ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF TOPICAL FORMULATION CONTAINING EUGENIA CARYOPHYLLATA L. (KRUNFUD) AND MYRITUS COMMUNIS L. (ADES) ESSENTIAL OILS ON SELECTED SKIN DISEASE CAUSING MICROORGANISMS

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Anti-bacterial activity of Plumbago zeylanica L. roots on some pneumonia causing pathogens

The anti bacterial activity of polar and non-polar extracts prepared from the roots of Plumbago zeylanica L. (Plumbaginaceae), a plant widely used in Ethiopian traditional medicine for various ailments were investigated using hole plate diffusion method against some pneumonia causing pathogens. The aqueous extract did not exhibit any activity while petroleum ether extract was found to have strong anti-bacterial effects as compared to the ethanol extract which showed a significant activity. Activity guided chromatographic purification of the petroleum ether extract led to the isolation of three compounds, of which the compound identified as 5-hydroxy-2-methyl-1, 4-naphthoquinone, plumbagin, found to be the active component on the tested microorganisms. Minimum inhibitory concentration value of this particular compound showed comparative activity resembling the commonly used broad spectrum antibiotic, tetracycline. The strong antibacterial effect of the petroleum ether extract is discussed to show that it was attributable to this compound rather than the other two that were found to have trace of activities. Key words/phrases: Anti-bacterial activity, Minimum inhibitory concentration, Plumbago zeylanica, pneumonia SINET: Ethiopian Journal of Science Vol.25(2) 2002: 285-29

Knowledge of preconception care and associated factors among maternal health care providers working in urban public health institutions of Eastern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Provision of preconception care is significantly affected by the health care provider's knowledge of preconception care. In Ethiopia, preconception care is rare, if even available, as part of maternal health care services. Thus, this study aimed to determine the level of knowledge of preconception care and associated factors among health care providers working in public health facilities in Eastern Ethiopia. METHODS: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted from 1 March to 1 April 2020. A simple random sampling technique was used to select a total of 415 maternal health care providers. We utilized a structured, pretested, and self-administered questionnaire to collect data. Data were entered into EpiData (version 3.1) and exported to STATA (version 16) for analysis. Descriptive statistics and bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. All covariates with a p value ⩽0.20 in bivariate logistic regression were entered into a multivariate logistic regression analysis to control the confounding variables; variables with a p value <0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Out of 410 respondents, 247 (60.2%; 95% confidence interval: 55.4-65.1) had good knowledge of preconception care. Having an educational level of Bachelor of Science degree and above (adjusted odds ratio: 6.97, 95% confidence interval: 3.85-12.60), 5 or more years work experience (adjusted odds ratio: 2.60, 95% confidence interval: 1.52-4.49), working in a hospital (adjusted odds ratio: 2.50, 95% confidence interval: 1.25-4.99), reading preconception care guidelines (adjusted odds ratio: 3.06, 95% confidence interval: 1.40-6.68), and training on preconception (adjusted odds ratio: 2.90, 95% confidence interval: 1.37-6.15) were significantly associated with good knowledge of preconception care. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Three out of five maternal health care providers in this study had good knowledge of preconception care. Facilitating continuous refreshment training and continuous professional development for health workers, preparing comprehensive preconception care guidelines for health institutions, and reading preconception care guidelines were highly recommended

Insecticidal Activity of Some Traditionally Used Ethiopian Medicinal Plants against Sheep Ked Melophagus ovinus

Twelve medicinal plants and a commercially used drug Ivermectin were examined for insecticidal activity against Melophagus ovinus sheep ked at different time intervals using in vitro adult immersion test. The findings show that at 3.13 µL/mL, 6.25 µL/mL and 12.5 µL/mL concentration of Cymbopogon citratus, Foeniculum vulgare and Eucalyptus globulus essential oils respectively, recorded 100% mortalities against M. ovinus within 3 hour of exposure. Significantly higher insecticidal activity of essential oils was recorded (P=0.00) when compared to 10 μg/mL Ivermectin after 3-hour exposure of M. ovinus at a concentration of ≥1.57 μL/mL, ≥3 μL/mL, and ≥12.7 μL/mL essential oils of C. citratus, F. vulgare, and E. globulus, respectively. Among essential oils, C. citratus has showed superior potency at a three-hour exposure of the parasite (P=0.00) at a concentration of ≥0.78 μL/mL. Strong antiparasitic activity was recorded by aqueous extract of Calpurnia aurea (80% mortality) at a concentration of 200 mg/mL within 24 h among aqueous extracts of 9 medicinal plants. The results indicated all the four medicinal plants, particularly those tested essential oils, can be considered as potential candidates for biocontrol of M. ovinus sheep ked

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens

In vitro evaluation of the antimicrobial activities of selected medicinal plants

The 80% methanol extracts of the dried, ground plant materials of Inula confertiflora, Clematis simensis, Zehneria scabra and Pycnostachys abyssinica were tested for antimicrobial activity against common bacterial and fungal pathogens by the agar well diffusion method. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determination and evaluation of topical antimicrobial formulations were also carried out on the 80% methanol extract of I. confertiflora. The results indicated that all of the plant extracts exhibited antimicrobial activities against one of the most common bacterial pathogens, namely Staphylococcus aureus. In addition, a good antifungal activity against Trichophyton mentagrophytes was exhibited by the extract of I. confertiflora, which lends some credibility to the traditional uses of the plants. Evaluation of topical formulations of the 80% methanol extract of I. confertiflora demonstrated that the hydrophilic formulations exhibit higher antimicrobial activities (as compared to their hydrophobic counterparts) that were comparable (in case of their activity against T. mentagrophytes) to the commercially available antifungal products. Keywords: medicinal plants, antimicrobial activities, agar well diffusion method, minimum inhibitory concentration, topical formulationsEthiopian Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. 22 (2004): 1-1

Investigation of The Antibacterial Effects of Papaya (Carica papaya) Seeds on Three Pneumonia Causing Bacteria

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Antibacterial activity of extracts from Myrtus communis L. (Ades) and Dodoneae angustifolia L.F. (Kitkita) using bioautography method

The increasing prevalence of antibacterial drug resistant organisms in our globe and high prevalence of infectious diseases in developing countries has led to new efforts in the search of bioactive compounds from complex chemical composition of plant extracts. A bioautographic agar overlay assay using Staphylococcus aureous as the indicator organism for the detection of antimicrobial compounds from ten extracts of Myrtus communis L. and Dodoneae angustifolia L was analyzed. Hexane, dichloromethane, acetone, methanol and water solvents are used as extractant and ethyl acetate: methanol: water, chloroform: ethyl acetate: acetic acid and benzene: ethanol: ammonia solvent systems were used to separate the components from all the extract of Myrtus communis L. and Dodoneae angustifolia L. Our results indicated that the extracts of Myrtus communis L.f. and Dodoneae angustifolia L had bioactive constituents responsible for their antibacterial potentials. Water solvents extracted small number of antibacterial compounds from both plants, followed by hexane extractant; while dichloromethane, acetone and methanol extractant shared similarities in bioactive compounds on bioautograms, and extracted the highest number of antibacterial compounds with variety of polarities. Chloroform: ethyl acetate: acetic acid solvent system separated the largest number of biologically active components in all extractants. As a high number of antibacterially active compounds were found in M. communis and D. angustifolia extracts of dichloromethane, acetone and methanol, we recommend assay guided fractionation, isolation and dosage formulation of these antibacterial compounds from these plants for clinical applications. Keywords/phrases: Antibacterial, Bioactive-compound, Bioautography, Dodonaea angustifolia, Myrtus communisEthiop. J. Biol. Sci., 10(1): 57-72, 201