Current Status of E-waste and Future Perspective in Developing Countries: Benchmark Rwanda

The purpose of the present paper is to formulate a composite index of the status of women and to rank both developed and developing countries on the basis of that index. This index is presented as an alternative or complement to the current status of women index, published by the Population Crisis Committee (PCC) and used by the World Bank and the United Nations, which focuses on indicators measuring health, education, employment, marriage and childbearing, and social equality. The paper argues that these indicators have a poverty-bias and measure women's status in terms of structural change rather than in terms of their welfare vis-ii-vis men. The PCC index is also based on the implicit assumption that women's status in developing countries ought to be defined in a similar way as in developed countries, thus including primarily only those indicators which are more relevant for developed countries. To remedy these defects, the paper presents an alternative composite index, hereafter labelled the Alternative Composite (AC) index, based on many more indicators reflecting women's issues in both developed and developing countries. The results of the statistical analysis show that the ranking of countries based on the AC index is significantly different from the PCC index.

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Heterocycles in the Treatment of Neglected Tropical Diseases

Current Medicinal Chemistry ◽

10.2174/0929867327666200219141652 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 ◽

Author(s):

Kush K. Maheshwari ◽

Debasish Bandyopadhyay

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Heterocyclic Compounds ◽

Neglected Tropical Diseases ◽

World Health ◽

Current Status ◽

Poor People ◽

Tropical Diseases ◽

Concise Review ◽

The World ◽

Health Organization

Background: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect a huge population of the world and majority of the victims belong to the poor community of the developing countries. Until now, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified 20 tropical diseases as NTDs that must be addressed with high priority. However, many heterocyclic scaffolds have demonstrated potent therapeutic activity against several NTDs. Objective: There are three major objectives: (1) To discuss the causes, symptoms, and current status of all the 20 NTDs; (2) To explore the available heterocyclic drugs, and their mechanism of actions (if known) that are being used to treat NTDs; (3) To develop general awareness on NTDs among the medicinal/health research community and beyond. Methods: The 20 NTDs have been discussed according to their alphabetic orders along with the possible heterocyclic remedies. Current status of treatment with an emphasis on the heterocyclic drugs (commercially available and investigational) has been outlined. In addition, brief discussion of the impacts of NTDs on socio-economic condition is included. Results: NTDs are often difficult to diagnose and the problem is worsened by the unhealthy hygiene, improper awareness, and inadequate healthcare in the developing countries where these diseases primarily affect poor people. The statistics include duration of suffering, numbers affected, and access to healthcare and medication. The mechanism of actions of various heterocyclic drugs, if reported, have been briefly summarized. Conclusion: Scientists and pharmaceutical corporations should allocate more resources to reveal the in-depth mechanism of actions of many heterocyclic drugs that are currently being used for the treatment of NTDs. Analysis of current heterocyclic compounds and development of new medications can help in the fight to reduce/remove the devastating effects of NTDs. An opinion-based concise review has been presented. Based on available literature, this is the first effect to present all the 20 NTDs and related heterocyclic compounds under the same umbrella.

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Current Status and Future Perspective for Research on Medicinal Plants with Anticancerous Activity and Minimum Cytotoxic Value

Current Drug Targets ◽

10.2174/1389450120666190429120314 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (12) ◽

pp. 1227-1243

Author(s):

Hina Qamar ◽

Sumbul Rehman ◽

D.K. Chauhan

Keyword(s):

Side Effects ◽

Medicinal Plants ◽

Anticancer Agents ◽

Drug Targets ◽

Psidium Guajava ◽

Current Status ◽

Future Perspective ◽

Wide Range

Cancer is the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although chemotherapy and radiotherapy enhance the survival rate of cancerous patients but they have several acute toxic effects. Therefore, there is a need to search for new anticancer agents having better efficacy and lesser side effects. In this regard, herbal treatment is found to be a safe method for treating and preventing cancer. Here, an attempt has been made to screen some less explored medicinal plants like Ammania baccifera, Asclepias curassavica, Azadarichta indica, Butea monosperma, Croton tiglium, Hedera nepalensis, Jatropha curcas, Momordica charantia, Moringa oleifera, Psidium guajava, etc. having potent anticancer activity with minimum cytotoxic value (IC50 >3μM) and lesser or negligible toxicity. They are rich in active phytochemicals with a wide range of drug targets. In this study, these medicinal plants were evaluated for dose-dependent cytotoxicological studies via in vitro MTT assay and in vivo tumor models along with some more plants which are reported to have IC50 value in the range of 0.019-0.528 mg/ml. The findings indicate that these plants inhibit tumor growth by their antiproliferative, pro-apoptotic, anti-metastatic and anti-angiogenic molecular targets. They are widely used because of their easy availability, affordable price and having no or sometimes minimal side effects. This review provides a baseline for the discovery of anticancer drugs from medicinal plants having minimum cytotoxic value with minimal side effects and establishment of their analogues for the welfare of mankind.

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