Medicinal plants of India with anti-diabetic potential.

Antimicrobial and phytochemical studies on 45 Indian medicinal plants against multi-drug resistant human pathogens

Biological and Phytochemical Screening of Plants

Handbook of LEGUMES of World Economic Importance

Screening of some Indian medicinal plants for their antimicrobial properties

Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants

The practical science of dietetics has lagged rather painfully behind the advance of the laboratory worker. In the latter half of the nineteenth century the role of the three foodstuffs was determined and the quantitative aspect of diet generally agreed, but the qualitative aspect was not really studied until the second decade of the present century. Consequently the simultaneous introduction of margarine in its original form and of the roller-milling of cereals may be said to be chiefly responsible for a dark page in the nation's dietary history the cause of which was Inot then appreciated. In disease, as Sir William Roberts complained more than half a century ago, dietetic restrictions were imposed which were traditional rather than scientific. To-day there is no excuse for such things, and the Textbook of Dietetics by Prof. Stanley Davidson and Dr. I. A. Anderson provides an admirable guide to the science and practice of the subject. Two special characteristics enhance its value: in the first place everything is referred back to first principles ; and, in the second, tradition unsupported by evidence is swept remorselessly aside for rational schemes based on those principles and on personal experience. Mention should also be made of the very useful diet sheets constructed by Sister Mary Thomson, which occupy sixty-six pages and which are full of practical wisdom. The keynote of the book is struck in the preface in these words: " No dietetic -estriction should be imposed that cannot be justified on biochemical, physiological, or clinical grounds. To withhold much-desired food on no better sanction than fashion or tradition not only discredits the practice of dietetics but may inflict misery and harm." The plan of the book is to deal with (1) a survey of diets at various income levels; (2) the physiology of nutrition; (3) diet in health, particUlarl.y in periods of stress; (4) dietetic treatment of disease. The profession is already much indebted to Prof. Stanley Davidson for his discovery of the high vitamin content of halibut oil and his demonstration that the majority of women in the poorer classes live on the verge of an easily remediable iron starvation. The characteristics of his earlier work are also manifest here. There is the same careful collection of facts, freshness of outlook, common sense, and lucid exposition. We might specify the chapter on the treatment of nephritis as an outstanding example of his method. It is of particular interest to note the way in which the newer knowledge is brought to the explanation of well-known clinical facts. Thus the danger of haemorrhage in operations on patients with obstructive jaundice has long been recognized. Now we know that the failure to absorb fat which is typical of jaundice brings with it a failure to absorb the fat-soluble vitamin K; consequently the level of prothrombin in the blood falls and a haemorrhagic tendency develops. We are clearly shown the responsibility of hypovitaminosis for vague states of illhealth, and the recently recognized danger of treating chronic diseases by necessarily restricted diets without reference to this factor. On the other hand, it is reassuring to be told that the idea that vitamin D is toxic if given in large doses is erroneous,.being based on the use of crude products containing toxic substances allied to vitamin D but having no a.ntirachitic properties. We were a little surprised, however, to find no mention of the value of vitamin A in the prophylaxis of renal calculus; indeed, in view of Swift Joly's dictum that diet is the most important single aetiological factor in calculus formation, the discussion of this subject seems the only one that is not quite adequate. The whole subject of mineral metabolism in disease, another qualitative aspect of increasing importance, is, on the other hand, fully and helpfully discussed. To read this book is to realize how fundamentally our ideas on diet in health and disease have been modified in the last twenty years, thanks to co-operation between pure chemists, biochemists, and clinicians. SUch co-operation is not only essential in these days of increasing specialism, but is fruitful in itself. Here that fruit is attractively displayed; to fail to read this book is to miss an interesting experience and to lose a valuable guide to the complexities of dietetic treatment.

Indigenous Drugs Of India

P. N. RAY, b.a., m.b. (Cal.), f.r.c.s. (Eng.) Additional Surgeon, Medical College Hospitals, Calcutta The problem of ulcerative colitis remains unsolved; medical opinion has oscillated between e extremes of optimism and pessimism. There are some, notably Bargen (1935) and Buie I. \"37), who would class it among the conquered ^seases, while others, Hetenyi (1935) for ^stance, would classify it equally emphatically among the incurable diseases. The significance ?*. such startling divergence of authoritative ?Pmion will be missed unless we take into consideration the geographical distribution of the disease and the changes in dietetics and habits, tticluced by the complexities of modern civiliza??n. The consensus of medical opinion is more lnyined to regard it in the same light as Pulmonary tuberculosis; the disease can only be arrested by prolonged treatment, involving rest ^ bed and maintenance of mental peace. Spontaneous intermissions are not uncommon, but intercurrent infections and emotional disurbances have marked deleterious effects on the Pr?greSS of the disease. This paper is based on the study and statisical survey of 120 cases of ulcerative colitis under our care in the Medical College Hospitals the Carmichael Hospital for Tropical ?diseases. The present investigation was undertaken as a supplement to our previous work p1} ' Amcebiasis and Appendicitis' (Banerji, ^?hopra and Ray, 1936), wherein it was observed hat the incidence of non-specific colitis in a small series of cases for sigmoidoscopy was as 1as .43 per cent. -Definition.?Chronic ulcerative colitis may be r??arded as a disease of the large intestines taring the second and third decades of life with characteristic clinical and pathological features ut without any specific bacteriological infection.

Chronic Ulcerative Colitis.

A Handbook of Tropical Therapeutics.

Terminalia Arjuna: Its Chemistry, Pharmacology and Therapeutic Action.

R. N. Chopra

Papers

Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants

Indigenous Drugs Of India

Chronic Ulcerative Colitis.

A Handbook of Tropical Therapeutics.

Terminalia Arjuna: Its Chemistry, Pharmacology and Therapeutic Action.