Flavonoids are oral venoactive drugs frequently prescribed to relieve the symptoms of chronic venous disorders (CVD). Among venoactive drugs, diosmin is a naturally occurring flavonoid glycoside that can be isolated from various plant sources; it can also be obtained after conversion of hesperidin extracted from citrus rinds. Micronized purified flavonoid fraction (MPFF) is a preparation that contains mainly diosmin and a small fraction of hesperidin. We performed a state-of-the-art literature review to collect and analyze well-conducted randomized clinical studies comparing diosmin – also called non-micronized or hemisynthetic diosmin – 600 mg a day and MPFF, 1000 mg a day. Three clinical studies met the criteria and were included for this literature review. These clinical studies showed a significant decrease of CVD symptom intensity (up to approximately 50%) and global patient satisfaction after one-to-six-month treatment with diosmin or MPFF, without statistical differences between these two forms of diosmin. Both treatments were well tolerated with few mild adverse drug reactions reported. Overall, based on this literature review, there is no clinical benefit to increase the dose of diosmin beyond 600 mg per day, to use the micronized form, or to add hesperidin, since clinical efficacy on venous symptomatology is achieved with 600 mg per day of pure non-micronized diosmin. This challenges the status of diosmin – 600 mg a day – in guidelines for the management of CVD, which is currently categorized 2C (weak recommendations for use and poor quality of evidence), while the most widely used and assessed preparation MPFF is rated 1B (strong recommendation for use and moderate quality of evidence).

Diosmin administered topically may protect skin against the biological effects of various exogenous or endogenous stresses, such as those involved in chronic venous disease.

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57 Open Journal of Medical Microbiology that manifested against a wide range of the main pathogenic bacteria. Reduced bacterial activity against some of the additional strains tested (e.g. Enterobacteriaceae) was observed under "dirty" conditions. Significance and Impact of the Study: EN 13727 with some experimental adjustments represents an additional appropriate standard that needs to be considered for mucocutaneous antiseptic assessment. However, it may be worth including other specific bacterial strains to those specified in the standard, when evaluating antiseptics intended for use in certain clinical situations.

Background: Spermicides have been identified as a potentially attractive alternative to hormonal contraceptives and/or intrauterine devices. Thus, this study aimed evaluating the efficacy and local tolerance of benzalkonium chloride (BKC) and myristalkonium chloride (MKC) contained in Pharmatex V R vaginal formulations and compare them with nonoxynol-9 (N-9), the most common active ingredient in topical vaginal contraceptives. Methods: Human normozoospermic samples were assessed for motility, viability, acrosome status and penetration ability after exposure to control, N-9 or different BKC and MKC doses for 0 and 10 minutes. Local tolerance on HeLa cells was evaluated by the Trypan-blue and MTT assays. Results: Exposure to BKC and MKC reduced acrosome integrity while promoting total immobilisation and complete loss of sperm viability (p < .001, n ¼ 15). Both compounds also compromised sperm penetration ability upon exposure (p < .001, n ¼ 15). N-9 induced the same outcomes (p < .001, n ¼ 15); nevertheless, it was more toxic to HeLa cells than BKC and MKC (p < .05, n ¼ 14). Conclusions: BKC and MKC present strong in vitro spermicidal activity at lower doses than N-9 and were better tolerated after immediate exposure than N-9. Available Pharmatex V R galenic formulations were as effective as products based on N-9.