Evaluation of in vitro antioxidant, antiglycation and antimicrobial potential of indigenous Myanmar medicinal plants / 中西医结合学报

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>Myanmar has a long history of using medicinal plants for treatment of various diseases. To the best of our knowledge there are no previous reports on antiglycation activities of medicinal plants from Myanmar. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluate the antioxidant, antiglycation and antimicrobial properties of 20 ethanolic extracts from 17 medicinal plants indigenous to Myanmar.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>In vitro scavenging assays of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), nitric oxide (NO), superoxide (SO) radicals were used to determine the antioxidant activities. Folin-Ciocalteu's method was performed to determine the total phenolic content. Antiglycation and antimicrobial activities were detected by bovine serum albumin-fluorescent assay and agar well diffusion method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Terminalia chebula Retz. (Fruit), containing the highest total phenolic content, showed high antioxidant activities with inhibition of 77.98% ± 0.92%, 88.95% ± 2.42%, 88.56% ± 1.87% and 70.74%± 2.57% for DPPH, NO, SO assays and antiglycation activity respectively. It also showed the antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans with inhibition zone of 19, 18, 17, 25 and 15 mm, respectively. Garcinia mangostana Linn. showed the strongest activities for SO and antiglycation assays with inhibition of 93.68% ± 2.63% and 82.37% ± 1.78%. Bark of Melia sp. was the best NO radical scavenger with inhibition rate of 89.39%± 0.60%.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The results suggest that these plants are potential sources of antioxidants with free radical-scavenging and antiglycation activities and could be useful for decreasing the oxidative stress and glycation end-product formation in glycation-related diseases.</p>

A study of lipid profile in Myanmar smokers and nonsmokers

This study was carried out to see the levels of serum lipids in smokers and nonsmoders. A total of 155 healthy subjects from the staff of the Institute of Medicine II, Yangon were studied. Among the 155 subjects, 96 were nonsmokers and 59 were active current smokers, smoking 1-9 cigarettes a day. Over night fasting samples of serum total cholesterol, serum HDL cholesterol, serum trigly-cerides and serum phospholipids were measured. It was found that smokers had significantly higher level of serum total cholesterol than nonsmoders.

A comparative study of the ventricular escape phenomenon from vagal stimulation

The phenomenon of ventricular escape from continued vagal stimulation has so far not been satisfactorily explained. Recently, Friedman and Campos (1960) and Friedman and Bhagat (1962) have postulated that the phenomenon of vagal escape might be explained as the basis of the catecholamine content of the heart. We have tested this hypothesis by correlating the degree of vagal inhibition with that of the catecholamine content of the heart in different species of animals. The hearts were depleted of catecholamines by the administration of reserpine and the degrees of vagal influence on these hearts compared with that on control animals. There was no correlation between the total catecholamine content of the heart and the degree of vagal inhibition. However, in resepinised dogs and cats, guinea-pig and fish stimulation of the vagas resulted in a greater inhibition of the heart than in non-reserpinised animals.

Blood groups of the Inthas and Tavoyans of Burma

The distribution of the ABO, MNS and Rh Blood groups in the Intha and Tavoyan populations have been studied and compared. In the ABO and MNS systems there was no significant difference between the two populations. In the Rh system however, a significant difference was found. The cDe (R? ) and cde r chromosome frequencies of the Tavoyans are significantly different from those of the Inthas. It is suggested that the introduction of the non-South-East asian cde r chromosome into the genetic structure of the Tavoyans may be due to admixture with a population giving a high d gene frequency. The present study favours the theory that the Inthas are a branch of the original Burmese stock and not the inhabitants of Tavoy who moved later to the Inle Lake.

Glycogen content of the various parts of the dog heart using desoxyribonucleic acid as a reference standard

Comparison of the metabolic activity of the various cardiac tissues is liable to error if the activity is expressed on the basis of wet weight as is usually done. This is because of the varying amounts of fibrous tissue in the various cardiac tissues, especially in the false tendons which is taken as representative of Purkinje tissue. The use of desoxyribonucleic acid as a reference standard for tissue analysis was suggested by the work of Bolvin, Vendrely & Vendrely (1948) and for metabolic experiments by the work of Gray & Deluca (1956). The amount of DNA per nucleus in different somatic tissues of a species is constant and from the DNA content of a given mass of tissue the number of cells in it can be calculated. The metabolic activity is then expressed on a per cell basis. In this work, the above method has been modified taking into consideration the fibrous content of the tissue samples, and has been applied to the determination of glycogen in cardiac tissues.

Catalase of blood of some common animals

Catalase was determined in serum and whole blood of 8 animals each of cow, sheep, chicken, snake (Krait), horse, dog, guinea pig, rat and rabbit. The catalase content in whole blood and serum of different species of animals varies considerably ranging from 10,000 to 80,000 units/100 m power 1 blood and 52.5 to 155 units/100 ml serum. The significance of this variation is not yet known.