Two supposedly Strychnos-based Semai Senoi dart poisons from Western Malaysia, ipoh akar and lampong, and their accompanying plant materials have been re-investigated botanically, chemically, and pharmacologically. The two poisons contained tertiary and quaternary alkaloids, including strychnine and bis-quaternary dimeric bases, and also cardiotonic glycosides. The dominant pharmacological activity of the highly toxic ipoh akar poison was convulsant. The weaker lampong poison had muscle-relaxant activity of the curarizing type. The alkaloids of the two poisons were almost certainly derived from Strychnosignatii Berg. (S. ovalifolia Wall. ex G. Don) and not from S. vanprukii Craib to which the accompanying plant materials probably belong, while the cardiotonic glycosides of the two poisons came from Antiaris toxicaria Lesch. The quaternary alkaloids of both S. ignatii and S. vanprukii have muscle relaxant activity.
The fatty acid composition of samples of breast milk obtained from 51 mothers (26 Malay, 15 Chinese, 10 Indian) residing in Penang, Malaysia was determined by gas chromatography. Despite living in close physical proximity the mothers from the three racial groups showed distinct cultural differences in dietary intake. These differences were reflected in differences in the fatty acid composition of breast milk samples. The milk of Chinese mothers was generally less saturated (41%) than that of Malay and Indian mothers (52 and 50% respectively). The milk of Chinese mothers was also richer in linoleic acid (17%) than that of Malay and Indian mothers (9% and 11% respectively). Overall the level of individual fatty acids fell within the range of values reported for Western mothers on well nourished diets and pointed to breast milk of high standard despite large variations in the diet of Malaysian mothers.
PIP: The influence of socioeconomic status (ethnicity, income and parity) on electrolyte composition (sodium and potassium) in human milk is little known. We have thus quantitatively analyzed approximately 700 samples of milk (1-90 days postpartum) obtained from healthy Malaysian mothers' (Malay, Chinese and Indians) of full term infants. Results show that the mean concentration (mmol/l) of sodium is highest (48.2+or-1.7, Mean+or-SEM) in the Malaysian mothers' colostrum and this value decreased by 30% in their transitional milk and remained constant throughout subsequent days of lactation (mature milk). Ethnically, it is found that the level of sodium in colostrum of Malay and Chinese mothers were similar while the Indian mothers' colostrum showed apparently higher value (52.7+or-3.4 mmol/l) that is statistically insignificant. The transitional milk of all 3 ethnic groups studied exhibited similar levels of sodium. On subsequent days of lactation (mature milk) the Malay mothers exhibited lowest concentration (25.9+or-2.6 mmol/l) of sodium that is significantly (P0.05) different from that of Chinese and Indian mothers. Income and parity do not significantly affect the sodium level in Malaysian mothers' milk during all stages of lactation studied. The level of potassium, however did not change significantly with days of lactation. Like sodium, potassium too was not influenced by income and parity. (Author's).
A large phytochemical survey of the flora of the Malaysian Peninsula and Sabah is described, covering the systematic search for alkaloids, and partly, for saponins and flavonoids. Details of some chemical studies are reported. This emphasizes the great interest of such a study.
One hundred and six prostatic tissue samples obtained from transurethral resection were analysed for androgen and estrogen receptors. In 62 of these, progesterone and glucocorticoid receptors were also assayed. Steroid receptors were assayed using single saturation dose 3H-labelled ligand assays. Ninety percent of the 97 prostatic hyperplasia tissues and six of the nine prostatic carcinoma tissues were positive for androgen receptors. Estrogen receptors were only present in 19% and 33% respectively. Progesterone receptors were present in 70% of the tissues, but glucocorticoid receptors were present in only 16% of prostatic hyperplasia and none in prostatic carcinoma.
Kidney stone samples of the types calcium oxalate, uric acid, and xanthine were analyzed for their elemental contents by neutron activation analysis to study both the elemental correlation and influence of element on stone precipitation processes. Elements, such as Al, Au, Br, Ca, Cl, Co, Cr, Fe, Hg, I, K, Mg, Na, Sb, Se, Sr, and Zn, were determined quantitatively. Calcium oxalate stones contained higher concentration of all the elements analyzed compared to uric acid or xanthine stones. The concentrations of Cl, Fe, K, Na, Sr, and Zn were relatively higher than Au, Co, Cr, and Sb. A positive correlation exists between Ca and Zn, whereas a negative correlation exists between Sr and Ca. Zinc may play an important role in the formation of calcium oxalate stone.
Two hundred four cases of fibrous lesions of the gingiva were studied histologically for the presence of calcified tissue, the nature of the connective tissue, the type of keratinization, and the degree of epithelial thickness. Initially these lesions were subcategorized into four specific entities, namely fibrous epulis, fibroepithelial polyp, calcifying fibroblastic granuloma, and ossifying fibrous epulis. It was found that 46.5% of the lesions contained calcifications. The connective tissue was represented predominantly by either the collagenous type (50.5%) or the mixed (cellular and collagenous) type (44.6%). It was also found that 36% of the lesions were ulcerated, and, of these, 79.5% were associated with the cellular type of connective tissue and calcifications. In an attempt to subcategorize the fibrous lesions into specific entities, it was found that 32 cases (15.7%) had mixed features. This fact supports the suggestion that these lesions are stages in the spectrum of a single disease process and should collectively be termed fibroblastic gingival lesions. However, it is also suggested that the two terms, namely peripheral fibroma and fibrous epulis with and without ossification, should be retained whereas the usage of other terminologies should be avoided.
1. The two major phospholipase A2 enzymes (OHPLA-DE1 and OHPLA-DE2) of king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) venom have been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity. 2. The isoelectric points of OHPLA-DE1 and OHPLA-DE2 were 3.81 and 3.89, respectively and the Mws were 14,000 and 15,000, respectively, as estimated by Sephadex G-75 gel filtration chromatography; and 14,000 as estimated by SDS-PAGE. 3. The enzymes were not lethal to mice at a dosage of 10 micrograms/g body wt by i.v. route. Both phospholipase A2 enzymes, however, exhibited moderate edema-inducing and anti-coagulant activities. 4. Bromophenacylation of the enzymes reduced the enzymatic activity drastically but did not affect the edema-inducing activity of the enzymes.
1. The hemorrhagic, procoagulant, anticoagulant, phosphodiesterase, hyaluronidase, alkaline phosphomonoesterase, 5'-nucleotidase, arginine ester hydrolase, phospholipase A, L-amino acid oxidase and protease activities of 26 samples of venoms of 13 taxa of Vipera were determined and the Sephadex G-75 gel filtration patterns for some of the venoms were also examined. 2. The results indicate the presence of certain common characteristics among the venoms, particularly if V. russelli is excluded from the comparison. The results also support the recently proposed reassignment of V. russelli to a separate genus. 3. The data show that information on venom biological properties can be used for differentiation of venoms of many species of Vipera. Particularly useful for this purpose are the protease, phosphodiesterase, phospholipase A and the procoagulant activities and the Sephadex G-75 gel filtration patterns of the venoms.
The edema inducing activity of phospholipase A2 (PLA2) enzymes from snake venoms and porcine pancreas was investigated using mouse paw as experimental model. All ten PLA2 enzymes exhibited potent edema inducing activity. PLA2, however, is generally not the major edema inducing component of snake venom. Chemical modification studies indicated that enzymatic activity of PLA2 was required for its edema inducing activity. All PLA2 enzymes examined displayed a rapid onset edema which was suppressed by pretreatment of the mice with antihistamine. Dexamethasone pretreatment also inhibited edemas elicited by some PLA2 enzymes.
Hypertension complicates chronic pyelonephritis. Since arterial narrowing is common in the damaged kidney, activation of the renin-angiotensin system due to renal ischaemia has been suggested as a pathogenetic mechanism. We used an antiserum to human renin and an immunoperoxidase technique to study the anatomy of renin-containing cells (RCC) in 18 kidneys removed for pyeloneophritis. We independently assessed the degree of arterial narrowing and correlated these variables with the clinical findings. There was histological evidence of hyperplasia of RCC in 5 of the 6 hypertensive patients and in 7 of the 12 non-hypertensive cases. There was no difference in the apparent number or distribution of RCC between the hypertensive and the non-hypertensive cases. Also, the degree of arterial narrowing did not correlate with either the hyperplasia of RCC or the blood pressure of the patients. Our results do not support the hypothesis that narrowing of the intrarenal arteries is important in the pathogenesis of hypertension in pyelonephritis. In our cases, the renal veins were more severely damaged than the arteries and their lumina were often obliterated by organized thrombus. We suggest that such widespread obliteration of the renal venous tree could impair blood flow and contribute to the tissue damage in the pyelonephritic kidney.
The discovery of jacalin, a group of lectins from jackfruit seeds (Artocarpus heterophyllus), has attracted considerable attention due to its numerous interesting immunological properties as well as its usefulness in the isolation of various serum proteins. We have further identified a similar lectin from the seeds of Champedak (Artocarpus integer) which we refer to as lectin-C and performed comparative studies with two types of jacalin isolated from different batches of the Malaysian jackfruit seeds (jacalin-M1 and jacalin-M2). The three purified lectins demonstrated equivalent apparent Mr of about 52,500, each of which comprised of a combination of two types of non-covalently-linked subunits with apparent Mr of approximately 13,300 and 16,000. The lectins demonstrated equal haemagglutinating activity against human erythrocytes of blood groups A, B, AB and O. Our data also demonstrated that lectin-C, jacalin-M1 and jacalin-M2 are similar by selectively precipitating human serum IgA1 and colostral sIgA but not IgA2, IgD, IgG and IgM. When immunoelectrophoresis was performed on normal human sera and reacted with the lectins, single precipitin arcs corresponding to IgA immunoprecipitates were detected with lectin-C and jacalin-MI. Jacalin-M2, however, exhibited two closely associated precipitin arcs. The binding of these lectins with IgA was pronouncedly inhibited in the presence of p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside, 1-o-methyl-alpha-D-galactopyranoside, D-melibiose, N-acetyl-D-galactosamine and D-galactose. The data therefore provide evidence on the differential specificity of IgA binding lectins isolated from seeds of similar as well as distinct Artocarpus species.
Gas-Liquid chromatography (GLC) was used to detect the presence of isocaproic acid produced by Clostridium difficile from 54 stool samples grown in cycloserine-cefoxitin broth. Isocaproic acid was detected in 12 samples of which 5 were confirmed to be Clostridium difficile by culture and biochemical tests. The detection of isocaproic acid by GLC together with the presence of presumptive colonies on primary selective culture media provides a more rapid laboratory diagnosis for Clostridium difficile.
Calmodulin, an activator protein in most calcium-dependent processes, was isolated to apparent homogeneity from the femurs of 1-day old chicks using phenyl-Sepharose and high performance liquid chromatography. The purified calmodulin was found to produce a 6-fold increase in the activity of alkaline phosphatase isolated from the same source. A Ca2+ concentration of 10(-5) M was required for the activation. Purification of alkaline phosphatase involved acetone precipitation, DEAE-Sephacel and Sephadex G-200 column chromatography. The enzyme was purified to 540-fold and had a specific activity of 10.75 U/mg protein.