A Brief Review on the Potential Medicinal Plants and Screening Models of Urolithiasis.

Kidney stones or urolithiasis is a growing global problem. It is a complex phenomenon which results due to physiochemical changes including super saturation, crystallization and retention within the renal tubules. The problem of the stone formation is considered as a medical challenge due to its high rate of recurrence and also due to multifactorial etiology. Medicinal plants are found to be useful in this metabolic disorder from ancient days due to its no or low-toxic nature, easily available in rural areas, cheap, there are less chances of recurrence. The purpose of this paper is to critically review available literature on herbal medicines and screening models for urolithiasis inorder to develop effective drug to treat the disease.

Antioxidant and Radical Scavenging Properties of β-Carotene on Cisplatin Induced Cardiotoxicity.

Objective: To investigate the protective role of β-Carotene against cisplatin induced cardiotoxicity in male albino rats. Methods: Various biochemical parameters such as Creatine kinase-MB, Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Triglycerides (TG) and Total cholesterol (TC) are being assessed. Also the levels of the in vivo antioxidants such as Reduced glutathione (GSH), Catalase (CAT), and Malondialdehyde (MDA) in the post mitochondrial supernatant of heart were measured. In addition, the histopathological studies were performed to study the protective activity of β-carotene. Results: Cisplatin administration has shown the elevated levels of the cardiac markers and diminished the endogenous antioxidant levels when compared with the normal rats. β-carotene treatment showed the inhibitory effect on the free radicals showing decreased levels of the cardiac markers like CK-MB, LDH, AST, ALT and ALP. The β-carotene treated rats showed significant (p<0.001) decrease in lipid peroxidation in both prophylactic and curative groups when compared to the cisplatin group. Also showed a significant (p<0.05, p<0.001) increase in the levels of GSH in prophylactic and curative group respectively when compared with the cisplatin group. Both prophylactic and curative groups have shown a significant (p<0.001) increase in the levels of CAT. Further, the histopathological studies confirm the protective effect of β-carotene. Conclusion: These findings justify the biological and traditional uses of β-carotene as confirmed by its promising radical scavenging activity against cisplatin induced cardiotoxicity.