Pharmacology

Hormone therapy treatmenbt for men with advanced prostate cancer has been associated with an increased chance of developing various heart problems but some choices of therapy are less risky than others. Prostate cancer is diagnosed in more than 670,000 men each year worldwide, making it the second most common cancer among men worldwide, after lung cancer. Hormone therapy is a mainstay of treatment when the cancer is locally advanced and when it has spread to more distant parts of the body, but is increasingly being used in earlier stages of the disease.  It involves either removing the…

Scientific Name Cassia fistula Linn. Family Caesalpiniaceae (Fabaceae) Used Part Root. Distribution Area A deciduous medium-sized tree, occurring in deciduous forests throughout the greater part of India, ascending up to an altitude of 1,220 m in the sub- Himalayan tract and outer Himalayas. Common Uses . The bark possesses tonic and anti-dysenteric properties. It is also used for skin complaints. The wood is given in dysentery; the ash is reported to be employed as caustic to open abscesses. The powder or decoction of the bark is administered in leprosy, jaundice, syphilis and heart…

Researchers at the University of Leicester and Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology in Portugal say a new discovery about the protective properties of vitamin C in cells from the human skin could lead to better skin regeneration. The work in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine by Tiago Duarte, Marcus S. Cooke and G. Don Jones found that a form of Vitamin C helped to promote wound healing and also helped protect the DNA damage of skin cells. Previously, the group has published evidence that DNA repair is upregulated in people consuming vitamin C supplements. The researchers…

Aloe plant has over 112 species. Generally Aloe vera is projected as health tonic. However in some literature 4 species are mentioned out of which Aloe vera is declared toxic to eat or drink. All over the world lot of health products in the name of nature cure are being sold. Aloe vera cream could be good for health but it is not safe to drink Aloe vera juices. People dry the leaves and crush them and mix with water and sell as Aloe vera drinks. I invite comments and suggestions What do you feel about this.

Raheem  et. al.,(2007)isolated the  proteolytic enzymes from Calotropis procera (Sodom apple leaves) were extracted by aqueous infusion and characterised for its thermal and pH stabilities. The rennet strength of this extract was found to be 7% compared with animal rennet at 35 degrees C, and increasing the incubation temperature to 70 degrees C increased the rennet strength 28-fold. The molecular weight of the partially purified protease determined by SDS-PAGE combined with zymography was found to be approximately 60 kDa. The high proteolytic activity at 70 degrees C supported the…

  Anti-dysentric and antidiarrhoeal properties of medicinal plants were found to be due to tannins, alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, sterols and/or triterpenes and reducing sugars (Longanga_et al., 2000) The sesquiterpene lactones, a large group of compounds with anti-inflammatory properties have the ability to relax smooth muscles and thereby relieve gastrointestinal distress (Heinrich et al., 1998). The phytochemical analysis of the extract  from Calotropis gigantean revealed the presence of sugars (De,  1996), flavonoids (Rahman,. and Wilcock 1991), flavonol…

Numerous studies have outlined the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids but recommendations on how much you should get by people not trying to sell you something are less common.   A team of French scientists say they have found the dose of DHA - docosahexaenoic acid, found in cold water fatty fish and fish oil supplements - that is "just right" for preventing cardiovascular disease in healthy men. In a research report appearing in the September 2009 issue of The FASEB Journal , the scientists say that a 200 mg dose of DHA per day is enough to affect biochemical markers that reliably predict…

A number of stories caught my eye today and I wanted to write about each of them, but did not want to overwhelm the blog list like someone else who shall remain nameless (but happens to play rugby) does on occasion. The first unifying thread I noticed was that all deal with the letter D. So, like Kathy Griffin, the D-list it is. Drug dispensers: Vending machines in prison - Pepsi, Coke ... Viagra? Really, what could go wrong in this scenario? Images of the Fonz whacking the jukebox played in my mind, but replace the Fonz with a convict and the jukebox with a vending machine dispensing…

Kudzu has overgrown almost 10 million acres in the southeastern United States but imagine that  instead of being a nuisance it could sprout into a dietary supplement. Scientists in Alabama and Iowa are reporting the first evidence that root extracts from kudzu show promise as a dietary supplement for a high-risk condition, metabolic syndrome, that affects almost 50 million people in the United States alone. J. Michael Wyss and colleagues note in the new study that people with metabolic syndrome have obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and problems with their body's…

A University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston study suggests that ancient Chinese herbal formulas used primarily for cardiovascular indications including heart disease may produce large amounts of artery-widening nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is crucial to the cardiovascular system because it signals the inner walls of blood vessels to relax, which facilitates the flow of blood through the heart and circulatory system. The messenger molecule also eliminates dangerous clots, lowers high blood pressure and reduces artery-clogging plaque formation. The results from the study say that…