On the trail of an ancient middle eastern ethnobotany: Traditional wild food plants gathered by ormuri speakers in kaniguram, nw pakistan

An ethnobotanical field study focusing on traditional wild food botanical taxa was carried out in Kaniguram, South Waziristan, Pakistan, among Ormur (or Burki or Baraki) peoples, which represent a diasporic minority group, as well as among the surrounding Pashtuns. Through sixty semi-structured interviews, fifty-two wild food plants (taxa) were recorded, and they were primarily used raw as snacks and cooked as vegetables. Comparative analysis found a remarkable overlap of the quoted plant uses between the two studied groups, which may reflect complex socio-cultural adaptations Ormur speakers faced. Ormur people retain a rich knowledge of anthropogenic weeds and the phytonyms reveal important commonalities with Persian and Kurdish phytonyms, which may indicate their possible horticultural-driven human ecological origin from the Middle East. Some novel or rare food uses of Cirsium arvense, Nannorrhops ritchiana, Periploca aphylla, Perovskia atriplicifolia, Viscum album, Oxalis corniculata and Withania coagulans were documented. Since the Ormuri language represents a moribund language, still spoken by only a few thousand speakers in NW Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is recommended that the traditional bio-cultural and gastronomical heritage of this minority group be appropriately protected and bolstered in future rural development programs

Advancements in left ventricular assist devices to prevent pump thrombosis and blood coagulopathy

Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices, such as left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are very useful in improving outcomes in patients with advanced-stage heart failure. Despite recent advances in LVAD development, pump thrombosis is one of the most severe adverse events caused by LVADs. The contact of blood with artificial materials of LVAD pumps and cannulas triggers the coagulation cascade. Heat spots, for example, produced by mechanical bearings are often subjected to thrombus build-up when low-flow situations impair washout and thus the necessary cooling does not happen. The formation of thrombus in an LVAD may compromise its function, causing a drop in flow and pumping power leading to failure of the LVAD, if left unattended. If a clot becomes dislodged and circulates in the bloodstream, it may disturb the flow or occlude the blood vessels in vital organs and cause internal damage that could be fatal, for example, ischemic stroke. That is why patients with LVADs are on anti-coagulant medication. However, the anti-coagulants can cause a set of issues for the patient-an example of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is given in illustration. On account of this, these devices are only used as a last resort in clinical practice. It is, therefore, necessary to develop devices with better mechanics of blood flow, performance and hemocompatibility. This paper discusses the development of LVADs through landmark clinical trials in detail and describes the evolution of device design to reduce the risk of pump thrombosis and achieve better hemocompatibility. Whilst driveline infection, right heart failure and arrhythmias have been recognised as LVAD-related complications, this paper focuses on complications related to pump thrombosis, especially blood coagulopathy in detail and potential strategies to mitigate this complication. Furthermore, it also discusses the LVAD implantation techniques and their anatomical challenges

Indian Ocean navigation in Islamic sources 850–1560 CE

Oceanic histories have become increasingly popular in the last few decades, as maritime‐based approaches to historical inquiry, often referred to as a “new thalassology,” gain prominence. Indian Ocean studies in particular have flourished as a result of this trend. However, the study of Indian Ocean navigation has not received the same level of academic attention. This paper briefly reviews the historical and historiographical development of Indian Ocean navigation and argues that although significant work—based largely on Arabic manuscripts sources—was conducted in the twentieth century, the field has become somewhat stagnant. It concludes with recommendations for future research that could further enhance our understanding of Indian Ocean navigation and enrich the broader field of Indian Ocean studies

Antimicrobial, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities and Phytochemical Screening of Some Yemeni Medicinal Plants

The traditional medicine still plays an important role in the primary health care in Yemen. The current study represents the investigation of 16 selected plants, which were collected from different localities of Yemen. The plants were dried and extracted with two different solvents (methanol and hot water) to yield 34 crude extracts. The obtained extracts were tested for their antimicrobial activity against three Gram-positive bacteria, two Gram-negative bacteria, one yeast species and three multiresistant Staphylococcus strains using agar diffusion method, for their antioxidant activity using scavenging activity of DPPH radical method and for their cytotoxic activity using the neutral red uptake assay. In addition, a phytochemical screening of the methanolic extracts was done. Antibacterial activity was shown only against Gram-positive bacteria, among them multiresistant bacteria. The highest antimicrobial activity was exhibited by the methanolic extracts of Acalypha fruticosa, Centaurea pseudosinaica, Dodonaea viscosa, Jatropha variegata, Lippia citriodora, Plectranthus hadiensis, Tragia pungens and Verbascum bottae. Six methanolic extracts especially those of A. fruticosa, Actiniopteris semiflabellata, D. viscosa, P. hadiensis, T. pungens and V. bottae showed high free radical scavenging activity. Moreover, remarkable cytotoxic activity against FL-cells was found for the methanolic extracts of A. fruticosa, Iris albicans, L. citriodora and T. pungens. The phytochemical screening demonstrated the presence of different types of compounds like flavonoids, terpenoids and others, which could be responsible for the obtained activities

Ethnobotanical Survey of Dracaena cinnabari and Investigation of the Pharmacognostical Properties, Antifungal and Antioxidant Activity of Its Resin

Dracaena cinnabari Balf. f. (Dracaenaceae) is an important plant endemic to Soqotra Island, Yemen. Dragon’s blood (Dam Alakhwin) is the resin that exudes from the plant stem. The ethnobotanical survey was carried out by semi-structured questionnaires and open interviews to document the ethnobotanical data of the plant. According to the collected ethnobotanical data, the resin of D. cinnabari is widely used in the traditional folk medicine in Soqotra for treatment of dermal, dental, eye and gastrointestinal diseases in humans. The resin samples found on the local Yemeni markets were partly or totally substituted by different adulterants. Organoleptic properties, solubility and extractive value were demonstrated as preliminary methods to identify the authentic pure Soqotri resin as well as the adulterants. In addition, the resin extracts and its solution in methanol were investigated for their in vitro antifungal activities against six human pathogenic fungal strains by the agar diffusion method, for antioxidant activities using the DPPH assay and for cytotoxic activity using the neutral red uptake assay. The crude authentic resin dissolves completely in methanol. In comparison with different resin extracts, the methanolic solution of the whole resin showed the strongest biological activities. It showed strong antifungal activity, especially against Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes besides antioxidant activities and toxicity against FL-cells. These findings confirm and explain the traditional uses of the resin for the treatment of skin diseases and mouth fungal infections

β-Caryophyllene: A Single Volatile Component of n-Hexane Extract of Dracaena cinnabari Resin

The pure Soqotri resin of Dracaena cinnabari Balf.f. (Dracaenaceae) has no volatile smell due to its low content of volatile constituents. Although it is insoluble in n-Hexane, we found that the resin, when suspended in n-Hexane within five days at 5 °C, led to the extraction of a small portion of a single volatile liquid constituent, which was identified by GC-MS as sesquiterpene β-caryophyllene. This method of extracting the volatile constituents using hexane under cooling is very suitable for resins of the Dracaena species because these resins usually contain very few volatile terpenes and/or non-terpenes, and they may contain only one volatile terpene per resin as this study result. β-Caryophyllene was identified and separated for the first time from the Soqotri standard resin of Dracaena cinnabari. Therefore, β-caryophyllene, as a new chemical property, can support to evaluate the purity of the Soqotri resin. Moreover, a big mass of D. cinnabari resin can yield concentrated β-caryophyllene as a liquid extract for further pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications

Effet de la température sur la désactivation par le plomb des catalyseurs au platine

Des catalyseurs au platine platiné ont été modifiés par le plomb, déposé en sous-tension, et caractérisés par leur activité en hydrogénation de l’acide maléique à différentes températures. Les toxicités initiales du plomb (à θPb → 0) dépendent de la température et varient dans l’ordre : t276K > t296K > t308K. A308K la toxicité initiale du plomb est pratiquement nulle alors qu’à 296 et 276K elle est élevée ; respectivement de l’ordre de 27 et 40 atomes de platine désactivés par un atome de plomb en surface! Ces fortes toxicités initiales du plomb peuvent être expliquées par sa diffusion rapide sur la surface du platine. Les vitesses de diffusion seraient de l’ordre de 10-15 cm2/sec. L’apparition d’un palier d’activité, pour des taux de recouvrement en plomb compris entre 0,05 et 0,30, pourrait être la conséquence de la formation d’îlots de plomb sur la surface du platine

Chemical Composition, Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities of the Volatile Oil of Ganoderma pfeifferi Bres

In a first study of the volatile oil of the mushroom basidiomycete Ganoderma pfeifferi Bres., the chemical composition and antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of the oil were investigated. The volatile oil was obtained from the fresh fruiting bodies of Ganoderma pfeifferi Bres. By hydrodistillation extraction and analyzed by GC-MS. The antimicrobial activity of the oil was evaluated against five bacteria strains and two types of fungi strains, using disc diffusion and broth microdilution methods. In addition, the antioxidant activity of the oil was determined using DPPH assay. Four volatile compounds representing 90.5% of the total oil were identified. The majority of the essential oil was dominated by 1-octen-3-ol (amyl vinyl carbinol) 1 (73.6%) followed by 1-octen-3-ol acetate 2 (12.4%), phenylacetaldehyde 3 (3.0%) and 6-camphenol 4 (1.5%). The results showed that the Gram-positive bacteria species are more sensitive to the essential oil than Gram-negative bacteria. The oil showed strong antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus as well as Candida albicans. Moreover, the oil exhibited strong radical scavenging activity in the DPPH assay. This first report on the chemical composition and biological properties of G. pfeifferi volatile oil makes its pharmaceutical uses rational and provides a basis in the biological and phytochemical investigations of the volatile oils of Ganodermataceae species