In conclusion, the findings showed that the folk medicinal plant Cecropia pachystachya possesses hypoglycemic and antioxidant effects which confirmed the traditional use of the plant in the treatment of diabetes. Chlorogenic acid and the C-glycosylated flavonoids may explain these activities.

Caffeine is widely used, often consumed with food, and improves simple and complex/executive attention under fasting conditions. We investigated whether these cognitive effects are observed when personalized habitual doses of caffeine are ingested by caffeine consumers, whether they are influenced by nutriments and if various executive domains are susceptible to improvement. This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled study including 60 young, healthy, rested males randomly assigned to one of four treatments: placebo fasting, caffeine fasting, placebo meal and caffeine meal. Caffeine doses were individualized for each participant based on their self-reported caffeine consumption at the time of testing (morning). The test battery included measures of simple and sustained attention, executive domains (inhibiting, updating, shifting, dual tasking, planning and accessing long-term memory), control measures of subjective alterations, glucose and insulin levels, skin conductance, heart rate and pupil dilation. Regardless of meal intake, acute habitual doses of caffeine decreased fatigue, and improved simple and sustained attention and executive updating. This executive effect was not secondary to the habitual weekly dose consumed, changes in simple and sustained attention, mood, meal ingestion and increases in cognitive effort. We conclude that the morning caffeine "fix" has positive attentional effects and selectively improved executive updating whether or not caffeine is consumed with food.

Divulgação"O que vêm da terra não faz mal" -relatos de problemas relacionados ao uso de plantas medicinais por raizeiros de Diadema/SP Unitermos: Reações adversas, intoxicações, plantas medicinais, fitofarmacovigilância, entrevistas semi-estruturadas.ABSTRACT: "Natural and therefore free of risks" -adverse effects, poisonings and other problems related to medicinal herbs by "raizeiros" in Diadema/SP". Traditionally, medicinal herbs have been considered gentle and harmless because of their natural origin: "natural and therefore free of risks". However, toxic potential, various consumer-related factors (such as age, disease factors, pregnancy, etc), contamination, and lack of regulation concerning quality control are some of the risk factors deemed to be associated with herbal adverse reactions, poisonings and other complications. Over a 7-month period, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 "raizeiros" (traditional healers) in Diadema/SP. We found 40 unexpected events related to 22 species of medicinal herbs. The most frequent species reported were Luffa operculata -"buchinha" (7 reports), Senna alexandrina -"sene" (4 reports) and Paullinia cupana -"guaraná" (3 reports). Among the adverse events, the most frequent signs and symptoms reported involved the central nervous, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular systems. They also reported one case of abortion (related with S. alexandrina) and three deaths related with L. operculata. Adverse events that result from "natural" medicines are relatively uncommon, but they certainly occur more often than acknowledged. Medicinal plants are traditionally considered as innocuous, but as commercially available medicinal products they require sanitary surveillance in order to identify their risks, to give them a legal status, to evaluate their efficacy and to ascertain their safety.

Abstract:Medicinal plants (MP) have been used world-wide for the treatment or prevention of health conditions and due to their natural origin; they have been historically considered harmless. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with an intentional sample of twenty plant vendors in the city of Diadema to explore their knowledge and beliefs on the safety and efficacy of MP. Different levels of perceptions about the safety of MP were found, varying from "completely safe" to "completely harmful". The majority of the interviewees declared that "if herbs have an effect, they are also likely to have a side effect", depending on many factors such as dosage, concomitant use of other drugs, characteristics of the plant material and consumer related factors, specially those related to pregnant women, children and elderly people. Thirty-nine unexpected events related to 21 species of MP were reported. One case of serious gastrointestinal disease related to the consumption of a contaminated "slim mixture" was also described. Adverse events and other problems that result from MP are relatively uncommon, but they are almost certainly underreported and occur more often than acknowledged. This study strengthens the call for further research and educational efforts into this complex area.