In vitro anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic and antioxidant activities of boesenbergin A, a chalcone isolated from Boesenbergia rotunda (L.) (fingerroot)

The current in vitro study was designed to investigate the anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic and antioxidant activities of boesenbergin A (BA), a chalcone derivative of known structure isolated from Boesenbergia rotunda. Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2), colon adenocarcinoma (HT-29), non-small cell lung cancer (A549), prostate adenocarcinoma (PC3), and normal hepatic cells (WRL-68) were used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of BA using the MTT assay. The antioxidant activity of BA was assessed by the ORAC assay and compared to quercetin as a standard reference antioxidant. ORAC results are reported as the equivalent concentration of Trolox that produces the same level of antioxidant activity as the sample tested at 20 µg/mL. The toxic effect of BA on different cell types, reported as IC50, yielded 20.22 ± 3.15, 10.69 ± 2.64, 20.31 ± 1.34, 94.10 ± 1.19, and 9.324 ± 0.24 µg/mL for A549, PC3, HepG2, HT-29, and WRL-68, respectively. BA displayed considerable antioxidant activity, when the results of ORAC assay were reported as Trolox equivalents. BA (20 µg/mL) and quercetin (5 µg/mL) were equivalent to a Trolox concentration of 11.91 ± 0.23 and 160.32 ± 2.75 µM, respectively. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory activity of BA was significant at 12.5 to 50 µM and without any significant cytotoxicity for the murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 at 50 µM. The significant biological activities observed in this study indicated that BA may be one of the agents responsible for the reported biological activities of B. rotunda crude extract.

Comparative study between clinical and sonographic estimation of fetal weight in third trimester of pregnancy and its relationship with actual birth weight.

This prospective study was undertaken to assess the accuracy of clinical and sonographic estimated fetal weight (EFW) in Bangladeshi population. The study protocol consisted of achieving clinical followed by sonographic estimated fetal weight (uEFW) using Shepard formula and then its correlation with actual birth weight (BW). A total of 140 pregnant women participated in this study. The study was conducted in the department of Radiology & Imaging and in the department of Gynae & Obs., Bangladesh Medical College Hospital (BMCH) from January 2005 to December 2005.Maximum number of patients belonged to 26-30 years age group and the mean +/-SD age of the study patients was 26.8+/-4.7 years. Maximum number of women (41.4%) was primigravida and 24.3% women were second gravida. The mean+/-SD gestational age of the patient was 35.9+/-2.8 weeks. We found, clinically EFW was 3432.1+/-410.1 gm (mean+/-SD) and uEFW was 2715.4+/-509.1gm (mean+/-SD) with difference 716.7+/-278.5 gm (mean+/-SD), (P<0.001), which is highly significant. Babies who were delivered within 1st week of clinical and sonographic EFW were selected and their weights were compared with actual BW. The Pearson correlation chi square test and student 't' test were the statistical analysis used. It was found that the P value of clinical versus actual BW was <0.05, this was significant. P value of sonographic versus actual BW was >0.05, this was not significant. Percent error (PE) was found 2+/-7.33% in calculating uEFW from actual BW with minimum error -23.9% and maximum error 11.81%. This study conducted on Bangladeshi fetus using the Shepard formula showed that the actual BW recorded after delivery of the fetus is more close to uEFW than clinically EFW.