Aloe vera is a well-known medicinal plant used in many therapeutic purposes. Naturally it is composed of many useful compounds that have ability to use for treatment of many diseases. The active compounds reported in this plant are saponins, sugar, enzymes, vitamins, aloesin, aloeemodin, aloin, acemannan aloemannan, aloeride, methylchromones, flavonoids, naftoquinones, sterols, minerals, anthraquinones, amino acids, lignin and salicylic acid and other different compounds including fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, enzymes, minerals, simple/complex sugars, organic acid and phenolic compounds. In this study aloe vera is used for antibacterial and antifulgal activity against different strains of bacteria and pathogenic fungal strains. Ethanol extract of Aloe vera leaves and roots is applied on these bacterial and fungal strains in different concentrations (15, 20, 25, 30µl). Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtitis, Bacillus megaterium, Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and some other bacterial strains are used for this study. Escherichia coli and Agrobacterium tumefacins shows zone of inhibition around 18mm which consider as good result. Bacillus subtitis and Bacillus megaterium also shows good result around 16mm. Proteus mirabilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa shows minimum zone of inhibition which is around 11mm. among all used fungal strains (fuserium oxysporum, Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger) fuserium oxysporum and Aspergillus niger shows excellent results around 19mm both against root extract and leaves extract.

Garlic (Allium sativum L.) has medicinal value but also an important dietary component for centuries. It belongs to the family of Liliaceae, which is mostly grown and found in Ethiopia and Africa. Ethiopian garlic has been mostly used in traditional medicines. Inhibitory activity of garlic extract has been reported by various researchers for Lactobacillus acidophilus, Staphyloccocus aureus, Nocardia asteroids, pseudomonas aeruginosa, actinomyces viscosus, veillonella alcaligens bacterial strains. The garlic paste and lime was used for mouth sore, sore throat and also can be used in toothpaste to prevent dental caries. The present review describes the potential of garlic phytochemicals for the improvement of the immune system against diseases in humans.

The field of biotechnology has extraordinary influence on science, law, the administrative condition social insurance, and business throughout the world. As the starting of agriculture, people have been manipulating crops to improve the yield and quantity. Product yields throughout the world are essentially diminished by the activity of herbivorous insects, pathogens, and parasites. Natural environmental stresses make this circumstance significantly worse. Biotechnology can be used to increase the yield of food crops, to improve biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, to modify the traits of the plant (e.g. oil content, percentage of lignin, cell structure), to make the conversion to liquid biofuels more efficient. Various genes have been discovered for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. The genes discovered for biotic stress are aryloxyalkanoate, dioxygenase, enzymes (aad-1), nitrilase, Cry1Ac, Cry2AB, GTgene, AFP (anti-freezing protein gene) gene, Chitinase II and III gene, and Rps1-k. The genes discovered for abiotic stress are SgNCED1, SgNCED1, USP2, HSP70, BADH, and ALO, PVNCED1, HVA1, LeNCED1. CRISPRs (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) are the short DNA sequences present in bacteria and archaeal genomes which are now currently used by researchers to edit the genome. In different plant species (calli, leaf discs) protoplasts have been successfully used to edit their genome through CRISPR/Cas9 system. The aims of the applications are to increase resistance to abiotic or biotic stress, to engineer metabolic pathways, and to increase grain yield. Incorporation of modern biotechnology, with regular traditional practices in a sustainable way, can fulfill the objective of achieving food security for the present and as well as in future.

Gastrointestinal, skin, pulmonary and cardiovascular problems have been reported all over the world on massive scale. The treatment of these problems has become tough due to genetically modified bacterial strains and fungal infections. The present studied was conducted to evaluate the antimicrobial activities of Citrullus colocynthis plant extract. The ethanolic extract of dried fruit pulp, seed, and root was evaluated with respect to anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. The anti-microbial profile studied against four bacterial strains (2 Gram negative and 2 Gram positive) while anti-fungal profile studied against four fungal species. All the bacterial and fungal strains used in the study showed sensitivities against the respective extracts. The zones of inhibition ranged between 7 mm to 23 mm, and 6 mm to 23 mm in against bacterial and fungal strains, respectively. The extract of seed found to be less effective against both the organisms. It was suggested from our study that the extract of Citrullus colocynthis may be used in medicines to cure bacterial diseases.

Background: A recent COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large death toll rate globally and even no cure or vaccine has been successfully employed to combat this disease. Patients have been reported with multi-organ dysfunction along with acute respiratory distress syndrome which implies a critical situation for patients and made them difficult to breathe and survive. Moreover, pathology of COVID-19 is also related to cytokine storm which indicates the elevated levels of interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-12, and IL-18 along with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. Among them, the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 has been reported to be induced via binding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS)-CoV-2 to the host receptors. Methodology: Interleukin-6 blockade has been proposed to constitute novel therapeutics against COVID-19. Thus, in this study, 15 phytocompounds with known antiviral activity have been subjected to test for their inhibitory effect on IL-6. Based on the affinity prediction, top 3 compounds (isoorientin, lupeol, and andrographolide) with best scores were selected for 50 ns molecular dynamics simulation and MMGB/PBSA binding free energy analysis. Results: Three phytocompounds including isoorientin, lupeol, and andrographolide have shown strong interactions with the targeted protein IL-6 with least binding energies (−7.1 to −7.7 kcal/mol). Drug-likeness and ADMET profiles of prioritized phytocompounds are also very prominsing and can be further tested to be potential IL-6 blockers and thus benficial for COVID-19 treatment. The moelcular dynamics simulation couple with MMGB/PBSA binding free energy estimation validated conformational stability of the ligands and stronger intermolecular binding. The mean RMSD of the complexes is as: IL6-isoorientin complex (3.97 Å ± 0.77), IL6-lupeol (3.97 Å ± 0.76), and IL6-andrographolide complex (3.96 Å ± 0.77). In addition, the stability observation was affirmed by compounds mean RMSD: isoorientin (0.72 Å ± 0.32), lupeol (mean 0.38 Å ± 0.08), and andrographolide (1.09 Å ± 0.49). A similar strong agreement on systems stability was unraveled by MMGB/PBSA that found net binding net ~ −20 kcal/mol for the complexes dominated by van der Waal interaction energy. Conclusion: It has been predicted that proposing potential IL-6 inhibitors with less side effects can help critical COVID-19 patients because it may control the cytokine storm, a major responsible factor of its pathogenesis. In this study, 3 potential phytocompounds have been proposed to have inhibitory effect on IL-6 that can be tested as potential therapeutic options against SARS-CoV-2.

The introduction of anti-emetic guidelines succeeded in standardizing CINV management, toward an evidence-based approach.

During the novel coronavirus pandemic, also known as SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 pandemic, frontline healthcare professionals suffered psychological as well as pathological trauma due to the lack of preparation to cope with this unforeseen situation. The protocols to prevent the spread of this disease proved to be less effective than anticipated. In these circumstances, improvement of the existing triage system was felt and an AUDIO-VISUAL TRIAGE (AVT) system was introduced to enhance confidence as well as increase the safety of frontline healthcare professionals. The current analysis was performed from March 21, 2020, to April 28, 2020, until the completion of sixty response forms, at Bahria Town International Hospital, Lahore. Thirty participants (Group A) deployed on visual triage and other thirty (Group B) on AVT for screening suspected cases of COVID-19 infection. Anxiety levels were measured by using the GAD-7 scoring system and the participants of both groups were periodically tested for COVID-19 infection by PCR. Independent t-test was used to evaluate the significance of different variables at a confidence level of 95%. The result of the current study revealed the effectiveness of AVT for the screening of COVID-19 patients. There was a statistically significant increase in anxiety levels and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection rate in group A as compared to group B. Almost all participants in group A wanted to shift their place of work or ready to quit the job if they were forced to perform their duties at the same visual triage. AVT system for COVID-19 screening found to be more safe and less stressful than visual triage. It is not only a simple and effective way to prevent the spread of diseases but also boosted the confidence of frontline healthcare professionals to fight against coronavirus spread.

Self-medication with antibiotics is a most rapidly emerging problem especially in developing countries like Pakistan. Antibiotics are easily accessible to the general public without consulting any practitioner even without prescriptions. So there are many risks linked to the inappropriate use of antibiotics. The main aim of this study was to assess the wrong practice of self-medication in public sector universities of southern Punjab. The current study also compares the self-medication practices in various departments of universities. A validated questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data and inferential statistics (chi-square test). The study was included data from 900 students including both males and females from various departments. Among 900 students, 450 students of medical while 450 were non-medical students. Frequency of self-medication was found to 57 %. The antibiotics more frequently use for self-medication were Augmentin (37 %), Amoxicillin (23 %). Fever and cough were the most frequent indication for the use of self-medicated antibiotics. Because of their sufficient knowledge of pharmacology, most students were self-medicated (40%). Academic knowledge is the principal source of antibiotic information (60%). Just (39%) of the students thought that self-medication is part of the self-core, 31% of the students perceived that the availability of non-prescription drugs could prevent the growing trend of self-medication with antibiotics. 30% of students perceived that antibiotics were aware of the harms of self-medication or informed about them. Based on this study, it can be concluded that a high proportion of medical students and non-medical students use antibiotics without medical prescription and such practices are more common in the general public sector.