AIM:To evaluate the impact of pharmaceutical care on the clinical outcomes of patients enrolled in a pharmacist-coordinated diabetes management program in a rural health setup.SETTINGS AND DESIGN:Patients were registered into ‘control’ and ‘intervention’ groups by randomization at three primary health centers. The study was an open-label parallel study.MATERIALS AND METHODS:Medical records were prospectively reviewed. Capillary blood glucose level, blood pressure and demographic data were collected at baseline and at the follow-up visits. Pharmacists gave counseling to the intervention group during every visit and their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed with the Ferrans and Powers questionnaire.STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:Single factor ANOVA and the t-test were used to compare the results using SPSS version 0.9 software and MS Excel worksheets.RESULTS:The intervention group (n = 104) showed well-controlled BMI, whereas the control group (n = 50) showed significant increase in the BMI. Mean blood glucose level in the intervention group reduced to 25 units from baseline (P = 0.0001) but was significantly increased in the control group (P = 0.0001). ANOVA showed that from the second follow-up onward there was significant decrease in blood glucose levels. Overall, the HRQoL scores increased by 45% in the intervention group and decreased by 2% in the control group.CONCLUSIONS:The pharmaceutical care program was effective in improving the clinical outcome and HRQoL of diabetes patients in rural India. Such ‘pharmaceutical care’ models should be fine-tuned and implemented widely.

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Present work was carried out with a view to develop chemical fingerprints to differentiate the herbal drugs Taxus baccata L. and Abies webbiana (Wall ex D. Don) Lindl. Both the plants are commonly called as Talisapatra in India and having different medicinal applications. T. baccata is native to Europe and A. webbiana is found in India and also used in traditional medicine. Dried leaves of both the plant are morphologically similar and in powdered form it is very difficult to differentiate them and hence there are chances for adulteration and also misuse of the herbs. In this project phytochemical, spectroscopic (UV-Visible, FT-IR and NMR) and chromatographic techniques (HPTLC and HPLC) were applied to obtain the chemical fingerprints of selected herbs. A. webbiana contained higher level of total phenolic compounds (6301.27 mg GAE / 100 g) when compared to T. baccata (977.45 mg GAE / 100 g). UV-Visible absorbance at 577 and 663 nm are unique for T. baccata. FT-IR peaks at 3403, 1030 and 577 cm-1 were unique for T. baccata while A. webbiana exhibited unique peak at 3371, 1059 and 613 cm-1 . NMR signals revealed remarkable difference between chloroform extracts of T. baccata from A. webbiana. HPTLC profile exhibited unique bands with Rf value of 0.11, 0.25, 0.62, 0.68, 0.91 and 097 for T. baccata and A. webbiana exhibited unique spots with Rf value of 0.05, 0.27, 0.38, 0.44, 0.65, 0.72 and 0.93. Unique HPLC peaks for T. baccata were 2.07, 2.28, 4.86, 5.08, 5.97 and 6.86 min whereas A. webbiana revealed unique peaks at 1.90, 2.00 International Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemical Researchand 4.52 min. Chemical fingerprint results obtained from the present work would be useful in differentiating T. baccata from A. webbiana.

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