Clinical aplications of Trioxolane derivatives

The aqueous extracts of three medicinal plants, Carissa edulis (Forssk.) Vahl (Apocynaceae), Prunus africana (Hook.f.) Kalkm (Rosaceae) and Melia azedarach L. (Meliaceae) have shown significant reduction in the replication of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in human embryonic lung (HEL) fibroblasts cells in vitro. Using the plaque inhibition assay for the determination of anti-viral activity, the HEL fibroblast cells cultured in 24 well plates were infected with 1 x 102 PFU 91S HCMV and treated with various concentrations of the extracts. The plaques formed were counted after 7 days incubation at 37°C in 5% CO2 and the percent plaques inhibited were calculated against infected untreated control. The effective concentrations inhibiting plaque formation by 50% (EC50) was found between 40 to 80 μg/ml for all the extracts. The cell cytotoxic concentrations (CC50) for each of the three extracts, by the trypan blue exclusion test, gave a safe therapeutic index. These results have demonstrated the potential anti-viral activities of the extracts of the three medicinal plants at non-cytotoxic concentrationsAfrican Journal of Health Sciences Vol. 15 (1&2) 2008: pp. 1-

Explants, hormones and sucrose influence in vitro shoot regeneration and rooting of calla lily (Zantedeschia albomaculata L. Spreng.) ‘black magic'

Zantedeschia is an important and rapidly expanding cut flower in Kenya today. A protocol for in vitro shoot regeneration of Zantedeschia, using tuber, leaf and shoot primordium explants on Murashige and Skoog (MS) (1962) basal salts, supplemented with 6-benzyalamino purine (BAP) or Kinetin is described. Of the four levels (0, 1, 2, and 4 mg/l) each of BAP and Kinetin, 2 mg/l BAP induced the highest number of shoots per explant (2.5) and the longest shoots (3.7 cm) on shoot explants after four weeks in culture. No response was observed on both leaf and tuber explants on all media tested. A 34-fold shoot multiplication rate was achieved in a culture period of 10 weeks. Rooting was tested using three levels (0, 1, and 2 mg/l) each of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and indole butyric acid (IBA) in combination with three levels (15, 20 and 30 g/l) of sucrose. The highest (84%) root induction in the shortest time (within one week) occurred in the medium containing 20 g/l sucrose + 1 mg/l IBA. However after four weeks, all shoots (100%) in this medium and the hormone-free media plus 15 to 30 g/l sucrose had rooted. Thus, this research established that shoot explants of Zantedeschia albomaculata cultivar Black Magic can be induced to produce high quality multiple shoots, using MS (1962) basal salts, supplemented with 2 mg/l BAP, 30 g/l sucrose and 0.8% agar. All the shoots can be readily and inexpensively rooted in growth regulator-free medium, containing 15 to 30 g/l sucrose, before transferring plantlets ex vitro. Journal of Agriculture, Science and Technology Vol. 7(1) 2005: 53-6

Differentiation of Anopheles gambiae and An.arabiensis (Diptera: Culicidae) by ELISA using immunoaffinity-purified antibodies to vitellogenin.

ABSTRACT Yolk proteins (vitellogenin and vitellin) proved to be excellent marker molecules for separating Anopheles gambiae Giles and An. arabiensis Patton, morphologically indistinguishable members of the An. gambiae species complex. A rabbit polyclonal antibody directed against An. gambiae yolk proteins made species-speci&c by removing immunoglobulins that crossreacted with An. arabiensis by immunoamnity chromatography. The resultant antibody 400 times sensitive An. gambiae and employed the secondary antibody in modified double antibody "sandwich" ELISA, which also used monoclonal antibodies anopheline vitellogenin the primary coating antibody. This ELISA easily differentiated soluble yolk protein samples from An. gambiae and An. biensis. A field study with 628 females of gambiae complex collected Kenya demonstrated that the ELISA results 98.4% in agreement with the standard method