The pharmacology and clinical properties of Kalopanax pictus

Tae Kyung Hyun1 and Ju-Sung Kim2*

1Institut fuer Pflanzenwissenschaften, Schubertstr. 51, A-8010 Graz, Austria. 2Oriental Bio-herb Research Institute, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, 200-701, Korea. Accepted 17 August, 2009

Kalopanax pictus is known as Castor-Aralia or Prickly Castor-oil tree. K. pictus extracts have been used for dietary health supplements and are an important area in drug development with numerous pharmacological functions in East Asia; however, their pharmacological functions have not been introduced in Western countries. This paper briefly reviews the most relevant experimental data on the pharmacological actions of K. pictus to overcome the lack of information on this plant. K. pictus extracts have proved to be effective in the treatment of inflammation and were shown to have a number of pharmaceutically relevant benefits that include anti-rheumatoidal, hepatoprotective, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer effects, etc. There are a few known active pharmacological components such as kalopanaxsaponin A and I. Although the molecular mechanisms of most of the effects are not fully understood, major mechanisms seem to involve the interplay between active components and signaling mediated by phosphorylation events during stress adaptation.

Key words: Kalopanax pictus, araliaceae, Kalopanaxsaponins A, anti-inflammatory, anti-rheumatoidal activity, anti-diabetic, hepatoprotective effect.

A comprehensive review of the benefts of Taraxacum ofcinale on human health

Agnese Di Napoli* and Pietro Zucchetti

Abstract

Background: Taraxacum officinale (G.H. Weber ex Wiggers), commonly known as dandelion, is a herbaceous plant native to North America, Europe and Asia. This plant has been used for health purposes since ancient times. The phytochemicals present in different parts of the plant are responsible for its medicinal properties. In this review, we describe the main health properties of Taraxacum officinale.

Main body of the abstract: We searched for the main medicinal properties of Taraxacum officinale in the scientific literature, using the PubMed database. We selected 54 studies and we described twelve therapeutic properties, which are reported in previous studies. These properties are diuretic, hepatoprotective, anticolitis, immunoprotective, antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, antiarthritic, antidiabetic, antiobesity, antioxidant and anticancer effects. We also found that the most frequently reported therapeutic effects include hepatoprotective, antioxidant and anticancer activities.

Short conclusion: In this review, we describe the medicinal properties of Taraxacum officinale reported in previous studies. Antioxidant, hepatoprotective and anticancer effects are mostly found in the scientific literature.

Keywords: Taraxacum officinale, Dandelion, Medicinal properties, Hepatoprotective, Antioxidant, Anticancer.

Using Telemedicine to Improve Outcomes in Diabetes—An Emerging Technology

David C. Klonoff, M.D., FACP

Author Affiliation: Mills-Peninsula Health Services, San Mateo, California

Abbreviation: (A1C) hemoglobin A1c

Corresponding Author: David C. Klonoff, M.D., FACP, Mills-Peninsula Health Services, 100 South San Mateo Drive, Room 5147, San Mateo, CA 94401; email address 该Email地址已收到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它您需要在浏览器中启用JavaScript。 J Diabetes Sci Technol 2009;3(4):624-628

Inhibition of polymicrobial biofilm formation by saw palmetto oil, lauric acid and myristic acid

Yong-Guy Kim† Jin-Hyung Lee† Sunyoung Park, Sanghun Kim and Jintae Lee * School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-Ro, Gyeongsan, Korea.

Received 8 March, 2021; revised 22 May, 2021; accepted 23 May,*For correspondence. E-mail 该Email地址已收到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它您需要在浏览器中启用JavaScript。; Tel. (+82) 53 810 2533; Fax (+82) 53 810 4631. †† Y.-G.K. and J.-H.L. contributed equally to this work. Microbial Biotechnology (2022) 15(2), 590–602

doi:10.1111/1751-7915.13864

Funding information

This research was supported by grants from the Basic Science Research Program through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Education (2021R1I1A3A04037486 to J.-H. Lee, 2019R1C1C1008329 to Y.-G. Kim), the NRF grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2021R1A2C1008368 to J. Lee), and by a grant from the Priority Research Centers Program through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Education (2014R1A6A1031189).

Summary

       Biofilms are communities of bacteria, fungi or yeasts that form on diverse biotic or abiotic surfaces, and play important roles in pathogenesis and drug resistance. A generic saw palmetto oil inhibited biofilm formation by Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and fungal Candida albicans without affecting their planktonic cell growth. Two main components of the oil, lauric acid and myristic acid, are responsible for this antibiofilm activity. Their antibiofilm activities were observed in dual-species biofilms as well as three-species biofilms of S. aureus, E. coli O157:H7 and C. albicans. Transcriptomic analysis showed that lauric acid and myristic acid repressed the expressions of haemolysin genes (hla and hld) in S. aureus, several biofilm-related genes (csgAB, fimH and flhD) in E. coli and hypha cell wall gene HWP1 in C. albicans, which supported biofilm inhibition. Also, saw palmetto oil, lauric acid and myristic acid reduced virulence of three microbes in a nematode infection model and exhibited minimal cytotoxicity. Furthermore, combinatorial treatment of fatty acids and antibiotics showed synergistic antibacterial efficacy against S. aureus and E. coli O157:H7. These results demonstrate that saw palmetto oil and its main fatty acids might be useful for controlling bacterial infections as well as multispecies biofilms.

The Use of Telemedicine to Support Interventional Pain Care: Case Series and Commentary

Benedict J. Alter , MD, PhD,* Rohit Navlani, DO,* Leath Abdullah, MD,* Ajay D. Wasan, MD, MSc,*,† and Edward Heres, MD*

Departments of *Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine; and † Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Benedict J. Alter and Rohit Navlani contributed equally to this work.

Funding sources: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the International Anesthesia Research Society in the form of the Mentored Research Award (B.J.A.) and the American Academy of Pain Medicine Early Investigator Research Grant (B.J.A.).

Conflicts of interest: There are no conflicts of interest to report.

The role of eHealth, telehealth, and telemedicine for chronic disease patients during COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid systematic review

Hind Bitar1 and Sarah Alismail2

1 Department of Information Systems, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah,

Saudi Arabia

2 Center for Information Systems & Technology, Claremont Graduate

University, Claremont, USA

Corresponding author:

Hind Bitar, Department of Information Systems, King Abdulaziz University,

Al Ehtifalat St, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.

Email: 该Email地址已收到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它您需要在浏览器中启用JavaScript。

Abstract

Objective: To summarize the current status of, and the current expert opinions, recommendation and evidence associated with the use and implementation of electronic health (eHealth), telemedicine, and/or telehealth to provide healthcare services for chronic disease patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Materials and methods: We searched four electronic databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Web of Science Core Collection) to identify relevant articles published between 2019 and 2020. Searches were restricted to English language articles only. Two independent reviewers screened the titles, abstracts, and keywords for relevance. The potential eligible articles, papers with no abstract, and those that fall into the uncertain category were read in full text independently. The reviewers met and discussed which articles to include in the final review and reached a consensus.

Results: We identified 51 articles of which 25 articles met the inclusion criteria. All included articles indicated the promising potential of eHealth, telehealth, and/or telemedicine solutions in delivering healthcare services to patients living with chronic diseases/conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. We synthesized the main findings into ten usages and eight recommendations concerning the different activities for delivering healthcare services remotely for those living with chronic diseases/conditions in the era of COVID-19.

Discussion and conclusions: There is limited evidence available about the effectiveness of such solutions. Further research is required during this pandemic to improve the credibility of evidence on telemedicine, telehealth, and/or eHealth-related outcomes for those living with chronic diseases.

Keywords

Chronic, eHealth, telehealth, telemedicine, technology Submission date: 22 August 2020; Acceptance date: 20 March 2021