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Hydatidosis is one of the most important parasitic zoonoses with worldwide distribution. Scolicidal agents are usually essential during the surgical therapy of hydatid cysts for prevention of recurrence. There is still no scolicidal agent with high efficacy and low adverse side effects. New and natural scolicidal agents not only may be used for production of new antihydatid drugs, but also they may be useable instead of existing scolicidal agents. In the present study, the scolicidal effect of the aromatic water (AW) of Zataria multiflora was investigated. Hydatid cyst protoscolices were collected aseptically from the cysts obtained from the livers of naturally infected sheep. Gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) were employed to determine the chemical composition of the essential oil (EO) from Z. multiform AW. Protoscolices were exposed to Z.multiflora AW for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 min. Viability of protoscolices was confirmed by 0.1 % eosin stain. Thymol, carvacrol, carvone, neo-dihydrocarveol, and 1,8-cineole were found to be the major EO constituents. The scolicidal power of Z. multiflora AW was 93.78, 96.33, 99.16, 99.48, and 100 % after 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 min, respectively. In the present study, Z. multiflora AW showed high in vitro scolicidal power. Since Z. multiflora AW is an edible drink, thus, it may be used safely as a natural scolicidal agent. However, further studies will be necessary to determine the feasibility of producing an effective new drug, using the constituents of Z. multiflora AW, for the treatment of hydatid disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydatidosis in humans and animals is a substantial cause of deaths in many parts of the world. Surgery and the chemotherapeutic agents are the main treatments for hydatid disease; however, most of them are accompanied by adverse side effects. In this study, the scolicidal effect of essential oils from Zataria multiflora and Ferula assafoetida against Echinococcus granulosus protoscolices was investigated. Essential oils from Z. multiflora and F. assafoetida were prepared by hydrodistillation and analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Carvacrol (29.2 %), thymol (25.4 %), p-cymene (11.2 %), linalool (9.6 %), and γ-terpinene (8 %) were detected as the main components of the Z. multiflora, while the main components of F. assafoetida were E-1-propenyl-sec-butyl disulfide (62.7 %), β-ocimene (21.7 %) and β-pinene (5 %). Scolicidal activities of the essential oils against protoscolices for Z. multiflora and F. assafoetida were obtained at concentrations more than 17 and 60 μg/mL, respectively. Accordingly, it was concluded that both essential oils can selectively reduce protoscolices viability, and Z. multiflora, which contains phenolic monoterpenes, is more cytotoxic rather than F. assafoetida which contains disulfide compounds. Therefore, Z. multiflora and F. assafoetida could be recommended as a treatment against hydatid cyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of experiments, the possible antimicrobial role of Zataria multiflora was assessed against Listeria monocytogenes. Results presented here show the effects of the herbal extract on excluding the microorganism in milk tank bulks at a concentration of 0.8 mg/ml, which was demonstrated in both minimum inhibitory concentration and PCR assays. Considering the importance of the transmissible antibacterial resistance among different bacterial strains, it can be suggested that the crude extract of Z. multiflora could possibly act as an anti- Listeria agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydatidosis in humans and animals is an economic and public health problem in many parts of the world, and surgery is still the main treatment for hydatid disease. One of the most important endpoints of hydatid cyst surgery is recurrence. The main cause of recurrence is dissemination of protoscolices during the surgical operation. Preoperative destruction of the cyst's contents through instillation of a scolicidal agent into the hydatid cyst is the most commonly used approach to prevent this complication. Various scolicidal agents have been used for inactivation of the cyst content, but most are accompanied by adverse side effects. In the present study, the scolicidal effect of methanolic extract of Zataria multiflora is investigated. Protoscoleces were aseptically collected from sheep livers containing hydatid cyst and were used in the experiments. Z. multiflora extract was used at a concentration of 10 and 25 mg/ml for 1, 2, and 3 min. Viability of protoscoleces was confirmed by 0.1% eosin staining. Z. multiflora extract at a concentration of 10 mg/ml killed 68.9%, 93.7%, and 100% of protoccoleces after 1, 2, and 3 min respectively. The scolicidal effect of this extract at a concentration of 25 mg/ml was 100% after 1 min. The results of present study showed that methanolic extract of Z. multiflora has high scolicidal activity and might be used as an effective scolicidal agent. This is the first report on the scolicidal activity of Z. multiflora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salmonella is the most important cause of bacterial food-borne disease outbreaks in the world. In this study, we have trained and validated artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict the combined effect of Zataria multiflora essential oil (EO), pH, and temperature on the probability percentage of growth initiation (log P%) of Salmonella. Z. multiflora was collected in the Fars province of Iran. Lyophilized cultures of Salmonella typhimurium ATCC 25923 was used in this study. This design included four levels of EO (0.0, 0.015, 0.03, and 0.06%), three levels of pH (5.5,6, and 7.3), three storage temperatures (35, 25, and 15°C), and repeated observations (18 times) for growth in brain heart infusion broth for up to 43 days. We have designed a standard and the so-called feed-forward ANN, including four input neurons, eight neuron in hidden layer, and one output neuron to predict the combined effect of Z. multiflora EO, pH, and temperature on the probability percentage of growth initiation (log P%) of S.typhimurium. The mean and standard deviation of ANN and real outputs were −2.9771 ± 2.43 and −2.9722 ± 2.39, respectively. The mean differences (and 95% CIs) between the ANN and real outputs were 0.0049 (0.0009-0.0089). Result showed better prediction compare to the previous study(R = 0.998). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]