Common treatments with indigenous Iranian plants for routine pediatric diseases and disorders

Children, especially newborns, are the most vulnerable human subpopulation. They may develop important and routine disorders and diseases, such as abdominal pain and upset stomach, diarrhea, constipation, headache, fever, skin inflammation, cough, pain, and restlessness. To date, the use of medicinal plants and herbal products in the treatment of diseases in children and infants has not yet been adequately studied. Hence, in the present study, we tried to report medicinal plants used in cultures and traditions of different regions of Iran to treat common diseases of children. The information in this review article was obtained by searching for relevant articles by the keywords ethnobotany, traditional medicine, medicinal plants, pediatrics, neonates, diseases and disorders indexed in databases such as ISI, PubMed, Scopus, Google scholar, and also SID, Magiran as the most important Iranian databases. The articles were screened. and relevant articles were reviewed. Irrelevant articles were excluded. Related articles were reviewed based on the title, abstract and results section of that article. According to Iranian ethnobotanical evidence, medicinal plants such as Cichorium pumilium, Anethum graveolens, Amaranthus refroflexus, Olea europaea L., Ziziphus jujuba, Cotoneaster persicus, Artemisia annua, Alhagi persarum, Nigella sativa, Astragalus adscendens, Adiantum capillus-veneris L. are among the most promising medicinal plants used in Iranian traditional medicine for treatment of neonatal disorders. Based on the results, the most used herbal family belonged to the Asteraceae. Also, the plant organ of the leaf with 31 was the highest organ used in the ethnobotanical knowledge of Iran for common neonatal diseases

Investigating prevalence of Helicobacter pylori and histological changes in patients with dyspepsia in Khorramabad City during 2013-2015

Dyspepsia which is a digestive syndrome with a prevalence of 50 in some areas can be an important factor in Helicobacter pylori infection syndrome. This study was aimed to evaluate relative frequency of Helicobacter pylori infection and histological changes in dyspeptic patients presented to the Endoscopic unit of Shahid Rahimi and Shohadaye Ashayer hospitals in Khorramabad city, Iran. In this cross-sectional study, the population included all patients with dyspepsia referred to Endoscopic Unit of Shahid Rahimi and Shohadaye Ashayer hospitals in Khorramabad during the period of 2013-2015. After performing endoscopy, H. pylori diagnosis was done by biopsy method. In this study, 5213 patients with dyspepsia (including 49.2 male and 50.8 female) with the age range of 12 to 90 years (mean 17.36 +/- 48.24 years) were studied. From this population, 57.3 percent were infected with Helicobacter pylori (50.8 of men and 49.2 women). Most positive cases were over 60 years old and the most histological changes were respectively chronic active gastritis (40.3). Similar to other studies, the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection is average in the population; however, these rates might be reduced through increased awareness and health care

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using aqueous extract of Stachys lavandulifolia flower, and their cytotoxicity, antioxidant, antibacterial and cutaneous wound-healing properties

In a biological process where the herbal tea (Stachys lavandulifolia) aqueous extract was applied as a capping and reducing agent, nanoparticles (NPs) of silver (Ag) were synthesized. These AgNPs were characterized using Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, field emission-scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The synthesized AgNPs had great cell viability dose-dependently investigating the effect of the plant on human umbilical vein endothelial cell line and indicated this method was non-toxic. In this study, the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging test was carried out to examine antioxidant properties, which revealed similar antioxidant properties for AgNPs and butylated hydroxytoluene. Agar diffusion tests were applied to determine the antibacterial characteristics. The macro-broth tube test was run to determine minimum inhibitory concentration. All data of antibacterial and cutaneous wound-healing examinations were analyzed by SPSS 21 software (Duncan post hoc test). AgNPs showed higher antibacterial property than all standard antibiotics (p <= 0.01). Also, AgNPs prevented the growth of all bacteria at 2-8 mg/ml concentrations and destroyed them at 2-16 mg/ml concentrations (p <= 0.01). For the in vivo experiment, after creating the cutaneous wound, the rats were randomly divided into six groups: untreated control; treatment with Eucerin basal ointment; treatment with 3% tetracycline ointment; treatment with 0.2% AgNO3 ointment; treatment with 0.2% S. lavandulifolia ointment; and treatment with 0.2% AgNPs ointment. These groups were treated for 10 days. For histopathological and biochemical analysis of the healing trend, a 3 x 3-cm section was prepared from all dermal thicknesses at day 10. Use of AgNPs ointment in the treatment groups substantially reduced (p <= 0.01) the wound area, total cells, neutrophil, macrophage and lymphocyte, and remarkably raised (p <= 0.01) the wound contracture, hydroxyl proline, hexosamine, hexuronic acid, fibrocyte and fibrocytes/fibroblast rate compared with other groups. Seemingly, AgNPs can be used as a medical supplement owing to their non-cytotoxic, antioxidant, antibacterial and cutaneous wound-healing properties

A comparative analysis of clinical characteristics and laboratory findings of covid-19 between intensive care unit and non-intensive care unit pediatric patients: A multicenter, retrospective, observational study from iranian network for research in viral diseases (inrvd)

Introduction: To date, little is known about the clinical features of pediatric COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). Objective: Herein, we aimed to describe the differences in demographic characteristics, laboratory findings, clinical presentations, and outcomes of Iranian pediatric COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU versus those in non-ICU settings. Methods: This multicenter investigation involved 15 general and pediatrics hospitals and included cases with confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection based on positive real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) admitted to these centers between March and May 2020, during the initial peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran. Results: Overall, 166 patients were included, 61 (36.7) of whom required ICU admission. The highest number of admitted cases to ICU were in the age group of 1�5 years old. Malignancy and heart diseases were the most frequent underlying conditions. Dyspnea was the major symptom for ICU-admitted patients. There were significant decreases in PH, HCO3 and base excess, as well as increases in creatinine, creatine phosphokinase (CPK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and potassium levels between ICU-admitted and non-ICU patients. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), shock, and acute cardiac injury were the most common features among ICU-admitted patients. The mortality rate in the ICU-admitted patients was substantially higher than non-ICU cases (45.9 vs. 1.9, respectively; p<0.001). Conclusions: Underlying diseases were the major risk factors for the increased ICU admissions and mortality rates in pediatric COVID-19 patients. There were few paraclinical parameters that could differentiate between pediatrics in terms of prognosis and serious outcomes of COVID-19. Healthcare providers should consider children as a high-risk group, especially those with underlying medical conditions. © 2021 Tehran University of Medical Sciences