Arabian East

Modern Arabian East includes thirteen Arabian countries and the state of Israel. Despite its modest population, the Arabian East occupies a rather prominent position in world culture, politics and economics. The Arabian East owes this prominence to two factors first, a unique geographical location and second, ex- 

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The extensive development of the automobile industry in the 1930s helped to sustain the level of petroleum processing and market in the years of the great crisis. In 1933, the government, in conjunction with petroleum enterprises, tried to stabilize the existing prices of fuels and petroleum products. It is important to note that in the 1930s, the American petroleum companies, helped by the development of many petroleum fields in the Arabian East, aided further development of the Seven Sisters. 

During the Second World War, the state control of the petroleum industry was much stronger. The following operations were centralized and controlled by the state petroleum transfer from the Arabian East, petroleum products transfer in the land, and fixing the price for fuels and petroleum products. 

After the Second World War, the world saw five petroleum crises. However, these had little influence on the American petroleum industry because of the good relationship that existed between the government and the petroleum companies. Because of this good relationship, the petroleum industry had the opportunity to extract cheap oil from the Arabian East. This explains why prices for petroleum products were constant in the time between 1947 and 1967. There was an increase in petroleum import during this period because the petroleum imported from the Arabian East was 15-20 times cheaper than domestic petroleum. 

Viljoen et al. (2002) have described the occurrence of a new anthrone derivative, which they named homonataloside B, from 14 species of Aloe (of the 380 tested). Species containing this compound, a hitherto unknown diglycoside, were obtained from scattered sites in East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The compound was not observed in any of the species native to Madagascar. 

Arid and semi-arid lands are quite widespread in Asia, where deserts make up some 11% of this continent (Table 1.1) in Central Asia, north and east of the Caspian to Aral Sea area. In the Turkestan desert, large dunes form huge sand seas (Nettleton and Peterson, 1983). West and North of China, the Takla-Makan and Gobi deserts dominate the landscapes. More to the south, the Great Indian Desert extends up to the Himalayan foothills. More to the west are the hyperarid areas of the Dasht-i-Lat and Dasht-i-Kavri deserts in Iran and Syrian deserts. Immense areas in the north-central part of the Arabian Peninsula and in the Rub al Khali deserts in its southeastern part are hyperarid or arid. 

According to history, Arabian (Arabica) coffee was cultivated as far back as 575 A.D. (52). It is indigenous to the high lands of Abyssinia (103), from whence it was originally taken to Arabia. It was introduced from there into Java in 1696 and spread rapidly into other tropical areas of the East. 

Chewing leaves of the khat shrub is practiced in parts of East Africa and the Arabian peninsula (Kalix 1988 Widler et al. 1994). Some estimate daily use at 5 million portions. Use in the West is less common, but has increased somewhat. More common in the United States has been use of the synthetic drug methcathinone (or "cat"), which is derived from khat alkaloids. Only the fresh khat leaves are pharmacologically active, so for some time use was limited to local areas that grew the plant. However, with air transportation, use has spread with emigrants in Europe and the United States. Because of its pharmacological similarities to amphetamine and its addictive properties, khat has been listed on Schedule I of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances. 

The next largest resin seizures were made in the Near Middle East / South-West Asia region (18% of the world total). The largest seizures here were reported by Pakistan (40% of all Asian cannabis resin seizures), followed by Iran (30%) and Afghanistan (18%). The Near East (defined as the Arabian peninsula, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Iraq) accounted for 10 per cent of cannabis resin seizures made in Asia the remaining 2 per cent were made in other parts of Asia. 

Recovered sulfur sources in Middle East countries have also been developed recently. Most important of these is the Saudi Arabian gas recovery program at Berri, Shedgum and Uthmaniyah which will initially add some 4,000 tons/d to recovered sulfur production. This additional 1.5 million tons/annum of recovered sulfur will further enhance the growing dominance of recovered sulfur in the total world market picture. 

The fresh leaves of the khat shrub (Catha edulis) are chewed by several millions of people in East Africa and the Arabian peninsula for their euphoric and stimulating properties (284). The rather newly discovered alkaloid cathinone [(S)-a-aminopropiophenone] is responsible for the stimulating properties of khat (284). It has been shown that cathinone induces release at physiological catecholamine storage sites in a manner similar to that of amphetamine. Further results suggest that cathinone and amphetamine produce their stimulant effects via the same dopaminergic mechanism (599). The more recently discovered khat constituents merucathinone, merucathine, and pseudomerucathine were found to have only weak dopamine-releasing effects and were therefore considered unlikely to play an important role in the stimulatory actions of khat leaves (414). 

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Arabian-Nubian Shield NE Africa-Middle East 0.90-0.87 Stein and Goldstein (1996)... 

Chewing the leaves of Catha edulis (khat, qat) results in subjective mental stimulation, increased physical endurance, and increased self-esteem and social interaction. Until recently, this habit was confined to Arabian and East African countries, because only fresh leaves are active, but because of increased air transportation, khat is now also chewed in other parts of the world. Although cathine (norpseudoephedrine) is quantitatively the main alkaloid, the amphetamine-hke euphorigenic and sympathomimetic cardiovascular effects of khat are primarily attributed to cathinone (1). In Yemen chewers of khat produced in fields where chemical pesticides are used regularly have more sjmptoms than chewers of khat produced in fields where chemical pesticides are rarely or never used (2). 

Mjrrh is an oleo gum resin obtained from the stem of Commiphora molmol, a tree that grows in north-east Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. In mice, myrrh showed no mutagenic effects and was a potent cytotoxic drug against solid tumor cells (5). The antitumor potential of C. molmol was comparable to that of cyclophosphamide. Studies in hamsters suggested an antischistosomal activity of myrrh (6). 

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