Nutrients in flowers and corms of the saffron crocus

Researchers have used ICP mass spectrometry and gas chromatography to examine the nutritional properties of the flower organs of saffron crocus that have been frowned in two cultivation fields. Saffron crocus flower seeds consists a variety of mainlyunsaturated fatty acids of dietary value and different varieties of fats that has tendency to absorb toxic metals from the soil. 

Saffron crocus (Crocus sativus L.) belonging to the family Iridaceae, is a perennial autumn flowering plant unknown in the wild and widely cultivated for its flowers with trilobal scarlet styles from which it derives the saffron spice well known around the world for its aromatic and medical properties. Its pollen is sticky because of a pollenkitt layer that the nurse cells (tapetum) of the anthers deposited on the pollen exine. 

Ubiquitination and Regulation of Akt Activity

The serine/threonine protein kinase Akt (protein kinase B, PKB) is a member of the AGC family of protein kinases. Akt is involved in regulation of many different cellular processes, such as cell growth, survival, proliferation, apoptosis, metabolism and angiogenesis. There are three known Akt isoforms, Akt1, Akt2 and Akt3, which are closely related and widely expressed in mammals.

Activation of Akt includes several major steps. First, PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) phosphorylates PI (4,5)P2 (PIP2) toform PI(3,4,5)P3 (PIP3), which is required for the recruitment of Akt from the cytosol to the plasma membrane . The dual specificity protein phosphatase PTEN negatively regulates this process by dephosphorylating PIP3 to PIP2. 

At the membrane, Akt is phosphorylated at Thr308 within its catalytic domain by phosphoinositol-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1) and at Ser473 within its C-terminal regulatory domain by mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2), resulting in its full activation.While regulation of Akt activity via Thr308 and Ser473 phosphorylation has been a subject of extensive research, much less is known about the effect of other posttranslational modifications (PTMs) on Akt activity. More recently, additional Akt regulatory PTMs were identified, including phosphorylation, acetylation, oxidation, glycosylation, SUMOylation and ubiquitination sites.Read more......

HISTORY OF AYURVEDIC HERBAL MEDICINE

The future medicative system exclusively depends on alternative medicine, specifically herbal medicines as it is less toxic and has few facet effects. Medicinal plants that are used massively are- Hemidesmus indicus, Zingiber officinale, Rauvolfia serpentina, Cassia angustifolia, Acorus calamus, Adhatoda vasica, Aconitum species, Picrorhiza kurroa etc. In ancient systems of medicine, the drugs are primarily distributed as water or ethanolic extract. Therefore, medicinal plant parts should be authentic and free from harmful materials like pesticides, radioactive metals and microbial contamination. The necessary step is stabilization of the bioactive extract with a minimum shelf-life for over a year. The stabilized bioactive extract ought to endure regulatory or restricted safety studies in animals.

Ayurveda evolved from the traditional wisdom of healers, prophets & Rishis that lived deep in the Himalayas. Different anthropology evidences indicate use of medicinal plants approximately five thousand years ago. Ayurvedic Herbal medicine has been refined by thousands of years of utilisation and experience. In about 800 BC the primary medical healing school was founded in India. A well-known scholar, healer and herbalist Charaka in his writings described 1,500 medicative plants in his book the 'Charaka Samhita'

Physicochemical Properties of Causative Drugs Associated with Renal Nephrotoxicity

Drugs can have both unfavorable adverse drug reactions (ADR) and useful pharmacological effects. Previous studies have reported various ADRand toxic effects caused by drugs. Those reports noted that some products were banned after being put on the market because of the severe ADR they caused, while the safety of others is assured by having usage restrictions imposed on them.

It is important not only to have a response that forms countermeasures when ADR emerge, but also to provide drug information to form safety measures to predict and avoid ADR before they occur.

There are 3 essential pieces of information about specific pharmaceutical products: physiochemical, pharmacological, and pharmacokinetic. Thus, various pharmacological and pharmacokinetic approaches that examine the association between these 3 pieces of information and adverse events caused by drugs have been previously reported. However, there are few reports that examine the association between physiochemical information and adverse events.

Application of Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticle in the Drug Delivery Systems

Currently, nanosized materials are extensively used in design of the optical devices, catalysts, biosensors, imaging agent, drugs and gene delivery, etc. There are alarge number of nanoparticles including gold nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles, quantum dots, bioceramic based nanoparticles and so on that are applied as carriers in the drug delivery systems. Definitely, dominant physicochemical properties of these materials such as small size and high surface to volume ratio lead to improvement of their effectiveness as a suitable carrier in drug and gene delivery. 

In the recent decades, the production of bioceramics with nanostructures has attracted much attention for biomedical applications. Among various types of bioceramics, hydroxyapatite (HAp) is one of the attractive bioceramics which is widely used in various fields of science such as tissue engineering, drug delivery systems and chromatographic purification

Management of HIV/AIDS-Associated Opportunistic Skin Infections with Phytoderma TM

Infectious fungal skin diseases are increasing globally in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS) and even in those receiving antiretroviral therapy.Although the disease burdens due skin infections are potentially high, they are hardly considered as major public health problems in literature and at the global health stage compared to malaria, tuberculosis and some neglected tropical diseases in Cameroon and most Sub Saharan Africa countries, skin infections due to fungi are increasinglycompeting on the scale with opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS long term use of imidazole antifungal derivatives such as ketoconazole, fluconazole and econazole are becoming ineffective to treat many of the skin infections seen in these countries and these have been blamed largely on the unavailability of established antifungal gram guided prescription in health centers in these countries. Similarly, other antifungal drugs such as griseofulvin, nystatin, diflucan, benzoic acids, and salicylic acid have also been over prescribed in sub Saharan Africa and over the years; leading to the development of resistant strains of many fungal species.

These treatment challenges couple with the unpleasant side effects that the patients receiving this treatment have to go through calls for the need to continuously search for new antifungal leads and alternative or complementary measures. Interestingly, and other researchers reported that there are a number of indigenous mushrooms that could play a role in the treatment of skin infections. A number of studies have also shown that many medicinal mushrooms such as Ganoderma lucidum have a wide range of medicinal applications.

overweight and Liver ailment: a brand new Paradigm

The development of hepatic issues such as alcoholic liver disorder (ALD) or viral hepatitis B/C (VHB/VHC) typically depends on the nutritional popularity of an individual. In the beyond, malnutrition commonly brought about the development of these hepatic disorders. But, due to a worldwide increase in the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its developed forms, as nicely as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), those fatty liver sicknesses end up one ofthe fundamental reasons of liver fibrosis or liver cirrhosis. It could then be feasible that fats accumulation in preference to malnutrition additionally develops the severity of ALD or VHB/VHC. goal: The intention of the prevailing look at turned into to pick out the clinical, nutritional and socio-within your means profiles of sufferers with liver disease under dietary tracking at the  university  health center nutrients and  Hepatology Outpatient sanatorium, Alagoas/Brazil.

Methods: go-sectional have a look at  that  collected demographics,  socio-economics,  life  style  conduct, anthropometrics and scientific records using a questionnaire. The observe protocol turned into approved by means of the moral assessment committee. outcomes: Of the 17  patients studied, most of them have been adults (70.five%) and male (seventy six.4%). The foremost liver sickness etiology changed into VHC (35.2%), accompanied by VHB (17.6%) and then  ALD  (eleven.7%).  among the medical headaches associated  with  liver  disease, gastrointestinal  bleeding (35.three%)  and  ascites  and/or  edema  (35.3%)  stood  out. No matter numerous  patients displaying ascites/edema on the time of anthropometric measure, overweightness/ weight problems changed into detected in 63.6% (by using body mass index) and 33.three% (by using mid-upper arm circumference) of the patients, whilst under nutrition (25.zero%)  was  determined  simplest  by way of  mid-higher arm circumference.