Pharmaceutical representatives' beliefs and practices about their professional practice: a study in Sudan

Pharmaceutical representatives are an important promotional tool for pharmaceutical companies. This cross-sectional, exploratory study aimed to determine pharmaceutical representatives' beliefs and practices about their professional practice in Sudan. A random sample of 160 pharmaceutical representatives were interviewed using a pretested questionnaire. The majority were male [84.4%] and had received training in professional sales skills [86.3%] and about the products being promoted [82.5%]. Only 65.6% agreed that they provided full and balanced information about products. Not providing balanced information was attributed by 23.1% to doctors' lack of time. However, 28.1% confessed they sometimes felt like hiding unfavourable information, 21.9% were sometimes or always inclined to give untrue information to make sales and 66.9% considered free gifts as ethically acceptable. More attention is needed to dissemination of ethical codes of conduct and training about the ethics of drug promotion for pharmaceutical representatives in Sudan

Influence of milk and some Sudanese meals on the dissolution of ciprofloxacin tablets

For a drug to be effective, it must be released from the dosage form, fully dissolved in the gastro-intestinal fluids, be stable as solution in the gastrointestinal fluids, pass through the gastrointestinal barriers into the mesenteric circulation without being metabolized, pass through the liver into the systemic circulation unchanged and reach its site of action. Food is one of the factors which interfere with these processes. The effect of Sudanese meals will be different due to their high contents of fats, proteins and fibers. This study aimed to determine the influence of milk and some Sudanese meals [Foul - Vicia faba -, "Gorrassah with damaa" and "Kissraa with sharmoot"' on the dissolution of ciprofloxacin HCI tablets and hence bioavailability. The influence of milk and the mentioned Sudanese meals on the dissolution of ciprofloxacin was studied using paddle dissolution apparatus. The dissolution of the drug was measured in the presence of each meal individually using U.V.- visible spectrophotometer. The samples were taken with 5 minutes intervals up to 30 minutes. The results obtained were compared to the results of the dissolution of this drug in simulated gastric fluid in fast state [0.1 N HCl]. The study revealed that the dissolution of ciprofloxacin in Sudanese meals is lower than its dissolution in milk- whose reduction of dissolution of ciprofloxacin was mentioned in a lot of studies world-wide. The order of the influence of Sudanese meals, used in the study, was foul followed by kissraa then gorrasah which showed that the influence was directly proportional to the viscosity of the meal. Using two different volumes of foul, the study revealed that influence of meals on the dissolution of ciprofloxacin was significant even small amounts were used

Antimicrobial and phytochemical screening of three commonly used medicinal plants

In the present study, antimicrobial activities of nine extracts from three medicinal plants indigenous to Sudan and commonly used in traditional medicine, namely Terminalia brownie, Acacia seyal and Tephrosia opollinea, were tested against four standard bacterial strains: Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Eseherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and three fungal strains: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Candida albicans. The results exhibited that the chloroformic and methanolic extracts had prominent activity against most of the tested microorganisms. On the other hand, the benzene extract was devoid of any antimicrobial activity against all tested organisms. Due to the prominent antimicrobial activity of Terminalia brownie, it was subjected to an in-depth phytochernical investigation. Column chromatography of the methanolic extract resulted in the isolation of a crystalline compound [Tb/1]. The chemical structure Tb/1 was elucidated by infra-red coupled with nuclear magnetic resonance [1HNMR and 13CNMR] and electron impact mass spectrophotometer [ElMS] as beta-Lupeol. This compound was not previously reported from T. brownii. It exhibited a high antifungal activity against C. albicans