Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical Products
Volume:8 Issue: 1, May 2013

In supporting a therapeutic approach and medication therapy management, pharmacy information system acts as one of the central pillars of information system. This ensures that medication therapy is being supported and evaluated with an optimal level of safety and quality similar to other treatments and services. This research aims to evaluate the performance of pharmacy information system in three types of teaching, private and social affiliated hospitals.Patients and The present study is an applied, descriptive and analytical study which was conducted on the pharmacy information system in use in the selected hospitals. The research population included all the users of pharmacy information systems in the selected hospitals. The research sample is the same as the research population. Researchers collected data using a self-designed checklist developed following the guidelines of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Australia pharmaceutical Society and Therapeutic guidelines of the Drug Commission of the German Medical Association. The checklist validity was assessed by research supervisors and pharmacy information system pharmacists and users. To collect data besides observation, the questionnaires were distributed among pharmacy information system pharmacists and users. Finally, the analysis of the data was performed using the SPSS software. Pharmacy information system was found to be semi-automated in 16 hospitals and automated in 3 ones. Regarding the standards in the guidelines issued by the Society of Pharmacists, the highest rank in observing the input standards belonged to the Social Services associated hospitals with a mean score of 32.75. While teaching hospitals gained the highest score both in processing standards with a mean score of 29.15 and output standards with a mean score of 43.95, and the private hospitals had the lowest mean scores of 23.32, 17.78, 24.25 in input, process and output standards respectively.. Based on the findings, the studied hospitals had minimal compliance with the input, output and processing standards related to the pharmacy information system. It is suggested that the establishment of a team composed of operational managers, computer fields experts, health information managers, pharmacists as well as physicians may contribute to the promotion of the capabilities of pharmacy information system to be able to focus on health care practitioner's and user's requirements..

Tea (Camellia sinensis) has been utilised, since time immemorial, as a beverage possessing encouraging health benefits. Little scientific evidence exists in literature on the effect of this plant on pain. To investigate the antinociceptive activity of Iranian green tea extract. The hydroalcoholic extract was administered to male Wistar rats. Formalin paw test was used to evaluate the antinociceptive activity. Plant extract (25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg, i.p.) (n = 6 for each group) or vehicle (n = 6) was administered 30 min before the subplantar formalin injection. The extract caused a significant dose-related (50, 100, 200 mg /kg, i.p.) inhibition of the first phase and onset of chronic phase (200 mg /kg, i.p.) of formalin induced nociception. The results showed that the pre-treatment of rats with naloxone (1 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly (P < 0.001) reversed antinociception by Green tea extract (GTE) (200 mg/kg, i.p.) in the inflammatory phase and had no effect on phase 1. These results indicate that GTE produces dose-related antinociception in chemical pain model and one of its possible mechanisms involves opioid pathways..

Scrophularia striata (Scrophulariaceae family) is an herbaceous plant that is traditionally used for treatment of microbial infections. Antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of different extracts (methanolic, ethanolic, aqueous and ethyl acetate) from S. striata aerial parts was evaluated. The antimicrobial activity of different extracts from S. striata was evaluated against a large number of bacteria and fungi by micro broth dilution. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were measured and their antioxidant activities evaluated by DPPH assay and beta carotene linoleic acid test. Antimicrobial screening exhibited the positive relation between the total phenolic content and its antimicrobial activity but their antioxidant activity had a negative relation.. Further studies are recommended against clinical isolate of sensitive bacteria and deep investigation on flavonoid and phenolic compounds of S. striata and detecting the antioxidant portion in aqueous extract.

The production of nanoparticles using a biosystem is considered green chemistry. Application of plant extracts as a biological process has been proven to be suitable for synthesis of nanoparticles. This study designed in order to evaluate the production of silver nanoparticles using Juglans regia leaf extract and to compare the outcome of different preparation methods of plant extracts (ethanolic extract, boiling water extract and plant powder) for the generation of nanoparticles. The reaction mixture contained the following ingredients: AgNO3 (10 mM) as the biotransformation substrate, plant extract or powder as the biocatalyst, glucose (560 mM) as the electron donor, phosphate buffer (pH = 7, 100 mM) and ethanol 70% as the solvent in the reaction mixture. The samples were taken from the reaction mixtures at different times, and the absorbance (450 nm) of the colloidal suspensions of silver nanoparticle hydrosols was recorded immediately following dilution (1:80) so as to preserve its freshness. UV-visible spectrophotometer analysis revealed that the direct application of powder of the walnut leaf was the most efficient technique. TEM (Transmission electron microscopy) micrograph obtained by using this method revealed the generation of aggregated polydisperse, quasi-spherical nanoparticles in sizes of 10-50 nm. Ethonolic extract resulted in single silver nanoparticles which were nearly monodisperse, spherical, and individual nanoparticles ranged in size from 1-5 nm. Therefore, using direct powder of Walnut created more particles but applying ethanolic extract synthesized particles with smaller dimensions and no aggregation. Different preparation methods of Juglans regia influence silver nanoparticles formation.

Chitosan is a naturally occurring biopolymer which has been widely used in a variety of biomedical applications including local antibiotic delivery due to its excellent mechanical properties, biodegradability and biocompatibility. Beads are spherical, porous carriers which are prepared from various materials including chitosan. The current study aimed to fabricate a new controlled delivery system for local anti-infective treatment and to study its release behavior. Twenty beads were prepared from 1% or 2% chitosan solutions and immersed in vancomycin (VM) or teicoplanin (TN) solutions. The antibiotic release kinetics was determined by linear regression analysis supposing first order kinetics. Immersion for 3 h resulted in significant increase in the total TN release that differed from 0.5 h of immersion, except for the 1% beads immersed in VM. Increasing the chitosan concentration significantly increased the total release and antibiotic load of beads. The release of TN was more delayed compared to that of VM, which allowed a gradual release beyond 3 days. The half-life (mean ± SEM) of both types of TN-containing beads was significantly extended for 3 h immersion in comparison to 0.5 h immersion (26.1 ± 5.9 vs 10.9 ± 1.0 and 17.0 ± 2.1 vs 5.1 ± 1.9; P < 0.001). However, neither increasing the chitosan concentration, nor immersion time did result in any significant increase in the release of VM.. The current study demonstrated an improved control of TN release impregnated in beads. It can be concluded that chitosan beads might be considered as a novel carrier for TN delivery to infected bone for local anti-infective therapy.

Mindium laevigatum (Vent.) Rech. F. plant grows in central part of Iran. And used by local people as medical plant. The purpose of this study was to investigate the in vitro antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activities of the methanolic extracts of aerial and flower parts of plant. The leaves and stem and flower of bark from M. laevigatum were separately collected, air-dried and powdered. Then the plant species extracts were prepared with methanol, water 80:20 and two polar and non-polar subfractions were realized. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by scavenging the radicals 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH), β-Carotene linoleic acid assay and reducing power methods. The antifungal and antibacterial evaluation was performed by disc diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentration methods. The total phenolic analysis of subfractions found 182 ± 4.2 µg gr-1 for polar and 158 ± 3.9 µg gr-1 for non-polar extracts. The antifungal activity of the extracts against the various fungal varied from 14.0 to 34 mm. MIC values from 50 to 400 µg mL-1 were satisfactory when compared with other plant products. The antibacterial results revealed that the subfraction extracts are mostly effective against Staphylococcus aureus. The antioxidant results showed polar subfraction has more activity against non-polar subfraction. These findings demonstrated that the extract of Mindium laevigatum has remarkable in vitro antifungal and antioxidant activity.

The organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are among the most commonly used in water streams around the world. Most of these contaminants are highly hydrophobic and persist in sediments of rivers and lakes. Studies have suggested that OCPs may affect the normal function of the human and wildlife endocrine systems. The aim of this study is to determine the concentrations of selected organochlorine pesticides residues [OPDDT, PPDDT, alderin, dieldrin, heptachlor, (α,ß,γ,δ) HCH, (α, ß) endosulfan and metoxychlor] in samples from Karun River water at Khuzestan province in Iran, by GC-µ-ECD. Water was extracted with n-hexane and then purified by passing through a glass column packed with Florisil and Na2SO4, which was then eluted with ether: hexane solution v/v. In general, all of 12 investigated organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were detected. Regardless of the kind of OCPs, the highest OCP pollution level in Karun River were seen from August to November 2009 ranging 71.43 – 89.34 µg/L, and the lowest were seen from Dec 2010 to March 2011 at levels of 22.25 - 22.64 µg/L. The highest and lowest mean concentrations of 12 investigated pesticides were ß-Endosulfan and pp' DDT with 28.51and 0.01 µg/L respectively. Comparison of total organochlorine pesticides residues concentration with WHO guidelines revealed that the Karun River had total OCPs residues above the probable effect level (0.2-20 µg/L, P < 0.05), which could pose a risk to aquatic life.

Ulva genus, an edible seaweed, and an important food source in many south-east Asian countries is also recognized by its synonymous name as Enteromorpha. This study was carried out to evaluate antioxidant activity, contents of total phenolics, and flavonoids of methanolic extracts of edible green seaweeds including Ulva clathrata (Roth) C. Agardh and three samples of Ulva prolifera O.F.Müller grown at different parts of Bushehr Province along the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf. The seaweeds were collected from Bordekhoun, Northern Ouli, Taheri and Kangan coasts in December 2011. Methanolic extracts of the seaweeds were assessed for their antioxidant activity using DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging assay and was performed in a microplate reader. Total phenolics were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and flavonoid content was evaluated by colorimetric method. All samples showed antioxidant activity to various degrees. Ulva clathrata exhibited a high DPPH radical scavenging activity with a low IC50 (the half-maximal inhibitory concentration) (0.715 ± 0.078 mg. mL-1). The highest phenolic content (4.468 ± 0.379 mg GAE g-1) (gallic acid equivalent) and flavonoid content (45.577 ± 0.949 mg RE g-1) (rutin equivalent) were also observed in U. clathrata. The phenolic and flavonoid contents showed positive correlations with the DPPH radical scavenging activity and negative correlations with IC50 (P < 0.01). Besides, Results showed that there was a positive correlation between total phenolics and flavonoid content of extracts (P < 0.01). Strong positive and significant correlations between DPPH radical scavenging and phenolic and flavonoid contents showed that, phenolic compounds, including flavonoids are the main contributors of antioxidant activity in these Ulva species and variations in phenolics and flavonoid contents of the seaweed extracts may be due to the variation in physicochemical parameters such as salinity amongst the selected stations