Uses of medicinal plants by Haitian immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camaguey, Cuba.

J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2009 May 18; 5(1): 16Volpato G, Godinez D, Beyra A, Barreto AABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Haitian immigrants played an important role shaping Cuban culture and traditional ethnobotanical knowledge. An ethnobotanical investigation was conducted to collect information on medicinal plant use by Haitians immigrants and their descendants in the Province of Camaguey, Cuba. METHODS: Information was obtained from semi-structured interviews with Haitian immigrants and their descendants, direct observations, and by reviewing reports of traditional Haitian medicine in the literature. RESULTS: Informants reported using 123 plant species belonging to 112 genera in 63 families. Haitian immigrants and their descendants mainly decoct or infuse aerial parts and ingest them, but medicinal baths are also relevant. Some 22 herbal mixtures are reported, including formulas for a preparation obtained using the fruit of Crescentia cujete. Cultural aspects related to traditional plant posology are also addressed, as well as changes and adaptation of Haitian medicinal knowledge with emigration and integration over time. CONCLUSIONS: The rapid disappearance of Haitian immigrants' traditional culture due to integration and urbanization suggests that unrecorded ethnomedicinal information may be lost forever. Given this, as well as the poor availability of ethnobotanical data relating to traditional Haitian medicine, there is an urgent need to record this knowledge.

Antihyperglycemic and antioxidant effect of Berberis aristata root extract and its role in regulating carbohydrate metabolism in diabetic rats.

J Ethnopharmacol. 2009 May 4; 123(1): 22-6Singh J, Kakkar PETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Berberis aristata DC root is used in traditional medicine for a number of ailments including metabolic disorders. AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of the present study was to explore the antihyperglycemic and antioxidant potential of 50% aqueous ethanolic root extract of Berberis aristata (BA) in alloxan induced diabetic rats. MATERIALS AND METHODS: BA root extract (250 mg/kg) was administered to diabetic rats and standard drug glybenclamide (0.6 mg/kg) to group serving as positive control. Effect of extract on antioxidant and carbohydrate metabolism regulating enzymes of liver was studied in diabetic rats along with its safety parameters. RESULTS: The main constituents of root were identified as berberine, berbamine and palmatine through HPTLC. The extract besides being safe, lowered the blood glucose significantly without any hypoglycemic effect on their control counterparts. It increased CAT, SOD, GPx, GR activity significantly and reduced lipid peroxidation (41.6%) and protein carbonylation (30.15%). It also increased the glucokinase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activities and decreased glucose-6-phosphatase activity in diabetic rats which play a critical role in glucose homeostasis. CONCLUSION: Thus, the extract of Berberis aristata (root) has strong potential to regulate glucose homeostasis through decreased gluconeogenesis and oxidative stress.

Optimising resolution for a preparative separation of Chinese herbal medicine using a surrogate model sample system.

J Chromatogr A. 2009 May 3; Ye H, Ignatova S, Peng A, Chen L, Sutherland IThis paper builds on previous modelling research with short single layer columns to develop rapid methods for optimising high-performance counter-current chromatography at constant stationary phase retention. Benzyl alcohol and p-cresol are used as model compounds to rapidly optimise first flow and then rotational speed operating conditions at a preparative scale with long columns for a given phase system using a Dynamic Extractions Midi-DE centrifuge. The transfer to a high value extract such as the crude ethanol extract of Chinese herbal medicine Millettia pachycarpa Benth. is then demonstrated and validated using the same phase system. The results show that constant stationary phase modelling of flow and speed with long multilayer columns works well as a cheap, quick and effective method of optimising operating conditions for the chosen phase system-hexane-ethyl acetate-methanol-water (1:0.8:1:0.6, v/v). Optimum conditions for resolution were a flow of 20ml/min and speed of 1200rpm, but for throughput were 80ml/min at the same speed. The results show that 80ml/min gave the best throughputs for tephrosin (518mg/h), pyranoisoflavone (47.2mg/h) and dehydrodeguelin (10.4mg/h), whereas for deguelin (100.5mg/h), the best flow rate was 40ml/min.

Head lice.

Clin Evid (Online). 2009; 2009: Burgess IFINTRODUCTION: Head lice can only be diagnosed by finding live lice, as eggs take 7 days to hatch and may appear viable for weeks after death of the egg. Infestation may be more likely in school children, with risks increased in children with more siblings, longer hair, and of lower socioeconomic group. METHODS AND OUTCOMES: We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical question: What are the effects of treatments for head lice? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to June 2008 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). RESULTS: We found 15 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions. CONCLUSIONS: In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: dimeticone, herbal and essential oils, insecticide combinations, lindane, malathion, mechanical removal by combing ('bug busting'), oral trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazone (co-trimoxazole, TMP-SMX), permethrin, phenothrin, and pyrethrum.

A promising approach for understanding the mechanism of Traditional Chinese Medicine by the aggregation morphology.

J Ethnopharmacol. 2009 Jun 22; 123(2): 267-74Hu J, Wu Z, Yan J, Pang W, Liang D, Xu XOBJECTIVE: Previous work has found that the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) form aggregates in the aqueous solution, and the activities of two Chinese herbal formulae against three cardiovascular targets were aggregates-related. This paper further studied the molecular morphology composed of aggregation and single active molecule in TCM. METHODS: We take Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi (PUE) as an example. By means of dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), the mechanism and active components of the aggregates in PUE have been studies. Besides the relationship between aggregation and therapeutic activities in the vivo level has been studied by hemorheological method. RESULTS: Puerarin, daidzein, daidzin, genistein, these cardiovascular bioactive compounds existed in the aggregates. Three kinds of aggregation processes by the bioactive molecules in the solution were elucidated: (1) the aggregation of single molecule oneself; (2) the aggregation between different single molecules; (3) the aggregation between different single molecules and the primary metabolites. Furthermore, the therapeutic activity of PUE solution was aggregates-related in vivo level. CONCLUSIONS: The aggregation morphology of molecules in TCM might be a promising way to study the mechanism of TCM, even to develop an approach of new nanomedicine of TCM.