Botulism in children: a diagnostic dilemma in developing countries

Botulism is a well-known disease of the neuromuscular junction. It is a rare but curable cause of paralysis in paediatric population. In addition to classical clinical signs and symptoms, the diagnosis of botulism requires laboratory confirmation of intoxication by various biological tests. These include demonstration of botulinum toxin in serum or isolation of the Clostridium botulinum from stool/gastric aspirates. However, it is not always possible to confirm intoxication due to unavailability of technical facilities, especially in resource limited countries like Pakistan. Under these circumstances, electrophysiological studies serve as an excellent diagnostic tool. These studies can provide quick diagnosis of botulism so that early administration of botulism immunoglobulin, if available, can reduce morbidity, mortality and length of stay in hospital. We report a case of botulism from Pakistan diagnosed on the basis of electrophysiological studies

Factors in relation to growth and lipid synthesis in mucor mucedo

Production of lipids by Mucor mucedo was studied in a medium containing glucose and carrot waste as the carbon source. Growth and lipid synthesis were influenced by different factors like temperature, incubation period and sugar concentration. The mycelial weight and the lipids% was lower in carrot waste medium under the optimum conditions. However, the chemical composition of the lipids was almost the same in both cases. The general composition of the lipids showed that the proportion of neutral to polar lipids increased [range 30% -55%] with the incubation period. Among the polar lipids a significant amount of phosphatidylethanolamine [PE] and phosphatidyl serine [PS] was found

Nutritional aspects of microbial lipids

The extracted microbial lipids were fed to forty Swiss albino mice of equal age and body weight for a period of 5 weeks. The microbial lipids were fed at 16%, 30%, 45% and 60% levels in addition to corn oil. The digestibility co-efficient of microbial lipids compared favourably with that of corn oil showing 95%, 95%, 96%, 94%, and 95% in groups I, ii, III, IV and V respectively. Histological studies of kidney, stomach and intestine were made. No microscopic pathological lesions were observed on liver, kidney, stomach and intestine of the mice at any levels of microbial lipids feeding. Histopathological examination showed no degenerative changes in any of the test mice. Therefore, the results suggest that the microbial lipids may be supplemented safely in animal rations for normal nutritional uses upto the extent of about 60%

Studies on microbial lipids containing Alpha-linolenic acid

M. miehi was grown on a chemically defined medium with glucose as carbon source. Studies were made on the influence of pH, age of culture, sugar concentration and nitrogen concentration. The investigations were carried on the characteristics and detailed fatty acid composition. The cultural conditions were manipulated to get the maximum amount of lipids with a higher percentage of gamma-linolenic acid