In vivo effects of Faizol Ubat Batuk, a herbal product on aminopyrine metabolism in rat hepatocytes

Traditional medicines, in particular herbal products, have been used abundantly over the years in curing several diseases. Pharmacological interactions of herbal products with modern drugs, however, remain to ome extent unknown. Herein, we examined whether co-administration of Faizol Ubat Batuk (FUB), a mixture of aqueous extract of different plants, modifies the metabolism of aminopyrine, a conventional analgesic drug, in rat liver. We used rat hepatocytes outfitted by collagenase perfusion technique. Determination of aminopyrine n-demethylase activity was performed using the Nash colorimetric method, by measuring the amount of formaldehyde produced. Compared to control treatment, FUB significantly increased the hepatic metabolism of aminopyrine in healthy adult male rats. In contrast, the hepatic metabolism of aminopyrine in adult female rats was decreased. Besides, a biphasic effect in n-demethylase activity was observed in young male rats treated with FUB. In a subsequent experiment, FUB did not change the metabolism of aminopyrine in streptozotocin (STZ)-diabetic adult male rats. In conclusion, administration of FUB could affect phase I aminopyrine metabolism in rat heptocytes. In addition, the effects of FUB on hepatic n-demethylase activity were gender and disease dependent.Keywords: drug metabolism; hepatocytes; herbal products; gender; diabetes mellitu

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS ON STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOUR OF GEOpOLYMER REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM USING JOHNSON-COOK DAMAGE IN ABAQUS

This paper details a finite element analysis of the behaviour of Si-Al geopolymer concrete beam reinforced steel bar under an impulsive load and hyper velocity speed up to 1 km/s created by an air blast explosion. The initial torsion stiffness and ultimate torsion strength of the beam increased with increasing compressive strength and decreasing stirrup ratio. The study involves building a finite element model to detail the stress distribution and compute the level of damage, displacement, and cracks development on the geopolymer concrete reinforcement beam. This was done in ABAQUS, where a computational model of the finite element was used to determine the elasticity, plasticity, concrete tension damages, concrete damage plasticity, and the viability of the Johnson-Cook Damage method on the Si-Al geopolymer concrete. The results from the numerical simulation show that an increase in the load magnitude at the midspan of the beam leads to a percentage increase in the ultimate damage of the reinforced geopolymer beams failing in shear plastic deformation. The correlation between the numerical and experimental blasting results confirmed that the damage pattern accurately predicts the response of the steel reinforcement Si-Al geopolymer concrete beams, concluded that decreasing the scaled distance from 0.298 kg/m3 to 0.149 kg/m3 increased the deformation percentage

Sub–acute oral toxicity study of methanol leaves extract of Catharanthus roseus in rats

Objective: To examine the sub-acute (14 d) oral toxic effects of methanol leaves extract of Catharanthus roseus (C. roseus) (Family: Apocynaceae) on liver and kidney functions in Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Methods: Twenty four female SD rats were used throughout the experiment. The first group was orally treated with distilled water and served as control, whereas the remaining three groups were orally treated with single dose daily of 0.1 g/kg, 0.5 g/kg, 1 g/kg of C. roseus extract, respectively for 14 d. Cage-side observations were done daily. Any animal died during the experiment was dissected for gross organ examination. Body weight changed, food consumption and water intake were recorded weekly. Blood was collected via cardiac puncture on day-15 and used for determination of serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine and urea. The relative organ weights were also measured. All results were expressed as mean ± S.E.M and analysed using Dunnett's test. The level of significance was set at P<0.05 when compared to the control group. Results: Repeated oral administration of 0.5 g/kg and 1 g/kg of methanol leaves extract of C. roseus caused mortality and diarrhoea in rats after few days of treatment. There were no significant changes observed in serum biochemical markers, body weight changed, water and food intake and relative organ weight in rats treated with a single dose daily of 0.1 g/kg of C. roseus extract treatment for 14 d when compared to control group. Conclusionds: Fourteen days repeated oral administration of 0.1 g/kg of methanol leaves extract of C. roseus was safe in female SD rats without causing any significant damages to liver and kidney

Mobile learning in southeast Asia: opportunities and challenges

Mobile learning has been adopted to a varying extent across the countries of Southeast Asia. Though mobile learning initiatives in the UK, Europe, the United States and Australia are well-documented, much less in known is known about mobile learning initiatives in Southeast Asia. This region is culturally and economically diverse, containing both developed countries such as Singapore and developing countries including East Timor. This range of economic development means that the penetration of telecommunications technologies, including infrastructure to support mobile and internet networks, varies vastly and the extent to which this technology is used for learning, similarly varies. This chapter begins with an examination of the mobile device market penetration in the various countries of Southeast Asia and the particular demographics of those users. Internet censorship potentially will impact on mobile learning initiatives in some countries and this is examined briefly. The status of mobile learning in a cross-section of Southeast Asian countries will be examined, with a particular focus on government policies, critical infrastructure and notable mobile learning initiatives. The chapter concludes with a review of the enablers and barriers to mobile learning in Southeast Asia and a look at future directions