Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Crude Saponin Extracts from Five Nigerian Medicinal Plants

Crude saponin extracts of five medicinal plants used in the treatment of inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, gout and haemorrhoids were screened for anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan-induced rat paw oedema test. These plants were the whole plant of Schwenkia americana Linn (WSA), the rhizomes of Asparagus africanus Lam (RAA), the leaves of Dichrostachys cinerea Linn (LDC), the stem bark of Ficus iteophylla Miq (BFI) and the leaves of Indigofera pulchra Willd (LIP). A modify traditional method of crude saponins extraction was used to give the following percentage yields: WSA-2.74%, RAA-3.59%, LDC-1.62%, BFI-0.81% and LIP-1.57% respectively. Thin-layer chromatography was used to identify the type of saponins present in the extracts. The acute toxicity study of the crude saponin extracts in mice gave the following intraperitoneal LD50: WSA-471.2mg/kg, RAA- 1264.9mg/kg, LDC-1264.9mg/kg, BFI-118.3mg/kg and LIP-1264.9mg/kg respectively.  The antiinflammatory study of the extracts showed statistically significant (P<0.05) decreases in the rat paw-oedema as compared to the control. The percentage inhibitions of the extracts after four hours were as follow: WSA-61%, RAA-55%, LDC-72%, BFI-66% and LIP-40% respectively. These values were found to be comparable to that of ketoprofen-63%. The study showed that the antiinflammatory properties attributable to these plants may be due to their saponins contents.Keywords: - Asparagus africanus, Dichrostachys cinerea, Ficus iteophylla, Indigofera pulchra, Schwenkia americana, Saponin,Anti-inflammatory activity, Carrageenan, TLC

ANTIFUNGAL EFFECTS OF TAPINANTHUS GLOBIFERUS GROWING ON VITEXDONIANA AGAINST SOME FUNGAL ISOLATES

Objective: Fungal infections are the major cause of many skin diseases, especially in developing countries. Natural products of medicinal value represent a potential source of chemotherapeutic agents. Tapinanthus globiferus has been used extensively in ethnomedicine for the treatment hypertension, ulcer, cancer, diabetes and fungal infections without a scientific basis. This work was aimed at screening the phytochemical constituents and evaluating the antifungal properties of methanol leaf extract its ethyl acetate and n-butanol fractions of T. globiferus against some clinical fungal isolates including Candida albicans, Trychophyton mentagrophytes, Trychophyton  rubrum and Aspergillus niger using agar well diffusion and broth micro-dilution techniques. Methods: Preliminary screening of phytochemical constituents of extract and fractions of T. globiferus indicated the presence of carbohydrates, alkaloids, glycosides, tannins, flavonoids,  saponins, steroids and triterpenes. Results: The methanol extract and its fractions demonstrated significant (P<0.05) antifungal effect  against all the test organisms with mean zone of inhibition ranging from 27.83±0.16 – 14.46±0.29mm which was higher compared to that of the standard drug, Fluconazole (26.1±0.44 –18.49±0.16 mm). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) of the extract ranged between 6.25 – 25.0 mg/mL; ethyl acetate fraction had 3.13 – 25.0 mg/mL while n-butanol fraction had the least MIC ranging from 0.39-12.5 mg/mL against the test organisms. Conclusion: Study concluded that T. globiferus have good antifungal activity validating the ethnomedicinal claim for the use of the plant in the treating fungal diseases.                           Peer Review History: Received 2 January 2020;   Revised 25 February; Accepted 1 March, Available online 15 March 2020 Academic Editor: Dr. Ali Abdullah Al-yahawi, Al-Razi university, Department of Pharmacy, Yemen, [email protected] UJPR follows the most transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. The identity of the authors and, reviewers will be known to each other. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. As a result of this unique system, all reviewers will get their due recognition and respect, once their names are published in the papers. We expect that, by publishing peer review reports with published papers, will be helpful to many authors for drafting their article according to the specifications. Auhors will remove any error of their article and they will improve their article(s) according to the previous reports displayed with published article(s). The main purpose of it is ‘to improve the quality of a candidate manuscript’. Our reviewers check the ‘strength and weakness of a manuscript honestly’. There will increase in the perfection, and transparency. Received file:                Reviewer's Comments: Average Peer review marks at initial stage: 6.0/10 Average Peer review marks at publication stage: 7.5/10 Reviewer(s) detail: Dr. Gehan Fawzy Abdel Raoof Kandeel, Pharmacognosy Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, 12622,  Giza, Egypt, [email protected] Prof. Dr. Ali Gamal Ahmed Al-kaf, Sana'a university, Yemen, [email protected] Dr. Mahmut Yıldıztekin, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey, [email protected] Similar Articles: ANTIFUNGAL, CYTOTOXIC AND PHYTOTOXICITY OF AERIAL PART OF RANUNCULUS MURICATUS PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF COLOCASIA ESCULENTA (TARO) MEDICINAL PLANT LEAVES USED IN FOLK MEDICINE FOR TREATMENT OF WOUNDS AND BURNS IN HUFASH DISTRICT AL MAHWEET GOVERNORATE–YEME

Isolation and Characterization of Stigmasterol and Bis-(5, 7-diacetyl-catechin-4’-α- rhamnopyranoside) from the Stem bark of Neocarya macrophylla (Sabine) Prance (Chrysobalanaceae)

Neocarya macrophylla belongs to the Chrysobalanaceae family and is extensively used in folk medicine as an antibacterial, antivenin, antiasthmatic, anticancer, analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent. This study was aimed at isolation and characterization of compounds from the stem bark of Neocarya macrophylla.  Pulverized plant material was exhaustively extracted with methanol using maceration method and concentrated invacuo with the aid of rotary evaporator at 40oC to afford a reddish brown crude methanol extract (ME). The methanol extract was successively partitioned into hexane, dichloromethane, ethylacetate, n-butanol and aqueous fractions. Stigmasterol was isolated from the hexane fraction and a catechin glycoside, Bis-(5,7-diacetyl-catechin-4’-α- rhamnopyranoside) was  isolated from the ethylacetate soluble fraction using a combination of silica gel column, gel filtration (sephadex LH-20) and preparative thin layer chromatography. The structures of the compounds were established on the basis of chemical tests, spectroscopic analysis and by comparison with reference spectral data.Keywords: Neocarya macrophylla, phytochemical, stigmasterol, Bis-(5, 7-diacetyl-catechin-4’-α-rhamnopyranoside)

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: A 15-years Experience at a Single Centre, Wad Medani, Sudan

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Subcuteneousand Deep Lipomas in Exotic and Nigerian Indigenous Chickens: A Case Report

Three case reports describing the clinicopathological diagnosis and surgical management of subcutaneous lipomas in adult exotic and Nigerian indigenous chicken, as well as deep lipoma in exotic chickens are here presented. Two dead and one live chickens were presented to the Poultry Clinic, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, on the 15th October, 2016 and 13th August, 2017, respectively. The live indigenous hen was presented with a slow growing 8 month-old large mass on the right, ventro-lateral aspect of the neck. The mass was clinically observed to be pendulous, circumscribed, soft, lobulated, painless, subcutaneous seated and about 8 cm in diameter. The two dead exotic birds were earlier presented with the first having a similar lesion of different dimensions located in the ventro-lateral aspect of the left thigh and the second with lesions in the liver. Cytological evaluation of fine needle aspirates of the masses revealed well differentiated adipocytes interspersed with nucleated red blood cells. Consequently, the masses were tentatively diagnosed as subcutaneous and deep lipomas, and the management decision taken in the live chicken was surgical following standard procedures. Sections of the excised masses were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin and processed for histopathological examination. Histopathology revealed well differentiated adipocytes of uniform sizes interspersed with few blood vessels and connective tissue. Final diagnoses of lipomas were made. Depending on location and possible complications, subcutaneous lipomas may not be life threatening but they can be a source of discomfort to the patient and may cause emotional distress to their owners if not removed surgically. Deep lipomas may compromise organ functions leading to death

Particle-yield modification in jet-like azimuthal di-hadron correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The yield of charged particles associated with high-$p_{\rm T}$ trigger particles ($8 < p_{\rm T} < 15$ GeV/$c$) is measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV relative to proton-proton collisions at the same energy. The conditional per-trigger yields are extracted from the narrow jet-like correlation peaks in azimuthal di-hadron correlations. In the 5% most central collisions, we observe that the yield of associated charged particles with transverse momenta $p_{\rm T}> 3$ GeV/$c$ on the away-side drops to about 60% of that observed in pp collisions, while on the near-side a moderate enhancement of 20-30% is found.Comment: 15 pages, 2 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 10, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/350

Using social media as a tool for improving academic performance through collaborative learning in Malaysian higher education

Nowadays, many higher education institutions are still depending on the traditionally-based learning management systems that actually do not use full capabilities of social media in engaging researchers in collaborative learning. Due to recent rise in social media usage, especially among researchers and lecturers of educational institutions, a great deal of research was conducted to explore how to take advantage of social media and use it to improve the researchers ‘academic performance through collaborative learning. To achieve this objective, it is important to explore the actual relationship between two variables: social media and academic performance. This study is aimed at examining the relationship between using social media and improving academic performance. A survey was conducted among the research students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and 323 valid responses were received. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the relationship between three constructs: social media, collaborative learning, and academic performance. The results showed a significant effect of social media on the students’ academic performance with collaborative learning as the mediating variable. Without good collaborative learning, an education institution cannot take advantage of social media for improving academic performance

Using social media as a tool for improving academic performance through collaborative learning in Malaysian higher education

Nowadays, many higher education institutions are still depending on the traditionally-based learning management systems that actually do not use full capabilities of social media in engaging researchers in collaborative learning. Due to recent rise in social media usage, especially among researchers and lecturers of educational institutions, a great deal of research was conducted to explore how to take advantage of social media and use it to improve the researchers ‘academic performance through collaborative learning. To achieve this objective, it is important to explore the actual relationship between two variables: social media and academic performance. This study is aimed at examining the relationship between using social media and improving academic performance. A survey was conducted among the research students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and 323 valid responses were received. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the relationship between three constructs: social media, collaborative learning, and academic performance. The results showed a significant effect of social media on the students’ academic performance with collaborative learning as the mediating variable. Without good collaborative learning, an education institution cannot take advantage of social media for improving academic performance

Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe