first medical text in preventive medicine written in Islamic world

Medical books written in Islamic societies have devoted special chapters to preventive medicine named Hefzossehha'. Nowadays, Ferdous Alhekmah is considered as the first medical text authored by Muslim scientists in Islamic countries. But in this review study we offer a more ancient text that belongs to Ali Ibn Musa [Imam Reza PBUH], the 8th Imam of shi'ites. This text was written about 815-818 AD while Imam Reza was in Marv, the Abbasid's capital city during the al-Ma'mun's governance [813-833]. This precedes the book of Tabari [810-855], Ferdous Alhekmah. This text was written specifically about preventive medicine and contains nutritional patterns; the effect of weather, sleep, four temperaments and humors on health; personal hygiene; cupping and phlebotomy; health care in travels; sex hygiene and its influence on fetus health and prevention of some especial diseases. This text was different from many books in this field in some ways. Thus, al-Ma'mun commanded some scribes to write the text with gold and therefore it is famous to "Resaleh Zahabieh" which means golden letter

Effect of oral feeding of Allium ascalonicum L. on thoracic aorta contractile response in diabetic rats

Diabetes mellitus is accompanied with higher incidence of cardiovascular disorders. There is some evidence on antidiabetic potential of Allium ascalonicum L. [AA]. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the beneficial effect of oral two-month administration of AA on contractile reactivity of isolated thoracic aorta from diabetic rats. Male Wistar rats were divided into control, AA-treated control, diabetic, and AA-treated diabetic groups. For induction of diabetes, streptozotcin [STZ] was intraperitoneally administered [60 mg/Kg]. Meanwhile, treated groups received AA mixed with standard pelleted food at a weight ratio of 6.25% for 2 months. Serum glucose level was measured in weeks 4 and 8. Also after 2 months contractile reactivity of thoracic aortic rings to KC1 and noradrenaline was determined using isolated tissue setup. Serum glucose level showed a significant increase in diabetic animals [p<0.001] and this was significantly attenuated in AA-treated diabetic group [p<0.005]. In addition, AA-treated diabetic group showed a lower contraction to KC1 and noreadrenaline [p<0.05] as compared to diabetic group. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference between control and AA-treated control groups regarding contractile reactivity. Oral administration of AA for 2 months could improve hyperglycemia and also attenuate the contractile responsiveness of the vascular system and this may prevent the development of hypertension in diabetic rats