Effects of Ayurvedic practices on quality of life of health professionals in Brazil: trends from a quasi experimental study.

Integral health encompasses the way individuals live, considering their quality of life. An inadequate lifestyle can harm human health, increasing the risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases, which represent 71% of the causes of death worldwide and 54.7% in Brazil. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to impacts on quality of life, resulting from lifestyle changes, especially among health professionals. This constitutes an important factor in the health-disease relationship and the core of the healthcare approach embraced by Ayurveda. The present study evaluated the role of daily Ayurvedic practices in improving the quality of life of health professionals working in the Family Health Strategy of SUS in Paty do Alferes/RJ, Brazil. Ayurveda practices based on Trayopastamba were introduced to 30 health professionals through lectures and guided activities from July to October 2021, spanning three months. Quality of life was assessed using the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire before and after the intervention. An improvement in perceived quality of life was observed in the physical, psychological, and environmental domains (p > 0.05), while the social domain did not show statistically significant results. The physical domain demonstrated the most substantial score increase (10.95). Conversely, the social domain displayed the smallest rise in scores (5.83). In conclusion, the daily Ayurvedic practices demonstrated the potential to enhance the quality of life in this group, contributing to health promotion in a practical and economically accessible manner.

Investigations on the morpho-anatomy and histochemistry of Aconitum napellus L.

Aconitum napellus L. is a popular medicinal plant extensively used in homeopathy. This article provides detailed morphology and microscopy, including the anatomical and histochemical features of the herb, to aid authentication and quality control. In cross-section, the root in secondary growth shows the phloem surrounded by pericyclic fibers and a well-developed xylem. The stem is irregular in outline, displaying unicellular trichomes and many free collateral vascular bundles encircling the pith. The leaf is dorsiventral, hypostomatic with anomocytic and anisocytic stomata, and shows non-glandular trichomes. The floral parts are characterized by uniseriate epidermises, homogeneous mesophyll, anomocytic stomata on the abaxial surface, trichomes, and oval pollen grains. The tissue fragments in powdered herbs show these characteristics and have numerous starch grains with thimble-shaped, linear or star-shaped hilum. The detailed macroscopic and microscopic analysis provided in this study can help in the authentication and quality control of A. napellus raw materials. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Key anatomical, micromorphological, and microchemical features of Aconitum napellus are described. The results of the study can support the taxonomy of the genus Aconitum. Morphological standardization of the species reported here is helpful in the quality control of this herb.

Distinct growth and extractive methods of Acmellaoleracea (L.) R.K. Jansen rising different concentrations of spilanthol: An important bioactive compound in human dietary.

Acmella oleracea, commonly known as jambú, is a great source of spilanthol, a secondary metabolite responsible for different kind of biological activities, such as the antioxidant, antimicrobial, cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory bioactivities. The purpose of this work was to evaluate spilanthol content in A. oleracea plants obtained from three different cultivation conditions - in vitro, acclimatized and in field - and compare two different extraction techniques: maceration and microwave assisted extraction (MAE). Therefore, A. oleracea nodal segments were cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium. After 30days, developed plants were transferred to ex vitro conditions and successfully acclimatized. From all types of culture, the whole plant as well as the flowers, leaves, stems and roots were used, separately, to obtain ethanolic extract (75%) but only the micropropagated whole plant was used on the factorial design 24-1 on the microwave-assisted extraction. All the samples were quantified by HPLC-DAD and analyzed by CG-MS. Results show that the different acclimatized plant parts are the richest in spilanthol content, followed by the in vitro culture and, finally, field material. The MAE was able to extract the highest amount of spilanthol from in vitro whole plant (3.09%) compared to the classical maceration extract (0.98%) and, furnished good crude extracts yields under an optimized study accurately explained by the mathematical model. The antibacterial assay presented a negative result using in vitro samples and bacteria inhibition with field samples against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (ATCC 12228) standard strains.