Showing papers by "Ponnampalam Gopalakrishnakone published in 2010"

Therapeutic Potential of Plants as Anti-microbials for Drug Discovery.

Abstract: The uses of traditional medicinal plants for primary health care have steadily increased worldwide in recent years Scientists are in search of new phytochemicals that could be developed as useful anti-microbials for treatment of infectious diseases Currently, out of 80% of pharmaceuticals derived from plants, very few are now being used as anti-microbials Plants are rich in a wide variety of secondary metabolites that have found anti-microbial properties This review highlights the current status of traditional medicine, its contribution to modern medicine, recent trends in the evaluation of anti-microbials with a special emphasis upon some tribal medicine, in vitro and in vivo experimental design for screening, and therapeutic efficacy in safety and human clinical trails for commercial outlet Many of these commercially available compounds are crude preparations administered without performing human clinical trials Recent methods are useful to standardize the extraction for scientific investigation of new phytochemicals and anti-microbials of traditionally used plants It is concluded that once the local ethnomedical preparations of traditional sources are scientifically evaluated before dispensing they should replace existing drugs commonly used for the therapeutic treatment of infection This method should be put into practice for future investigations in the field of ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, ethnobotany and other biological fields for drug discovery

Fieldable Assay For Botulinum Neurotoxins

Abstract: Background: The Botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs) are a major threat in military settings. The mouse bioassay is the “gold standard” method, however, it has practical limitations. Purpose: To standardize a rapid, sensitive and fieldable optical immunoassay (OIA) for the detection of BoNTs A, B, E and F in food matrices. Materials and methods: The toxicity of BoNTs A, B, E and F was assessed by using a modified LD 50 assay. OIA was used to detect BoNTs in a variety of food matrices representing liquids, solids, and semisolid food. For specificity studies, the assay was used to test varying concentrations of epsilon toxin (ETX) from Clostridium perfringens, toxin A (TcdA) from C.difficile and staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB) from S.aureus in spiked assay buffer. To evaluate the OIA performance, five concentrations (serially five-fold diluted, viz. 20, 4, 0.8, 0.16 and 0.032 in ng/mL) of BoNT/A were made in orange juice and tested by both OIA and mouse bioassay. Results: The mouse intraperitoneal (i.p.) LD 50 values (in ng/kg) of BoNTs A, B, E and F were determined to be 1.6, 1.8, 1.3, and 2.4 respectively. OIA could readily detect 20ng/mL of BoNTs A, B, E and F in all the food samples tested. OIA demonstrate limits of detection lesser in range to the gold standard mouse bioassay. Conclusion: The OIA was found to