remains as landfill materials without any specific usage. By attention to the date palm properties, the literature clearly showed that each part of date palm has great potential to be used for a variety of applications such as: making paper, absorption of heavy and toxic metals, energy production and soil fertilizing. Some of the obstacles and solutions for using palm date in these applications were also explored. Considering these issues and their solutions, the date palm is a favorable alternative. Despite some limited and traditional uses of these palm wastes, this review considered date palm applications and the properties' of the most important part of that tree in recent researches and related issues for future research are also spotted.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

In this research furfuryl alcohol (FA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) in different ratio were added to a tannin based adhesive in order to improve its moisture resistance. In order to characterize the functional groups involved, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to study the thermal behaviour of the formulations. FTIR spectroscopy indicated the reaction of quebracho tannin with FA and PEI. The results of the TGA showed that the added FA and PEI increased the resistance to thermal degradation. DSC analysis showed that the added FA and PEI reduced the heat absorption peak. According to the tensile shear strength of the formulations, the adhesive formulation T 1 F 0.75 P 20 (mixing proportion: Tannin 1, FA 0.75, PEI 20%) was able to satisfy the standards requirements (BS 1204-2) as a moisture resistant adhesive. Furthermore, this formulation presented the best tensile shear tests results and the least number of delaminated samples.

No abstract

Different concentrations of ethanolic extracts of thyme (Zataria multiflora) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) were evaluated to determine their antimicrobial activity using the agar-well diffusion method. The values of inhibition zone diameter (IZD) for Candida albicans fungus and Staphylococcus aureus Gram-positive bacteria were determined. The bioactivities of two various extracts were studied, and the chemical composition of the extracts were identified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. The results of the test showed that at concentrations of 10% and 40% thyme extract, the values of IZD were 12.5 mm and 23.3 mm, respectively, against the growth of S. aureus, which were higher than C. albicans (7.0 mm and 22.5 mm, respectively). The rosemary extract at concentrations of 20% and 60% showed lower antibacterial activity against S. aureus (4.7 mm and 8.7 mm IZD, respectively) and lower antifungal activity against C. albicans (12.2 mm and 1.7 mm IZD, respectively). At a concentration of 40% thyme extract, the highest antibacterial (23.3 mm IZD) and antifungal (22.5 mm IZD) activities were observed. The GC/MS analysis showed that carvacrol (52.3%), linalool L (16%), and thymol (9.6%) were the main components of thyme extract, while in the rosemary extract β-amyrone (18.0%), verbenone (8.0%), and 1,8-cineole (7.26%) were the major constituents.