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This study was carried out to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of WHO color scale in screening anemia during blood donor selection in Sri Lanka. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted by the Medical Laboratory Sciences Unit of University of Sri Jayewardenepura in collaboration with National Blood Transfusion Centre, Sri Lanka. A total of 100 subjects participated in this study. Hemoglobin value of each participant was analyzed by both WHO color scale method and cyanmethemoglobin method. Bland-Altman plot was used to determine the agreement between the two methods. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, false positive, and negative rates were calculated. The sensitivity of the WHO color scale was very low. The highest sensitivity observed was 55.55% in hemoglobin concentrations >13.1 g/dL and the lowest was 28.57% in hemoglobin concentrations between 7.1 and 9.0 g/dL. The mean difference between the WHO color scale and the cyanmethemoglobin method was 0.2 g/dL (95% confidence interval; 3.2 g/dL above and 2.8 g/dL below). Even though the WHO color scale is an inexpensive and portable method for field studies, from the overall results in this study it is concluded that WHO color scale is an inaccurate method to screen anemia during blood donations.

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Purpose: Various parts of Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) are used in traditional systems of medicine. This study investigates the antimicrobial activity of the crude aqueous extract and polyphenol enriched fractions of M. oleifera leaves at the flowering stage against microbial strains causing oral and wound infections. Methods: Polyphenol enriched fractions (hydroalcoholic extract, methanol fresh leaves extract, methanol dry leaves extract and decoction) were prepared using four different methods and total polyphenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) of the extracts were determined. Crude aqueous extract and the fractions were tested against ATCC reference strains of Escherichia coli and Candida albicans (oral pathogens) and Streptococcus aureus and Staphylococcus pyogenes (wound pathogens) using agar well diffusion method. Gentamycin and clotrimazole were used as the positive controls for bacteria and fungi respectively and distilled water was used as the negative control. Results: Methanol dry leaves extract demonstrated highest values of TPC (11.92 ±0.39 mg GAE/g) and TFC (41.68±0.82 mg QE/g). Each polyphenol fraction demonstrated antibacterial activity against E. coli, S. aureus and S. pyogenes at concentrations of 500 -1000 mg/ml. Hydro-alcoholic and methanol (fresh leaves) extracts demonstrated antifungal activity against C. albicans. The crude aqueous extract exhibited dose dependent antibacterial activity against S. aureus. All extracts demonstrated less antibacterial activity against S. pyogenes compared to S. aureus. Conclusion: Polyphenol rich fractions of M. oleifera leaves at the flowering stage possessed antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S. aureus, S. pyogenes and C. albicans.