Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a threat to the prevention and treatment of the increasing range of infectious diseases. There is therefore the need for renewed efforts into antimicrobial discovery and development to combat the menace. The antimicrobial activity of plumbagin isolated from roots of Plumbago zeylanica against selected organisms was evaluated for resistance modulation antimicrobial assay, time-kill kinetics assay, and inhibition of biofilm formation. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of plumbagin and standard drugs were determined via the broth microdilution method to be 0.5 to 8 μg/mL and 0.25–128 μg/mL, respectively. In the resistance modulation study, MICs of the standard drugs were redetermined in the presence of subinhibitory concentration of plumbagin (4 μg/mL), and plumbagin was found to either potentiate or reduce the activities of these standard drugs with the highest potentiation recorded up to 12-folds for ketoconazole against Candida albicans. Plumbagin was found to be bacteriostatic and fungistatic from the time-kill kinetics study. Plumbagin demonstrated strong inhibition of biofilm formation activity at concentrations of 128, 64, and 32 μg/mL against the test microorganisms compared with ciprofloxacin. Plumbagin has been proved through this study to be a suitable lead compound in antimicrobial resistance drug development.

Cholesterol plays a key role in the synthesis of bile acids and steroid hormones in the human body. However, excessively high levels are usually implicated in cardiovascular diseases. For this reason, it is essential to monitor exposure to high levels of it in products meant for human consumption, and this calls for the need to develop analytical methods to detect them. The use of Liebermann–Burchard reaction in this study has been explored to develop a simple, reliable, and robust quantitative colorimetric method to assay cholesterol, and hence provide a good alternative to chromatographic methods. The developed method was validated and used to determine the contents of cholesterol in selected dairy products on the Kumasi Metropolis market. The method demonstrated a good linearity (R2 = 0.996) over concentration range of 0.01–0.08 mg/ml. It was also shown to be precise and robust. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were determined to be 0.00430 mg/ml and 0.01304 mg/ml, respectively. Ten selected brands of canned milk (B1–B5) and fresh yoghurt products (A1–A5) were then assayed using the developed method. The results showed that three products from each category had cholesterol contents above the allowable content of 5 mg/100 g in dairy products. The study thus has proposed a simple colorimetric method that can be adopted by dairy products manufacturing facilities to rapidly determine cholesterol contents during manufacturing in order to monitor the safe consumption of their products, and eliminate or minimize possible future health hazards.

One of the tools used in providing comprehensible medication information to patients on their medication use for improved adherence and subsequent optimal therapeutic effect is the Patient Information (PI) leaflet. In Ghana, the patient information leaflet is available through various sources including health-care professionals (HCPs) and electronic forms. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 70% of patients, especially in the developing countries, who receive medications do not read the accompanying leaflet. This study assessed the role of the patient information leaflet in Patients’ medication therapy in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana. A random cross-sectional survey was conducted in various hospitals and pharmacies within selected districts in the Kumasi metropolis. The survey revealed that 96.9% of the sampled respondents (n = 300) were provided with PI leaflets on their medicines while only 3.1% of them indicated otherwise. Among the proportion of respondents who were provided with PI leaflets, 66.7% of them read the information on the drug leaflets whilst the remaining 33.3% did not. Ultimately, 62.4% of those who read the PI leaflets were influenced to discontinue their medication. In conclusion, reading of the drug information leaflet was higher than that found in previous studies in Ghana. Reading the leaflet did not increase adherence but aroused anxiety and decreased adherence in some patients. A large number of the patients who were given the PI leaflets indicated that it did not provide them with the needed information.

The antimicrobial activity of 2-naphtholic and phenolic azo compounds was determined against seven microbial species, Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Streptococcus pyrogenes (clinical), and Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212), Salmonella typhi (clinical), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853), Escherichia coli (ATCC 251922), and Candida albicans (ATCC 10231), using the high-throughput spot culture growth inhibition assay (HT-SPOTi). The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were determined for the active azo dyes. All the azo compounds (A1–B4) were screened for anthelmintic activity against adult Ghanaian earthworms, Hyperiodrilus spp. As part of the systematic investigation for biological activity, all the azo compounds exhibited good antimicrobial activity against the seven human pathogenic microorganisms. All the compounds exhibited anthelminthic activity against adult Ghanaian earthworms, Hyperiodrilus spp.

A library of six novel phenylhydrazones were synthesized and evaluated for their in vitro antimicrobial and resistance modulating activity against a panel of Gram-positive, Gram-negative, and fungal species. The compounds were produced in good yields of 60–92% w/w and characterized using melting point, UV-visible spectroscopy, infrared, and nuclear magnetic resonance (1H, 13C, and DEPT-Q) techniques. Mass spectroscopy was used to confirm the identity of one of the most active compounds, 5 [SA5]. The phenylhydrazones showed activity against all the six selected microorganisms with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the most active compounds, 1 [BP1] and 5 [SA5], at 138 µM (Klebsiella pneumoniae) and 165 µM (Streptococcus pneumoniae), respectively. Compound 1 [BP1] further demonstrated a high resistance modulatory activity at 1.078 µM against Streptococcus pneumoniae and Klebsiella pneumoniae.

No abstract

We have a long-term vision to develop drug discovery research capacity within Ghana, to tackle unmet medical needs in Ghana and the wider West African region. However, there are several issues and challenges that need to be overcome to enable this vision, including training, human resource, equipment, infrastructure, procurement, and logistics. We discuss these challenges from the context of Ghana in this review. An important development is the universities and research centres within Ghana working together to address some of these challenges. Therefore, while there is a long way to go to fully accomplish our vision, there are encouraging signs.

There has been an increasing interest in the search for colour indicators of natural origin for titrimetric analysis. This is due to some challenges associated with the currently used synthetic ones. This study evaluates and validates the acid-base indicator property of plumbagin isolated from Plumbago zeylanica Linn. Plumbagin (5-hydroxy-2-methyl-1,4-naphthoquinone) was isolated from the roots of Plumbago zeylanica Linn using silica gel chromatography and characterized using spectroscopic methods in comparison with those reported in the literature. Its acid-base indicator property was evaluated alongside phenolphthalein and methyl orange, after it was found to exhibit a sharp change in colour at various pH ranges. The plumbagin indicator was successfully used to assay ibuprofen powder and tablets (400 mg) using the British Pharmacopoeia (2013) method. Data obtained were analyzed statistically by Student’s t-test and one-way ANOVA in GraphPad Prism (version 5.01, 2010). Analysis of the use of the plumbagin indicator in acid-base titrations between strong acids and strong bases and between weak acids and strong bases has been evaluated and validated according to the ICH guidelines. Plumbagin use in ibuprofen powder and tablets has also been verified. Plumbagin has been validated for use as an indicator suitable for different acid-base titrations and the analysis of ibuprofen.