Tradition and Perspectives of Arab Herbal Medicine: A Review

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), including herbal medicine, are popular in the general population worldwide. Parallel to the increasing interest in ‘modern’ CAM therapies and the historical importance of Arab medicine, there is also a similar trend in research activities dealing with the efficacy and safety of medicinal plants in our region. Historical and current studies and surveys indicate that the Eastern region of the Mediterranean has been distinguished throughout the generations with a rich inventory of natural medicinal herbs. It is well documented that indigenous Arab medicine has contributed greatly to the development of modern medicine in Europe and remains one of the closest forms of original European medicine. The rapid increase in consumption of herbal remedies worldwide has been stimulated by several factors, including the notion that all herbal products are safe and effective. This article presents a systematic review on traditional Arab medicine including historical background, medical innovations introduced by Arab physicians in the field of safety and efficacy of herbal medicine and a state-of-the-art description of traditional Arab herbal medicine in the Mediterranean region

RE-EVALUATING SUSTAINABILITY OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS BY USING TOPSIS

Purpose: The measurement of sustainability for microfinance institutions (MFIs) has been a serious problem for both practitioners and researchers over the last few decades. A multicriteria decision-making approach is used to develop an index that measures the sustainability of microfinance institutions based on the double bottom line. Methodology: The sustainability score of MFIs operating in Pakistan for the year 2006-2015 is measured using the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). During the assessment, equal weights are assigned to all indicators of sustainability. Additionally, a hypothetical organization was assigned the industry threshold to generate composite scores using TOPSIS. Later, sustainability levels of individual MFIs were compared with this industry threshold. Findings: Microfinance institutions that attain higher financial sustainability and positive outreach are ranked high. The result shows that the threshold sustainability level of the microfinance sector in Pakistan from 2006-2015 was 23.52, 26.31, 23.80, 45.83, 45.83, 66.67, 77.77, 91.60, and 88.88 percent respectively. Although the sustainability level in 2015 decreases with respect to 2014, still the overall growth of the sector is remarkable. Practical implications: The results obtained from TOPSIS for evaluating the sustainability of MFIs under the double bottom line highlight its practical applicability. MFIs are under immense pressure by regulatory bodies, investors, donors, and financial experts to achieve sustainability. This index would help MFIs to track progress and improve their sustainability. Novelty/Originality: This study is the first of its kind to determine the sustainability of MFI by using all the four indicators of sustainability, including financial self-sufficiency, operational self-sufficiency, depth of outreach and breadth of outreach. Existing sustainability indicators does not provide the threshold level of sustainability. Instead, they provide a ranking of MFIs from top to bottom only. This study is novel to identify whether MFIs have met or failed to achieve sustainability by providing the threshold level

The State of the Art of Traditional Arab Herbal Medicine in the Eastern Region of the Mediterranean: A Review

Historical and current studies indicate that the Eastern region of the Mediterranean has been distinguished from other regions by a rich inventory of complementary alternative medicine (CAM), in particular herbal medicine. Data collected from several surveys and studies indicate that there is a flourishing and well-developed trade of herbs. These surveys also reveal that 200–250 herbs are used in treating human diseases and are sold or traded in market places in the Mediterranean region or internationally. In addition, some of these herbs are rare or even endangered species. In regard to the status of the know-how of herbalists, unfortunately, herbal medicine in our region is mostly prescribed by ethnopharmacologists symptomatically—based on signs and symptoms alone, rather than as a result of a full understanding of the underlying disease. In some cases, herbs used today may not even correspond to the plants described originally in the old literature, as the former are cultivated from herbs that went through different breeding procedures throughout several centuries. This article presents a systematic review of both the state of the art of traditional Arab herbal medicine and the status of the know-how of Arab herbalists

Safety of Traditional Arab Herbal Medicine

Herbal remedies are widely used for the treatment and prevention of various diseases and often contain highly active pharmacological compounds. Many medicinal herbs and pharmaceutical drugs are therapeutic at one dose and toxic at another. Toxicity related to traditional medicines is becoming more widely recognized as these remedies become popular in the Mediterranean region as well as worldwide. Most reports concerning the toxic effects of herbal medicines are associated with hepatotoxicity although reports of other toxic effects including kidney, nervous system, blood, cardiovascular and dermatologic effects, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity have also been published in the medical literature. This article presents a systematic review on safety of traditional Arab medicine and the contribution of Arab scholars to toxicology. Use of modern cell biological, biochemical, in vitro and in vivo techniques for the evaluation of medicinal plants safety is also discussed

Weight Loss in Animals and Humans Treated with “Weighlevel”, a Combination of Four Medicinal Plants Used in Traditional Arabic and Islamic Medicine

Weighlevel, a mixture of extract of four plants used in traditional Arabic and Islamic medicine as well as in European herbal medicine, was prepared and assessed for its safety and efficacy in weight loss. Leaves of Alchemilla vulgaris, Olea europaea and Mentha longifolia L., as well as seeds of Cuminum cyminum, were used. Cultured human fibroblasts treated with Weighlevel did not exhibit any sign of toxicity as evidenced by lactate dehydrogenase release. These results were confirmed in experimental studies on rats where an LD50 of 15.3 g kg−1 was observed. Significant antioxidant properties were seen at very low concentrations of Weighlevel (10 μg ml−1) as measured by the lipid peroxidation method. Progressive and significant weight loss was observed in chickens given this mixture weekly for 4 weeks compared with controls. Furthermore, a 3-fold increase in the thermogenesis was seen in rat interscapular brown adipose tissue following exposure to different concentrations of Weighlevel extract as determined by measurement of increased oxygen consumption. In addition, a clinical study was carried out among 80 human volunteers with a body mass index (BMI) of 30.67 ± 2.14 kg m−2. All 80 subjects were asked to continue their usual diet but to eat only three main meals daily and to take one Weighlevel tablet 30 min before each meal. Fourteen subjects were excluded for not following the protocol, and 66 subjects were all evaluated for efficacy and tolerability of Weighlevel monthly for 3 months. Weighlevel was well tolerated by all subjects, and no side effects were reported. A progressive and significant weight loss was seen in these subjects during the whole study period. Higher levels of weight loss were seen in people with BMI of 25–30 kg m−2 (overweight) compared to people with BMI >30 kg m−2 (obese). The BMI was reduced after 3 months from 28.5 ± 1.2 and 32.1 ± 1.8 kg m−2 to 24.5 ± 1.4 and 27.5 ± 2.2 kg m−2 in overweight and obese group, respectively. Results indicate safety, tolerability and efficacy of Weighlevel

Performance analysis of image transmission with various channel conditions/modulation techniques

This paper investigates the impact of different modulation techniques for digital communication systems that employ quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM and 64-QAM) to transmit images over AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels for the cellular mobile networks. In the further steps, wiener and median filters has been adopted to the simulation are used at the receiver side to remove the impulsive noise present in the received image. This work is performed to evaluate the transmission of two dimensional (2D) gray-scale and color-scale (RGB) images with different values from signal to noise ratios (SNR), such as; (5, 10 and 15) dB over different channels. The correct conclusions are made by comparing many of the observed Matlab simulation results. This was carried out through the results that measure the quality of received image, which is analyzes in terms of SNRimage peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and mean square error (MSE)

Performance analysis of image transmission with various channel conditions/modulation techniques

This paper investigates the impact of different modulation techniques for digital communication systems that employ quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM and 64-QAM) to transmit images over AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels for the cellular mobile networks. In the further steps, wiener and median filters has been adopted to the simulation are used at the receiver side to remove the impulsive noise present in the received image. This work is performed to evaluate the transmission of two dimensional (2D) gray-scale and color-scale (RGB) images with different values from signal to noise ratios (SNR), such as; (5, 10 and 15) dB over different channels. The correct conclusions are made by comparing many of the observed Matlab simulation results. This was carried out through the results that measure the quality of received image, which is analyzes in terms of SNRimage peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and mean square error (MSE)