A Review of Antifungal Activity of Combined Plant Extracts or Plant Exudates from Medicinal Plants either together or with Known Antifungal Agents

Medicinal plants provide humanity with important phytochemical compounds and extracts which are widely used in treatment of many diseases. Fungal infections are one of these diseases which are widely distributed especially in developing countries; medicinal plants are extensively used in developing countries. There are few antifungal agents, most of them are expensive and have many adverse effects, also there is high incidence of drug resistance among some available antifungal agents, hence for these mentioned reasons many people, especially in developing countries, use medicinal plants (either alone, combined together or combined with known antifungal drugs) in treatment of many fungal infections. This rise a new and important issue about plant(s) – plant(s) and plant(s) - drug interactions. The aim of this review is to try to fill the gap in understanding the interactions of plant(s) - plant(s) and plant(s) – drug(s) combinations by providing an overview of some evidence-based researches done in this field, so our review highlights many interactions between medicinal plants constituents with current available antifungal agents, these interactions may be synergistic, additive, indifferent or antagonistic, so, if there is any antagonistic effect, we recommend to avoid using the combination which caused this effect. We collected a lot of studies which studied the interactions between plant(s) (including extracts, isolated active constituents, essential oils, plants latexes and other phytochemicals) used either together or with conventional antifungal agents. This will not only bring about better understanding of both phytochemicals and antifungal activity, but also may help in searching and developing new safely and effective drugs, specially with those combinations which showed synergistic effect.

The common histopathological findings of colon biopsies in Northern Saudi Arabia

Background: Colorectal cancer is considered as the most prevalent cancer among men and the third mostfrequent cancer among women in Saudi Arabia. Consequently, we aimed to assess the commonhistopathological findings of colon biopsies in Northern Saudi Arabia. Methodology: This study hasinvestigated the histopathological diagnosis of 88 patients subjected for colon and small intestine biopsies, theirages ranging from 18 to 99 years with a mean age of 48 years old at the Department of Pathology at KingKhalid Hospital, Hail, Northern Saudi Arabia. Results: Out of the 88 patients, 53(60.2%) were males and35(39.8%) were females. Diagnoses were reached in 77/88(87.5%) of the patients and could not be ascertainedin 11/88(12.5%). Adenocarcinoma was diagnosed in 10/77(13%) of the patients (9/10(90%) in colon-site and1/9(10%) in the small intestine. Conclusion: Colorectal precancerous and cancerous lesions are relativelyprevalent among patients referred to colorectal diagnostic biopsy. There is a substantial percentage ofinflammatory bowel cases among those referred to colorectal biopsies in Saudi Arabia.

Les cancers laryngo-pharynges dans un service de sante de dernier recours au Mali : aspects anatomo-cliniques et therapeutiques

Le but de ce travail etait de decrire les aspects anatomo-cliniques et therapeutiques des cancers laryngo-pharynges au Mali. Il s'agissait d'une etude prospective descriptive et transversale qui s'est deroulee dans le service d'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale du centre hospitalo-universitaire Gabriel TOURE sur un an allant du 1er Avril 2006 au 31 Mars 2007. Elle a porte sur 18 malades hospitalises dans ce service pour cancer du larynx ou de l'hypopharynx confirme a l'histologie. Les parametres (l'age; certains facteurs favorisants; les signes cliniques; l'aspect endoscopique de la tumeur; le type histologique et le type de traitement) ont ete analyses. Les hommes ont ete les plus touches (66;7); l'age moyen etait de 58;17 ans. Le tabagisme chronique a ete le facteur de risque le plus evoque (55;5) avec une consommation moyenne de 39;5 P/A. un retard de consultation a ete note (60a un delai superieur a 1 an apres l'apparition des premiers symptomes). L'aspect bourgeonnant (66;7) et e type carcinome epidermoide de la tumeur (94;7) ont domine le tableau d'anatomie pathologique. Seuls 27;8de nos patients ont beneficie d'un traitement chirurgical; compte tenu du retard accru de diagnostic

Pericoronal lavage with chlorhexidine gluconate and povidone-iodine as a treatment for pericoronitis: a clinical and microbiological study

This study examines the effect of chlorhexidine gluconate, and povidone- iodine solutions as pericoronal lavage and mouth rinse on patients with score 2 or 3 pericoronitis. Patients were divided at random into three groups. Group 1 irrigated with chlorhexidine gluconate, group 2 irrigated with povidone-iodine, and group 3 irrigated with normal saline and served as control. Lavage was performed once daily for two consecutive days. Every patient was rinsing with the same irrigant t.d.s for 5 days. Bacteriologic samples for culture and Gram's staining were taken from the pericoronal pouches of lower third molar teeth before and after lavage at 2 consecutive days. Pericoronal index scores were recorded for every patient before and after treatment. Results have shown that the predominant microflora of the 80 examined patients were highly anaerobic, and that both chlorhexidine gluconate and povidone iodine significantly reduced the degree of pericoronal inflammation and bacterial counts. No difference was found between the two agents. It can be concluded that local antimicrobial irrigating solutions when used as pericoronal lavage can effectively treat cases of score 2 and score 3 pericoronitis without the need for systemic antibiotics