Medicinal distilled waters (hydrola) are substances prepared by distilling water in the presence of aromatic plants or plants without fragrance. In Iran, these waters are often used for medicinal properties. Their taste and smell are similar to plants and volatile substances from which aromatic water is prepared. Some of these aromatic waters have been studied previously. In this manuscript, we have analyzed some hydrolas from some medicinal herbs in Iranian Traditional Medicine. It may be used to identify and standardize such waters. The hydrolas of 13 Iranian medicinal herbs were prepared and analyzed by GC/MS. Major components of Tripleurospermum disciforme, Citrus aurantium, Alhagi pseudoalhagi, Foeniculum vulgare, Cuminum cyminum, Bunium persicum, Cichorium intybus, Mentha spicata, Anethum graveolens, Salix aegyptica, Zataria multiflora, Rosa damascana and Fumaria parviflora were identified. It is the first report analysis of some hydrola from Iranian medicinal plants except for rose water. This analysis may be a help to the standardization of high-consumption aromatic waters.

Background and Purpose: CHICORY (Cichorium intybus L. ), named “ Kā sni” in Persian, has been used as a medicinal plant for hepatoprotective, thirst quenching, body heat reducing, bile reducing and activities by traditional Iranian scholars for many centuries. Although CHICORY is a common plant in traditional medicine, it is attributed to several plant species with different morphologies. Materials and Methods: Herein, plant species attributed to CHICORY in traditional manuscripts were studied and compared with new botanical references. They included Cichorium endivia, Cichorium intybus, Cichorium pumilum, Taraxacum officinale (syn: Taraxacum camphylodes) and Chondrilla juncea. In this survey, morphological features and therapeutic characteristics mentioned both in traditional and conventional medicine resources were reviewed. Results: The results of morphological assessments showed that Cichorium intybus and Cichorium endivia are Kā sni barri and Kā sni bostā ni, respectively. Other species were different in terms of botanical features in comparison with two principal species. Conclusion: Due to the importance of accurate identification of medicinal plants for research purposes, we identified Cichorium intybus and Cichorium endiva as Kā sni barri and Kā sni bostā ni respectively for the plant CHICORY among the species listed in Persian medicine references.

Supercritical carbon dioxide refrigeration is one of the proposed systems to provide extremely low temperatures. The waste heat from the gas-cooler of such systems is noticeable. So, it can be used as a promising heat source in other systems like multi-effect-desalination system (MED), in order to provide cooling and fresh water, simultaneously, as well as noticeable reduction of power consumption. In this paper, the energy analysis and comparison of two novel combined systems are carried out. The combined systems consist of CO2 refrigeration system and two MED's models, the Boosted model and the water pre-heaters (PH) model. The effect of operating parameters such as evaporator temperature, ambient temperature and compressor outlet pressure on system performances are studied as well.Results showed that for both combined systems, by decreasing the evaporator temperature or increasing the ambient temperature, the coefficient of performance (COP) and the distilled water flow rate, decreases and increases, respectively. On the other hand, increasing the compressor outlet pressure would increase COP and decrease distilled water flow rate up to an optimum point. Also, MED-Boosted could produce more fresh water compared to MED-PH. In order to decrease the power consumption of the combined system two methods are presented. In two compressors method the COP enhances 6.2% compared to the base system (consisting of one compressor and an expansion valve). However, the produced fresh water would be reduced by 60%. On the other hand, the expander method could improve the COP by 23.4%, compared to the base system, while the amount of DISTILLATED water decreases less than 8%.

Hairy root cultures are an effective method for production of secondary metabolites, because the hairy roots are genetically and biologically stable and they are able to produce metabolite within a short time without needs to hormone. CHICORY (Cichorium intybus L. ) is one of the important medicinal plants that contains a number of important medicinal compounds. In this research, hairy root induction was established through the mediation of the ATCC11325 strain of Agrobacterium rhizogenes. In first experiment, the effects of type and age of explant and co-culture times on the efficiency of hairy root induction were investigated. In the second experiment, we studied the effect of different hairy root lines on growth rate. In third experiment, the effects of various concentration of NAA (0, 0. 5, 1 and 1. 5 mg/l) and sucrose (3, 4, 5 and 6%) on biomass accumulation were investigated. Results showed that maximum hairy root induction (75. 55 percent) and number of roots (7. 26 roots per explant) obtained from 5-day-old cotyledons. The results revealed that 1. 5 mg l-1 NAA in combination with 3 and 4% sucrose were superior for highest fresh (1. 4 and 1. 3 g) and dry weight (0. 107 and 0. 100 g) productivity and growth index (21. 42 and 19. 96). The highest total phenolic content (6. 76 mg g-1 DW) and flavonoid content in 270 nm wavelengths was observed in hairy roots that were grown in medium supplemented with 1. 5 mg l-1 NAA and 4% sucrose while the maximum flavonoid content in 300 and 330 wavelengths was achieved in 1. 5 mg l-1 NAA and 5% sucrose.

Inroduction & Objective: In recent years, the use of medicinal plants has been considered to improve growth and immune system indices of fish. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate the single and combined effects of CHICORY and St John's-wort hydro-alcoholic extracts on growth indices and digestive enzymes activity of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Material and Methods: For this purpose, 720 fish with an average body weight of 100± 5 g were randomly allocated to four distinct treatments including a control group, 3% CHICORY extract, 3% St John's-wort extract and a combined treatment containing 1. 5% CHICORY and 1. 5% St John's-wort extract. The experiments lasted for 12 weeks and growth indices (final weight, food conversion rate, specific growth rate, weight gain, condition factor and hepatosomatic index) and digestive enzymes activity (lipase, amylase and protease) were measured. Results: The highest and lowest weight gain, specific growth rate and hepatosomatic index were observed in 3% extract of CHICORY and 3% St John's-wort extract, respectively (p>0. 05). Also, the lowest food conversion ratio and the highest condition factor belonged to group received diet supplemented with 3% CHICORY (p>0. 05). The highest amylase and protease activity were observed in 3% CHICORY treatment (p<0. 05). In addition, the highest and lowest lipase activity was observed in 3% CHICORY and combined treatment, respectively, however they did not significantly differ (p>0. 05). Conclusion: Dietary inclusion of 3% CHICORY extract would improve the growth indices and digestive enzymes activity of rainbow trout.

CHICORY (Cichorium intybus) is an old volunteer pharmaceutical plant. Root, leaf and seed of the plant contain Inulin, Sesquiterpenoid lactones, Coumarin and Flavonoids. CHICORY cultivation is developing as the main source of Inulin at Europe countries, Japan, China and other countries. This investigation was done to evaluate 11 Iranian genotypes of CHICORY for Inulin production along with a Hungarian population of root CHICORY as a control during 2012. Genotypes were planted on mid March at Institute of Food Science and Technology, Mashhad, Iran. Traits under study were leaf width and length, root and shoot dry weight and their ratio at two stages (beginning of rosette and one month before harvesting date), time of flowering stem formation, bud number in crown, hair of leaves and stem, and final plant height. It was approved that there is no correlation between Inulin percentage and Inulin yield of CHICORY, therefore, root yield, the most effective component of Inulin yield, was identified as the major cause of increase of Inulin production. Dry root weight per plant was favorable at first sampling at rosette stage to before stem elongation and flowering (8 weeks after sowing) in Iranian genotypes and even Mollasani genotype had significant higher dry root weight than control. But this trait was significantly lower than that of control at the second sampling (26 weeks after sowing), one month before harvesting.