Militaries are especially susceptible to operationally important outbreaks of acute respiratory infections such as pandemic and seasonal influenza. In addition, militaries play important roles for State Parties working to meet International Health Regulations 2005, particularly in developing countries. In 2009, the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 3 joined with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and the armed forces of Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Côte d'Ivoire to create or improve influenza surveillance capacities within the militaries. This article describes the process undertaken to achieve this goal. In the Ghana Armed Forces, influenza surveillance for outpatients was instituted at seven medical stations throughout the country and for inpatients at the tertiary referral hospital in Accra. As a result, military sites now contribute around half of the influenza cases detected in Ghana and reported weekly to the World Health Organization. Samples were also collected by the militaries of Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso, although political instability slowed progress. This effort is part of an ongoing strategy to build influenza surveillance capacity within West African militaries in support of military services, global outbreak investigations, International Health Regulations-2005, and the development of country-specific pandemic preparedness plans.
Prosopis africana (Guill. & Perr.) Taub. (Fabaceae) is used in the herbal medicine of Burkina Faso to treat dental caries. This study aims to contribute to the valorization of the said plant by investigating the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties of aqueous leaves and stems extracts.
The inhibitory activity on lipoxygenase was used to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect of the extracts. The antioxidant activity of bots extracts of the plant was assessed using DPPH radical scavenging, ABTS+ radical cation decolorization. The anti-biofilm effect of the extracts was evaluated on Streptococcus mutans ATCC 25175, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 43300, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAOI and the anti-Quorum sensing effect on Chromobacterium CV026.
Aqueous extracts of Prosopis africana stems show the highest content of phenolic compounds (30,04± 0,59 mgAGE/100 mg extract) while those of the leaves show the highest content of total flavonoids (3.29 ± 0.53 mgQE/100mg extract). The aqueous extract of stem bark show the strongest antioxidant activity ( IC50 = 4.58±0.07µg/ml for the ABTS) , a best Inhibitory action on activity of lipoxygenase (IC50 = 13.42 ± 1.26 μg/mL ), a highest anti-biofilm activity ( 63.6%; at the concentration of 100µg/ml) without affecting the bacterial growth. In addition, this extract has the strongest anti-quorum sensing activity with an percentage of inhibition 53,5%.
These findings suggested that the aqueous extracts of stem bark and leaves of Prosopis africana contain promoted phytomolecules to combat dental caries infections.
Keywords : Anti-biofilm, Anti-quorum sensing, Lipoxygenase, Prosopis africana
Aims: This study aims to evaluate the larvicidal activity of lyophilized methanolic extracts, hydromethanolic extracts and aqueous extracts of Vernonia cinerea Less against the 3 rd and 4 th instars larvae of Anopheles gambiae.
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