Perceived Services and Reported Opinions about Self-Care during Pregnancy and Lactation by Community Pharmacists: A Cross Sectional Study

Objective: The present study was planned to evaluate the community pharmacists’ services regarding self-care during pregnancy and lactating women in the Northern Border Region of Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was performed among the community pharmacists in the Northern Border Region of Saudi Arabia consists of randomly elected 156 pharmacies. The study purpose briefly described face-to-face to the pharmacist on duty to fill self-care questionnaire regarding services and opinions intended for pregnant and breastfeeding women. Results: Pharmacists specified that they have sufficient knowledge to offer advice (47.82%) and to solve medication and health-related problems (39.13%) during pregnancy and lactation. The confidence level of pharmacists to give drug-related opinion and counseling to patients was 69.56% and 39.13% respectively. All the participated pharmacists’ want continuing education program and 47.82% of pharmacist advised pharmacy school training on this issue to improve/update the knowledge on the issue. Conclusion: Pharmacists have different opinions regarding pregnancy and breastfeeding associated illness and also highlighted the need for interventions, including continuing professional development and revision of the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum

Antiobesity effect of Stellaria media against drug induced obesity in Swiss albino mice

The whole plant of Stellaria media (family: Caryophyllaceae) has been tested for its antiobesity activity by using progesterone-induced obesity model in female albino mice. The effect of S. media on food consumption pattern, change in body weight, thermogenesis, lipid metabolism, and histology of fat pad. were examined. Methanolic and alcoholic extracts of the S. media were used in the study. Methanolic extract of S. media (MESM) have prevented the increase in body weight, adipose tissue weight and size, and upturned obesity and associated complications. MESM has also shown promising effects compared with alcoholic extract of S. media may be because of its multiple mechanisms. These findings suggest that antiobesity activity produced by MESM is because of its anorexic property mediated by saponin and flavonoid and partly of by its β-sitosterol content. β-Sitosterol in the plant extract was confirmed by thin-layer chromatography study. β-sitosterol is plant sterol having structural similarity with dietary fat which do the physical competition in the gastrointestinal tract and reduces fat absorption. Before carrying in vivo activity detail pharmacognostic and phytochemical analysis of the extracts was carried out. The plant has shown the presence of saponin, flavonoids, steroids and triterpenoids, glycosides, and anthocynidine. By this study, it can be concluded that, MESM is beneficial in suppression of obesity induced by progesterone