AIM OF THE STUDY: To determine the antidiabetic activities of chloroform fraction (CF) of Anthocleista vogelii Planch root bark in rats with diet- and alloxan-induced obesity-diabetes.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Inhibitory activities of CF against α-amylase and α-glucosidase activities were determined in vitro. Three weeks old rats were fed with high-fat diet for 9 weeks to induce obesity prior to further induction of diabetes using alloxan (150mg/kg body weight, i.p.). Blood glucose levels and body weight were measured every 7 days throughout the experiment. Glucose tolerance was assessed in normal and CF-treated rats on day 21. Terminal blood samples were collected from sacrificed animals for the measurement of serum insulin levels. Pancreases were excised from treated and untreated animals for histopathological examination.
RESULTS: LCMS/MS chromatographic profile of CF via positive and negative modes revealed 13 and 23 compounds respectively. Further analysis revealed quebrachitol (QCT), loganin, sweroside, oleoside 11-methyl ester and ferulic acid, which have been previously reported for their antidiabetic activities, as constituents of CF. CF inhibited activities of α-amylase (IC50 = 51.60 ± 0.92µg/ml) and α-glucosidase (IC50 = 5.86 ± 0.97µg/ml) in a dose-dependent manner. Treatment of animals with obesity-diabetes with 100 and 200mg/kg CF significantly improved glucose tolerance (P<0.001) and enhanced serum insulin levels (P<0.05) compared to diabetic control rats.
CONCLUSIONS: Antidiabetic activities of CF might be mediated via inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase activities, elevation of serum insulin concentration, and enhancement of insulin and leptin sensitivity in obesity-diabetes rats. This study further substantiates the traditional use of A. vogelii in the management and treatment of diabetes in Africa and encourages further studies to investigate its mechanism of action.
METHODS: Using panel data from the 1999-2015 Euromonitor International, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, we applied fixed effects regression models of panel data to estimate the elasticity of cigarette prices and to simulate the effect of price fluctuations.
RESULTS: Cigarette price elasticity was the highest for countries with a per capita Gross National Income (GNI) above US$6000 (China and Malaysia), and considerably higher for other economies in the region. The administered simulation shows that with an average annual cigarette price increase of 9.51%, the average annual cigarette consumption would decrease by 3.56%, and the average annual tobacco tax revenue would increase by 16.20%. The number of averted smoking-attributable deaths (SADs) would be the highest in China, followed by Indonesia and India. In total, over 17.96 million lives could be saved by tax increases.
CONCLUSION: Excise tax increases have a significant effect on the reduction of smoking prevalence and the number of averted smoking-attributable deaths. Middle- and upper-middle income countries would be most affected by high-taxation policies.
RESULTS: This study found that the annual rate of deforestation within inland forests in Peninsular Malaysia was 0.38% year-1 and subsequently caused a carbon loss of approximately 9 million Mg C year-1, which is equal to emissions of 33 million Mg CO2 year-1, within the ten-year observation period. Spatially explicit maps of AGB over the dipterocarps forests in the entire Peninsular Malaysia were produced. The RMSE associated with the AGB estimation was approximately 117 Mg ha-1, which is equal to an error of 29.3% and thus an accuracy of approximately 70.7%.
CONCLUSION: The PALSAR and PALSAR-2 systems offer a great opportunity for providing consistent data acquisition, cloud-free images and wall-to-wall coverage for monitoring since at least the past decade. We recommend the proposed method and findings of this study be considered for MRV in REDD+ implementation in Malaysia.