Hypotensive, hypoglycaemic and toxicological studies on the flavonol C-glycoside shamimin from Bombax ceiba.

Shamimin, a C-flavonol glucoside from Bombax ceiba leaves showed significant potency as a hypotensive agent at the doses of 15 mg/kg, 3 mg/kg, 1 mg/kg and significant hypoglycaemic activity at 500 mg/kg in Sprague-Dawley rats. Further studies revealed that it did not cause any mortality in mice at the dose of 1 g/kg but in rats 500 mg/kg is a lethal dose. Aqueous and methanolic extracts of Bombax ceiba leaves and one of its fractions were also subjected to pharmacological and toxicological screening.

Serum total protein, albumin, globulin and their ratio in apparently healthy population of various ages and sex in Karachi.

Serum proteins, albumin and globulin in 456 (274 males and 182 females) subjects were within the normal range and showed uniform distribution. Mean protein levels were low in infants under 0-1 year of age. No significant change was noted with age and sex in other groups. These values were considered to be normal for our population as all protein values fell within 2.5 and 97.5 percentile (95% of the total population) irrespective of age and sex except babies under 0-1 year. The average intake of protein/kg body weight was almost upto the recommended allowances.