Majid Azizi

The method of biological production of nanoparticles has recently attracted a lot of attention because of its features such as compatibility with the environment, simplicity, and low cost. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) have recently been used in many industries, including medicinal plant production, optics, electronics, packaged foods, and medi...

Artemisia dracunculus L. (tarragon), known as “tarkhun” in Iran, is a perennial herb in the Asteraceae family, which has a long history of use in culinary traditions. A factorial experiment based on the Randomized Completely Block Design with three replications was used. The treatments were performed at four level of foliar applications of Ca(NO3)2...

This study was conducted in a randomized complete block design with a split-plot arrangement in a high-density ‘Jonagold’ apple orchard. The shade nets including no shade (N0), one-layer net (N1), and two-layer net (N2) and deficit irrigation (with 100, 85, and 70% of water requirement) were thought to exist in primary and secondary plots, respecti...

Carbon nanomaterials such as single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) offer a new possibility for phyto-nanotechnology and biotechnology to improve the quality and quantity of secondary metabolites in vitro . The current study aimed to determine the SWCNTs effects on Thyme (Thymus daenensis celak.) seed germination. The seedlings were further assess...

Mentha longifolia L. (horsemint) is one of the most famous wild perennial herbs of the Lamiaceae family, which has broad usage in therapeutic and pharmaceutical services. In this research, screening of twenty Mentha longifolia L. accessions was assessed according to the physio-chemical variability under low water irrigation. The investigation was a...

Cold plasma is an emerging non-thermal processing technology that could fulfill the food industry’s need for decontamination purposes without compromising the quality if optimized in terms of plasma parameters, including feed gases, voltage, and exposure time. Different food matrices require specialized optimized processes due to the interactions b...

Objective(s): Recently, medicinal plants have grabbed much attention in the prevention and treatment of cancer due to their ability to increase the efficiency of chemotherapy agents. Luteolin is a flavonoid widely studied for its antitumor effects. However, luteolin has low bioavailability and poor efficacy due to its hydrophobicity. This study aim...

The current study assessed the risk posed to Iranian consumers by oral exposure to a mixture of 20 pesticides and six metals in 96 fruit juice (FJ) samples (3 batches × 4 brands × 8 types of FJs) collected from Iran market. Concentrations of metals and pesticides in FJs were quantified by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (IC...

Allelopathy is a physiological process with an ecological concept and application. Allelopathy is the result of the production of biologically active molecules by growing plants or their remains, which may have a direct effect on the growth and development of individuals of the same species or other species after changing their shape and entering t...

As one of the largest genera of the Lamiaceae family, Salvia has a wide distribution worldwide. Despite their great importance and medicinal use, most Salvia species are collected from their natural habitats, and some of them are endangered and vulnerable. This study aimed to evaluate the domestication process of eight Iranian native Salvia species...

In a natural ecosystem, endophytic fungi in the internal tissues of plants help to improve the growth of the host plants and to decrease the negative effects of biotic and abiotic stresses without having adverse effects. In Japan, Vicia villosa (hairy vetch), a legume plant with a high capacity to fix nitrogen, is usually used as a cover crop befor...

In the present study, we isolated linalool, geraniol, carvacrol, thymol, menthol and eugenol; synthesised their phenoxyacetic acid derivatives; and assessed their phytotoxic and genotoxic potentials against weeds and agricultural crops. Moreover, the fungicidal activity of both categories of compounds against 12 fungi was examined. Finally, using p...

The present study assessed the potential risk to Iranian consumers posed by oral exposure to 3-MCPD in canned vegetables. Ten brands of canned vegetables (i.e. cucumber, pea, sweet corn, pinto bean, lentil, and mixed vegetables) were collected from retail markets in Iran. Overall, 3-MCPD in 180 canned vegetable samples was quantified by chromatogra...

Seedless barberry fruit is native small fruit in Iran. To examine the impact of various drying methods and storage on the biochemical attributes (Vitamin C, Anthocyanin, Phenol, pH, TA), color index (a*, b*, L*, ab, and Chroma), drying time, and fruit microstructure (by SEM) of seedless barberry (Berberis vulgaris var. asperma), and effective moist...

Meroterpenoids are naturally occurring bioactive compounds derived from terpenoids. Isolation and structure elucidation of four meroterpenoids from Arnebia euchroma root confirmed as arnebinol A–D have been conducted and their antifungal and anti-aflatoxigenic activities against Aspergillus flavus have been investigated. Scanning electron microscop...

Barberry (Berberis spp.) is considered beneficial in the treatment of metabolic abnormalities. Tiny barberries with unique taste and flavor make them ideal for the food industry. This study investigated the morphological, nutritional, and biochemical traits of 12 Berberis genotypes. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and principal component...

Several species of the genus Eucalyptus are used in many traditional medicine systems for the treatment of respiratory tract infections, colds, flu, sore throats, and bronchitis. The genus Eucalyptus (Myrtaceae) is a well‐known natural source of bioactive phloroglucinols. These polyphenolic compounds bear an aromatic phenyl ring with three hydroxy...

There is increasing interest in the application of natural plant extracts for the post‐harvest management of food crops. This study investigates the potential for hydro‐distilled natural essential oils to inhibit the germination of potato tubers in storage. Four completely randomized design experiments were undertaken with extracts of seven medicin...

In the current study, we assessed health risk posed to Iranian consumers through exposure to metals via oral consumption of coffee, tea, and herbal tea of various trademarks collected from Iran market. Level of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Ni, and Pb in 243 samples was quantified by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The...

In this study, we assessed health risk posed by oral exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mycotoxins (MTs), and pesticides residues in coffee samples collected from Iran market, using a probabilistic model. Levels of contaminants in 150 imported coffee samples were determined using Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and liquid chr...

People are exposed to various chemicals originating from different sources. In Iran, some fig orchards near roads are exposed to a variety of chemicals released from various pollution sources. In this study, we analysed levels of pesticides, metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 540 fig samples using gas chromatography/mass spectro...

Background and Objective: Ganoderma lucidum is one of the medicinal fungi frequently used as supplement. The intracellular polysaccharides of this fungus include high molecular weights and help strengthen the immune system. Furthermore, these polysaccharides act as antioxidants by inhibiting free radicals and enhancing activity of the enzymes. Add...

Thyme (Thymus spp.) is a valuable genus of Lamiaceae family presents a wide range of functional possibilities in the cosmetic, pharmacy, and food industries. T. daenensis and T. pubescens are thymol and carvacrol rich species growing in Iran. The aim of this study was to compare the macro- and micro-morphological, cytogenetical, and biochemical tra...

Background: Mosquito species are highly considering as disease transmission as well as nuisance insects. One of the principal strategy to protect human from the mosquito bites is repellent agents. This study aimed to assess repellency of two organic essential oils, Eucalyptus globulus and Syzygium aromaticum from bites of malaria vector, Anopheles...

Vegetative and reproductive characteristics, fruit yield, and biochemical compounds of six bitter melon cultivars (Iranshahr, Mestisa, No. 486, Local Japanese, Isfahan, and Ilocano) were evaluated under Karaj conditions in Iran. The phytochemical properties of the cultivars were evaluated using both shade-dried and freeze-dried samples at three fru...

Spiroethers comprise a sub-class of spirocycles and exert various biological properties such as antibacterial and anti-tumor activities. The present study investigated the total spiroether isomers present in methanolic extract of root and aerial parts of 40 Arnebia species collected from 20 different geographical zones in Iran. Also, the cyto-toxic...

Lime-induced Fe- deficient soil causes plant Fe-deficiency, which can be overcome with the foliar application of liposomal Fe fertilizers capable of delivering Fe efficiently to plant tissues. In the current investigation, the effect of foliar fertilization of the Fe-liposome (Fe-L) in two concentrations (2.5 and 5 fold diluted) on sweet basil (Oci...

Artemisia scoparia Waldst. et Kit. is a member of the Asteraceae family that spread widely throughout the world, especially, in Southwest Asia and Central Europe. Terpenoids are members of interesting components in this plant. The current study was carried out to evaluate the morphological, agronomical, and phytochemical traits of A. scoparia in di...

Background The aim of current study was to determine the protection efficacy of Eucalyptus globulus and Syzygium aromaticum essential oils nanoemulsions-loaded textiles versus bulk essential oil- treated textiles against the malaria vector, Anopheles stephensi. Methods The components of E. globulus and S. aromaticum essential oils were determined...

Mentha longifolia L. is well‐known to be one of the most pervasive wild‐growing species of the Lamiaceae family, which has extensive beneficial properties in the fields of pharmacology and biological products. In the present study, the correlation between Inter‐simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers and morpho‐chemical parameters of twenty different...

To assist the development of new therapeutic strategies for several disorders, biologically active peptides/proteins obtained from plant sources can be considered. Current study expected to determine the biological activities of peptide fractions of Mucuna pruriens against hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines (HepG2/ADM, HepG2, SMMC‐7721, and QGY‐77...

In the present study, levels of 22 pesticides, eight metals, and 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in 1800 Iranian olive samples (20 cultivars from six different cultivation zones), were determined; then, health risk posed by oral consumption of the olive samples to Iranian consumers was assessed. Quantification of PAHs and pesticides was...

Single-wall carbon nano tubes (SWCNTs) encourage the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds in plants. The current study examined how SWCNTs affect morphological, physiological and biochemical properties of Thyme (Thymus daenensis) callus culture. Sterilized seeds were cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium. Ten-day-old seedlings were used as exp...

Before starting any classical breeding program on plants, it is necessary to dominate the fertilization behavior of that plant. Despite a large number of Salvia species in the flora of Iran, there is little information about the breeding system of this genus. In the current study, the flower specifications and breeding system of seven Salvia specie...

In the course of revision of Trigonella sect. Ellipticae (Boiss.) Sirj. (Fabaceae) in Iran, herbarium and living material were studied. As a result, T. laxiflora Aitch. & Baker is reported as new for Iran, and T. torbatejamensis Ranjbar and T. korovinii Vassilcz. are reduced to its synonymy. Moreover, T. binaloudensis Ranjbar & Karamian and T. stip...

The present study assessed the risk posed by simultaneous oral exposure to a mixture of 22 pesticides, 6 metals, and 16 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in fruits of date palms, to Iranian consumers. Various cultivars of dates were collected from six regions in Iran. Concentrations of organic compounds and metals in 900 samples of date fruit...

Salinity is the major environmental stress affecting growth and physiological processes in plants. Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) is a perennial medicinal plant having many secondary metabolites. The effects of 0, 100, 200, 400, 600, and 800 mM NaCl on growth parameters, leaf relative water content, chlorophyll index, gas exchange parameters, membra...

Objective This study aimed to investigate the genetic diversity of different genotypes of this valuable medicinal plant under the same culture condition which can be used as an introduction to domestication, germplasm conservation, and possible cross in the future. Materials and Methods In this study, after preparing 20 different genotypes from al...

Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) is a highly valuable plant. Iran provides nearly 90% of the world's total saffron and is the biggest global producer. The allelopathic effects of saffron corm (SC) and saffron field soil (SFS) have been hypothesized to play an important role in replanting. Recently, adsorbent materials have been used to neutralize the ef...

The Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss.is a wild-growing flowering plant belonging to the Lamiaceae family and has been used as a medicinal herb for rheumatoid diseases, headaches, congestion, stomach disorders, liver treatment. In order to study the effects of dryland farming system on some agronomical and physiological traits of D. kotschyi, two separa...

Objective: Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive and malignant brain tumor and has a poor prognosis. This study was aimed to investigate the cytotoxic effects of Dracocephalumkotschyi Boiss. (D. kotschyi) extracts in GBM U87 cell line. Materials and methods: The extracts of D. kotschyi obtained by two different ways of Soxhlet and...

Catharanthus roseus belonging to the Apocynaceae family synthesizes indole alkaloids like vinblastine and aj-malicine which are used in cancer treatment and for decrease high blood pressure, respectively. However, these compounds with a high value added are accumulated at low level in the plants. For the first time, endophytic fungi isolated from l...

Mentha longifolia L. is one of the most valuable perennial, rhizomatous, aromatic and herbaceous plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family. In this study, the effects of deficit irrigation stress on physiological traits and yield of 20 different wild mint populations were evaluated by a split-plot experiment based on a randomized complete block desi...

The levels of antioxidant activity and vitamins can change with varying ratios of different wavelengths. This study was conducted as a pot experiment under soilless culture conditions in order to investigate the interactive effects of light supplementation and nutrition (calfomyth solution) on some qualitative traits of tomato fruit. The research w...

Glycyrrhiza glabra is an important herb throughout the World. Glycyrrhizin is the major constituent of the rhizomes of Glycyrrhiza glabra. Fars and Khorasan provinces are the production poles of licorice in Iran. The present study (with a randomized factorial design) was performed in tree replications to determine the variation in phytochemical com...

According to climate change projections, increasing temperature and reduced water availability are expected in the near future. Therefore, growers must adapt their production systems, minimizing the negative effects of water scarcity, such as lower yields, and maximizing those positive, such as fruit-quality improvements. In this sense, process-bas...

One of the major factors limiting the production of medicinal plants in arid and semi-arid areas is water deficit or drought stress. One-third of the land in the world is arid and semi-arid and is inhabited by nearly 4 × 108 people. Ocimum basilicum (sweet basil) is a valuable medicinal plant that is sensitive to water deficit, and water shortage n...

Karyotypes of nine populations belonging to six endemic species of the genus Trigonella (Trifolieae/Fabaceae) studied in this survey. All studied species are perennial and recorded only from Northeast of Iran. Excluding the karyotype of Trigo-nella subenervis, which was previously reported, all of the other species studied here (six species) for th...

Nanoelicitors are biological and non-biological factors that can affect the synthesis of secondary metabolites in medicinal plants. Feverfew is a valuable medicinal plant containing effective and important anti-cancer compounds (essential oil and parthenolide). This study was conducted to investigate the effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs)...

Essential oils (EOs) of three Iranian cultivated Nepeta species were investigated. The oils were obtained by hydrodistillation of air-dried plant materials at full flowering stage and analyzed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography coupled to mass spectroscopy (GC/MS). In total, 89 compounds were detected. In over 2 years, a number of co...

The inhibitory activities of the leachates and volatiles from 53 plant species (spices and herbs) were evaluated against lettuce (Lactuca sativa “Great Lakes 366”) seedling growth using the sandwich and dish pack methods, respectively. With the sandwich method, parsley (Petroselinum sativum) showed the strongest inhibitory effect on lettuce radicle...

This research was aimed at determining the effects of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on seed germination, seedling growth parameters and secondary metabolite (SM) production of Thymus daenensis in vitro. Seeds were aseptically cultured in Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) with various concentrations of MWCNTs (0, 125, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000...

Medicinal and aromatic plants have the ability to transmit volatile allelochemicals and affect their surrounding organisms. In this regard, their interaction should also be considered. The inhibitory effects of 112 essential oils on lettuce seed and seedling were investigated by cotton swab method. Germination (G%), Mean germination time (MGT), Let...

Glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) is a medicinal plant with valuable specialised metabolites such as triterpene sweetener glycyrrhizin. Salinity stress is the main environmental stress limiting plant growth and development. The effects of six levels of NaCl (0, 100, 200, 400, 600, and 800 mM) on growth, osmolyte content, oxidative stress markers, antio...

Introduction: Nowadays, the global effort in modern agriculture is to reduce the use of harmful herbicides and introduce new methods of weed control, one of which is the use of allelopathic properties. Among allelopathic species, aromatic plants have the ability to transmit allelochemical constituents as essential oils through diffusion and thus af...

The morphological specifications play a substantial role in classification and breeding programs of various plant taxa. In the current study, some macro-and micro-morphological features of Salvia nemorosa, Salvia syriaca, Salvia frigida, and Salvia virgata (three accessions), were investigated using scanning electron microscopy and image analysis p...

Although control of xylem ion loading is essential to confer salinity stress tolerance, specific details behind this process remain elusive. In this work, we compared kinetics of xylem Na+ and K+ loading between two halophytes (Atriplex lentiformis and quinoa) and two glycophyte (pea and beans) species, to understand the mechanistic basis of the ab...

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of growth regulator treatments on quantitative and qualitative yield of saffron. Growth regulator treatments included 50, 150 and 300 ppm gibberellic acid (GA3) and naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). Saffron corms weighing 8 to 10 g were immersed in solutions of GA3 and NAA and then were planted in...

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium L. Schultz Bip.) has a lot of secondary metabolites, such as phenols, essential oils and sesquiterpene lactones (parthenolide) which have high value in chemotaxonomy and medicine. This study was carried out to evaluate the phytochemical potential of Feverfew. Parthenolide was identified by UPLC-MRM-MS. The essential o...

A descriptive and comprehensive morphological and micro‐morphological study of the nutlets in 16 selected Iranian taxa of Nepeta (Lamiaceae) was conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to evaluate nutlets characteristics for systematic relationships. Differences in surface ornamentation, size, shape, and nutlets color were observed betwe...

Safranal, the main volatile chemical of Saffron (Crocus sativus) was studied to estimate its allelopathic effects on the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll, leaf electrolyte leakage, fresh weight, catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POX) activity of the test plant Lettuce (Lactuca sativa). In this study, the effective concentration (EC50) of safranal o...

Plants are exposed to solar ultraviolet radiation due to use of sunlight for photosynthesis. Additionally, salinity in soil or water influences the plant productivity and quality considerably. Moreover, when plants are simultaneously exposed to multiple stresses, one form of stress can affect the response to other stress. Particularly, it has been...

Abstract Narcissus spp. are an economically important crop for medicines in relation with the alkaloids production, mainly galanthamine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor used for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. In this article an extensively study of the phytochemistry of both bulbs of different species and varieties of Narcissus grown in Ir...

In order to understand the effects of ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation and salinity stress on the visual quality and morphological parameters, one-year-old seedlings of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) were grown under three UV-B levels (0, 4.32, 6.05 kJ m⁻² d⁻¹) and four salinity regimes (Control, 50, 100 and 150 mM NaCl) under greenhouse condit...

This study was designed to examine the phytochemical evaluation and antioxidant activity of the ‎various extracts‏ ‏‎(hexane, methanol, ethanol, water and hydroalchol) of cultivated Nepeta ‎binaludensis endemic of Iran.

In this research, agro-morphological variation among twenty genotypes of Mentha longifolia L. was assessed in 2 years based on agricultural production under water stress condition. The experiment was arranged in split–split-plot design with water stress treatment in two irrigation levels of 100% (as control) and 60% field capacity in three replicat...

In this research, agro-morphological variation among twenty genotypes of Mentha longifolia L. was assessed in 2 years based on agricultural production under water stress condition. The experiment was arranged in split–split-plot design with water stress treatment in two irrigation levels of 100% (as control) and 60% field capacity in three replicat...

Medicinal plants are of great importance in traditional medicine, in which in most part, the antioxidant activity of the plant-derived compounds is imagined responsible for treating various diseases. Rosmarinus officinalis L, contains several polyphenolic compounds with antioxidant activity; However, to elicit the anti-proliferative activity of R....

Nowadays, ultraviolet radiation, particularly from the ultraviolet-B (UV-B) range, is considered a regulating factor triggering a global response in the plants rather than a simple stressing factor. Predicted scenarios of climate change indicate the increasing trend of UV-B radiation in Mediterranean ecosystems as the center of origin of Thymus. Th...

Introduction: As an artificial light source, LED bulbs can help to grow better and faster greenhouse products. Meanwhile, blue and red light are important for plant growth. The quality of light in terms of color and wavelength can affect the morphological structure of the plants. Therefore, the use of additional lights in winter, when light exposur...

Due to the increased light and red wavelengths that cause better growth and development of plants, as well as the presence of calcium and phosphorous elements and positive effects on tomato plants, this study was conducted as a pot experiment under culture conditions Soil in greenhouse, in the form of split plot experiment based on completely rando...

Background: Papaver bracteatum Lindl. Commonly known as Iranian poppy is an important medicinal plant due to the presence of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids. Objective: To evaluate the hairy root culture as a novel method for thebaine production. Methods: To optimize the hairy root culture of P. bracteatum, five strains of Agrobacterium rhizogenes (AT...

Climate change projections predict warmer and drier conditions. In general, moderate to severe water stress reduce plant vegetative growth and leaf photosynthesis. However, vegetative and reproductive growths show different sensitivities to water deficit. In fruit trees, water restrictions may have serious implications not only on tree growth and y...

Limitations in access to electricity in rural areas and substantial cost of supplemental lightning necessitate breeding as response to low light conditions. Seven inbred lines of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and their F1 hybrids, including reciprocals, developed through a 7×7 full diallel cross were evaluated under two different levels of light...

Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is one of the important aromatic plants belonging to the family Lamiaceae, which is used as an herb, spice as well as fresh vegetable.The present study was performed to determine the irrigation depth index under different management conditions with evaluating the effect of deficit irrigation, soil texture and nano fertil...

Advances in LED technology have made it an excellent source for research purposes. Small size, long durability and long life, as well as the coolness of the lamps, are options that can be used as a good source of light for plants. Accordingly, a pot experiment under non-soil cropping conditions in a greenhouse was used as a split plot experiment ba...

Development of a nanobiosystem by using plant essential oils with green synthesized silver nanoparticles that present synergistic antibacterial activity for overcoming antibiotic resistance in pathogenic bacteria. Material and Methods: Essential oils (EOs) of Kelussia odoratissima and Teucrium polium extracted by hydrodistillation were analyzed by...

In recent years, awareness of the harmful effects of herbicides have persuaded researchers to seek for a suitable replacement of chemical herbicides. One of these alternatives is natural compounds. So using allelopathic compounds as a novel strategy reduces the chemical herbicides consumption. This study was aimed to identify strong allelopathic ac...