Brazilin from Caesalpinia sappan heartwood and its pharmacological activities: A review.

Caesalpinia sappan L. (CS) is a plant of Leguminosae family, commonly known as Brazil or Sappan wood. CS is distributed in Southeast Asia and its dried heartwood has been used as traditional ingredient of food or beverages and has a wide variety of medicinal properties. Higher extraction yield of CS wood was achieved with 95% ethanol for 2 h. Chemical constituent's investigation of sappan wood resulted in the isolation of various structural types of phenolic components including one xanthone, one coumarin, three chalcones, two flavones three homoisoflavonoids and brazilin. Brazilin [(6a S-cis)-7, 11b-dihydrobenz[b]indeno[1,2-d]pyran-3,6a,9,10(6H)- tetrol], a major and active compound found in CS heartwood. Most of the folkloric uses of brazilin were validated by the scientific studies such as antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-photoaging, hypoglycemic, vasorelaxant, hepatoprotective and anti-acne activity. CS heartwood extract is safe and did not produce any acute or subacute toxicity in both male and female rats. Brazilin is the safe natural compound having potential to develop as a medicinal compound with application in food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries to screen its clinical use in modern medicine. The information gained could provide the important and potential approach for pharmaceutical researcher to implicate the knowledge of brazilin in the formulation of new drug and to reveal therapeutic and gaps requiring future research opportunities. More studies are needed to evaluate the potential application of brazilin as preservative and coloring agent in food processing industries.

Implementation and evaluation of adverse drug reaction monitoring system in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Mumbai, India.

Adverse drug reactions (ADR) are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, often identified only post-marketingly. Improvement in current ADR reporting, including utility of underused or innovative methods, is crucial to improve patient safety and public health. Hospital-based monitoring is one of the methods used to collect data about drug prescriptions and adverse events. The aims of this study were to identify the most frequent ADRs recognized by the attending physicians, study their nature, and to target these ADRs in order to take future preventive measures. A prospective study was conducted over a 7-month period in an internal medicine department using stimulated spontaneous reporting for identifying ADRs. Out of the 254 admissions, 32 ADRs in 37 patients (14.56%) were validated from the total of 36 suspected ADRs in 41 patients. Female predominance was noted over males in case of ADRs. Fifty percent of total ADRs occurred due to multiple drug therapy. Dermatological ADRs were found to be the most frequent (68.75%), followed by respiratory, central nervous system and gastrointestinal ADRs. The drugs most frequently involved were antibiotics, anti-tubercular agents, antigout agents, and NSAIDs. The most commonly reported reactions were itching and rashes. Out of the 32 reported ADRs, 50% of the reactions were probable, 46.87% of the reactions were possible and 3.12% of the reactions were definite. The severity assessment done by using the Hartwig and Seigel scale indicated that the majority of ADRs were 'Mild' followed by 'Moderate' and 'Severe' reactions, respectively. Out of all, 75% of ADRs were recovered. The most potent management of ADRs was found to be drug withdrawal. Our study indicated that hospital based monitoring was a good method to detect links between drug exposure and adverse drug reactions. Adequate training regarding pharmacology and optimization of drug therapy might be helpful to reduce ADR morbidity and mortality.

Development of an ex vivo model for pharmacological experimentation on isolated tissue preparation.

Pharmacology as a subject depends largely on experiments conducted in laboratory animals. Experimental animals like rat, guinea pig, rabbit, etc. are used for the biological assay. For the teaching purposes to use isolated strip preparations from various organs, the laboratory animal species has to be sacrificed just for a piece of tissue. The present study was aimed to develop ex vivo model for pharmacological experimentation, which will mimic the actual laboratory condition without sacrificing the experimental animals. Dose response curve of acetylcholine alone and in presence of different concentrations of atropine was plotted using isolated chicken ileum, chicken duodenum, rat ileum, and rat duodenum and their EC(50) values were compared. The effect of atropine in terms of its type of antagonism was predicted based on Schild plot and pA(2) values were obtained. The chicken ileum and duodenum were also evaluated for four- and three-point bioassay, respectively. The results suggested that acetylcholine produced a dose-dependent increase in contraction in both chicken and rat ileum and duodenum preparation. The concentration response curve of acetylcholine in chicken ileum shifted toward left side of rat ileum with a higher EC(50) value. Atropine shifted the concentration response curve of acetylcholine toward right with a change in EC(50) value. Schild plots indicated that antagonism produced by atropine was found to be competitive in nature. The pA(2) values of atropine were found significantly high with isolated chicken ileum as compared to rat ileum preparation. It is concluded that isolated chicken ileum and duodenum preparation can be employed for routine experiments of pharmacology subject and the use of these isolated preparations is a novel approach for managing pharmacological experiments and importantly, without sacrificing the experimental animals.

Pharmacological evaluation of fruits of Terminalia belerica Roxb. for antiulcer activity.

The antiulcer activity of 70% methanolic extract of fruits of Terminalia belerica Roxb. (Combretaceae) was evaluated using ethanol induced, aspirin induced, cold stress restraint and pylorus ligated ulcer in rats. The methanolic extract (100, 250, 500, 1000 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly suppressed the peptic ulcer induced by ethanol. Methanolic extract at a dose of 500 mg/kg showed, promising antiulcer activity hence, this dose was selected for further evaluation of antiulcer studies. The methanolic extract (500 mg/kg) showed significant (p<0.05) reduction in gastric volume, free acidity, total acidity, ulcer index, protein and pepsin content and increase in mucus content in pylorus ligated rats as compared to control. Treatment with Terminalia belerica methanolic extract further provided significant antiulcer protection against aspirin induced ulcers but not in cold stress restraint model. These results suggested that the 70% methanolic extract of Terminalia belerica increased resistance to necrotizing agents, providing a direct protective effect on the gastric mucosa and exhibited antiulcer effect.