The Ayurvedic management for Tinea Versicolor by Virechana Karma

Tinea versicolor is a common skin rash caused by over growth of yeast over skin surface resulting in uneven skin colour and scaling which is harmless, asymptomatic and non-contagious.[1] In this case generally medication used are antifungal i.e. Ketaconazoles systemic and tropically which may lead to many side effects and re-occurrence. In Ayurveda there is no detail explanation but somehow correlated with Sidma Kusta, which is one among the Maha Kusta. Which can be treated by Vamana Karma, Virechana Karma or Rakthamokshana.[2] By this we can say Ayurvedic treatment modalities are utilized according to presentation of disease

Alleviation of alloxan-induced diabetes and its complications in rats by Actinodaphne hookeri leaf extract

Leaves of Actinodaphne hookeri Meissn (Family Lauraceae; local name: Pisa) has been in use traditionally for the treatment of diabetes and disorders of the urinary tract which are more common in Chattisgarh and eastern part of India. In the present study, leaves of A. hookeri were subjected to phytochemical investigation and evaluated for anti-diabetic activity. The ethanol and the chloroform extract were found to have significant (p<0.01) blood glucose lowering effect. The extracts also significantly (p<0.01) lowered the increased serum cholesterol and low density lipoprotein levels. Preliminary phytochemical investigation revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, triterpenoids and glycosides as the major constituents in the ethanol extract. The chloroform extract also showed significant (p<0.01) antihyperglycemic activity and contained alkaloids and triterpenes. It is concluded that the antidiabetic activity of A. hookeri may be due to the presence of alkaloids and triterpenes, and might be promising for the development of phytomedicine for diabetes mellitus along with its associated complications

Frequency and clinical patterns of stroke in Iran - Systematic and critical review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cerebrovascular disease is the second commonest cause of death, and over a third of stroke deaths occur in developing countries. To fulfil the current gap on data, this systematic review is focused on the frequency of stroke, risk factors, stroke types and mortality in Iran.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirteen relevant articles were identified by keyword searching of PubMed, Iranmedex, Iranian University index Libraries and the official national data on burden of diseases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The publication dates ranged from 1990 to 2008. The annual stroke incidence of various ages ranged from 23 to 103 per 100,000 population. This is comparable to the figures from Arab Countries, higher than sub-Saharan Africa, but lower than developed countries, India, the Caribbean, Latin America, and China. Similarly to other countries, ischaemic stroke was the commonest subtype. Likewise, the most common related risk factor is hypertension in adults, but cardiac causes in young stroke. The 28-day case fatality rate is reported at 19-31%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Data on the epidemiology of stroke, its pattern and risk factors from Iran is scarce, but the available data highlights relatively low incidence of stroke. This may reflect a similarity towards the neighbouring nations, and a contrast with the West.</p

Study on immunomodulatory activity of ethanolic extract of<i style=""> Spilanthes acmella</i> Murr. leaves

204-207The leaves of Spilanthes acmella Murr. have been used traditionally as tonic and in the treatment of rheumatism, gout, sailagogine and claimed to possess immunostimulant activity. In the present study, the ethanolic extract (500mg/kg bwt p.o.) of its leaves was evaluated for immunomodulatory activity using various models like modulation of macrophage function (morphometric and functional changes in mice), carbon clearance assay with the help of Indian ink dispersion (0.5ml/100g bwt i.v.) in mice and immunoprophylactic effect with the help of Escherichia coli (0.5ml/100g bwt i.p.) in mice. The extract (500mg/kg b.wt. p.o.) exhibited significant (P&lt;0.01) peritoneal macrophage stimulation and 25 to 50% mortality as compared to control mice, indicating its prominent immunostimulant activity

New tools to screen wild peanut species for aflatoxin accumulation and genetic fingerprinting

Abstract Background Aflatoxin contamination in peanut seeds is still a serious problem for the industry and human health. No stable aflatoxin resistant cultivars have yet been produced, and given the narrow genetic background of cultivated peanuts, wild species became an important source of genetic diversity. Wild peanut seeds, however, are not abundant, thus, an effective method of screening for aflatoxin accumulation using minimal seeds is highly desirable. In addition, keeping record of genetic fingerprinting of each accession would be very useful for breeding programs and for the identification of accessions within germplasm collections. Results In this study, we report a method of screening for aflatoxin accumulation that is applicable to the small-size seeds of wild peanuts, increases the reliability by testing seed viability, and records the genetic fingerprinting of the samples. Aflatoxin levels observed among 20 wild peanut species varied from zero to 19000 ng.g-1 and 155 ng.g-1 of aflatoxin B1 and B2, respectively. We report the screening of 373 molecular markers, including 288 novel SSRs, tested on 20 wild peanut species. Multivariate analysis by Neighbor-Joining, Principal Component Analysis and 3D-Principal Coordinate Analysis using 134 (36 %) transferable markers, in general grouped the samples according to their reported genomes. The best 88 markers, those with high fluorescence, good scorability and transferability, are reported with BLAST results. High quality markers (total 98) that discriminated genomes are reported. A high quality marker with UPIC score 16 (16 out of 20 species discriminated) had significant hits on BLAST2GO to a pentatricopeptide-repeat protein, another marker with score 5 had hits on UDP-D-apiose synthase, and a third one with score 12 had BLASTn hits on La-RP 1B protein. Together, these three markers discriminated all 20 species tested. Conclusions This study provides a reliable method to screen wild species of peanut for aflatoxin resistance using minimal seeds. In addition we report 288 new SSRs for peanut, and a cost-effective combination of markers sufficient to discriminate all 20 species tested. These tools can be used for the systematic search of aflatoxin resistant germplasm keeping record of the genetic fingerprinting of the accessions tested for breeding purpose