BackgroundGaro Hills represents one of earliest human habitation in Bangladesh preserving its ancient cultures due to the geographic location. It is situated in the most northern part of Durgapur sub-district having border with Meghalaya of India. Durgapur is rich in ethnic diversity with Garo and Hajong as the major ethnic groups along with Bangalee settlers from the mainstream population. Thus the ethnomedicinal practice in Garo Hills is considered rich as it encompasses three different groups. Present survey was undertaken to compile the medicinal plant usage among the various communities of the Garo Hills.MethodsThe ethnomedicinal data was collected through open and focussed group discussions, and personal interviews using semi-structured questionnaire. A total of 185 people were interviewed, including the three community people and their traditional health practitioners (THPs). The usage of the plants were further analysed and are presented as use value (UV), informant consensus factor (ICF) and fidelity level (FL).ResultsA total of 71 plants from 46 families and 64 genera were documented during our survey. Gastrointestinal disorders represented the major ailment category with the use of 36 plant species followed by dermatological problems (25 species). The ICF ranged from 0.90 to 0.99, with an average value of 0.96. Leaves (41) were the principle source of medication followed by fruits (27). Trees (33) were the major plant type used in the ethnobotanical practice. A total of 25 plants showed high FL (70.91 to 100 %) with 12 plants showing maximum FL (100 %). A number of the plants appear to have unique ethnomedicinal uses.ConclusionPresent investigation revealed a rich traditional practice in the studied region, which provides primary health care to the local community. This compilation of the ethnobotanical knowledge can help researchers to identify the uses of various medicinal plants that have a long history of use.

Abstract-Aims:Because of uncontrolled and widespread use of antibiotics, the resistance pattern of uropathogens is changing drastically, specifically in developing countries, such as Bangladesh. The aim of the study was to identify the common Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) causing pathogens in the city of Jessore, Bangladesh and to check the performance of available antibiotics used by those patients. Study Design: Random 100 UTI patients who exhibited general UTI symptoms were included in our cross-sectional study. A medical proforma was prepared to input the information associated with the experiment including symptoms of patient's age, sex, laboratory diagnosis and antimicrobial susceptibility. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, University of Science and Technology, Jessore 7408 and Pharmacy Discipline, Life Science School, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh, between June 2013 and July 2014.Methodology:Urine samples from 100 suspicious urinary tract infected patients were collected as described by Thomson and Miller. Bacterial isolates were tested to identify the bacterial species and to evaluate their antimicrobial susceptibility by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion technique against some common antibiotics. Epidata® computer program 3.1 and SPSS version 16 statistical software used for confidence interval (CI) and P value, which were defined as P value is <0.05 and CI was set at 95% level of significance for all the proportions.Results: Among 100 samples, 74 samples showed positive for cultures adversely responsible for UTIs. About five different species of uropathogenswere identified from 74 cases. Comparative prevalence ofE. coli was detected in 69 of the 100 samples (69%), while Staphylococcus spp was found in 18 samples (18%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 8 samples (8%), and Klebsiella pneumoniae in 6 samples (6%), respectively. Comparative antibiotic resistance profile showed that most of the strains were highly resistant to Amoxicillin (85.14%) and Cotrimoxazole (81.08%). On the contrary, the strains showed significant sensitivity to Amikacin (94.59%), Azithromycin (93.24%), Doxycycline (90.54%), and Ceftriaxone (89.18%), respectively showed significant sensitivity. Conclusion: Our results could be helpful to compel rational antibiotic use for UTI. High resistance of uropathogens to antibiotics, such as Amoxicillin and Cotrimoxaxole, has been observed in a significant number of patients in the developing world, such as Bangladesh. Our studies may provoke further investigations into the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance of particular microbes.

Boehmeria macrophylla is a perennial herb used as folk medicine in Bangladesh for the healing of pathologic conditions like fever, trauma, dermatitis, boils etc. After phytochemical screening of ethanolic extract of B. macrophylla (Urticaceae) leaf (BMET), in vitro antioxidant activity was investigated by free radical (DPPH) scavenging assay. Total tannin, phenolic and flavonoid contents were also estimated. Analgesic, cytotoxic and antibacterial activities were evaluated by 'acetic acid induced writhing inhibition in mice', 'brine shrimp lethality bioassay' and 'disk diffusion assay', respectively. Phytochemical screening indicated the presence of alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, steroids and terpenoids. The extract showed scavenging activity with IC 50 value of 39.76 μg/mL whereas IC 50 was 6.86 μg/mL for ascorbic acid. The extract also showed the total phenolic, flavonoid and tannin content as 439.48, 356.84 and 395.42 mg QE/100 g of dried plant extract. BMET showed 32.91 % and 54.2 % writhing inhibition in mice at doses 250 and 500 mg/kg, respectively. BMET showed LC 50 against brine shrimp nauplii at 33.16 μg/mL. The extract also showed antibacterial activity against Vibrio cholerae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Streptococcus ferus. The results suggest that BMET has antioxidant, analgesic, cytotoxic and antibacterial activities.

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Background Breast cancer is a very common cancer that can be severe if not discovered early. The current tools to detect breast cancer need improvement. Cancer has a universal tendency to affect glycosylation. The glycosylation of circulating extracellular vesicle‐associated glycoproteins, and mucins may offer targets for detection methods and have been only explored in a limited capacity. Aim Our aim was to develop an approach to detect the aberrant glycosylation of mucins and extracellular vesicle‐associated glycoproteins from human sera using fluorescent nanoparticles, and preliminarily evaluate this approach for the differential diagnosis of breast cancer. Methods and results The assay involved immobilizing glycosylated antigens using monoclonal antibodies and then probing their glycosylation by using lectins and glycan‐specific antibodies coated on Eu +3 ‐doped nanoparticles. Detection of mucin 1 and mucin 16 glycosylation with wheat germ agglutinin, and detection of the extracellular vesicle‐associated CD63 were found to have better diagnostic ability for localized breast cancer than the conventional assays for mucin 1 and mucin 16 based tumor markers when the receiver operating characteristics were compared. Conclusions These results indicate that successful differential diagnosis of primary breast cancer may be aided by detecting cancer‐associated glycosylation of mucin 1 and mucin 16, and total concentration of CD63, in human serum.