Pharmacological and Clinical Studies of Medicinal Plants That Inhibit Dipeptidyl Peptidase-IV.

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) is an enzyme responsible for the degradation of the incretin hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). DPP-IV plays a significant role in regulating blood glucose levels by modulating the activity of GLP-1. In the context of diabetes, DPP-IV inhibitors effectively block the activity of DPP-IV, hence mitigating the degradation of GLP-1. This, in turn, leads to an extension of GLP-1's duration of action, prolongs gastric emptying, enhances insulin sensitivity, and ultimately results in the reduction of blood glucose levels. Nonetheless, reported adverse events of DPP-IV inhibitors on T2DM patients make it essential to understand the activity and mechanism of these drugs, particularly viewed from the perspective of finding the effective and safe add-on medicinal plants, to be implemented in clinical practice. This review is intended to bring forth a thorough overview of plants that work by reducing DPP-IV activity, from computational technique, enzymatic study, animal experiments, and studies in humans. The articles were searched on PubMed using "Plants", "DPP-IV", "DPP-IV inhibitor", "GLP-1", "Type 2 diabetes", "diabetes", "in silico", "in vitro", "in vivo", "studies in human", "clinical study" as the query words, and filtered for ten years of publication period. Eighteen plants showed inhibition against DPP-IV as proven by in silico, in vitro, and in vivo studies; however, only ten plants were reported for efficacy in clinical studies. Several plant-based DPP-IV inhibitors, eg, Allium sativum, Morus Alba, Curcuma longa, Pterocarpus marsupium, and Taraxacum officinale, have established their functional role in inhibiting DPP-IV and have proven their effectiveness through studies in humans earning them a prominent place in therapeutic discovery.

Three years of antibacterial consumption in Indonesian Community Health Centers: The application of anatomical therapeutic chemical/defined daily doses and drug utilization 90% method to monitor antibacterial use.

CONTEXT: Irrational use of antibacterial drugs in Community Health-Care Centers (CHCs) may lead to increased resistance, morbidity, and mortality. AIMS: The aim of this study was to determine patterns of antibacterial use at CHCs in a district of Indonesia and use this as data for an antibiotic policy. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The observational-descriptive study was conducted in a district of Indonesia to obtain antibacterial use from 2008 to 2010. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The data obtained from the report on the use of medicines were classified and processed using the anatomical therapeutic chemical (ATC) and defined daily doses (DDD) method, with DDD/1000 patients as a unit measurement. The number of patients was obtained from attending patients in that research period. The most abundant antibacterial drugs use segment was identified by the drug utilization 90% (DU90%) method. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Descriptive analysis were performed in this study. RESULTS: Fourteen kinds of antibacterial drugs were used in 61 CHCs. The total of antibacterial drug use during the period 2008-2010 was 871.36 DDD/1000 patients/day. Declining antibacterial use was observed between 2008 and 2010. Six kinds of antibacterial drugs were the most commonly used. The data show that the average use per visit was as high as 24.41 DDD. CONCLUSIONS: Amoxicillin, sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim are antibacterials that have to be reconsidered by physicians for use in the Bandung CHC. The high use of antibacterial drugs, as described in the study, can be used as reference to develop an antimicrobial stewardship program and increase awareness of resistance, adverse drug reaction and drug interaction of antibacterial drugs.