ABSTRACT
<b>Purpose</b>: With the aim of improving the efficiency of smoking cessation treatment, we analyzed and classified various factors to identify the relationships between the background of patients and effects of treatment, and examine their characteristics.<br><b>Methods</b>: We conducted a questionnaire survey to collect information on the situation of patients, and obtained their treatment data from medical records. Decision tree analysis, a data mining method, was employed to examine these data.<br><b>Results</b>: According to the results of the survey, the smoking cessation rate was 80.4%. The rate was associated with CO concentrations in the breath at the initial examination, nicotine content in cigarettes smoked by patients, and the daily and total number of cigarettes smoked. The smoking cessation rate among patients under emotional stress was 76.2%; the rate was higher when patients were able to reduce their mental stress levels.<br><b>Conclusion</b>: We identified characteristic relationships between the background of patients and the effects of treatment, and they proved to be useful for the improvement of the smoking cessation rate.
ABSTRACT
Some medicinal plants are a potential source of new drugs, in order to improve the treatment of Chagas disease whose treatment is still a challenge. In this study, the in vitro anti-epimastigote activity of certain fractions of Achillea biebersteinii, A. millefolium, Satureja mutica and S. macrantha was evaluated. Diethyl ether fractions of Achillea species and acetone fractions of Satureja species were the most active fractions [MLC=12.5 microg/ml] against the epimastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi, the ethiological agent causing Chagas disease. The trypanocidal activity seems to be decreased by fractionation, using MeOH and water as the solvents. The results obtained from assay revealed that Achillea and Satureja species could be a source of active trypanocidal compounds
Subject(s)
Chagas Disease , Achillea/parasitology , Satureja/parasitologyABSTRACT
It is undoubtedly important that herb can cure certain sickness. However, its activity to certain symptom varies between each plant species, growing place, harvesting time, and so on, because herb is the natural product. Here arises a key word-selection-, professional viewpoint of herb. Consulting with the old books about herb written by professionals at that time, we can imagine how much difficulty did they have and how did they make efforts on selection in order to use the herb with good quality.<br>At the beginning of Kampo Medicine in Japan, it was totally an imported medicine so that its original herb stuffs had to be brought from abroad. But gradually Kampo Medicine has been changed into Japanese style; lots of Japanese substitutes were developed for Chinese herb species, and also, cultivation or evaluation of those substitutes was studied. Such kind of study advanced much in Edo-era.<br>In the lecture, two popular herbs, licorice and cinnamon, were chosen to be discussed for examples of the above mentioned, and the author's special experiences were also mentioned.