Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2013 in |
As part of a research initiative to evaluate plants used for their nutritional and herbal values, the antimicrobial activity of Solanum Melongena’s fruit and Moringa oleifera’s leaveswere investigated. Each plant part was subjected to selective extraction using solvents of varying polarity: n-C6H14, CH2Cl2, EtOAc and CH3CH2OH. The n-C6H14 and CH3CH2OH extract of these two plants were tested for their antimicrobial activity at three different concentrations of 5%, 10% and 20% of crude extracts against three pathogenic bacterial strains: Eschericia coli, Staphyloccocus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae using the Disc diffusion assay. Both n-C6H14 and CH3CH2OH extracts showed antibacterial activity at a higher concentration of 20% of crude extract. The order of bacteria susceptibility to Moringa oleifera extract been S. aureus > K. pneumoniae > E. coli whereas that for Solanum Melongena extract been S. aureus > E. coli > K. pneumonia. The area of zone of inhibition ranges from 44.15 mm2 to 53.55 mm2. These investigations suggest that the extracts of Moringa oleifera and Solanum Melongena can be used as...
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Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2013 in |
Antiretroviral therapy for decades is the appropriate treatment for infected populations with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, it is associated with complications that affect the organism infected. The combination of antiretroviral therapy and pregnancy degrades iron metabolism. This work aims to evaluate and characterize the impact of the interaction between antiretroviral therapy and different stages of pregnancy in women of Abidjan on all biological indicators of iron status. The conducted investigations were a prospective, cross-sectional, descriptive analytical and case-control study. They concerned 275 women of reproductive age in all trimesters of pregnancy and in consultation to integrated center for bioclinical research of Abidjan (ICBRA). These women were divided into two groups: 135 pregnant women infected with HIV without antiretroviral therapy as controls and 140 pregnant women infected with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy. All biological indicators of iron metabolism were determined either by colorimetric or immunoturbidimetric assays through blood samples from each pregnant woman or by calculation. The Student t test, factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) with two factors and...
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Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2013 in |
Solutions properties of sapide molecules provide fundamental information on type (hydrophobic or hydrophilic) and degree of hydration. Physico-Chemical properties like intrinsic viscosity, Apparent Specific Volume (ASV) and related parameters for bitter molecule (nicotine) and bitterness inhibitors (carbohydrate sweeteners, artificial sweeteners) and their mixtures were determined to study the role of water structure in the mechanism of unpleasant taste inhibition. The hydrophobicity of bitter molecule (nicotine) is manifested by ASV value of 0.920 cm3g-1 obtained in artificial buffered saliva (pH »8.2). Under these conditions nicotine (3-(1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinyl)pyridine is in neutral form, the most potentially hydrophobic. Experimental results indicate that viscometric constant (intrinsic viscosity [ƞ], Huggins constant k’, B coefficient) could discriminate between different sapid molecules tested at our laboratory. The ASV value of carbohydrate sweeteners falls within the sweet region. The bitterness of nicotine is manifested by ASV as high as 0.920 cm3g-1, which falls in the bitter region. Solution properties also determined for sweet-bitter mixtures validate an improvement in the fitting of solute molecules with solvent structure through the decrease...
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Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2013 in |
Anaemia associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects the overall health of the patients leading to increased morbidity and mortality. Erythropoietin stimulating agents (ESAs) have been the standard of care for the treatment of such patients since last 20 years. These agents have the potential to increase mean haemoglobin levels in both pre dialysis and dialysis maintenance phases hence lowering the cardiovascular complications and all-cause mortality. After epoetin and darbepoetin, Peginesatide, a novel pegylated erythropoietin (EPO) mimetic agent has recently been approved in March, 2012. Its better stability, once a month administration and non-immunogenicity makes this a preferable ESA. This review will elucidate the available evidence on efficacy and safety of this drug after analyzing various studies conducted in patients with renal anaemia. Searches of Pubmed, Cochrane database, Medscape, Google and clinicaltrial.org were made for terms like peginesatide, CKD, ESA and renal...
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Posted by admin on Jun 1, 2013 in |
Dendrimers are highly branched and reactive three-dimensional macromolecules, with all bonds emanating from a central core. Compared with traditional linear polymers, Dendrimers have much more accurately controlled structures, with a globular shape, a single molecular weight rather than a distribution of molecular weights, and a large number of controllable ‘peripheral’ functionalities. All these versatile features of dendrimers have made their application in various areas like Biomimetic, Pharmaceutical drug delivery, Gene delivery, Chemotherapy and Diagnostics very attractive. This review briefly discusses different types of dendrimers with their structures and their methods...
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