This communication was to share the efforts made in developing the fully online courses in medicinal chemistry during the educational disruption due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In the academic year 2020, the online course was implemented for the first time at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Silpakorn University, Thailand. Various online teaching strategies were integrated, raising the question of whether the developed online courses would deliver similar learning outcomes to the traditional classroom. At the end of each semester, the teaching assessment report was conducted and evaluated in 4 parts: part 1, evaluation of lecturer; part 2, student’s self-evaluation; part 3, learning outcome development after studying the course; part 4, appropriateness of class environment and equipment. Overall, student responses toward parts 1–3 in the online class were as satisfactory as those in the previous on-site class. Lower scores toward part 4 were observed in the online class. In addition, student performance in terms of grade distributions between the on-site and online classes was different. On-site students earned the highest proportion of A grades, whereas online students earned a higher proportion of B+’s to F’s. While the pandemic persists and the need for online courses remains, we hope that this communication will provide some educational insight and strategies to help in the ongoing efforts to adapt and establish more successful online courses.
Paramphistomosis is a parasitic disease that causes a reduction of livestock production and economic losses worldwide. In order to avoid side effect and chemical residue from usage of chemical drugs, medicinal plant is an alternative drug for treatment. Areaca nut (Areaca catechu) which one of the domestic plants in Southeast Asia had antihelmintic activity. In this study, arecoline, aqueous and methanolic extracts of areca nut prepared in solutions were tested for antihelmintic activity against rumen flukes (Paramphistomum sp.). The parasites were incubated in a culture media (RPMI-1640, pH 8) at 39°C in a carbon dioxide-incubator containing 0.01, 0.1 and 1 mg/mL of the tested compounds for 15, 30 min, 1 h and 24 h. The results showed that the methanolic and aqueous crude extracts from seeds of Areaca catechu and arecoline HBr at concentration of 1 mg/mL solutions could destroy the tegument (surface membrane) of the flukes and killed them all at initial time. Thus, these areca nut extracts exhibited the potential alternative medicine with antihelmintic activity against rumen flukes.
Polyphenols in methanolic extracts from Sonneratia caseolaris seeds were determined by HPLC coupled with electrospray mass spectrometry and quantified by HPLC coupled with ultraviolet/visible detection in order to evaluate their stability of the extracts during 6 months of storage. Antioxidant activity was measured by using TEAC assay, and the free radical scavenging activity was monitored in the initial 3 months of the stability evaluation. Study on the effect of temperature on the stability of the methanolic extract indicated that gallic acid, luteolin-7-O-glucoside, and luteolin were unstable at 25 and 45°C during storage time. At -80 and 4°C the quantities of luteolin-7-O-glucoside reduced while those of luteolin increased at the same time. The results suggested that luteolin-7-O-glucoside was hydrolyzed to luteolin. Therefore the polyphenols should be kept at low temperature. Antioxidant activity of methanolic extract was preserved in all temperatures during the first 3 months.
Bioavailability of orally administered drugs is regulated by P-gp, a member of the ATP binding cassette transporter families. It expresses at the apical surface of epithelial cells and effluxs out several clinically important drugs resulting in decreased absorption and bioavailability. In recent years, the utilization of bioenhancer to increase the bioavailability of drugs has extensively studied. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of the compounds found in Citrus hystrix as a bioenhancer for orally administered drugs by modulation of P-gp function. The modulation effects of fruit extracts and isolated pure compounds on P-gp were investigated by uptake assay of the P-gp substrate calcein-AM in Caco-2, LLC-PK1 and LLC-GA5-COL300 cell lines. The results show that the extract from the flavedo part remarkably increased calcein-AM uptake in Caco-2 and LLC-GA5-COL300 cell lines. Among five furanocoumarins identified, 6’,7’-epoxybergamottin, 6’,7’-dihydroxybergamottin and oxypeucedanin significantly enhanced calcein-AM uptake in LLC-GA5-COL300 in a concentration-dependent manner, indicating strongly inhibition effects on P-gp function. Taken together, 6’,7’-epoxybergamottin, 6’,7’-dihydroxybergamottin and oxypeucedanin could be employed as the potential intestinal bioenhancer to improve the bioavailability of P-gp substrate drugs. However, further studies including in vivo studies should be performed to confirm these findings.
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