فهرست مطالب مسعود بساطی

Ferula assa-foetida is an herbaceous plant from Apiaceae family. Several pharmacological effects of oleo-gum resin of this plant were introduced in modern and traditional medicines such as digestive, antimicrobial, anti-diabetic, appetizing, insecticidal, and etc.

This study aimed to acute and sub-chronic toxicity of chloroform fraction of oleo-gum extract of Ferula in Wistar rats. The safety of this can guarantee its use in treatment and various industries.

Rats in six groups including male and female (kept separately) at different doses (50 mg/kg, 500 mg/kg, and 2000 mg/kg) and two control groups (control and DMSO( were selected to evaluate the acute toxicity of chloroform fraction of Ferula. For 30 days, 50 mg/kg and 250 mg/kg of sample was administrated to male and female rats. Mortality, appearance and behavioral changes, food intake, the weight of rats, and hematological, biochemical variables and histopathological changes were examined.

Physical and behavioral changes were not observed in acute and sub-chronic toxicity conditions. Food intake significantly differed between male and female DMSO control and other groups. In biochemical variables study, only SGOT (AST) showed a significant difference from the control group (DMSO) in acute toxicity and BUN, ALP and SGOT (AST) in sub-chronic toxicity. Also, any histopathological change was observed in spleen, liver, and kidney organs.

Oleo-gum resin of F. assa-foetida has not toxic effects, so it should be used with caution in the long term.

Fenugreek is one of the most widely used medicinal plants in terms of therapeutic properties, and numerous pharmacological effects have been found in various studies. Fenugreek seed extract contains many effective substances, including phytosterols (mainly β-Sitosterol).

This investigation was conducted to determine the optimal extraction method for fenugreek seeds based on the amount of β-Sitosterol detected on HPLC using a response surface methodology (RSM).

At first, the appropriate solvent was selected. The main variables affecting the extraction efficiency,including temperature, time, solvent percentage, and the ratio of solvent to powder, were investigated to optimize the best method. Optimizing the number of 29 experiments determined that extraction was done using the dynamic maceration method. After finding the optimized method, the extracts were injected into the HPLC device three times to determine the amount of total β-Sitosterol. Then it was modelled, and the final formula was obtained.

The analysis of results were shown that the optimal extract (based on the amount of total β-Sitosterol and weight), using the dynamic maceration extraction method with 96 % ethanol at a temperature of 44 ˚C, a duration of 30 minutes, a solvent percentage of 70 % and a ratio of solvent to powder of 7:1 was obtained.

The findings suggest the, this method seams the most efficient for maximum extraction of the β-Sitosterol compound from fenugreek seeds.

Today, from the viewpoint of nursing ethics, maintaining the privacy of patients as a part of patient rights is the base and foundation of caring for the patient. Therefore, the present study was done with the aim of evaluating the extent to which the privacy of patients hospitalized in emergency department (ED) is maintained.
This cross-sectional study was carried out in EDs of educational hospitals in Arak, Iran. Convenience sampling was used to include patients hospitalized in ED. The tool used for data gathering was a valid and reliable questionnaire that consisted of demographic data as well as 25 questions to assess the physical, informational and mental-social aspects of patient privacy. Gathered data were analyzed with SPSS software version 16.
In the end, data extracted from 300 patients with the mean age of 41 ± 7.22 years were evaluated (60% male). Among the studied patients 62.2% of the participants rated the maintenance of their privacy as poor and only a few (1.7%) of them rated their privacy maintenance as good. In the present study, maintaining the privacy of the patients had a significant correlation with age (p = 0.04), marital status (p = 0.04), and level of education (p = 0.03).
Based on the results of the present study, it seems that from the patients’ point of view, maintenance of their privacy by the staff is poor in the studied centers.