In the present study, antioxidant potential of the methanol extract of the leaves of Mimusops elengi Linn. was evaluated by using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging assay, reducing power and total antioxidant capacity. The extract showed significant activities in all antioxidant assays compared to the reference antioxidant ascorbic acid in a dose dependent manner. In DPPH scavenging assay the IC50 value of the extract was found to be 43.26µg/ml while the IC50 value of the reference standard ascorbic acid was 58.92 µg/ml. Total antioxidant activity was also found to increase in a dose dependent manner. Moreover, M. elengi extract showed strong reducing power. These results suggest that Mimusops elengi may act as a chemopreventative agent, providing antioxidant properties and offering effective protection from free radicals.

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This study is aimed to estimate general knowledge and awareness of patients regarding use of antibiotics to find out possible reasons of irrational use of antibiotics in Bangladesh. It was a questionnaire based crosssectional health survey conducted on 350 subjects aged 18 or over who came to get service at three tertiary healthcare centers named Dhaka Medical College (DMC) Hospital, Sir Salimullah Medical College (SSMC) Mitford Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was found from the study that the general knowledge of the patients about the indication of antibiotics was very poor. Majority of the patients did not know the appropriate use of antibiotics. Only 26% respondents answered correctly that antibiotics are indicated for bacterial infections. In addition, 38.97% of them also did not know that an antibiotic is a prescription drug and should not be used without doctor's prescription. The awareness about the patients towards use of antibiotics was also poor. A very high percentage of the patients (51.71%) answered that they do not complete the full course of therapy. Surprisingly, 39.14% of the patients replied that they stop antibiotics when the symptoms disappear and remarkably 14.29% just make the dose double if they forget to take due dose. On the other hand, 28.86% of the patients said that they do not maintain dosing schedule during the course of therapy. Moreover, prevalence of self-medication with antibiotics in cold and fever was also extremely high (60.86%). This study indicates that there is an urgent need of health education for the community to increase knowledge and awareness about use of antibiotics to decrease the self-medication and inappropriate use of antibiotics.

SUMMARYThe methanol extract of Dillenia indica was tested for antioxidant activity as determined by free radical scavenging of DPPH radical scavenging assay, reducing power, total antioxidant capacity measured by phosphomolybdenum method, total phenolic content and total flavonoids content determination assays. The extract showed significant activities in all antioxidant assays compared to the standard antioxidant in a dose dependent manner. In DPPH radical scavenging assay the IC 5 0 value of the extract was found to be 100.53 µg/ml while ascorbic acid has the IC 5 0 value 58.92 µg/ml. Dillenia indica extract showed strong reducing power and total antioxidant capacity. Moreover, methanol extracts also possess high amount of phenolics and flavovonoids and expressed as gallic acid and rutin equivalent respectively. The remarkable activities exhibited in reactive oxygen species scavenging may attributed to the high amount of hydrophilic phenolics present in Dillenia indica.

The present study was carried out to evaluate hypoglycemic and in vitro antioxidant activity of ethanolic extracts of Ficus racemosa Linn. Fruits (EEFR). Antidiabetic potential of the plant extracts was evaluated by oral administration at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg on alloxan induced Swiss albino mice and in vitro antioxidant potential was investigated by using 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity and total antioxidant capacity. Glucose tolerance test reveals that the extract at the doses of 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/Kg, showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) of fasting blood glucose level after 3 hours of extract administration when compared to normal control. After prolonged study of 14 days, blood glucose level reduced at the significant level (p<0.05) as compared with alloxan induced diabetic control mice. At a dose of 100 mg/kg body weight, the extract significantly lowered blood glucose level and showed maximum reduction of 33.85% on day 14. The extract, at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight produced maximum reduction of 41.91% on day 14 whereas inhibition of 45.49% was found for metformin on day 14. In antioxidant study, the extract showed significant activities in both of the antioxidant assays as compared to ascorbic acid in a dose dependent manner. In DPPH scavenging assay, the IC 50 value of the extract was found to be 140.55 µg/ml while the IC 50 value of ascorbic acid was 58.92 µg/ml. This study suggests that EEFR has both hypoglycaemic and antioxidant potential.

Tinospora cordifolia Miers. is used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for the treatment of jaundice, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, and is also used as memory enhancer. But still there is no report of analgesic and neuropharmacological activities of the plant. For this reason, the present study was designed to evaluate analgesic and neuropharmacological activities of methanol extract of the aerial parts of Tinospora cordifolia. Analgesic activity of the crude extract at the dose of 200 and 400 mg/kg b.w. was evaluated for its central and peripheral pharmacological actions using hotplate and tail flick tests and acetic acid-induced writhing test respectively in mice. The extract produced a significant (p < 0.05-0.001) increase in pain threshold in hotplate and tail flick tests in a dose dependent manner. In acetic acid-induced writhing test the extract at both doses produced significant (p < 0.001) inhibition of writhing reaction but maximum inhibition (65.01%) of writhing was found at 400 mg/kg dose compared to the reference drug Diclofenac-Na at the dose of 10 mg/kg b.w. (77.07%). Neuropharmacological activity of the extract was also evaluated using rodent behabioural models; hole cross to evaluate motor activity, open field to evaluate exploratory behaviour and thiopental sodium-induced sleeping time to evaluate sedative potential of the extract. The extract significantly (p < 0.05-0.001) decreased motor activity and exploratory behavior of mice in hole cross and open field test respectively. The extract also produced rapid onset and maximized the duration of sleeping time when administered with thiopental sodium. Results of this study suggest that the aerial part of T. cordifolia possesses significant analgesic and CNS depressant activity.

The ethanol leaf extracts of four medicinal plants named Hibiscus mutabilis, Leucas aspera, Ixora coccinea and Polyalthia longifolia were examined for their possible regulatory effect on nitric oxide (NO) levels using sodium nitroprusside as a NO donor in vitro. Most of the extracts tested demonstrated direct scavenging of NO and exhibited significant activity and the potency of scavenging activity was in the following order: Leucas aspera > Ixora coccinea > Hibiscus mutabilis> Polyalthia longifolia. All the evaluated extracts exhibited a dose-dependent NO scavenging activity. The ethanolic leaf extract of Leucas aspera showed the greatest NO scavenging effect of 80.50% at 320 µg/ml with IC50 value of 94.15 µg/ml as compared to the positive control ascorbic acid where 74.56 % scavenging was observed at similar concentration with IC50 value of 62.48 µg/mL. The maximum NO scavenging of Ixora coccinea, Hibiscus mutabilis and Polyalthia longifolia were 79.65 %, 78.60% and 70.67 % with IC50 values of 43.72 µg/ml, 147.64 µg/ml and 167.08 µg/ml respectively. The present results suggest that these plants might be potent and novel therapeutic agents for scavenging of NO and the regulation of pathological conditions caused by excessive generation of NO and its oxidation product.