Evaluation Of The Anti-Arthritic Activity Of The Hydroethanolic Leaf Extract Of Alchornea Cordifolia In Rats

Background: Different decoctions of Alchornea cordifolia leaves are used by Yoruba herbalists (Southwest Nigeria) for the local treatment of ulcers, rheumatic pains, febrile convulsions, and for enhancing physical performance.Materials and methods: In this study, the anti-arthritic effect of 100 – 400 mg/kg/day of the hydroethanolic leaf extract of Alchornea cordifolia (HEAC) was investigated in Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA)-induced arthritic rats as a way of evaluating its efficacy in the local management of arthritis. In addition, the effects of HEAC on liver and renal function parameters as well as its effect on the antioxidant enzyme system were investigated. Arthritis was induced using 0.1 ml of 10 mg/ml of Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA) following 1 h oral pretreatment and 8th day postarthritic induction with 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg/day of HEAC and 3 mg/kg/day of celecoxib as the reference drug. The anti-arthritic activity of HEAC was assessed based on the ability of HEAC to alter the paw edema diameter, body weight, full blood count, renal and liver function markers, glycoprotein, lysosomal enzymes and possible antioxidant potential in the arthritic rats.Results: Oral pretreatment with 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg/day of HEAC produced significant (p<0.001, p<0.05 and p<0.01) reductions in the paw edema diameter in a non-dose dependent fashion in ACF-induced arthritic rats with the 100 mg/kg/day of HEAC producing the most significant antiarthritic effect. Similarly, HEAC increased hepatic GSH levels, CAT and SOD activities suggesting possible antioxidant mechanism for its antiarthritic effect.Conclusion: Overall, results of this study lend credence to the folkloric use of water decoction of Alchornea cordifolia leaves against rheumatoid arthritis. However, further pharmacological investigations would be required at isolating and determining the active anti-arthritic molecule(s) in HEAC in the nearest future.Key words: Complete Freund’s Adjuvant, Arthritis, Hydroethanolic leaf extract, Alchornea cordifolia, Rat

The Recognition of and Care Seeking Behaviour for Childhood Illness in Developing Countries: A Systematic Review

Background: Pneumonia, diarrhoea, and malaria are among the leading causes of death in children. These deaths are largely preventable if appropriate care is sought early. This review aimed to determine the percentage of caregivers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with a child less than 5 years who were able to recognise illness in their child and subsequently sought care from different types of healthcare providers. Methods and Findings: We conducted a systematic literature review of studies that reported recognition of, and/or care seeking for episodes of diarrhoea, pneumonia or malaria in LMICs. The review is registered with PROSPERO (registration number: CRD42011001654). Ninety-one studies met the inclusion criteria. Eighteen studies reported data on caregiver recognition of disease and seventy-seven studies on care seeking. The median sensitivity of recognition of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia was low (36.0%, 37.4%, and 45.8%, respectively). A median of 73.0% of caregivers sought care outside the home. Care seeking from community health workers (median: 5.4% for diarrhoea, 4.2% for pneumonia, and 1.3% for malaria) and the use of oral rehydration therapy (median: 34%) was low. Conclusions: Given the importance of this topic to child survival programmes there are few published studies. Recognition of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia by caregivers is generally poor and represents a key factor to address in attempts to improve health care utilisation. In addition, considering that oral rehydration therapy has been widely recommended for over forty years, its use remains disappointingly low. Similarly, the reported levels of care seeking from community health workers in the included studies are low even though global action plans to address these illnesses promote community case management. Giving greater priority to research on care seeking could provide crucial evidence to inform child mortality programmes

The suggestive potentiating effect of cod liver oil on the efficacy of artesunate in Plasmodium berghei infected mice

The effects of cod liver oil on the potency of artesunate was determined using Plasmodium berghei infected mice. Fifty (50) adult albino mice weighing between 15-25g were used for this experiment. There were five groups of ten animals each per group. Groups I to IV were infected with plasmodium berghei and also received 0.9% normal saline (Group I), Artesunate (Group II), Cod liver oil (Group III) and Cod liver oil plus Artesunate (Group IV). Group V was not infected and was not treated. The parasitaemia level was monitored for eight days post inoculation of the parasites into the animals. The group IV animals that received the combination of both Artestunate and Cod liver oil demonstrated a better clearance of malaria parasite than Artesunate montherapy (Group II) with 48.7%, 90.3%, 98.9% and 99.2% suppression of parasiteamia from days 4 to 5, 5 to 6, 6 to 7 and 7 to 8 respectively. These findings showed that the combination of Artesunate and Cod liver oil is more effective against plasmodium berghei infection than artesunate alone. This combination may thus be considered as a suitable and cost effective Artemisinin Combination Therapy. Keywords: Plasmodium berghei, Parasitaemia, Artesunate, Cod liver oil Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol. 5 (2) 2006: 74-7

Educational Intervention to Improve the Practice of Pharmacovigilance among Traditional Medicine Practitioners in Lagos Nigeria.

In the face of the growing usage of herbs, pharmacovigilance of herbal medicine is still in its infancy. Literatures have indicated lack of awareness as one of the major barriers to pharmacovigilance. This study evaluates the impact of an educational intervention in improving the practice of pharmacovigilance among traditional medicine practitioners (TMPs) in Lagos State. A total of 237 traditional medicine practitioners attended a one day workshop on pharmacovigilance. A pre-tested questionnaire was used to obtain baseline, immediate and one month post-intervention information on knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance among the respondents. The Paired T-Test and Analysis of Variance were used to compare the means of variables in the different phases of the study. Values of ps 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Mean knowledge and attitude to pharmacovigilance scores significantly improved by the end of the study from 14.4 ± 4.3 to 16.7 ± 4.8 (P = 0.003) and 4.2 ± 0.6 to 4.6 ± 0.7 (P = 0.000) respectively. Howeverthe improvementin knowledge of practice of pharmacovigilance was not sustained by the end of the study as the P value increased from 0.04 to 0.5. While educational levels of the participants significantly influenced their knowledge of pharmacovigilance (p< 0.05), gender had no significant influence (p > 0.05). The educational intervention had a positive impact on the knowledge, attitude and practice scores of the participants. However, the improvement on the practice knowledge of pharmacovigilance was not sustained at the end of the study. Continual improvement in the practice of pharmacovigilance of TMPs, through regular and aggressive educational interventions, is necessary for them to partiCipate effectively in the safety monitoring of herbal medicines.Key words: Educational intervention, pharmacovigilance, traditional medicine practitioners