ABSTRACT
Mankind has for many years relied on home remedies to manage ailments and injuries, including burn wounds. Wound healing is generally regarded as a natural process, with interventions such as ointment application regarded as assisting the process. Amongst other strategies, cow dung is a home remedy used by many African communities to manage burn wounds. The current study was aimed at the detection, purification and characterization of proteases from cow dung as validation for its usage in the management of burn wounds amongst African communities. Cow dung was collected around Pretoria, South Africa, and homogenized with a blender in a phosphate buffer, pH 7. The crude protein was obtained using ammonium sulphate precipitation and purified using size exclusion, anion exchange and cation exchange chromatographic techniques. Enzyme activity was determined using the casein digestion method. The purified proteases were characterized according to temperature and pH as well as substrate specificity. Three protease fractions were purified from cow dung homogenate. Fraction H was found to have an optimum temperature of 40ËC, an optimum pH of 6 and affinity for elastin; Fraction I was found to have an optimum temperature of 35ËC, an optimum pH of 7 and affinity for haemoglobin; and Fraction J was found to have an optimum temperature of 35ËC, an optimum pH of 8 and affinity for collagen. The findings of the study therefore suggest that the presence of proteases in cow dung could be one of the contributing factors towards its effectiveness in traditional African burn wound management.
Les humains ont longtemps utilisé des « recettes de Grand-mère ¼ pour traiter bobos comme blessures, y compris les brûlures. La cicatrisation est considérée comme un phénomène naturel, que divers onguents sont supposés aider. La bouse de vache est utilisée dans ce but dans de nombreuses communautés africaines. Nous avons détecté, purifié et caractérisé les protéases de bouses effectivement utilisées aux alentours de Pretoria (Afrique du Sud) après homogénéisation à pH 7. Les diverses protéines étaient obtenues par précipitation au sulfate d'ammonium ; purifiées par exclusions de taille et chromatographies sur résines cationiques comme anioniques. L'activité enzymatique était déterminée par la digestion de la caséine. Les protéases étaient caractérisées selon les substrats et les pH et températures spécifiques d'activité. Trois protéases ont ainsi été identifiées. La fraction H est une élastase à température optimale 40°C, pH 6. La fraction I est une hémoglobinase, 35°C, pH 7. La fraction J est une collagénase, 35°C, pH 8. La présence de protéases dans la bouse de vache peut expliquer sont efficacité en médecine traditionnelle africaine.
ABSTRACT
There are complications in diagnosing hypertension in children and adolescents due to variation of blood pressure (BP) values to age, gender and height. This study was aimed at assessing whether the performance of BP-to-height ratio (BPHR) can be an effective tool for screening prehypertension and hypertension in Ellisras Longitudinal Study (ELS) children aged between 6 and 17 years. A number of the 9002 children aged 6-17 years who were part of the ELS underwent height and BP measurements using standard procedures. Receiver-operating characteristic curve was used to assess the accuracy of BPHR to screen children with prehypertension and hypertension. The optimal systolic BPHR (SBPHR) and diastolic BPHR (DBPHR) cut-off points for hypertension were determined. Sensitivity/specificity, positive predictive values and negative predictive values were calculated. The optimal thresholds for defining prehypertension was 0.77 in children aged 6-10 years and 0.73 in adolescents aged between 11 and 17 years for systolic BPHR and 0.55 in children and 0.53 in adolescents for diastolic BPHR, respectively. The corresponding values for hypertension stage 1 were 0.76 and 0.73 for SBPHR and 0.50 and 0.58 for DBPHR, respectively. BPHR can be used as an effective tool for screening both prehypertension and hypertension in ELS children aged 6-17 years.
Subject(s)
Blood Pressure Determination/methods , Blood Pressure , Body Height , Hypertension/diagnosis , Mass Screening/methods , Rural Health , Adolescent , Age Factors , Area Under Curve , Child , Female , Humans , Hypertension/epidemiology , Hypertension/physiopathology , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Predictive Value of Tests , Prehypertension/diagnosis , Prehypertension/epidemiology , Prehypertension/physiopathology , Prevalence , ROC Curve , Reproducibility of Results , South Africa/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Plants collected from Limpopo province of South Africa were investigated for their antioxidative potential using the DPPH radical scavenging assay. Acetone extracts of Flueggea virosa had the highest antioxidant activity with an IC50 value of 30 µg/ml, closely matching the ascorbic acid with an IC50 value of 25 µg/ml. The lowest antioxidant readings were observed with extracts of Rhynchosia venulosa (root extract) and Ficus ingens (leaf extract). Acetone extract of Bridelia virosa leaves had the highest phenolic content (156 mg GAE/g extract), while the lowest content was recorded for R. venulosa root extract and leaf extract of F. ingens (8.3 and 17.7 mg GAE/g extract, respectively). There was a linear correlation between antioxidant activity and total phenolic content. Extracts with high phenolic content had low IC50 values, while extracts with low phenolic concentrations had high IC50 values.
