RESUMO
The Ranunculus species are poorly known as medicinal plants. They have potential toxicity given by the ranunculin and its enzymatic degradation compounds: protoanemonin and anemonin. This paper aims to evaluate the anemonin content of four species: R. bulbosus, R. ficaria, R. sardous and R. sceleratus. The evaluation was performed by TLC and HPLC. There were evaluated two types of extracts hydroalcoholic [HA] and glycerol-ethanol [GE]. The most concentrated extract in anemonin was found to be the R. sardous aerial part HA extract: 2.66 mg/ml. The lowest anemonin content is in R. sceleratus: 0.13-0.19 mg/ml. In R. bulbosus aerial part the anemonin content is less than the used HPLC method detection limits [7.68 mg/ml]. In all cases the GE extracts are less concentrated in anemonin, being more safely for human administration
RESUMO
In order to determine the epidemiological features of cholera in Lao PDR, the presence of mobile genetic elements such as plasmid, class I integron and SXT element in <i>V. cholerae</i> isolated from surface water were examined. Among the 22 strains isolated from 13 distantly separated sampling sites, no mobile genetic elements associated with drug resistance were found reflecting the antibiogram of the strains. Nevertheless, cholera epidemics due to multiple drug resistant <i>V. cholerae</i> occurred repeatedly in those areas until 2000.