- Thursday, September 7, 2006
- Published at:Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2006 Dec;3(4):433-9. Epub 2006 Sep 7
- Herbal remedies are widely used for the treatment and prevention of various diseases and often contain highly active pharmacological compounds. Many medicinal herbs and pharmaceutical drugs are therapeutic at one dose and toxic at another. Toxicity related to traditional medicines is becoming more widely recognized as these remedies become popular in the Mediterranean region as well as worldwide. Most reports concerning the toxic effects of herbal medicines are associated with hepatotoxicity although reports of other toxic effects including kidney, nervous system, blood, cardiovascular and dermatologic effects, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity have also been published in the medical literature. This article presents a systematic review on safety of traditional Arab medicine and the contribution of Arab scholars to toxicology. Use of modern cell biological, biochemical, in vitro and in vivo techniques for the evaluation of medicinal plants safety is also discussed.
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- Wednesday, March 1, 2006
- Published at:Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2006 Mar;3(1):93-8
- Non-parenchymal cells might play an important role in the modulation of xenobiotic metabolism in liver and its pharmacological and toxicological consequences. Therefore, the role of cell-to-cell interactions in herbal induced liver toxicity was investigated in monocultures of cells from the human hepatocyte cell line (HepG2) and in co-cultures of cells from the HepG2 cell line and cells from the human monocyte cell line (THP1). Cells were treated with various concentrations (1-500 microg ml(-1)) of extracts of Pistacia palaestina, Juglans regia and Quercus ithaburensis for 24 h. Extracts from Cleome droserifolia, a known toxic plant, were taken as positive control. In the co-culture system, toxic effects were observed after exposure to extracts of Pistacia palestina and C. droserifolia. These two extracts significantly reduced by cell viability as measured the MTT test and the LDH assay. Whereas in hepatocyte cultures, only extracts of C. droserifolia were found to affect the cell viability. The production le
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- Saturday, January 1, 2000
- Published at:J Orthop Sci. 2000;5(4):390-6
- The adriamycin-induced rat model of the Vertebral, Anorectal, Tracheo-Esophageal, Radial and Renal (VATER) association produces a variety of vertebral, rib, and limb abnormalities. This study was designed to document accurately the nature of these abnormalities and to determine whether synovial joints are affected. Fetuses from pregnant Sprague Dawley rats that had received intraperitoneal injections of 1.75 mg/kg of adriamycin on days 6-9 or 10-13 of gestation were harvested. Double-stained skeletal preparations and histological sections were examined for vertebral, rib, and limb anomalies. The incidence of anomalies was high in the group treated on gestational days (GD) 6-9, while it was low in the GD 10-13 group. The length and thickness of the long bones were reduced, with bowing and reduction in their endochondral ossification. Sirenomelia occurred in the group treated on GD 6-9, and was often associated with a short tail and anal atresia. The joint cavities, and intra-articular structures such as menisc
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- Monday, December 1, 1997
- Published at:Eur J Morphol. 1997 Dec;35(5):327-36
- Following a single oral dose of 200 mg/kg of retinoic acid (RA) to pregnant TO mice on day 12 of gestation, fetuses were collected on day 18. RA-treatment resulted in a modest increase in embryo resorption, a significant reduction in fetal body weight and a 96% incidence of limb malformations. Both fore- and hindlimbs were malformed in equal frequency. In this study, only the anomalies of the hindlimbs have been considered. Alizarin stained skeletal preparations revealed a reduction in both length and thickness as well as bowing of the long bones. Agenesis of most of the metatarsals and some toes and/or phalanges was also noted. Paraffin sections cut serially confirmed the gross observations. Additionally, the joint cavities were found to be absent and the cartilaginous ends of the articulating bones were continuous with each other. In some this union was partial and occasionally the joint was only represented by a fine slit. The synovial membrane and other intra-articular structures were either rudimentary o
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- Friday, August 1, 1997
- Published at:International Journal of Diabetes, Vol.5 No.2 August 1997
- This study was aimed at establishing what, if any, structural abnormalities occur in the peripheral nerves of experimental animals within the first few weeks after diabetic induction with streptozotocin. The effects of g-linolenic acid supplementation on such abnormalities were also studied. Male Wistar rats, all aged 10 weeks, were assessed over a period of 5 weeks following induction of diabetes with a single dose of streptozotocin. The animals were divided into three groups: (a) untreated diabetic rats, (b) diabetic rats maintained on a diet supplemented with g-linolenic acid and (c) age-matched controls. No significant difference was apparent between the three groups for the total number of myelinated nerve fibres in the tibial nerve. The mean myelinated fibre diameter was significantly less in the untreated diabetic animals when compared to the age-matched controls ( p<0.0002). The percentage of large fibres was also significanly less in the untreated diabetic animals whe
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