The epidemiological data on snakebites in the state of Paraíba, Brazil, is scarce. This accounts for the difficulties in helping the victims. Hence, to obtain the clinical and epidemic profile of the snakebite accidents in Paraíba, we studied the number of cases recorded in this state between January 1995 and December 2000. The data was collected from these sources: Center for Toxicological Assistance

Cnidoscolus quercifolius is an Euphorbiaceae endemic to the northeast region of Brazil, which is used in folk medicine as anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antibiotic. An ethanolic extract was prepared with the leaves from C. quercifolius, and also partitioned and chromatographed leading to the isolation of cyanoglucoside linamarin (1), cinnamic acid (2), as well as a mixture of steroids and terpenoids (3 -6). Structural elucidation of the compounds was done by IR, MS and NMR analysis. For the cyanoglucoside (1) were also evaluated its antimicrobial and antileishmanial viabilities by plaque microdilution and MTT test, respectively. Both tests showed from moderate to zero activity against the organisms evaluated. In addition, the antiproliferative activity of compounds 1 and 5-6 were tested against tumor cells, which did not show statistically significant growth inhibition 50% (GI 50 ). The obtained results suggested that further pharmacological studies should prove the folk medicinal uses.

This study aimed to determine spectrum of antimicrobial activity of crude ethanolic extract (CEE), chloroform (CHCl3) and ethyl acetate (EtOAc) fractions, to determine influence of CHCl3 fraction on Staphylococcus aureus growth and hemolytic activity. Antimicrobial screening of CEE, CHCl3 and EtOAc fractions was carried out using broth microdilution technique against standard strains: Staphyloccocus aureus ATCC25923, Escherichia coli ATCC25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853 and Candida albicans ATCC76645 to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Time kill curves were performed to determine influence of CHCl3 fraction on MIC and ½ MIC concentrations on S. aureus growth. Hemolytic activity of CHCl3 was performed in human erythrocytes to report the cytotoxic effect. CHCl3 fraction showed activity against S. aureus with MIC=1024 µg mL-1 and MBC=2048 µg mL-1. This fraction did not show activity against other tested strains, as well as the CEE and EtOAc fraction. Time kill curve of S. aureus treated with CHCl3 fraction showed that at MIC this fraction has bacteriostatic activity, which was not observed with the ½ MIC. Hemolytic activity demonstrated that when CHCl3 fraction in MIC does not present membrane damage of erythrocytes, since it did not cause hemolysis. Studies should be conducted to evaluate the activity of CHCl3 fraction against S. aureus with different antimicrobial resistance profiles, in addition to evaluating the potential for resistance reversion by in vitro combination studies. The study demonstrated that the species P. montealegreanum can be an important source of compounds of importance for combating microorganisms of clinical importance.

No abstract

No abstract