Antimalarial activity of crude extracts from Brazilian plants studied in vivo in Plasmodium berghei-infected mice and in vitro against Plasmodium falciparum in culture

1. Ninety-five crude extrat obtained with either organic solvents or water from 48 Brazilian plants or parts of plants were evaluated experimentally as blood schizontocides. Seventy-three extracts wee obtained from 33 plants randomly collected using an empirical approach, and 22 from 15 "medicinal" plants. 2. The crude extracts were screened in vivo at up to 1.0g/Kg, po, for 4 days in mice infected with blood forms of Plasmodium berghei and parasitemia was determined on the fifth day. 3. Six plants, 2 randomly collected, Vernonia brasiliana and Eupatorium squalidum, and 4 "medicinal" plants, Acanthospermum australe, Esenbeckia febrifuga, Lisianthus speciosus, and Tachia guianensis, were partly active aginst the rodent malaria, i.e., they showed 40-50% inhibition of P. berghei multiplication. Forthy-two plants whose extracts presented no antimalarial activity are reported. 4. Four extracts with antimalarial activity were also tested in vitro using P. falciparum cultures and two of them, V. brasiliana and A. australe, were active. Extracts of V. brasiliana caused about 50% inhibition of parasite multiplication at relatively low doses (40ng/ml) as compared to chloroquine (30ng/ml) and quinine (50ng/ml). The relatively high percentage of positive results obtained here for "medicinal" plants vs randomly chosen plants demonstrates the effectiveness of the ethnopharmacological approach to drug testing

Simposio Brasileiro sobre Litio (I): Sao Paulo, abril de 1983. Diagnostico diferencial das psicoses afetivas e suas implicacoes terapeuticas. / Brazilian Symposium on Lithium (I). Sao Paulo, april 1983. Differential diagnosis of affective psychosis and its therapeutic complications

Apos rever as principais tendencias historicas quanto a nomenclatura e nosologia da Grecia Antiga aos modernos achados de pesquisa, o autor discute as principais questoes relativas ao diagnostico e tratamento das psicoses afetivas. Uma atencao especial e dada ao diagnostico diferencial dos estados depressivos, com relacao as caracteristicas clinicas e fenomenologicas, uso de escalas metricas, testes psicologicos e achados laboratoriais. Insiste-se na importancia de um diagnostico clinico preciso, especialmente pelo fato de ser um dos principais determinantes da estrategia terapeutica a ser empregada. O papel das terapias convulsivas, dos farmacos antidepressivos e do litio e concisamente sintetizado, e, ao final, sao apresentados orientacoes terapeuticas de utilidade pratica

Quimioprofilaxia da esquistossomose: atividade moluscicida de produtos naturais - ensaios com caramulos adultos e desovas. / Chemoprophylaxis of schistosomiasis: molluscacidal activity of natural products - assays with adult snails and oviposition

Sao apresentados os dados relativos a atividade moluscicida de 159 extratos, de 84 plantas brasileiras, sobre Biomphalaria glabrata, o mais importante hospedeiro intermediario do Schistosoma mansoni no Brasil. Setenta e oito (49,0%) dos extratos mostraram atividade contra caramujos ou desovas, porem, somente vinte e nove (18,2%)foram ativos sobre ambos. Os extratos de duas especies de vegetais (Mikania hirsutissima e Qualea multiflora) foram letais aos caramujos adultos, na concentracao de 10 ppm