Introduction. Worldwide, in children of under five years of age, diarrhea is responsible for more than 760,000 annual deaths. It is treated with both modern drugs and traditional medicinal plants, including O. lamiifolium. But the use of this plant as an antidiarrheal agent is not scientifically validated. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluate antidiarrheal efficacy of the plant. Method. The leaf powder was macerated by 80% methanol and then fractionated using n-hexane, n-butanol, and distilled water. Antidiarrheal activity was evaluated through different models (castor oil-induced diarrhea, enteropooling, and motility) using onset, number of wet feces, fluid content, weight and volume of intestinal content, and motility as test parameters by administering treatment doses to groups of mice. Group I received 10 mL/kg of the dissolving vehicle, Group II received either loperamide or atropine, and Groups III-V received extract doses of 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg, respectively. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze the data, followed by Tukey’s post-hoc test. Results. The crude extract exhibited a significant effect on the fluid content of feces at all tested doses. Additionally, the n-butanol and distilled water fractions revealed significant effects on onset of diarrhea at 400 mg/kg ( p < 0.05 ), while the n-hexane fraction showed significant effects on number of wet feces, onset, and fluid content of feces at all tried doses. The crude extract and all the fractions (at 200 and 400 mg/kg) decreased the weight and volume of intestinal content significantly. Similarly, both the crude extract and distilled water fraction at 400 mg/kg as well as n-butanol and n-hexane fractions at 200 and 400 mg/kg showed meaningful differences on peristaltic index as compared to the negative control. Conclusion. The results revealed that the leaf extract of O. lamiifolium has an antidiarrheal activity, which supports the traditional medical practice.

Veterinary drugs are pharmacologically and biologically active chemical agents. At present, veterinary drugs are extensively used to prevent and treat animal diseases, to promote animal growth, and to improve the conversion rate of feed. However, the use of veterinary drugs in food-producing animals may leave residues of the parent compounds and/or their metabolites in food products resulting in harmful effects on humans. To ensure food safety, sensitive and effective analytical methods have been developing rapidly. This review describes sample extraction and cleanup methods, and different analytical techniques are used for the determination of veterinary drug residues in milk and meat. Sample extraction methods, such as solvent extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, and cleanup methods such as dispersive solid-phase extraction and immunoaffinity chromatography, were summarized. Different types of analytical methods such as microbial, immunological, biosensor, thin layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, and liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry were discussed for the analysis of veterinary drug residues in animal-derived foods. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry is the most widely used analytical technique for the determination of antibiotic drug residues. This is due to the powerful separation of LC and accurate identification of MS, and LC-MS/MS is more popular in the analysis of veterinary drug residues.

Background: Inappropriate use of narcotic drugs is a growing worldwide health challenge. The problem is even worse in Sub-Saharan Africa where organized supply chain regulations on dispensing and stock management are poor for controlling these global challenges. Methods: A mixed method, descriptive cross-sectional and simulated client study design was used from September 10, 2020 to November 26, 2020 to assess the extent of utilization and compliance of narcotic drug dispensing in private pharmacy retail outlets of Gondar and Bahir Dar town of Amhara region, Ethiopia. A total of 107 private pharmacy outlets were on duty. But in simulated study, purposive sampling is a method that prioritizes study units having the data of interest. Results: A total of 107 private pharmacy retails outlets were included in the survey. The average compliance to the controlled prescription regulation of Ethiopia in all pharmacy outlets (107) of the five drugs were calculated and found to be poor, 23.9% (SD = 18.3%). Compliance to strong narcotics is extremely low, 3.3 % for pethidine and 8% for morphine. Religion of the professionals has significant association with compliance to the prescription of narcotic drugs (p < .001). Discussion: In the era of narcotic epidemics, as a result of growing global inappropriate use of controlled drugs, the finding of this study gives an insight for a serious and strict regulation in managing and controlling the overall distribution of the narcotic drugs. Conclusions: The compliance of the private retail pharmacies of Ethiopia to the regulation of controlled drugs is low.

Background. Malarial infection has significant negative impact on the health of the world population. It is treated by modern and traditional medicines. Among traditional medicinal plants, Acacia tortilis is used by different communities as antimalarial agent. Therefore, the objective of this study is to validate antimalarial activity of the stem bark of Acacia tortilis in mice. Methods. To evaluate antimalarial activity of the plant, 4-day suppressive, curative, and prophylactic antimalarial test models were used. Parasitemia, packed cell volume (PCV), survival time, rectal temperature, and body weight were used to evaluate the effect of the plant extracts. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 followed by Tukey’s post hoc multiple comparison test. Results. The crude extract and dichloromethane fraction significantly suppressed the level of parasitemia ( p < 0.001 ) and increased mean survival time ( p < 0.01 ) at all tested doses. Similarly, significant effects were observed in mean survival time, % change of PCV, weight, and temperature in both curative and prophylactic antimalarial test models. Conclusions. The methanolic extract and solvent fractions of the stem bark of Acacia tortilis has shown antimalarial activity, and the finding supports the traditional use and the in vitro studies. Thus, this study can be used as an initiation for researchers to find the most active phytochemical entity and to conduct additional safety and efficacy tests.

Veterinary antibiotics are used in livestock production for control of animal diseases and as growth promoter. The repeated application of veterinary drugs for animals may result the occurrence of residues at various concentration levels in animal derived food products. Veterinary antibiotic residue is defined as small amounts of antibiotics, or its active metabolites which persists in animal derived food products after applying it in animals for different purposes. In particular antibiotic residues occur due to extensive application of antibiotics in veterinary services produce complications not only in dairy and meat industry but also have extensive public health consequences. Deleterious effects of drug residues residing in animal derived food products may induce carcinogenic and mutagenic effects and leads to the condition of antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial allergy in the individuals who consume animal derived food products. Accordingly, it is important to effectively control antibiotic residues in animal derived food products. For that reason, regulatory authorities have enacted maximum residue limits (MRLs) for a number of veterinary drugs in different animal derived food products (milk, eggs and meat). Performing effective monitoring program requires specific, sensitive and reliable analytical methods that can identify all veterinary drug residues under regulated levels (MRL).

BackgroundThe lipid-lowering medications known as statins have been shown in controlled clinical trials to have pleiotropic properties, such as lowering blood pressure, in addition to lowering cholesterol levels. The purpose of this study was to see if there was a possible link between blood pressure control and statin therapy in outpatients with hypertension in a real clinical setting.Patients and methodsA retrospective comparative cohort study of 404 patients with hypertension was carried out. A systematic random sampling technique was used. For data entry, Epi-Data version 4.6 was used, and SPSS version 25 was used for further analysis. For group comparisons, chi-square and independent t-tests were computed. To determine the relationship between statin use and blood pressure control, a binary logistic regression model was employed. To declare statistical significance, a 95% confidence interval and a P-value of &lt;0.05 were used.ResultsHalf of the study participants who were using a prescribed statin were assigned to the statin group, whereas the remaining participants who do not take statins were assigned to the control group. After 3 months of statin treatment, BP control to &lt;130/80 mmHg was significantly greater (P = 0.022) in the statin group (52.5%) than in the control group (41.0%). The use of statins raises the likelihood of having blood pressure under control by 1.58 times when compared to statin non-users. After controlling for possible confounders, statin therapy still increased the odds of having controlled BP by a factor of 5.98 [OR = 5.98; 95% CI: 2.77–12.92].ConclusionThis study revealed that blood pressure control was higher among statin user hypertensive patients. Favorable effects of statin use were independently observed, even after correction for age, presence of dyslipidemia, and duration of antihypertensive therapy. Therefore, the importance of concomitantly added lipid-lowering drugs such as statins and their role in managing poor blood pressure control should be given due emphasis.

Background Clinically, chemotherapy induced neutropenia, febrile neutropenia, thrombocytopenia and anemia were the common toxicities among breast cancer patients treated with doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel regimen. Those toxicities may lead to chemotherapy dose modification, delay and discontinuation that may substantially compromise therapeutic outcomes. Objective To assess hematologic toxicities and its determinants among breast cancer patients treated with doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel regimen in cancer centers, Northwest Ethiopia. Method Retrospective cohort study design was used to collect data among 422 breast cancer patients from Felege-Hiwot Comprehesnsive and Specialized Hospital and University Of Gondar Comprehensive and Specialized Hospital using a structured data abstraction format by employing systematic random sampling technique. The collected data were entered into EPI-data version 3.1 and analysed using IBM SPSS version 26. Association between dependent and independent variables was determined by using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis where p < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results Among the study participants, more than half (76.1%) and (51.4%) patients had ductal type histology and stage III cancer, respectively, and almost all (98.9%) breast cancer patients performed modified radical mastectomy. Besides, nearly half of patients (46%) had poor ECOG PS. In the current study, the occurrence of neutropenia, anemia, thrombocytopenia and febrile neutropenia were 61.8%, 44.1%, 16.4% and 10%, respectively. Significant association with neutropenia was seen in patients; age ≥ 43years [AOR = 1.68, 95%CI (1.13,2.52)] and rular residency [AOR = 1.76,95%CI (1.16,2.67)]. Whereas stage III and IV cancer [AOR = 2.40,95%CI (1.17,4.94)] was significantly associated with febrile neutropenia. Furthermore, association with anemia was also seen in patients with mixed type histology [AOR = 4.71, 95%CI (1.43,15.53)], lobular type histology [AOR = 0.51,95%CI (0.29,0.87)], stage III and IV cancer [AOR = 1.73,95%CI (1.14,2.63) and disease comorbidity [AOR = 2.11,95%CI (1.04,4.30)]. Likewise, rular residency [AOR = 1.72,95%CI (1.01,2.91)], age ≥ 43years [AOR = 1.75,95%CI (1.02,3.02)] and stage III and IV cancer [AOR = 2.13,95%CI (1.22,3.74) were significantly associated with thrombocytopenia. Conclusion The magnitude of hematologic toxicities in patients treated with doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel was high in the study setting. Age, rular residence, stage of cancer, disease comorbidity, mixed and lobular type histology were factors associated with chemotherapy induced hematologic toxicities.