Effect of soil moisture on efficacy to eliminate dampness and relieve jaundice and flavonoid content of Sedum sarmentosum / 中国中药杂志

The growth environment of medicinal plants plays an important role in the formation of their medicinal quality. However, there is a lack of combined analysis studying the close relationship between the growth environment, chemical components, and related biological activities of medicinal plants. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of different soil moisture treatments on the efficacy to eliminate dampness and relieve jaundice and the flavonoid content of Sedum sarmentosum, and explored their correlation. The flavonoid content in the decoction of S. sarmentosum growing under field conditions with soil moisture levels of 35%-40%(T1), 55%-60%(T2), 75%-80%(T3), and 95%-100%(T4) was compared. The effects of these treatments on liver function parameters, liver inflammation, and oxidative damage in mice with dampness-heat jaundice were evaluated, and the correlation between pharmacological indicators and flavonoid content was analyzed. The results showed that the total flavonoid and total phenolic acid content in the decoction of S. sarmentosum were highest in the T1 treatment, followed by the T3 treatment. The content of quercetin, kaempferol, and isorhamnetin was highest in the T2, T1, and T3 treatments, respectively. Among the different moisture treatments, the T3 group of S. sarmentosum effectively reduced the levels of serum ALT, AKP, TBIL, DBIL, TBA, as well as hepatic TNF-α and IL-6 in mice with jaundice, followed by T2 treatment, especially in reducing AST level. The T4 treatment had the poorest effect. Correlation analysis showed a significant negative correlation between AST, ALT, AKP levels in mice and the total content of quercetin and the three flavonoids. MDA showed a significant negative correlation with the total flavonoid content and kaempferol. TNF-α exhibited a significant negative correlation with the content of isorhamnetin. In conclusion, S. sarmentosum growing under field conditions with a soil moisture level of 75%-80% exhibited the best efficacy to eliminate dampness and relieve jaundice. This study provides insights for optimizing the cultivation mode of medicinal plants guided by pharmacological experiments.

Hypopyon with infantile hepatitis A syndrome: a case report

6 year old boy from Yemen was referred to Ophthalmology Department with fever, jaundice and red painful left eye. On examination all signs of anterior uveitis including ciliary injection corneal edema, hypopyon, cells ++ and flare ++ in anterior chamber fine multiple KPs in the back of cornea. He also has swollen painful right ankle joint. The child was admitted to hospital, blood and urine investigations were done to prove that he has hepatitis A. A shot of local steriods on hourly basis was administered before getting the lab results and marked improvement of his iritis and complete disapperance of hypopyon in less than 4 days

Clinical Experience of 48 Acute Toxic Hepatitis Patients / 대한간학회지

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Although many individual cases of toxic hepatitis have been reported in Korea, there are few comprehensive systematic studies on acute toxic hepatitis. The first aim of this study is to investigate the frequency and clinical characteristics of acute toxic hepatitis patients. The second aim of this study is to investigate the efficacy of steroid therapy for immunoallergic idiosyncrasy. METHODS: Between March 1998 and March 2004 forty eight patients were included in this study. The medical records were reviewed retrospectively. Acute toxic hepatitis was diagnosed by score of more than 3 in RUCAM criteria. All the patients were tested for hepatitis A, B and C. Other tests included antibodies to CMV and EBV, ANA, AMA and SMA. RESULTS: Seventy-three percent of the patients were female and the mean age of the patients was 47. Twenty cases of acute toxic hepatitis (42%) were related to prescribed medications. The other causes were herbs (35%) and traditional therapeutic preparations (23%). Common symptoms were jaundice (35%), fatigue (10%), fever (9%) and abdominal pain (9%). The biochemical pattern of hepatotoxicity was divided into three groups: hepatocellular (81%), mixed (13%), and cholestatic types (6%). Three patients who have prolonged and severe jaundice were classified into immunoallergic idiosyncrasy based upon clinical and histologic findings. Prednisolone was prescribed in all three cases whose bilirubin levels had been higher than 15 mg/dL for at least 7 days. Jaundice and the laboratory findings rapidly improved within 8 days since the treatment began. CONCLUSIONS: In a demographic point of view, most patients of acute toxic hepatitis were middle aged women. Jaundice was the most commonly observed symptom. Prescribed drugs were the most common cause of acute toxic hepatitis. Although most cases of toxic hepatitis will recover with supportive care after cessation of the causative agent, steroid treatment may be helpful for the patients with severe jaundice patients who have immunoallergic idiosyncrasy.

Once daily gentamicin dosing in full term neonates

There is no uniformity in the current recommendations of dosing regimen of gentamicin for neonates. We conducted this study to compare once-daily dosing regimen to the twice-daily dosing regimen for neonates with birth weight of >/= 2500 g during the first 7 days of life. Fifty full term infants with birth weight of >/= 2500 gm admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between November 1999 to October 2000 and received gentamicin at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg every 12 hours [control group] were compared with 50 term infants who received gentamicin at dose of 4 mg/kg every 24 hours during the period of November 2000 until October 2002 [protocol group]. Trough and peak serum gentamicin levels [SDL] were measured on all infants. Peak SDL was 8.4 +/- 1.8 mg/ml in the protocol group, compared to 6.7 +/- 2 mg/ml in the control group [p=0.001]. Ninety-eight% [n=49] of the protocol group, compared to 86% [n=43] of the control group, had peak SDL in therapeutic range. Fifty-eight% [n=29] of infants in the protocol group, compared to 24% [n=12] of infants in the control group, had peak SDL in higher therapeutic range of 8-12 mg/ml. Six% [n=3] of the protocol infants, compared to 26% [n=13] of the control infants, had trough SDL >2 mg/ml. Six infants [12%] in the protocol group, versus 20 infants [40%] of the control group, required a dosing adjustment. Gentamicin dose of 4 mg/kg given at 24-hour interval achieved significantly higher peak and safe trough serum concentrations in term infants, compared to the twice-daily regimen of 2.5 mg/kg. We suggest that measurement of gentamicin concentration may be not required when once-daily regimen is prescribed for 72 hours to term infants with suspected sepsis

Hepatoprotection with Glycosmis pentaphylla (Retz).

Effects of extracts of leaf (250, 500 and 750 mg/kg body wt) and stem bark (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg body wt) of G. pentaphylla were studied on CCl4 (1 mg/kg body wt) induced hepatic injury in albino rats. Parameters studied were plasma ALAT, ASAT, ALP, total bilirubin and tissue histopathology. Recovery of hepatic tissue was indicated with the highest dose (750 mg/kg body wt) of leaf extract. The therapeutic dose range was devoid of toxic effects. Toxicity of leaf extract was observed histopathologically at and above 2.5g/kg body wt.