Comparative Efficacy of Dried Fruits of Carica Papaya Linn. and Vitamin-E on Preventing Hepatotoxicity in Rats.

In the absence of an effective treatment in modern medicine, efforts are being made to find suitable herbal remedies for hepatitis. This prospective experimental study was conducted in the department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka from July 2006 to June 2007 to evaluate the hepatoprotective effects of Carica papaya against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) induced hepatotoxicity and compared it with that of vitamin-E. Total 36 adult rats were used and they were divided into six equal groups namely A, B, C, D, E and F. All the rats were fed with normal diet and 2ml distilled water orally for 7 days. In addition, Group D received Carica papaya extract, Group E received olive oil and Group F received vitamin E orally per day for 7 days. On the seventh day CCl4 was administered to all the rats except Group A and was sacrificed on 8th day of experiment. Serum bilirubin, alanine amino transferase (ALT), aspartate amino transferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase and hepatic histopathology were done thereafter. Carica papaya and vitamin E showed significant hepatoprotection against CCL4 induced hepatotoxicity but Carica papaya showed more significant changes in ALP level than vitamin E. Prevention of hepatic necrosis and fatty degeneration were also observed in Carica papaya and vitamin E pretreated rats but there is no significant difference.

Hypoglycemic effect of Catharanthus roseus in normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

The effects of crude juice (at 0.5 and 1 ml/kg b.w.) and aqueous extract (at 0.30 and 0.45 gm/kg b.w.) of leaves of Catharanthus roseus on serum glucose level in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats were examined at 8 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours following single oral administration. The administration of crude juice at 1 ml/kg b.w. continued for another 9 doses (total 10 single morning doses given) and its effect was examined on the 4th and 11th day. The rats were made diabetic by single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin at 45 mg/kg b.w. Glibenclamide was used in the study for comparison. The crude leaf juice at 0.5 and 1 ml/kg b.w. reduced the serum glucose level in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats throughout the 24-hour period significantly (P varies between 0.05 and 0.001 at different times). The aqueous extract at 0.30 and 0.45 gm/kg reduced the serum glucose level in streptozotocin diabetic rats at 8 and 12 hour significantly (P varies between 0.05 to 0.01 at different times) but not at the 24 hour. Glibenclamide, at 500 mug/kg, also reduced the serum glucose level in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats throughout the 24-hour period (P<0.001).The crude leaf juice at 1 ml/kg also significantly reduced the serum glucose level in the streptozotocin induced diabetic rats on the 4th and 11th day (P<0.001 on both occasions). The effect of crude leaf juice at 1 ml/kg b.w administered daily orally over a 10 day period was also examined on a group of normal rats at different times. The study showed significant reduction at 8 hr (P<0.05), 12 hr, 24 hr and on the 4th day (P<0.01 on these 3 occasions) and also on the 11th day (P<0.001).

Prognostic factors relating to outcome of severe malaria among children in Bangladesh.

This study was done in the Paediatric in-patient department of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH), Chittagong, Bangladesh to identify and quantify the prognostic factors associated with increased mortality in severe malaria (SM) cases. All the patients with parasitologically confirmed clinical syndromes of SM, admitted between June 1997 and May 1998, were included. A total of 53 consecutive cases were studied. Cerebral malaria (CM) was the commonest type of SM, observed in 36(68%) cases, second commonest type was severe anaemia 13(25%). More than one type of severe manifestations were present in 23(44%) cases. Overall case fatality rate (CFR) was 17% and it was 30% among those who had multi-organ manifestations. Important poor prognostic clinical variables were Blantrye coma score (BCS) score of 0 and 1 on day 1 (OR = 7.78) and day 2(OR = 40.0), multi-organ manifestations (OR = 6.8) and in-hospital complications (OR = 5.18). Important poor prognostic laboratory variables were day 2 parasite count > 50,000/cmm (OR = 5.5), blood glucose < 2.2 mmol/l (OR = 21.5) and raised CSF protein > 50 mg/dl (OR = 7.0). It can be concluded that certain clinical variables e.g. low BCS on day 1 & 2, multi-organ manifestations, in-hospital complications; and laboratory variables e.g. high parasite count, low blood glucose level, raised CSF protein levels are associated with increased mortality rate in SM cases.