Medicinal plants are important source of potentially useful structures for the development of novel chemotherapeutic agents. The first step towards this goal is the in vitro antibacterial activity assay( Tona et al., 1998). The present study was aimed to evaluate the antmicrobial effect of Cananga odorata leaf extract on some bacterial cultures such as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae and fungi such as Epidermophyton floccosum. Microsporum gypseum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. The solvents Methanol, Chloroform and Petroleum ether were used for extraction.The inhibitory effect was assessed by well diffusion method. The zone of inhibition was measured. Among the solvent extracts tested, methanol was more effective than chloroform and petroleum ether.

Background - Men worldwide are confronted with oligospermia which is seriously disturbing factor and requires preference of treatment. The Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Eastern Medicine has undertaken a task to conduct the research with Unani Medicine on clinical evaluation of male infertility Methods -We conducted a Case control direct, uni-centre, prospective, randomized authentic herbal controlled, two arm parallel group clinical trial at multi-ceterr clinics in Karachi, Pakistan. Patients (25 years and 45 years) with clinical diagnosis of idiopathic oligospermia (n=50) were randomly assigned to receive 3gm B.D. powder of Spermogen twice a day and ProXeed B.D. twice daily. The study period was 3 years with a window for the follow up visit every month accounting for variable for semen analysis outcome measure. Results-Comparison of showed highly significant differences between test and control groups in total count of sperm and live count of sperm (p<0.001, p<0.000) respectively. Whereas, in rapid linear progression of motility was observed equal in both treatment group (p >0.05). All these data were analyzed by Chi-square test and Fisher’s Exact Test and obtained p values and the level of significance were applied. Conclusion-Spermogen is as effective as the ProXeed in the treatment of Idiopathic of Oligospermia. There was no untoward manifestation associated with the use of Spermogen and found a good acceptability by all treated patients.

Many hospitalizations in India are due to Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) and resulting in morbidity and mortality in majority cases in addition to the huge economic burden. A survey was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and behavior of community pharmacists towards ADR related aspects. One hundred and twenty eight pharmacists from various Community pharmacies in two Districts of South India were consented in this survey. A questionnaire was prepared to investigate the knowledge, attitude and behavior of pharmacists regarding ADR reporting and distributed to the identified pharmacies. The data was collected and analyzed by ANOVA and t- test. Out of 342 community pharmacies approached, 128 (37.4%) community pharmacists consented to be part of the survey and the questionnaire given was filled and returned by them. Out of these respondents, only 39 (30.5%) pharmacists had knowledge about ADR, 15 (11.7%) and 14 (10.9%) were aware of National Pharmacovigilance Program (NPP) and regional reporting centers respectively. Only 54 (43%) agreed that ADR reporting is a professional obligation of pharmacist and none of the respondents reported ADRs. The main reason for not reporting any ADR was ‘they did not know how to report’ and ‘did not feel its beneficial’. This survey revealed that the community pharmacists were having least scores towards knowledge, attitude and behavior on ADRs in Indian Scenario.

In consanguineous marriage, the genetic and medical disorders are increased in the offspring with passage of time. It is a big challenge for our society to get complete information of their prevalence, their risk factors and to control these disorders. The present survey was conducted during January-March 2012 in different areas of the Bajaur Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan including Alijan, Anatkali, Chamerkand, Gandaw, Loisam, Manudera, Nawagai, Nawaikali, Raghagan and Sadiqabad where they are dominant. Data were collected from 123 consanguineous married couples through questionnaire comprised of information about complete history and risk factors of the medical and genetic disorders. During cousin marriages, the couples’ parents were married to their 1st cousin 52% while married to their 2nd cousin 49%. The couples participated themselves were 1st cousin 87% while 2nd cousin 13%. They were obese 34%, weak 48%, and normal 18% while age was minimum 14 and maximum 30 years, however, maximum marriages were observed at the age of 20 year. The couples having genetic disorders like anemia, obesity and thalassemia were 20, 23 and 20%, respectively; however, non-genetic disorders, bone diseases, depressive illness and respiratory diseases were 21, 20 and 25 %, respectively. Such communities may require comprehensive genetic education and premarital genetic counseling programs for awareness and education.

Following snake bite cases, scorpion bite is a common global public health problem including India. Despite various species of scorpions, only few of these can be potentially lethal to humans. In India, the annual number of scorpion stings cases exceeds 1.23 million, of which over 32,250 may be fatal. This can be attributed to various hurdles in the scorpion bite treatment like poor health services, difficult and untimely transportation facilities, wrong traditional beliefs, delay in anti-scorpion venom administration which ultimately leads to substantial amount of mortality and morbidity. Clinical features of the patients stung with scorpion are generally abnormalities indicative of cardiac, respiratory, autonomic and metabolic changes and deaths can be due to multi-system failure. Administration of anti-scorpion venom serum (AScVs) is the only specific treatment available in India but has many limitations like species specificity, difficulty in availability, affordability and ideal storage conditions. The medicinal plants, available locally and used widely by traditional healers, therefore need attention in this aspects. Wide arrays of the plants and their active principles have been evaluated for pharmacological properties useful in the treatment of scorpion bite. However, numerous unexplored plants are claimed to have definite role in this issue need to be further studied. This review is an attempt to present a comprehensive account of numerous Indian herbal plants used in the treatment of scorpion bite in any forms like topical application for local pain relief, oral formulation for pain relief and venom neutralization purpose.