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Ethnopharmacological relevance Leigong Mountain is an area in the Southwest of China where there is a high incidence rate of athlete's foot, but the Miao people, a Chinese minority who reside in this mountainous area have suffered less from this disease due to their use of the herbal medicine Isodon flavidus (Hand.-Mazz.) H. Hara. Aim of the study The present study is to identify the active chemical constituents responsible for antifungal effects of the folk medicine plant. Materials and methods The natural compounds were separated from the methanol extract of the twigs and leaves of I. flavidus by phytochemical study using chromatographic methods, and their chemical structures were determined by analysis of the spectroscopic data including 1D and 2D NMR spectra. The absolute configuration of fladin A ( 1 ) was further confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The compounds were evaluated for their antifungal activity against the athlete's foot fungus Trichophyton rubrum . They were further evaluated for their antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activity against the dental pathogens Streptococcus mutans , Porphyromonas gingivalis and Candida albicans . Results Phytochemical and biological studies of I. flavidus led to the discovery of two antifungal compounds, fladin A ( 1 ) and lophanic acid ( 2 ). Fladin A ( 1 ) is a novel diterpene with an unprecedented cyclic ether group formed between C-4 and C-9. Lophanic acid ( 2 ) displayed inhibition activity against the athlete's foot fungus Trichophyton rubrum with an MIC value of 7.8 μg/mL, and fladin A ( 1 ) also showed inhibition activity against the fungus with a MIC value of 62.5 μg/mL. Conclusions Our identification of two antifungal compounds provided strong evidence for the Miao people to use I. flavidus as a medicinal plant for treatment of athlete's foot disease. The very different chemical structures of the active compounds from those in the market presents them as potential antifungal lead compounds for follow-up study.

Mimusops elengi is Indian native plant and is used for a long time in the history of the medicine. Plant was well studied in majority of the world because of its high potential medicinal value. Traditionally all different part of this plant, namely leaf, root, fruit, seed, bark and flower are used to cure various kinds of disorders. Information compiled here will be useful to improve the present investigation of several health care research regarding the Mimusops elengi.

This article introduces the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and the European Union's policies and legislation that exemplify these rules. This forms the basis for examining primary Russian SPS legislation governing border controls and its relationship with legislative provisions on human, animal, and plant health and food safety. Specific Russsian primary federal laws (federal'nye zakony) covering veterinary medicine, plant health, food quality/safety, pesticides and agrochemicals, and technical regulations are compared with corresponding international conventions, norms, and standards and relevant legislation in the EU. Finally, general remarks are made about the Russian Federation's secondary legislation in the SPS area. Instances of non-compliance with international norms, found by the authors, may contribute to trade difficulties with other countries and likely will need to be addressed as part of Russia's negotiations to join the WTO and, also, to remove some of the difficulties in trade with the EU.

Seeds of a Chinese traditional medicine plant, Cochinchina momordica were used in the present study for the improvement of influenza vaccine (H5N1) in chicken. Crude extraction from Cochinchina momordica seed (ECMS) was obtained by ethanol extraction method. In experiment No. 1, two weeks old chickens were immunized with influenza vaccine (H5N1) alone or combined with ECMS (5, 10, 20, 40 and 80 microg/dose). Serum IgG antibody levels (by ELISA) as well as effects on daily weight gain were measured on 0, 7, 14 and 28th day after immunization. Results revealed that all ECMS groups numerically increased the antibody levels while 10 and 20 microg/dose groups significantly (P0.05) enhanced total IgG antibody on day 28, when compared with control. Average daily weight gain was also significantly higher in 20 microg/dose ECMS group. Adjuvant effect was also confirmed in experiment No. 2 when chickens were immunized with 20 microg/dose ECMS and antibody titer was measured through hemagglutination inhibition (HI). It is concluded that ECMS has potential to improve the immune responses and deserve further study as an adjuvant.

Pharmacognosy is a science, which study natural products as a source of new drug leads and effective drug development. Rational and economic search for novel lead structures could maximize the speed of drug discovery by using powerful high technology methods. Reverse pharmacognosy, a complementary to pharmacognosy, couples the high throughput screening (HTS), virtual screening and databases along with the knowledge of traditional medicines. These strategies lead to identification of numerous in vitro active and selective hits enhancing the speed of drug discovery from natural sources. Besides, reverse pharmacology is a target base drug discovery approach; in the first step, a hypothesis is made that the alteration of specific protein activity will produce beneficial curative effects. Both, reverse pharmacognosy and reverse pharmacology take advantages of high technology methods to accomplish their particular purposes. Moreover, reverse pharmacognosy effectively utilize traditional medicines and natural products as promising sources to provide new drug leads as well as promote the rational use of them by using valuable information like protein structure databases and chemical libraries which prepare pharmacological profile of traditional medicine, plant extract or natural compounds.

Ethnopharmacological relevance Ethnobotanical knowledge and traditional medicinal practices from different parts of the world are of global importance and documentation of ethnobotanical, and ethnopharmacological data is a key prerequisite for further research in the area of herbal medicine and its implementation in clinical practice. Aims An attempt was made to evaluate the scientific output of research related to ethnobotany and herbal medicine in journals indexed in the subject area “Integrative and Complementary Medicine” in the period 2001–2013, in order to ascertain research trends in both subdisciplines. Materials and methods All articles related to ethnobotany and herbal medicine, extracted from journals included in the field of I&C Medicine and published in the period 2001–2013, have been analyzed for general bibliometric data, and specific data: ethnobotanical data (geographic, floristic, pharmacological, sociological and other relevant data) and phytotherapeutic data (type of applied herbal medicine, plant species studied, pharmacological activity of studied plant species and disease and disorder type studied on a particular model). Results In the studied period, the number of articles dealing with ethnobotany and herbal medicine increased 6.3-fold. Articles related to ethnobotanical studies documented medicinal flora from 81 countries, either giving an overview of overall medicinal flora, or presenting the ethnomedicinal aspect of the use of plants for the treatment of ailments typical to the studied area. Additionally, the authors provided significant information on the methods of use and herbal preparations. In herbal medicine studies, plants, traditional plant remedies, herbal medicinal products and active herbal compounds were tested for many of pharmacological activities (146), with the curative activity emerging as most frequently tested. Out of 39 model systems, most of the studies were carried out under controlled in vitro conditions (4589 articles), followed by rat in vivo (2320), human in vivo (1285), mouse in vivo (955), and on agents of pathogenic diseases (887); more than 800 medical disorders were treated. Conclusions The study revealed the regions most studied for new records of floristic and ethnomedicinal diversity, the most frequently studied plant species, and the most promising therapeutic indications for the integration of herbal remedies in the curative process, as ascertained from the selected bibliographic databases.

Background The Lhoba are a small ethnic group, located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Until 1960, their livelihood was predominantly based on swidden agriculture, hunting, and gathering. To investigate and document the plant species used by the Lhoba, ethnobotanical surveys were conducted in three villages of Nanyi Township in Milin County, Tibet, China. Methods Ethnobotanical surveys were conducted in three Lhoba villages using key informant interviews and semi-structured interviews. Plants traditionally used by the Lhoba were documented. Data obtained were analyzed through informant consensus factor analysis (FIC) to determine the homogeneity of the informants’ knowledge of medicinal plants. Results Fifty-nine plant species belonging to 49 genera and 28 families were recorded and collected. Twenty-eight species are ethnomedicinal plants, 29 are local edible plants, and 23 are used for other purposes in Lhoba daily life. The medicinal plant species are used for treating eight categories of illness. Most medicinal plants are herbs (71.4%) or roots (39.2%). Nutrition adjustment (FIC = 0.76) and dermatological infections (FIC = 0.56) showed the highest FIC, indicating that the Lhoba had the highest level of agreement about the use of plants for these two illness categories. Fruit is the most frequently used part of the edible plants. Nine edible plant species are used as herbal medicine. Plant species used for other purposes include, six species for fuel, five for dye material, six for religious use, four for timber, two for tobacco substitutes, and one for fodder. Conclusions Some traditional technologies and customs of Lhoba, such as dyeing and bamboo weaving, have remained the same for centuries. In contrast, the Lhoba’s knowledge of ethnomedicine has been recently influenced by traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine, resulting in the loss of traditional knowledge in this sector. In addition, the development of tourism has influenced a change in the Lhoba lifestyle and their production of traditional products. These events signal the need to invest in mechanisms that can enable the Lhoba to benefit from the use of their traditional plant-derived culture and therefore support the continued conservation and use of these important plant resources.

Oxidative stress and low level of neurotransmitter (especially acetylcholine) are main characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a progressive neurodegenerative disease. Prolonging the function of acetylcholine by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase or butyrylcholinesterase enzyme and reducing oxidative stress with antioxidants are most effective treatment therapy of AD. Abroma augusta is a well-known medicine plant with a variety of medicinal uses. In this study we examine cholinesterase inhibitory activity as well as antioxidant activity of dried fruit extract including crude methyl extract and its sub fractions (Chloroform fraction, Petroleum ether fraction, Ethyl acetate fraction and aqueous fraction) of A. augusta. Both cholinergic inhibitory activity and antioxidant activity of various fractions suggested that, ethyl acetate fraction are most prominent among all fractions and can be used in symptomatic treatment of AD.

Objective The quality and quantity of published research papers are important in both scientific and technology fields. Although there are several bibliometric studies based on citation analysis, very few have focused on research related to Traditional Chinese Medicine in China. Methods The bibliometric method used in this study included the following focuses: publication outputs for each year, paper type, language of publication, distribution of internationally collaborative countries, sources of funding, authorization number, distribution of institutes regarding collaborative publications, research fields, distribution of outputs in journals, citation data, and h-index. Results A total of 3809 papers published from 1995 to 2012 were extracted from the science citation index (SCI). The cumulative number of papers from all six universities is constantly increasing. The United States attained the dominant position regarding complementary and alternative medicine research. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was the greatest participator in collaborative efforts. Research field analysis showed that the research mainly focused on pharmacology pharmacy, chemistry, integrative complementary medicine, plant sciences, and biochemistry molecular biology. The Shanghai University of Chinese Medicine had the most citations. Conclusion In recent years, in terms of SCI papers, the six Traditional Chinese Medicine universities studied here have made great advances in scientific research.

2 Abstract: The Syzygium cumini (Myrtaceae) is a traditional medicine plant for the treatment of hypoglycemic, antibacterial, anti-HIV and antidiarrheal activities. The work reached the acute toxicity of Syzygium cumini and its action on t he Central Nervous System (CNS) because no data in the literature have been found of pharmacological activity of this plant in the CNS. The seed was extracted with ethyl acetate and methanol and investigated for its Central Nervous System activity (CNS) of Albino mice in rota rod and actophotometer at the dose level of 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg. Both the extract exhibited significantly CNS activity. This study established CNS activity in Syzygium cumini seed.

Background In Cameroon herbs are traditionally used to meet health care needs and plans are on the way to integrate traditional medicine in the health care system, even though the plans have not been put into action yet. The country however has a rich biodiversity, with ~8,620 plant species, some of which are commonly used in the treatment of several microbial infections and a range of diseases (malaria, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, diabetes and tuberculosis). Methods Our survey consisted in collecting published data from the literature sources, mainly from PhD theses in Cameroonian university libraries and also using the author queries in major natural product and medicinal chemistry journals. The collected data includes plant sources, uses of plant material in traditional medicine, plant families, region of collection of plant material, isolated metabolites and type (e.g. flavonoid, terpenoid, etc.), measured biological activities of isolated compounds, and any comments on significance of isolated metabolites on the chemotaxonomic classification of the plant species. This data was compiled on a excel sheet and analysed. Results In this study, a literature survey led to the collection of data on 2,700 secondary metabolites, which have been previously isolated or derived from Cameroonian medicinal plants. This represents distinct phytochemicals derived from 312 plant species belonging to 67 plant families. The plant species are investigated in terms of chemical composition with respect to the various plant families. A correlation between the known biological activities of isolated compounds and the ethnobotanical uses of the plants is also attempted. Insight into future direction for natural product search within the Cameroonian forest and Savanna is provided. Conclusions It can be verified that a phytochemical search of active secondary metabolites, which is inspired by knowledge from the ethnobotanical uses of medicinal plants could be very vital in a drug discovery program from plant-derived bioactive compounds.

Diabetes is a chronic disease condition that poses a serious threat to human health the world over. With the adoption of a Western lifestyle and urbanization, a tremendous increase in this metabolic disease has been observed in Africa. Though there is treatment for the condition, no cure currently exists for the disease; it has been estimated that up to one-third of patients with diabetes use some form of complementary and alternative medicine. Plant-based therapy has demonstrated significant efficacy with regard to the management of the disease. We used an Internet-based (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Scirus, Web of Knowledge, and Scopus) survey to document medicinal plants in Africa with proven antidiabetic activity. Many studies conducted on the continent have established the benefits of medicinal plants with hypoglycemic effects. The various investigations give credence to the folkloric use of these plants in the management and treatment of diabetes.

Plants since time immemorial have always been considered as a key source of energy and medicine. Plant are factories skilled in synthesizing infinite number of extremely complex, rare and bioactive compounds whose structures could otherwise escape the imagination forever and are the foundation for many new compounds synthesized artificially. Over three-quarters of the world population relies mainly on plants and plant extracts for health care. More than 30% of the entire plant species, at one time or otherwise used for medicinal purposes. Since ancient times, herbal medicine has played a major role in traditional systems of medicine such Unani and Ayurveda. It’s very sorry state of the medicinal plant dependent industries that for production, they are totally dependent on the plant material that is collected from the natural habitat. This imposes a constraint on the available natural resources resulting in depletion or total loss of medicinal plant germplasm. Apart from indiscriminate collection from the wild that disturbs the natural balance, there is no control over the quality of the material that is being used. Studies on medicinal plants are rapidly increasing because of the search for new active molecules, and for the improvement in the production of plants or molecules for the herbal pharmaceutical industries. Better quality medicinal plants produced as result of biotechnological approach used could guarantee endless plant resource of uniform quality medicinal plants and individual natural compound for further processing and industry. In addition to this, conservation of the medicinal plant biodiversity using molecular markers will support to restore endangered or threatened plant populations.The need of medicinal plants cannot be met with from wildly growing plants alone, even with their improved management.

Schizandra chinensis Baillon is a traditional folk medicine plant that is used to treat and prevent several inflammatory diseases and cancer in Korea, but the underlying mechanisms involved in its anti-allergic activity are not fully understood. This study was designed to investigate mechanisms of anti-allergic activity of a Schizandra chinensis Baillon water extract (SCWE) in immunoglobulin E (IgE)-antigen complex-stimulated RBL2H3 cells and to assess whether gastric and intestinal digestion affects the anti-allergic properties of SCWE. Oxidative stress is an important consequence of the allergic inflammatory response. The antioxidant activities of SCWE increased in a concentration-dependent manner. RBL-2H3 cells were sensitized with monoclonal anti-dinitrophenol (DNP) specific IgE, treated with SCWE, and challenged with the antigen DNP-human serum albumin. SCWE inhibited β-hexosaminidase release and expression of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-13, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) mRNA and protein in IgE-antigen complex-stimulated RBL2H3 cells. We found that digested SCWE fully maintained its antioxidant activity and anti-allergic activity against the IgE-antigen complex-induced activation of RBL-2H3 cells. SCWE may be useful for preventing allergic diseases, such as asthma. Thus, SCWE could be used as a natural functional ingredient for allergic diseases in the food and/or pharmaceutical industries.

Ephedrine (Eph) is an alkaloid extracted from the Chinese traditional medicine plant Ephedra Sinica or Ma huang, which has been known for effects on the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, and smooth muscles. However, the corresponding molecular mechanism of these effects remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the influences of Eph on heart rate, QTc interval in vivo, and the slowly activated K channels (IKs) that were composed of both KCNQ1 and KCNE1 subunits in vitro. Results demonstrated that Eph, but not pseudoephedrine, could increase the heart rate and shorten QTc interval of BALB/c mouse. Besides, Eph markedly activated cardiac IKs currents with EC50 = 50 nM and shifted G-V curves to left. But pseudoephedrine had no effects on Iks currents. The onset and offset time constants of IKs currents activated by Eph at 1 M were tauon = 49 seconds and tauoff = 400 seconds. A pair of binding sites of Eph on KCNQ1/KCNE1 channel was also shown to occur at F296 and Y299 in the S5-S6 P-loop of the KCNQ1 channel. As both amino acids are highly conserved in the KCNQ family, Eph can possibly activate other members of the KCNQ family. The mechanism of Iks activated by Eph may provide a clue for drug design in the future.

The analgesic potential of an extract of Chasmanthera dependens, a Nigerian traditional medicine plant, has been studied using the thermal stimulus method. A dose of plant extract corresponding to 20 g wet weight kg−1 body weight was administered to mice, resulting in elevation of the pain threshold. The potential of the plant to serve as an antiinflammatory agent was also demonstrated, since it completely eliminated the edema produced with the phlogogen within 180 min of its formation. A dose corresponding to 120 g wet weight kg−1 did not produce acute toxicity or lethality in mice, which suggests its safety when taken orally. Preliminary chemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids of the berberine type, as well as tannins and cardiac glycosides. These results support the claims of Nigerian traditional bone setters who use C. dependens to alleviate pain and promote healing of fractures in humans.

The DataSURG group at NDSU has a long-standing interest in data mining remotely sensed imagery (RSI) for agricultural, forestry and other prediction and analysis applications. A spatial data structure, the Peano count tree, was developed that provided an efficient, lossless, data mining ready representation of the many types of data involved in these applications. This data structure has made possible the mining of multiple very large data sets, including time-sequence of RSI and multimedia land data. The Peano count tree (P-tree) technology provides an efficient way to store and mine images of any format, together with pertinent land data of still other formats. With the invention of Gene chips and gene expression microarrays (MA data) for use in medicine, plant science and many other application areas, new multimedia data mining challenges appeared. MA data presents a one-time, gene expression level map of thousands of genes subjected to hundreds of conditions. An important multimedia plant science application of the near future is to integrate macro-scale analysis of RSI with the micro-scale analysis of MA and to do the latter across multiple organisms. Most of the MA research has been done for a particular organism and the results have been archived as text abstracts (e.g., Medline abstracts). It will therefore be necessary to combine text mining with most multimedia RSI and MA mining. This is truly a multimedia data mining setting. The way text is almost always mined today is to extract pertinent features into tables and to then mine the tables (i.e., extract structured records from the unstructured text first). P-trees are a convenient technology to mine all media involved in this research. In fact, in almost all multimedia data mining applications, feature extraction converts the pertinent data to relational or tabular form, and then the tuples or rows are data mined. If multi-medias are going to be mined by first converting to a common format or media, a good candidate common data structure for that purpose is the P-tree. The P-tree data structure is designed for just such a data mining setting.

We have shown previously that withaferin A (WA), a C5,C6-epoxy steroidal lactone derived from an Ayurvedic medicine plant (Withania somnifera), not only inhibits growth of human breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo but also prevents mammary cancer development in a transgenic mouse model without any toxicity. However, the mechanisms underlying cancer preventive effect of WA are not fully understood. Herein, we report that tubulin is a novel target of WA in human breast cancer cells. WA treatment resulted in G2 and mitotic arrest in MCF-7 (estrogen-receptor positive), SK-BR-3 (estrogen-receptor negative), and SUM159 (triple-negative) cells in association with a marked decrease in protein level of β-tubulin. These effects were not observed with the naturally-occurring C6,C7-epoxy analogs of WA (withanone and withanolide A). In addition, a non-tumorigenic normal human mammary epithelial cell line (MCF-10A) was markedly more resistant to mitotic arrest and tubulin downregulation by WA treatment compared with breast cancer cells. Downregulation of tubulin protein in WA-treated cells was due to transcriptional repression as well as proteasomal degradation. Vehicle-treated control breast cancer cells exhibited a normal bi-polar spindle with chromosomes aligned along the metaphase plate. In contrast, WA treatment led to a severe disruption of the normal spindle morphology in breast cancer cells. Unlike breast cancer cells, WA-treated MCF-10A cells exhibited aggregation of tubulin around nucleus. NMR analyses revealed that the A-ring enone in WA, but not in withanone or withanolide A, was highly reactive with cysteamine and rapidly succumbed to irreversible nucleophilic addition. Mass spectrometry demonstrated direct covalent binding of WA at cysteine-303 of β-tubulin in MCF-7 cells. Molecular docking studies indicated that the WA-binding pocket was located on the surface of the β-tubulin and characterized by a hydrophobic floor, a hydrophobic wall, and a charge-balanced hydrophilic entrance. These results provide novel insights into the mechanism of anticancer effect of WA. This work was supported by the grants RO1 CA142604 and P30 CA047904 awarded by the National Cancer Institute. Citation Format: Shivendra V. Singh, Marie Lue Antony, Joomin Lee, Eun-Ryeong Hahm, Su-Hyeong Kim, Guillermo Romero, Adam I. Marcus, Zhen Yang, Vandana Kumari, Xinhua Ji, Courtney L. Vowell, Peter Wipf, Guy T. Uechi, Nathan A. Yates. Withaferin A downregulates tubulins and covalently binds β-tubulin at cysteine-303 in human breast cancer cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 228. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-228

Withaferin A (WA) is a promising cancer chemopreventive constituent of Ayurvedic medicine plant Withania somnifera that has been used safely for thousands of years in India for treatment of different ailments. We have shown previously that WA treatment suppresses viability of cultured as well as xenografted human breast cancer cells by causing apoptosis but the mechanism of cell death is not fully understood. Here, we demonstrate that the WA-induced apoptosis in human breast cancer cells is mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent activation of Bak. WA treatment caused ROS production in MDA-MB-231 (an estrogen-independent cell line with mutant p53) and MCF-7 cells (an estrogen-responsive cell line with wild-type p53) in a concentration- and time-dependent manner as judged by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy using a chemical probe (MitoSOX Red) and EPR spectroscopy using a cell permeable spin probe (1-hydroxy-3-methoxy-carbonyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolidine). WA-mediated ROS production, as well as, apoptosis [characterized by release of histone-associated DNA fragments into the cytosol, and cleavage of poly-(ADP-ribose) polymerase or procaspase-3], was significantly attenuated by ectopic expression of Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD) or Mn-SOD. Real-time measurements of oxygen consumption rate and extracellular acidification rate using a Seahorse Bioscience XF24 Extracellular Flux Analyzer revealed that the ROS production resulting from WA exposure was accompanied by inhibition of basal and reserve oxidative phosphorylation. Mitochondrial DNA-deficient Rho-0 variants of MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 cells were significantly more resistant to WA-induced ROS production and apoptosis compared with respective wild-type cells. WA treatment resulted in activation of Bax and Bak, but only Bak activation was attenuated by Cu,Zn-SOD overexpression. Furthermore, RNA interference or genetic suppression of Bax and Bak expression conferred significant protection against WA-induced apoptosis. In conclusion, the present study provides novel insights into the molecular circuitry of WA-induced apoptosis involving ROS-dependent activation of Bak. This investigation was supported by the USPHS grant CA142604-01, awarded by the National Cancer Institute. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 852. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-852

Ethnobotanists are frequently involved in the initial documentation of plant remedies used in traditional and popular domestic medicine. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of herbal medicine as actually practiced requires the recording of the variables that can influence the therapeutic outcome. For pharmacological and toxicological testing, the factors controlling the final amount of active compound(s) taken by the patient are especially critical. Since most ethnobotanical studies omit such information, a framework for reporting the major factors is given. Topics discussed, including problems of the literature and suggested formats, are: 1) the plant: common name, scientific name, infraspecific variation, the voucher specimen; 2) preparation of the medicine: plant part, collection, storage, preparation; 3) therapy: general and adjunct, disorder treated, kind of practitioner, dosage regimen, route of administration, response to therapy, status of use; 4) the patient.

Gymnema sylvestre R. Br. ( G. sylvestre ) belonging to the family Asclepiadaceae, has been used as a traditional medicine plant in Africa, Australia and Asia especially in India. Aim of the study The present study aimed to clarify the effect of G. sylvestre leaves extract on several physiological parameters of diabetic rats. Materials and methods G. sylvestre leaves extract (18 mg/kg body weight) was orally administered for 30 days to normal and streptozotocin (STZ) diabetic rats. Results STZ-diabetic rats exhibited a significant increase in plasma glucose, liver function enzymes [alanine aminotransaminase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransaminase (AST)], triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol malondialdehyde, catalase, reduced glutathione and a significant decrease in insulin, HDL-cholesterol and erythrocyte superoxide dismutase levels. Treatment diabetic rats with G. sylvestre leaves extract significantly decreased plasma glucose, ALT, AST, triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, malondialdehyde and significantly increased insulin, HDL-cholesterol and erythrocyte superoxide dismutase levels compared to untreated diabetic rats. Conclusion It could be concluded that G. sylvestre leaves extract treated diabetic rats’ complications including hyperglycemia, hypoinsulinemia, hyperlipidemia and oxidative stress.

University and college courses in physiology, biology, and kindred subjects with physiological content have as their function the communication of scientific principles, the facts which underlie them, and the techniques and skills required for their investigation. They range in content from the highly specialized to the highly generalized; in level from those for the graduate or advanced professional student to the undergraduate freshman; and in purpose from helping prepare for a research career in physiological science or for work in such applied fields as clinical medicine, veterinary medicine, plant pathology, or bacteriology, to meeting the general education objectives of teaching biological and physiological principles or such applications as hygiene or personal health. This latter aspect, discussed more fully in Chapter XI, is an extension into the college years of the enculturation of youth into the community, and its objective is therefore non-vocational and non-technical. Yet, when students are preparing for semi-professional careers in school science teaching, in physical education or physical therapy, or in medical or biological technology, the objective is more technical and some grounding in physiology becomes important. The standards of courses in biology and physiology designed for these groups should be above average quality in scientific content, method, and outlook.

Background Antibiotic resistance has become one of the major problems facing humanity. The need for new antimicrobials has been increased dramatically. Plants are considered as one of the most promising sources for new antimicrobials discovery. Despite relatively small area, Armenia has large diversity of flora with many endemic species. In Armenian folk medicine plant materials have been used to treat various microbial diseases since ancient times. The goal of our research was to evaluate antimicrobial efficiency of different parts of five wild plants species which are commonly used in Armenian traditional medicine. Methods Plant crude extracts were obtained with maceration technique using five solvents separately: distilled water, methanol, chloroform, acetone, and hexane. Agar well diffusion assay was used for initial evaluation of antimicrobial properties of plant materials against five bacterial and two yeast strains. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of the most active plant parts were determined by broth microdilution method. Results Crude extracts of all five tested plants expressed antimicrobial activity against at least four test strains at 500 μg ml−1 concentration. Minimum inhibitory and bactericidal/fungicidal concentrations of selected plant parts were determined. Crude acetone and hexane extracts of Hypericum alpestre and acetone extract of Sanguisorba officinalis inhibited the growth of P. aeruginosa even at 64 μg ml−1 concentration. Chloroform and acetone extracts of Sanguisorba officinalis exhibited cidal activity against P. aeruginosa till 256 μg ml−1. Acetone was the most effective solvent for solubilizing antimicrobial compounds for almost all tested plant materials. Conclusions Thus, antimicrobial activity of some medicinal plants used in Armenian traditional medicine was evaluated. Some of the plants had rather low minimum bacteriostatic/bactericidal concentrations and therefore they have prospective for further more inclusive studies. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12906-017-1573-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.