Relationship of knowledge and attitude with smoking habits at low healthy family index

 Smoking is one of the habits that are often done by the people of Indonesia. Smoking habits are influenced by several things, such as knowledge and attitudes. Having good knowledge will tend to avoid smoking habits, and having a positive attitude will make someone stop smoking. This study aims to determine the relationship between knowledge and attitudes toward smoking habits in Tugu District residents with a Low Healthy Family Index. This research is an observational study with a cross-sectional approach carried out in Tugu District with residents with a low Healthy Family Index. The samples used were 81 samples. The analysis used is the Spearman test. The results showed that 34 respondents (42%) had sufficient knowledge, 64 respondents had a negative attitude (79%), 36 respondents were heavy smokers (44.4%), and 45 respondents were moderate smokers (55.6%). The results of the relationship between knowledge and attitudes toward smoking habits are each with p values of 0.000 and 0.005. This study concludes that there is a relationship between knowledge and attitudes toward smoking habits in Tugu District residents with a Low Healthy Family Index. 

Investigation of porcupine bezoar extract combined with electroporation on HeLa cell

Current chemo-preventive agents will causes a long term side effects in cancer sufferer. Therefore, this research focusses on the benefits of combine both technique of Electroporation (EP) method and with natural animal extract in process to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cell, as a solution to reduce or adverse effects of orthodox drugs. The present study indicates on anti-cancer potentially of Porcupine Bezoar Extract (PBE), also known as Hystrix Brachyuran against HeLa cell. Cell viability of HeLa cell were determined after HeLa cell treated with 500 V/cm and pulse duration of 100µs before the concentration of 80.0 µg/ml of Porcupine Bezoar Extract (PBE) was added into the cell. The cell viability and cell growth were monitored up to 48 hours with comparative to untreated cell as a control group.This study result proved that by combine both technique; Electroporation (EP) and with natural animal extract Porcupine Bezoar Extract (PBE) might open the door and it has an ability in supressing the growth of HeLa cell

In-vitro evaluation of porcupine bezoar extracts (PBE) as anti-cancer agent on HeLa cell line – A preliminary study

Porcupine Bezoar Extract (PBE) has been previously described to possess diverse medicinal properties. In any case, its potential and ability as anti-cancer agent on HeLa cell line are still poorly studied and understood. Hence, in this research, Porcupine Bezoar Extract (PBE) aqueous extract was figure out for its potential as a safe anti-cancer agent. Initially, Porcupine Bezoar Extract (PBE) was infused with distilled water for 18 hours to get PBE aqueous solution in order to confirm the presence of bioactive agents as antioxidants. Later, PBE aqueous solution was subjected to HeLa cell line and was observed for 48 hours exposures with comparative to the untreated cell to evaluate its anticancer potential and ability. The data from this study propose the potential agents for improving human health, especially in the anti-cancer application

Porcupine bezoar: in vitro antioxidant and anti-proliferative effects

Objectives: Porcupine bezoar (PB) is a mass of undigested organic and inorganic materials formed within the gastrointestinal tract of the porcupine. PB has been claimed to possess medicinal properties to treat different types of diseases including cancer. However, these traditional claims are yet to be scientifically ascertained and properly validated. Hence, this study was aimed to evaluate antioxidant and anticancer activities of PB through different biological assays. Design and method: Powdered PB was sonicated with double distilled water to get aqueous extract (PBA) which was initially screened for its phenolic content, flavonoid content and anti-oxidant potential using total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and diphenl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays, respectively. Later on, in vitro anti-proliferative effect of PBA was evaluated against A375 (Skin Malignant Melanoma) and HGF-1 (normal cell). Results: PBA was found to contain low level of phenolic compounds and devoid of flavonoids. However, the DPPH assay showed low IC50 value indicating PBA’s potent anti-oxidant characteristic. Moreover, the PBA displayed low IC50 value and and also showed significant anti-proliferation pattern at 24, 48 and 72 hours exposures against A375 and HGF-1 cell lines. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that PB is medicinally potent in nature due to its strong antioxidant and anti-proliferative effects and could play an important role to cure different kinds of cancers. Keywords: Porcupine bezoar, aqueous extract, TPC, TFC, DPPH, antioxidant activity, anti-proliferative acitivity, A375 and HGF-1 cell line