Allergies are the most common disorders of the immune system, estimated to affect about 20% of the general population. In the local setting, there is a dearth of information on the sensitization profiles of allergic individuals from Pampanga, Philippines to different allergen sources, thus, evaluation of the total and allergen-specific IgE levels of 100 sera samples from allergic asthma, rhinitis and dermatitis" individuals and 100 sera from non-allergic subjects to fifteen aqueous protein extracts were performed. The aqueous protein extracts prepared from three house dust mite species, three species of cockroaches, two species of fungi, pollens from two species of plants, peanut and four seafoods were quantitated using the BioRad Protein Assay. Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed multiple bands ranging from 10-250 kDa. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) revealed significantly higher mean total serum IgE levels among the allergic groups than non-allergic subjects (p<0.0001). Unpaired t-test results indicated that except for the fungal, tree pollen and crab allergens, there is an extremely significant difference between the mean allergen-specific IgE of allergic subjects compared to the non-allergic subjects for each of the other eleven aqueous allergen extracts, taken separately. Of the allergic subjects, 72.00% exhibited multiple sensitizations to the fifteen aqueous allergen extracts. This study provides the allergenicity profile of "Kapampangan" allergic individuals which could pave the way for the design of highly specific and accurate diagnostic protocols for allergies among the local patients and may serve as an important basis for immunotherapy.

The study evaluated the antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-clastogenic activities of the leaf extract of Lunasia amara, Blanco. DPPH Free Radical Scavenging Assay revealed that the leaf extract (at 6mg/mL concentration) possesses the potential to cause free-radical scavenging/ antioxidant activity. Modified Resazurin-96-well based assay showed that the leaf extract possesses the potential to cause significant inhibition on the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, ATCC 25923) and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 at 6mg/mL-100 mg/L concentrations. Micronucleus test revealed that the leaf extract (at 20mg/mL and 200mg/mL concentrations), did not cause chromosome-breakage on white mice, however, possesses the ability to reduce the chromosome breakage of Mitomycin C on white mice , hence, anti-clastogenic. Result of the study can help different agencies in the discovery of potential medicinal values of different plants, particularly the indigenous plants in the Philippines. It can provide cheaper nature-based alternative medicine to the public in the midst of high-priced medicine produced by pharmaceutical companies. Through this study, the importance of plant biodiversity in Mt. Arayat, Pampanga, Philippines will also be highlighted as a source of raw materials (i.e., plants) medicinal purposes.

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