Trends in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Volume:2 Issue: 3, Sep 2016

Microbial contamination of pharmaceutical products constitutes a great concern for stakeholders and professionals in the field. Special attention is brought to multidose medicinal products with considerable water activities (aw). Such pharmaceutical products are prone to microbial spoilage with serious consequences on patients’ health and even their lives. The current investigation aimed to study new approach in the risk assessment of the contamination of oral antiseptic mouthwash in a quantitative manner using dose-response model of microbial infection. The present study combines both preservative efficacy test (PET) results with specific dose-response model of indicator bacteria. The risk was assessed at its maximum level using the worst case scenario of repeated contamination of the medicine bottle with each use. The indicator microbe selected was Escherichia coli with two models: exponential and beta Poisson based on antimicrobial efficacy test (AET) results. The mouthwash met the acceptance criteria of USP PET, with notably strong effect on bacteria and yeast (not recovered from culture media) at any testing points (14 and 28 days). On the other hand, Aspergillus brasiliensis showed significant reduction after 28 days only. The current investigation showed that repeated product contamination with each use increased the risk of infection and different contaminating varies of the same microbial species constituted various hazard levels, although the antimicrobial properties of the product were sufficiently strong against the dedicated microbe (>3.00 log reduction (LR)). The current study provided new insight for the conventional pharmacopeial AET and demonstrated the limitation of it.

Global rising trends for natural products consumption, establishing traditional medicines, vast propagation, and simple access to legal or illegal natural medications have encountered health systems with a disastrous tsunami, which was not fully predicted and programmed for throughout medical education.

Traditional Iranian Pharmacy (TIP) is a rarity which has not been introduced to the world. In fact, this branch of pharmacy can benefit Iranians and all people right across the world. It is a new field in Iran, on which a lot of research has not been done. In other words, this field suffers from scarcity of research. This paper tries to analyze the current situation of TIP in Iran by using the SWOT framework so as to come up with strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats which are associated with this field at the moment. It is believed that this new field has a lot of potentials which can benefit the health care system substantially. Moreover, it can help the economy to a great extent if the schemes and strategies presented by TIP are taken into consideration.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate Intensive Care Unit nurses’ knowledge, attitude, self-reported practice, and observed practice regarding medication administration via enteral feeding tube.in this cross sectional study, a questionnaire and a checklist was developed for evaluating the nurses' knowledge, attitude, self-reported practice and real practice regarding medication administration via enteral feeding tube. Mean score of knowledge, and the percentage of different domains of attitude and practice was reported. 53 nurses were included in this study. The mean number of medications which were prescribed for each patient was 15.8±4.5. From these medications, 5.5±2.8 drugs were administered via enteral feeding tube. There were few nurses (5%) with proper knowledge regarding correct dosage forms selection. About half of the nurses had proper knowledge regarding tube flushing and drug dilution,however according to direct researcher’s observation, 11% of nurses flushed the tubes before medication administration.The current study showed the disparity between the nurses' knowledge, self-reported practice, and proper performance in drug administration through enteral feeding tube. The most important problems in knowledge and attitude of nurses included crushing the dosage forms and in real practice in diluting medications and tube flushes domain.

4-Coumarate CoA ligase (4CL) is one of the key enzymes in the phenylpropanoid pathway which converts cinnamic acid derivatives to active thioesters. Active thioesters are precursors of a vast number of secondary metabolites. Salvia macrosiphon as a valuable medicinal plant grows in Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan. This plant produces pharmacologically active metabolites including rosmarinic acid, flavonoids (apigenin, luteolin), sesquiterpenes and coumarins. Identification of genes encoding 4cl provides the opportunity to manipulate the biosynthetic pathways and mediate the carbon flux toward the corresponding metabolites. Mature wild type S. macrosiphon plants were collected in flowering and seed-bearing stages. In vitro cultures of S. macrosiphon were established on Murashige & Skoog (1/2 MS) medium. To increase the possibility of finding 4cl isoforms in the transcriptome, cultures were elicited by chitosan. Since the genomic sequence of S. macrosiphon was not available, degenerate and CODEHOP primers were designed based on the identified 4CL protein sequences. Using the CODEHOP primers two isoforms of putative 4cl genes have been identified in all organs of the wild type plant. Degenerate primers could only amplify the same genes from roots and seed-containing capsules. This might be due to a higher expression level of the genes in these organs. No 4cl isoform have been detected from cultures which might be due to the lower abundance of the transcript at early stages of in vitro plantlets. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the two isoforms of 4cl genes from S. macrosiphon and Salvia miltiorrhiza have been evolved from a common ancestor.

Commiphora mukul (Hook. ex Stocks) Engl. (from the family Burseraceae) is well known the clinical applications of related gummy compositions. The gum possesses many pharmacological activities such as antiseptic, astringent, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. To outline a frame from chemical compositions of this medicament, current study has evaluated the essential oil extracted from different C. mukul gum samples found in medicinal plants markets in Iran. Five different Samples were purchased from medicinal plants market in Shiraz and were coarsely milled and subjected to a Clevenger-based hydrodistillation. Subsequently GC/MS analysis was performed for each sample by means of a gas chromatograph (Agilent Technologies 7890) coupled with a mass detector (Agilent Technologies model 5975C). Identification of the constituents was performed based on a comparison of their mass spectra with Willey (nl7) and Adams libraries spectra, as well as with those reported in literatures. The yield of extracted colorless but turbid essential oil from those samples was calculated at the range of 0.5-1% (V/W). Totally, 41 different components were identified for those collected samples. Major constituent (more than 5%) found in all samples was Alpha-Cadinol (7.25-14.49%). Results of the current procedure can be considered as a reference for the analysis and control of different C. mukul samples from markets.

Increased serum creatinine level and decreased glomerular filtration rate are the major features of vancomycin nephrotoxicity. Electrolyte disorders of this agent have not been considered in relevant clinical studies so far. The aim of the present study was to determine potassium and magnesium disorders in patients with hematologic and oncologic diseases under vancomycin treatment. A cross-sectional, observational study was performed during 9 months at three hematology-oncology wards of Namazi hospital in Shiraz. Patients > 18 years with no documented history of acute kidney injury or chronic kidney disease planned to receive vancomycin for at least 1 week were recruited. Urine samples for determining creatinine, potassium, and magnesium levels were collected at days 0, 3, 5, 7, 10, and 14 of treatment. Hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia was defined as serum potassium and magnesium level below 3 mEq/L and 1.2 mEq/L, respectively. Two-fifth (40.38%) of the study population developed hypokalemia during 2 to 3 days after initiating vancomycin. Hypomagnesemia was detected in 5.77% of vancomycin recipients with the time onset of 7.67 ± 3.21 days. The mean ± standard deviation of potassium supplement was significantly higher in patients with than those without hypokalemia (P = 0.006). No case of renal potassium and magnesium wasting was identified. Amphotericin b co-administration significantly associated with hypokalemia during vancomycin treatment (odds ratio = 0.164 [95% confidence interval = 0.041-0.647], P = 0.01). In contrast to hypomagnesemia, hypokalemia occurred commonly during the first days of vancomycin treatment. However, the real casual relationship, mechanism, and clinical outcome of these electrolyte disorders in vancomycin recipients remain unclear.

This research involved antioxidant screening and evaluation of total phenol and flavonoid contents of ethanolic extracts from 30 Iranian plant species. Total phenol content was determined for each extract using the Folin-Ciocalteu method and total flavonoids was assessed by the Dowd method. A high phenol content was detected for Loranthus grewinkii (35.32±0.31 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g) of dry plant followed by Pteropyrum olivieri, Phoenix dactylifera, Cercis griffithii and Lippia citriodora. While relatively low levels of flavonoid content were detected for tested plants except in Pteropyrum olivieri) 14.53±0.13mg QE/g of dry plant). Free radical scavenging activity was determined using DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl), NO (Nitric Oxide) and ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)free radical assays. Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) assay was conducted as a measure of antioxidant capacity. L.  grewinkii was superior in DPPH, NO and ABTS free radical inhibition. Extract of  P. olivieri demonstrated a potent inhibitory activity against NO free radical compared to quercetin. Based on overall antioxidant activity, L. grewinkii was determined as the strongest in terms of free radical scavenging effect. A positive correlation observed between phenolic content and the activity while the flavonoids may have major contribution to manifestation of antioxidant activity in most of the investigated plant species.