Efficacy of a herbal extract gel in the treatment of gingivitis: A clinical study.

Background: Chronic gingivitis is the most prevalent in all dentate animals. Regular methods for controlling it have been found to be ineffective, which have paved the way for the use of herbal products as an adjunctive to mechanical therapy as they are free to untoward effects and hence can be used for a long period of time. Objective: The antigingivitis effect of a gel containing pomegranate extract was evaluated using a 21-day trial in patients with chronic gingivitis. Materials and Methods: Forty patients participated in this randomized clinical study, carried out in four phases of 7 days each over 21 days. The patients were randomly assigned to four groups: First group was treated with mechanical debridement and an experimental gel and the second group with mechanical debridement and a control gel; the third group wasn’t subjected to mechanical debridement and only experimental gel was used. The fourth group was treated with control gel only. All the groups were subjected to various clinical and microbiological parameters to evaluate the antiplaque and antigingivitis effect of the pomegranate extract. Results: The group which used the pomegranate gel along with mechanical debridement showed signifi cant improvement in all the clinical and microbiological parameters included in the study when compared with the other three groups. Conclusion: Hence it can be concluded that the pomegranate gel when used as an adjunct with mechanical debridement was effi cient in treating gingivitis.

Flubendiamide: Entry of a new insecticide into the field of clinical toxicology.

Flubendiamide is a new lepidopteron insecticide developed for the use against pests of a wide array of annual and perennial crops. It is the first commercial representative of a new chemical class, the phthalic acid diamides. Flubendiamide is said to have a low order of acute toxicity in humans via the oral, dermal and inhalation routes. There are hardly any reports of poisoning due to flubendiamide in humans. In this paper, a case of attempted suicide by consumption of flubendiamide-containing insecticide by a farmer is being reported.

A rare case of mucormycosis of median sternotomy wound caused by Rhizopus arrhizus.

We describe a case of mucormycosis of median sternotomy wound caused by Rhizopus arrhizus . The patient, a known diabetic and a case of coronary artery disease underwent coronary artery bypass surgery. In the postoperative period, patient developed infection of the median sternotomy wound, from which R. arrhizus was isolated on culture. Patient succumbed in spite of being treated with surgical debridement and amphotericin B. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of mucormycosis of median sternotomy wound from India.