[Ethanolic extract cytotoxic effect of Zingiber afficinale in breast cancer [MCF7] cell line]

Biological activities of Zingiber afflicieale plants have been reported as possessing anticancer, antibacterial, anti ulcer, antifungal, and insecticidal properties. However, its antitumor effects haven't been studied in cancer cell lines. The aim of this study was to investigate the antitumor effect of zingiber afficieale on breast cancer cell lines. This experimental study was conducted in 2010 at Mashhad University of medical Sciences. Breast cancer cell line [MCF7] and normal connective tissue cell line [L929] were cultured in DMEM medium. Ethanolic extract of Zingiber afficinale was prepared and cell lines were treated with different concentration of extract [5000 to 78 micro g]. Cell viability was measured by MTT assay after 24, 48, and 72 hours. The collected data were statistically analyzed by SPSS software. The effects of Zingiber afficinale on cell viability were observed after 48 hours on cell lines. Ginger doses in 2500 micro g concentration inhibited 50% of cell growth [IC50] in cell lines after 48 hours. Our study revealed that fresh ginger extract has cytotoxic effects on tumor cells, but it doesn't have any cytotoxic effect on normal cells. It seems that ginger could be considered as a promising chemotherapeutic agent in cancer treatment

Prevalence of genital chlamydia in Iranian males with urethritis attending clinics in Mashhad

Chlamydia trachomatis is a common cause of sexually transmitted disease which can cause severe consequences. Effective prevention requires knowledge of prevalence of infection in order to target interventions in a cost-effective manner. To determine the prevalence of chlamydial infection in Mashhad, northeastern Islamic Republic of Iran, this study was performed among male patients with urethritis. Urethral discharge was collected from 150 patients. Cell culture was established for diagnosis of Chlamydia in genital specimens. Cell culture showed that 9.3% of patients in this study were infected with Chlamydia. This study provides strong evidence that prevalence of Chlamydia in our region is quite high, which necessitates screening and treatment for the infection

Development of a rapid spectrophotometer screening method for quantitation of acetaminophen in human serum

We describe a simple, economical procedure for the emergency determination of serum acetaminophen levels. Prior to color development, free unconjugated acetaminophen was separated from other endogenous compounds containing phenol groups by extracting the acetaminophen into ethyl acetate and hydrolyzed to p-aminophenol by treatment with hot acid. A blue color, which can be measured at 635 nm is formed by the addition of 2.5-dimethylphenol [p-xylenol] and sodium periodate, Based on the reaction of a primary aromatic amine and a phenolic hydroxyl reagent [Figure 1]. This method is linear from 25-600 mg/L. The intra-run precision had day-to-day coefficient variation of between 4.8 and 7.0. The method was correlated with established nitration method of Glynn and Kendal [1975] and the colorimetric method of Liu and Oka [1980] with the correlation coefficient of 0.97 and 0.98 respectively