Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2015 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 5 Articles
Maintenance of weight loss usually requires a long term therapy of a drug with repeated doses. Therefore, present study was aimed to evaluate the safety of fattolin, a polyherbal formulation using acute and sub-acute oral toxicity studies in laboratory rats. In acute oral toxicity study, three albino wistar female rats received a suspension of fattolin orally with an initial dose of 2000 mg/kg body weight and observed for mortality and behavioural changes. Eighteen albino wistar female rats were used in sub-acute oral toxicity study and were equally divided into three groups (n = 6). Group I received a vehicle (10 ml/kg), whereas Group II and III received fattolin orally 200 and 400 mg/kg, respectively for 28 days. The rats were observed twice daily for morbidity and mortality. Further the body weight, organ weight, biochemical, haematological estimations and histological studies were performed to assess the safety of fattolin. Fattolin at a dose of 2000 mg/kg did not produce any mortality and clinical sign of toxicity. Further no toxicity signs or death were recorded during the 28 days of treatment. However, the treatment with fattolin (400 mg/kg) showed significant decrease in body weight but these effect could not produce significant changes in organ to body weight ratio. Further biochemical and haematological parameters did not show significant alteration as compared to control rats. The histopathological studies showed no structural alteration in fattolin treated rats. In conclusion, the oral administration of fattolin was found safe and can be used for long term treatment of obesity....
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Bangladesh has a rich traditional plant-medicine use, drawing on\nAyurveda and Unami medicine. How these practices translate into people's homes and lives vary.\nFurthermore, the overlap between food and medicine is blurred and context-specific. This paper explores\nthe foodââ?¬â??medicine interface as experienced by Bengali women in their homes, in the context of\ntransnational and generational changes.\nAim and objectives: The aim is to explore the overlap of food and medicines in homes of Bengali women\nin Sylhet. The objectives are to explore the influences on medicinal plant practice and to scrutinise how\ncatagories of food and medicine are decided.\nMaterial and methods: The paper draws on in-depth ethnographic research conducted in Sylhet, Northeast\nBangladesh as part of a wider project looking at food and medicine use among Bengali women in\nboth the UK and Bangladesh. Methods included participant observation, unstructured interviews and\nsemi-structured interviews with a total of thirty women.\nResults: The study indicates that the use of plants as food and medicine is common among Bengali\nwomen in Sylhet. What is consumed as a food and/or a medicine varies between individuals, generations\nand families. The use and perceptions of foodââ?¬â??medicines is also dependent on multiple factors such as\nage, education and availability of both plants and biomedicine. Where a plant may fall on the foodââ?¬â??\nmedicine spectrum depends on a range of factors including its purpose, consistency and taste.\nConclusions: Previous academic research has concentrated on the nutritional and pharmacological\nproperties of culturally constructed foodââ?¬â??medicines (Etkin and Ross, 1982; Owen and Johns, 2002,\nPieroni and Quave, 2006). However, our findings indicate a contextualisation of the food-plant spectrum\nbased on both local beliefs and wider structural factors, and thus not necessarily characteristics intrinsic\nto the products' pharmacological or nutritional properties. The implications of this research are of both\nacademic relevance and practical importance to informing health services....
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Because about 50% of the Zimbabwean population is at risk of\ncontracting malaria each year, the majority of people, especially in rural areas, use traditional plantbased\nmedicines to combat malaria. This explorative ethnobotanical survey was undertaken to document\nhow malaria is conceptualized and diagnosed by traditional healers, and to record the medicinal plants\nused in the prevention and treatment of malaria, their mode of preparation and administration.\nMaterials and methods: The research was conducted in three villages in Headman Muzite's area and in\nChiriga village. These villages are located in the Chipinge district in the Manicaland Province in\nZimbabwe.Traditional healers were selected with the assistance of the headman of the Muzite area\nand a representative of the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association. Semi-structured interviews\nwere conducted with 14 traditional healers from four villages in the Chipinge district in Zimbabwe.\nResults: In total, 28 plants from 16 plant families are used by the healers who manage malaria with\nmedicinal plants. The most cited plant is Cassia abbreviata Oliv. (Leguminosae) followed by Aristolochia\nalbida Duch (Aristolociaceae) and Toddalia asiatica (L.) Lam. (Rutaceae). Roots (55.3%) are the most\ncommon part used. Most of the plant parts used to treat malaria are stored as dried powders in closed\nbottles. The powders are soaked in hot or cold water and the water extract is taken as the active\nmedicine. The healers consider their medicinal knowledge as a spiritual family heritage. Only 25% of the\nhealers refer the malaria patients that do not respond to their treatment to hospital ââ?¬â?? they believe evil\nspirits cause their remedies to failure and they would rather try a different plant or perform a cleansing\nceremony.\nConclusions: Local knowledge of medicinal plants in the treatment of malaria still exists in all four\nvillages surveyed and traditional healers appear to play an important role in primary health care services\nin this remote rural area in Zimbabwe. This explorative survey underscores the need to preserve and\ndocument traditional healing for managing malaria and for more future scientific research on the plants\nto determine their efficacy and their safety. This could improve their traditional anti-malarial recipes and\nmight contribute to a better integration of Zimbabwean traditional medicine into the national health\nsystem in the future....
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Seventeen plants used in Vietnamese traditional medicine for the\ntreatment of inflammatory disorders were screened for NF-?B inhibitory activity. Oroxylum indicum,\nwhich exhibited activity, was investigated in detail.\nMaterials and methods: Forty plant extracts from 17 species were prepared by maceration using\ndichloromethane and methanol and were tested (10 mg/mL) to evaluate their ability to inhibit NF-?B\nactivation using TNF-?-stimulated HEK-293 cells stably transfected with a NF-?B-driven luciferase\nreporter. The active extract of Oroxylum indicum was subsequently fractionated by different chromatographic\ntechniques. After isolation, all single compounds were identified by spectroscopic methods and\nassessed for NF-?B inhibitory effects.\nResults: The dichloromethane extracts obtained from Chromolaena odorata leaves and the stem bark of\nOroxylum indicum showed distinct inhibitory effects on NF-?B activation at a concentration of 10 mg/mL.\nThe active extract of Oroxylum indicum was subjected to further phytochemical studies resulting in\nidentification of four flavonoid aglyca and six flavonoid glycosides. Pharmacological evaluation of the\nobtained compounds identified oroxylin A as the most active substance (IC50Ã?¼3.9 mM, 95% CI: 3.5ââ?¬â??\n4.4 mM), while chrysin and hispidulin showed lower activity with IC50Ã?¼7.2 mM (95% CI: 6.0ââ?¬â??8.8 mM) and\n9.0 mM (95% CI: 7.9ââ?¬â??10.2 mM), respectively. Interestingly, in this study the activity of baicalein\n(IC50Ã?¼28.1 mM, 95% CI: 24.6ââ?¬â??32.0 mM) was weak. The isolated glycosides showed no inhibitory activity\nwhen tested at a concentration of 30 mM. Quantification of the four active flavonoids in extracts and plant\nmaterials suggested that oroxylin A contributes to the NF-?B inhibitory activity of the stem barks of\nOroxylum indicum to a greater extent than baicalein which was thought to be responsible for the antiinflammatory\nactivity of this plant.\nConclusions: The screening presented in this study identified the dichloromethane extracts of Chromolaena\nodorata and Oroxylum indicum as promising sources for NF-?B inhibitors. Hispidulin, baicalein,\nchrysin and oroxylin A, isolated from Oroxylum indicum, were identified as inhibitors of NF- ?B activation....
Ethnopharmacological relevance: The debate on the food-drug continuum could benefit from a historical\ndimension. This study aims at showing this through one case: the food-drug continuum in Greece in the\nfifth- and fourth-century BCE. I suggest that at the time the boundary between food and drug ââ?¬â?? and that\nbetween dietetics and pharmacology ââ?¬â?? was rather blurred.\nMaterials and methods: I study definitions of ââ?¬Ë?foodââ?¬â?¢ and ââ?¬Ë?medicineââ?¬â?¢ in texts from the fifth- and fourthcentury\nBCE: the Hippocratic texts, the botanical treatises of Theophrastus and the pseudo-Aristotelian\nProblems. To illustrate these abstract definitions, I focus on two substances: garlic and silphium.\nResults and discussion: The Hippocratics were writing in a context of increased professionalization and\nmasculinization of medicine, a context in which dietetics became the most prestigious branch of\nmedicine, praised above pharmacology and surgery. While medicine was becoming more specialised,\nprofessionalised and masculine, it avoided becoming too conspicuously so. The Hippocratic authors\nsometimes noted that medical discoveries are serendipitous and can be made by anyone, whether\nmedically trained or not. By doing so, they allowed themselves to integrate common knowledge and\npractice into their writings.\nConclusion: In the context of the professionalization of ancient medicine, the Hippocratic authors started\nto address the difference between food and medicine. They saw, however, some advantage in acknowledging\nthe continuum between food and medicine. Scholars should avoid drawing too strict a boundary\nbetween ancient dietetics and pharmacology and should instead adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to\nthe therapeutics of the Hippocratic texts....
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