Effect of Grewia asiatica fruit on Glycemic index and phagocytosis tested in healthy human subjects

The Grewia asiatica [commonly known as Phalsa or Fasla] is a shrub or small tree found in southern Asia. It produces purple to black color fruit when ripe. In folk medicine the edible Grewia asiatica fruit is used in a number of pathological conditions. The current study described the effects of Grewia asiatica fruit on glycemic index [GI] and phagocytosis in healthy non-diabetic human subjects. The results showed that Grewia asiatica fruit has low GI value of 5.34 with modest hypoglycemic activity. Luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence assay was carried out to determine the production of reactive oxygen species [ROS] in the oxidative burst activity of whole blood. ROS production was found to be significantly affected, having the 78.3, 58.6 and 30.8% when the subjects were fed with D-glucose, mixture of D-glucose and Grewia asiatica fruit and Grewia asiatica fruit alone respectively as compared to the control. The aqueous, methanolic and butanolic extracts of Grewia asiatica fruits were found to produce a stimulatory effect on ROS production however; the chloroform, hexane and ethanol-acetate extracted exerted significant inhibitory effect. These results demonstrated that Grewia asiatica fruit has desirable effects on blood glucose metabolism manifested as low glycemic response and modulation of ROS production

Evaluation of teratogenic effects of risperidone following simultaneous administration with antihypertensive and antiemetic drugs

Multiple drug administration is an important aspect of clinical practice particularly in specific physiological situation such as in neonates, elderly or pregnancy, since in all such situations, possibility of unwanted effects increases due to altered body physiology. In present study, the teratogenic effects of multiple drug administration risperidone, meclizine/pyridoxine and hydralazine have been compared with the teratogenic effects of individual drugs in pregnant mice. Moreover the role of folic acid and alpha-tocopherol if any had also been investigated in reducing the teratogenic effects of these drugs in combination