Azhari H. Nour

Fatty Acid Composition and Antibacterial Activity of Neem (Azadirachta indica) Seed Oil

Pneumonia and skin diseases are some types of severe infections occur worldwide due to pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). These bacterias do contribute towards other infections in human and thus lead towards unhealthy life. The aim of this study was to determine the fatty acid composition and to investigate the toxic effect of seed oil of Neem, genus Azadirachta of Azadirachta indica (Family: Meliaceae) against two multi-drug resistant bacteria, namely; E. coli and S. aureus. The oil was extracted for 6 h through soxhlet method using hexane as solvent. The fatty acid composition was analyzed via Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The composition resulted in detection of 8 fatty acids, whereby the dominant compound is linoleic acid of 34.69% and followed by oleic-, stearic-, palmitic-, arachidic-, behenic-, lignoceric-, and palmiticoleic acid at the percentage of 20.46, 20.42, 18.66, 3.59, 0.80, 0.55, and 0.17%, respectively. The bioassays were conducted through in vitro activity via disc diffusion method with five (5, 20, 50, 80, and 100 mg/mL) different concentrations. Streptomycin and 1% Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) were used as positive and negative controls respectively. The bioassay provided inhibition zone that lies between 8.7 to 11.7 mm and 8.7 to 13.0 mm for E. coli and S. aureus respectively at the concentration of 5 to 100 mg/mL. The antibacterial activity of Neem (A indica) seed oil against these bacteria depends on the correlation of its concentration and thus isolation of bioactive components should be conducted.

Production of Biogas and Performance Evaluation of Ultrasonic Membrane Anaerobic System (UMAS) for Palm Oil Mill Effluent Treatment (POME)

This study proposes a new approach for integrated technology of ultrasonic and membrane for a palm oil mill effluent treatment.This study evaluated the performance of the new design of ultrasonic membrane anaerobic system (UMAS) when a palm oil mill effluent (POME)introduces this approach. To fit kinetic study, six steady states were investigated and the results have shown that the mixed liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSSs) range from 10,400 to 17,350 mg/l while the mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSSs) range from 13,800 to 22,600 mg/l. Three kinetic models of Monod, Contois, and Chen and Hashimoto were used to evaluate the integrated system at organic loading rates ranging from 1 to 15 kg COD/m/day. The percentage efficiency of COD removal was from 92.8 to 98.3%, and hydraulic retention time (HRT) was from 500.8 to 8.6 days. The influent COD concentrations of the POME ranged from 70,400 to 90,200 mg/l.The integrated technology of UMAS is a more attractive one as it avoids membrane fouling problems.