Some of the medicinal plants valued in Ayurvedic Rasayana for their therapeutic potential have been scientifically investigated with promising results. A number of plant-based principles have been isolated with potential immunomodulatory activity that can explain and justify their use in traditional medicine in the past and can form the basis for further research in the future as well. The aim of this review is to highlight results of research done on immunomodulators of plant origin. The selection of papers was made using the most relevant databases for the biomedical sciences on the basis of their ethnopharmacological use. Many plants and some phytoconstituents responsible for immunomodulation have been explained. The review also discusses biological screening methods for various plant drugs that focus on revealing the mechanism involved in immunomodulation. This work shall hopefully encourage researchers to undertake further work on medicinal plants with potential immunomodulatory activity.

In recent years, water pollution and pesticide accumulation in the food chain have become a serious environmental and health hazard problem. Direct determination of these contaminants is a difficult task due to their low concentration level and the matrix interferences. Therefore, an efficient separation and preconcentration procedure is often required prior to the analysis. With the advancement in nanotechnology, various types of magnetic core-shell nanoparticles have successfully been synthesized and received considerable attention as sorbents for decontamination of diverse matrices. Magnetic core-shell nanoparticles with surface modifications have the advantages of large surface-area-to-volume ratio, high number of surface active sites, no secondary pollutant, and high magnetic properties. Due to their physicochemical properties, surface-modified magnetic core-shell nanoparticles exhibit high adsorption efficiency, high rate of removal of contaminants, and easy as well as rapid separation of adsorbent from solution via external magnetic field. Such facile separation is essential to improve the operation efficiency. In addition, reuse of nanoparticles would substantially reduce the treatment cost. In this review article, we have attempted to summarize recent studies that address the preconcentration methods of pesticide residue analysis and removal of toxic contaminants from aquatic systems using magnetic core-shell nanoparticles as adsorbents.

Intravenous tranexamic acid, administered before skin incision, significantly reduced the requirement for additional uterotonics among women at increased risk for postpartum hemorrhage. Clinical Trials Registry India: CTRI/2015/05/005752.

Diuretics have been recommended as first-line treatment of hypertension and are also valuable in the management of hypervolemia and electrolyte disorders. This review summarizes the key features of the most commonly used diuretics. We then provide an update of clinical trials for diuretics during the past 5 years. Compared to other classes of medications, thiazide diuretics are at least as effective in reducing cardiovascular events (CVEs) in patients with hypertension and are more effective than β-blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in reducing stroke. Observational cohort data and a network analysis have shown that CVEs are lowered by one-fifth from chlorthalidone when compared to the commonly used thiazide, hydrochlorothiazide. Relative to placebo, chlorthalidone increases life expectancy. In those aged 80 years and older, the diuretic, indapamide, lowers CVEs relative to placebo. The aldosterone antagonist, eplerenone, lowers total mortality in early congestive heart failure. The benefit of eplerenone following acute myocardial infarction (MI) is limited to administration within 3 to 6 days post-MI. Aldosterone antagonists have been shown to lower the incidence of sudden cardiac death and to reduce proteinuria. In the setting of heart failure, long acting loop diuretics azosemide and torasemide are more effective in improving heart failure outcomes than the far more commonly used short acting furosemide. Evening dosing of diuretics appears to lower CVEs relative to morning dosing. In conclusion, diuretics are a diverse class of drugs that remain extremely important in the management of hypertension and hypervolemic states.

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