• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.238-244
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• 2009

Gymnosporia rothiana (walp) Lawson (celastraceae), commonly known as Maytenus rothiana, is used in Indian folk medicine as an antiulcerogenic agent. However, there have been no scientific reports regarding its antiulcer activity. Therefore, this study was intended to evaluate the antiulcer property of petroleum ether, chloroform, and methanolic extract of leaves of Gymnosporia rothiana at different dose levels in ethanol induced and indomethacin induced gastric ulcer models. It was observed that oral administration of all the extract of Gymnosporia rothiana produces significant reduction in ulcer lesion index as well as increase in volume and pH of gastric content in both experimental models, being petroleum ether extract the most effective at dose of 250 mg/kg; it significantly reduced gastric lesion index (70.06%), in comparison to omeprazole (71.20%) and methanolic extract at a dose of 500 mg/kg (67.22%). Increased gastric mucosal defense mechanism by petroleum ether extract is probably due to its high levels of terpenoids like $\beta$ amyrin, lupeol acetate. The present results clearly shows antiulcer effect of Gymnosporia rothiana against various irritants has been mainly due to cytoprotective effect mediated through prostaglandin and partly due to free radical scavenging activity.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2008

In the Indian traditional medicine, Lippia nodiflora (Verbenaceae) whole plant is claimed to possess powerful diuretic activity. However, the diuretic potential of this plant is not yet investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diuretic potential of methanol extract of Lippia nodiflora (MELN) in rats. Control (0.9% saline solution, 25 ml/kg, b.w) or urea (1 g/kg b.w) or frusemide (5 mg/kg b.w) and different concentrations of MELN (200 and 400 mg/kg b.w) were intraperitoneally administered (n = 6 per each treatment group) to hydrated rats and their urine output was monitored over a period of 5 h and 24 h after drug administration. The diuretic responses with its electrolyte excretion potency of the extract were highly remarkable in comparison with control animals. The extract at doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg shows a significant increase in volume of urine with increase in $Na^{+}$, $Ca^{2+}$ and $Cl^{-}$ excretion accompanied by the excretion of $K^{+}$ in dose dependent manner. This study suggests that the active component(s) in MELN had similar diuretic effect to that of frusemide. These results validate the traditional use of Lippia nodiflora as a diuretic agent.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.222-230
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• 2010

Trichosanthes cucumerina Linn. (cucurbitaceae) is widely used in Indian folk medicine for variety of disease conditions. The aim of present study was to evaluate the antiulcer activity of 50% ethanolic extract of fruits of Trichosanthes cucumerina Linn. (TCFE) using various experimental models of gastric and duodenal ulceration in rats. Oral administration of 50% ethanolic extract of fruits of Trichosanthes cucumerina Linn. was evaluated in rats against ethanol, aspirin and pylorus ligated gastric ulcers as well as cysteamine-induced duodenal ulcers. In all the models studied, the antiulcer activity of TCFE compared with that of cimetidine (100 mg/kg, p.o.), an $H_2$ receptor antagonist. TCFE showed significant antiulcer activity in ethanol-induced and aspirin-induced gastric ulcer models. In 19 h pylorus ligated rats, significant reduction in ulcer index, total acidity and pepsin activity was observed with TCFE, when compared with the control group. Mucosal defensive factors such as pH, mucin activity and gastric wall mucous content was found to be increased with TCFE. TCFE was also, afforded remarkable protection in cysteamine-induced duodenal lesions. The antiulcer activity of TCFE was comparable with that of cimetidine. Thus, TCFE possess significant antiulcer activity against both gastric and duodenal ulcers in rats. The antiulcer activity may be attributed to its cytoprotective action and inhibition of acid secretary parameters.

• CELLMED
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.19.1-19.5
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• 2018

A majority of the peoples in Indian cities depend on high fat diet, smoking, ghutka chewing and improper sleep, these all are lifestyle changes, can cause ischemic heart disease. Globally, ischemic heart disease (IHD) is the leading killer. Unani System of medicine not only provides well-based medical cures for diseases, but its holistic approaches as it possess unique principles of diet, lifestyle and particularly therapeutics, to balance and enrich all aspects of physiology and psyche. All diseases are the result of poor management of the six governing (or essential) factors, beyond the ability of physics or Tabiat to maintain and restore homeostasis. In this context, lifestyle diseases can be prevented by conscious changes to the person's diet, behavior and environment. The holistic approach of Unani medicine is well placed to cover the two main pillars of lifestyle diseases, namely, prevention and treatment. In this paper, we report on the prevalence of CAD in patients with known diagnosis of CAD and try to find out its relationship with different lifestyle changes.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.721-727
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• 2007

Scorpion (SCP) has been clinically used for the treatment of endogenous wind to relieve convulsion, clearing away toxins, resolving hard masses and removing obstruction in the collaterals to relieve pain. Recent studies showed that scorpion toxins that affect the activating mechanism of sodium channels and indian black scorpion venom induced anti-proliferative and apoptogenic activity against human leukemic cell lines U937 and K562. There is lack of studies regarding the effects of SCP on the immunological activities. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of SCP on the regulatory effects of cytokines and nitric oxide (NO) for the immunological activities in Raw 264.7 cells. After the treatment of SCP MeOH extract dissolved in media for 1 h prior to the addition of lipopolysaccharide (LPS: 1 ${\mu}$g/ml), cell viability was measured by MTT assay, NO production was monitored by measuring the nitrite content in culture medium. Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) was determined by immunoblot analysis, and levels of cytokine were analyzed by sandwich immunoassays. As results, SCP inhibited the production of nitrite and nitrate (0.3 and 1.0 mg/ml), iNOS and p-$I_KB_{\alpha}$ protein, tumor necrosis factor-${\alpha}$ (0.3 and 1.0 mg/ml), interleukin-1${\beta}$ (0.3 and 1.0 mg/ml) and interleukin-6 (1.0mg/ml) in Raw 264.7 cells activated with LPS. These findings suggest that SCP can produce anti-inflammatory effect, which may play a role in adjunctive therapy in Gram-negative bacterial infections.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.677-681
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• 2013

Paragonimiasis is an important food-borne parasitic zoonosis caused by infection with lung flukes of the genus Paragonimus. Of the 7 members of the genus known in Thailand until recently, only P. heterotremus has been confirmed as causing human disease. An 8th species, P. pseudoheterotremus, has recently been proposed from Thailand, and has been found in humans. Molecular data place this species as a sister species to P. heterotremus, and it is likely that P. pseudoheterotremus is not specifically distinct from P. heterotremus. In this study, we collected metacercariae of both nominal species (identification based on metacercarial morphology) from freshwater crabs from Phetchabun Province in northern Thailand, Saraburi Province in central Thailand, and Surat Thani Province in southern Thailand. In addition, we purchased freshwater crabs imported from Myanmar at Myawaddy Province, western Thailand, close to the Myanmar-Thailand border. The DNAs extracted from excysted metacercariae were PCR-amplified and sequenced for ITS2 and cox1 genes. The ITS2 sequences were nearly identical among all samples (99-100%). Phylogenies inferred from all available partial cox1 sequences contained several clusters. Sequences from Indian P. heterotremus formed a sister group to sequences from P. pseudoheterotremus-type metacercariae. Sequences of P. heterotremus from Thailand, Vietnam, and China formed a separate distinct clade. One metacercaria from Phitsanulok Province was distinct from all others. There is clearly considerable genetic variation in the P. heterotremus complex in Thailand and the form referred to as P. pseudoheterotremus is widely distributed in Thailand and the Thai-Myanmar border region.

• CELLMED
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.6.1-6.10
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• 2015

Fumaria indica Linn. (Syn: Fumaria parviflora, Fumariaceae) is a wildly grown weed, mentioned and recommended in classical Ayurvedic texts for treatments of variety of ailments including dermatological diseases, topical diseases, cardiovascular complaints, circulatory disease, fever and headache etc. The present pilot study was designed to experimentally verify the possibility that fumarates are the major bioactive principles of Fumaria indica extracts involved in their stress response modulating activities, and to estimate pharmacologicallyactive dose ranges of fumarates and standardized methanolic extract of Fumaria indica (MFI). Effect of single, 5 and 10 daily oral doses of pure fumaric acid (FA), monomethyl fumarate (MMF), dimethyl fumarate (DMF) and MFI was quantified in well validated rodent models viz. apomorphine induced cage climbing, stress induced hyperthermia, and elevated plus-maze tests. Obtained results reveal high efficacy of MFI and pure fumarates possess qualitatively analogous activity profiles in all the three tests. There were no significant difference in the potencies of pure FA, MMF and DMF in the three tests, whereas efficacy of MFI in the elevated plus maze test for anxiolytics was higher than in the other two tests. Efficacies of all the four test agents in all the three tests increased with increasing number of days of oral treatments. Results of these pilot experiments should be helpful for more rational selections of pharmacologically interesting dose ranges and treatment regimens of fumarates and Fumaria indica extracts for further more holistic explorations of their diverse therapeutic potentials.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.301-304
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• 2008

Microsatellites, short tandem repeats, are useful markers for genetic analysis because of their high frequency of occurrence over the genome, high information content due to variable repeat lengths, and ease of typing. To establish a panel of microsatellite markers useful for genetic studies of the Korean population, the allele frequencies and heterozygosities of 207 microsatellite markers in 119 unrelated Korean, Indian and Pakistani individuals were compared. The average heterozygosity of the Korean population was 0.71, similar to that of the Indian and Pakistani populations. More than 80% of the markers showed heterozygosity of over 0.6 and were valuable as genetic markers for genome-wide screening for disease susceptibility loci in these populations. To identify the allelic distributions of the multilocus genetic data from these microsatellite markers, the population structures were assessed by clustering. These markers supported, with the most probability, three clustering groups corresponding to the three geographical populations. When we assumed only two hypothetical clusters (K), the Korean population was separate from the others, suggesting a relatively deep divergence of the Korean population. The present 207 microsatellite markers appear to reflect the historical and geographical origins of the different populations as well as displaying a similar degree of variation to that seen in previously published genetic data. Thus, these markers will be useful as a reference for human genetic studies on Asians.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1083-1088
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• 2016

Background: Cervical cancer is the second commonest cancer among Indian women and its association with human papilloma virus (HPV) is well established. This preventable cancer accounts for the maximum number of cancer related deaths among rural Indian women. Unlike in developed countries there are no organized cervical cancer screening programmes in India due to lack of resources and manpower. Objective: To detect genital HPV infection using urine samples among asymptomatic rural women in the age group of 18-65 years. Materials and Methods: The study area chosen was Perdoor village in Udupi Taluk, Karnataka State and all the women in the age group of 18-65 years formed the study cohort. A cross sectional study was conducted by house visits and 1,305 women were enrolled in the study. After taking written informed consent a data sheet was filled and early stream random urine samples were collected, transported to a laboratory at 4OC and aliquoted. Samples were tested using nested HPV PCR with PGMY09/11 and GP5+/6+ primers. Positive cases were genotyped by sequence analysis. Results: Study participants included 1,134 sexually active and 171 unmarried women with a mean age at marriage of 22.1 (SD=3.9) years. Study area showed high female literacy rate of 86.6%. Five urine samples tested positive for HPV DNA (0.4%). Conclusions: We found very low genital HPV infection rate among women from monogamous community. This is the first major population based study carried out among asymptomatic rural women to detect genital HPV infectio from Karnataka using urine samples.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1147-1150
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• 2013

Background: Cancer diagnostic biomarkers have a wide range of applications that include early detection of oral precancerous lesions and oral squamous cell carcinomas, and assessing the metastatic status of lesions. The interferon stimulated ISG15 gene encodes an ubiquitin-like protein, which conjugates to stabilize activation status of associated proteins. Hence a deregulated expression of ISG15 may promote carcinogenesis. Indeed overexpression of ISG15 has been observed in several cancers and hence it has been proposed as a strong candidate cancer diagnostic biomarker. Given the emerging relationship between malignant transformation and ISG15, we sought to examine the expression pattern of this gene in tumor biopsies of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissues collected from Indian patients. Materials and Methods: Total RNA isolated from thirty oral squamous cell carcinoma tissue biopsy samples were subjected to semi-quantitative RT-PCR with ISG15 specific primers to elucidate the expression level. Results: Of the thirty oral squamous cell carcinomas that were analyzed, ISG15 expression was found in twenty four samples (80%). Twelve samples expressed low level of ISG15, six of them expressed moderately, while the rest of them expressed very high level of ISG15. Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge, the results show for the first time an overexpression of ISG15 in up to 80% of oral squamous cell carcinoma tissues collected from Indian patients. Hence ISG15 may be explored for the possibility of use as a high confidence diagnostic biomarker in oral cancers.