Comparing the effect of acupressure and ginger on chemotherapy gastrointestinal side-effects in children with leukemia.

The biosocial data of 90 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, were collected along with assessment of gastrointestinal side-effects of chemotherapy using visual analogue scale. Ginger lozenges has more effect than acupressure in alleviating nausea and vomiting. Acupressure alleviate the nausea best in the group aged 13-15 years. Ginger helped more the other two groups (7-12 years, 69 % of the group didn't suffer from nausea), versus 50 % aged 13-15). Both acupressure and ginger affected girls more than boys in alleviating nausea. The acupressure effect on vomiting incidence didn't differ in both males and males, whilst ginger helped the males more.

Polyphenolics from Gymnocarpos decandrus Forssk roots and their biological activities.

Phytochemical investigation of Gymnocarpos decandrus roots lead to the isolation, characterization and evaluation of four compounds: the bis-coumarin daphnoretin, two biflavonoids: wikstrol A and wikstol B in addition to ß-sitosterol glucoside. Their structures were established via spectroscopic data. The crude root extract showed a significant antimicrobial activity against Bacillus subtilis. In addition, Coagulation activity of the same extract and daphnoretin were investigated via measuring their effect on prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) assay in citrated plasma collected from healthy regular blood donors and they were found to prolong the PT and aPTT assays (p < 0.05). The three polyphenolics were described for the first time from the Caryophllaceae family. Furthermore, this is the first phytochemical and biological study to be carried on G. decandrus roots.

Targeted and untargeted-metabolite profiling to track the compositional integrity of ginger during processing using digitally-enhanced HPTLC pattern recognition analysis.

Tracking the impact of commonly applied post-harvesting and industrial processing practices on the compositional integrity of ginger rhizome was implemented in this work. Untargeted metabolite profiling was performed using digitally-enhanced HPTLC method where the chromatographic fingerprints were extracted using ImageJ software then analysed with multivariate Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for pattern recognition. A targeted approach was applied using a new, validated, simple and fast HPTLC image analysis method for simultaneous quantification of the officially recognized markers 6-, 8-, 10-gingerol and 6-shogaol in conjunction with chemometric Hierarchical Clustering Analysis (HCA). The results of both targeted and untargeted metabolite profiling revealed that peeling, drying in addition to storage employed during processing have a great influence on ginger chemo-profile, the different forms of processed ginger shouldn't be used interchangeably. Moreover, it deemed necessary to consider the holistic metabolic profile for comprehensive evaluation of ginger during processing.

Validated thin-layer chromatographic method for the identification and monitoring of the effect of the extraction method on the yield and phytochemical constituents of Egyptian Withania somnifera leaves.

A sensitive, reliable, simple and rapid thin-layer chromatographic method has been developed for routine analysis of withanolide S content for the purpose of quality control assessment of chemotype III of Withania somnifera. The new method was used first to compare the accumulation of withanolide S in different parts of the plant, which was found to be the highest in the leaves extract (0.21% w/w). Second, to investigate different extraction parameters that improve the extraction efficiency of withanolides from the leaves using conventional and ultrasound-assisted extraction methods. The extraction efficiency was expressed via total withanolide content and withanolide S content.