Ethnoveterinary medicinal plants used in Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu

Ethnoveterinary medicine is the holistic interdisciplinary study of the localknowledge and the socio-cultural structures and environment associated with animalhealthcare and husbandry. Perambalur, partially plain and a hilly district of Tamil Nadustate is rich in ethnoveterinary medicinal plants. In the present study, 21 plants belonging to16 families used as veterinary medicines have been documented. Due to poor availability ofmodern healthcare facilities and poverty of indigenous people, they fully or partially dependon local ethnic medicinal plants for the healthcare of their domestic animals. In this way, anattempt has been made to document the traditional knowledge of Perambalur district peopleabout ethnoveterinary medicinal plants and their usages on the treatment of variousveterinary diseases, their botanical names, local names, methods of drug preparation andadministration of drugs are given

Traditional Phytotherapy for Diabetes Used by the People of Perambalur District, Tamilnadu, South India

Diabetes is caused due to deficiency in production of insulin by the pancreas, or by the ineffectiveness of the insulin produced. It is a global problem and the numbers of people affected are increasing day by day. Plants provide a potential source of antidiabetic drugs. In India, most of the people, especially in rural areas use traditional medicine of plants to treat many diseases including diabetes. The aim of the present study was to document medicinal plants, traditionally used to treat diabetes by the people of Perambalur district. Traditional health practitioners were interviewed with standardized questionnaires in order to obtain information on medicinal plants traditionally used for the management of diabetes. Thirty species of 29 genera and 22 families were encountered during this study

Structural Biology of NOD-Like Receptors

The nucleotide-binding domain (NBD) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) containing (NLR) proteins are a large family of intracellular immune receptors conserved in both animals and plants. Mammalian NLRs function as pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) to sense pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or host-derived danger associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). PAMP or DAMP perception activates NLRs which consequently recruit pro-caspase-1 directly or indirectly. These sequential events result in formation of large multimeric protein complexes termed inflammasomes that mediate caspase-1 activation for pyroptosis and cytokine secretion. Recent structural and biochemical studies provide significant insights into the acting mechanisms of NLR proteins. In this chapter, we review and discuss these studies concerning autoinhibition, ligand recognition, activation of NLRs, and assembly of NLR inflammasomes