scholarly journals Spices for taming the COVID-19 pandemic: Prospects and perspectives

Author(s):  
S J Eapen

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), first reported in December 2019 from Wuhan in China, had reached the stage of a pandemic. To date (28.06.2021), there are more than 181.9 million confirmed cases of the disease in the world. Even though vaccines have been developed, antiviral drugs are yet to be developed for management and treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Since several medicinal plants are used in traditional medicines, though with controversial efficacy claims, they can be considered as sources of new antiviral drug compounds against emerging viruses. In this context, spices are noteworthy as their anti-oxidant, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and immunostimulatory properties are well studied and documented. The emerging scientific literature includes a number of papers on the anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of spice extracts and specific compounds proven through different types of laboratory experiments. Here, the information pertaining to anti-viral properties of spice-based phytochemicals or natural compounds (not crude extracts) is summarized in this review. Spice-based compounds discussed here are an option for testing in COVID-19 patients though we don’t have strong data to support their active recommendation. Because of their natural origin, safety, and low cost, they can be a viable option in our fight against viruses and this compilation may be useful for planning and designing more robust experiments in future.

Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asim Ali Yaqoob ◽  
Tabassum Parveen ◽  
Khalid Umar ◽  
Mohamad Nasir Mohamad Ibrahim

Water is an essential part of life and its availability is important for all living creatures. On the other side, the world is suffering from a major problem of drinking water. There are several gases, microorganisms and other toxins (chemicals and heavy metals) added into water during rain, flowing water, etc. which is responsible for water pollution. This review article describes various applications of nanomaterial in removing different types of impurities from polluted water. There are various kinds of nanomaterials, which carried huge potential to treat polluted water (containing metal toxin substance, different organic and inorganic impurities) very effectively due to their unique properties like greater surface area, able to work at low concentration, etc. The nanostructured catalytic membranes, nanosorbents and nanophotocatalyst based approaches to remove pollutants from wastewater are eco-friendly and efficient, but they require more energy, more investment in order to purify the wastewater. There are many challenges and issues of wastewater treatment. Some precautions are also required to keep away from ecological and health issues. New modern equipment for wastewater treatment should be flexible, low cost and efficient for the commercialization purpose.


UNICIÊNCIAS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Patrícia Tâmara Alves Rodrigues ◽  
Ravely Casarotti Orlandelli

Diversos poluentes – tais como: os compostos orgânicos e inorgânicos e metais pesados, resultantes de atividades antrópica – contribuem com a degradação de ambientes terrestres e aquáticos. Nesse cenário, surge a fitorremediação: uma técnica de biorremediação, em que determinadas espécies de plantas são utilizadas como agentes de descontaminação, removendo, imobilizando ou tornando os contaminantes menos ofensivos ao ecossistema. Embora recente, essa técnica tem apresentado respostas positivas concernentes à descontaminação de água e solos. Assim, o presente artigo teve como objetivo relacionar diferentes espécies de plantas com potencial remediador frente a diversos tipos de contaminantes. Para tanto, foi realizada uma revisão da literatura científica nacional e internacional, a partir da busca de estudos disponíveis no Google Acadêmico, PubMed, Portal de Periódicos da CAPES, SciELO, além de livros de referência, dissertações e teses. As publicações analisadas atestaram que, embora seja uma tecnologia ainda em desenvolvimento, são notáveis diversas vantagens da fitorremediação, como o baixo custo de implantação e sua natureza não invasiva. Além disso, pode ser destacado o potencial fitorremediador recentemente descrito para diferentes espécies vegetais.Palavras-chave: Fitorremediação. Descontaminação Ambiental. Metais Pesados. Herbicidas. Efluentes Industriais.AbstractSeveral pollutants – such as organic and inorganic compounds and heavy metals, resulting from anthropic activities – contribute to the errestrial and aquatic environments degradation. In this scenario, phytoremediation emerges: a bioremediation technique in which certain plant species are used as decontamination agents, removing, immobilizing or making the contaminants less offensive to the ecosystem. Although recent, this technique has presented positive results concerning the water and soil decontamination. Thus, the present article aimed at relating different plant species with potential to remediate different types of contaminants. For this, a review of the national and international scientific literature was carried out, based on the search of studies available in Google Scholar, PubMed, CAPES Periodicals Portal, SciELO, as well as reference books, dissertations and theses. The analyzed publications show that, although it is a technology still in development, several advantages of phytoremediation are remarkable, such as the low cost of implantation and its noninvasive nature. Moreover, the phytoremediation potential recently described for different plant species can be higlighted.Keywords: Phytoremediation. Environmental Decontamination. Heavy Metals. Herbicides. Industrial Effluents.


Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4418 (4) ◽  
pp. 301 ◽  
Author(s):  
GÜNTER VOGT

The marbled crayfish Procambarus virginalis is a new obligately parthenogenetic species that was detected in the mid-1990s in the German aquarium trade. Since then it has become a popular pet in many countries throughout the world and a valuable laboratory model for a broad range of biological disciplines. Releases have led to the establishment of wild populations in several European countries, Madagascar and probably Japan, making marbled crayfish an interesting paradigm of evolutionarily young and ongoing bioinvasions. This article provides an annotated bibliography of the scientific and popular scientific literature on marbled crayfish from its detection until today. Each reference is assigned to a publication format and one or more biological categories. The content is shortly described and its significance for marbled crayfish research and general biology is assessed. Of the 239 references listed 140 (58.6%) deal primarily with laboratory experiments on the biology of marbled crayfish and the establishment and use of marbled crayfish as a research model, 74 (31.0%) with its biogeography, invasions and ecology and 25 (10.4%) with hobby aquarist issues and the pet trade.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Awham M. Hameed ◽  
Mohammad T. Hamza

The recycling and reusing of waste materials to produce suitable materials is very important subjects to scientific research in world now, because the decrease natural resources and create a hole or risk in future of the world. The aim of our research to produce polymer concrete (PC) has high mechanical and physical characteristic. This PC was prepared by using the waste of aggregates and demolitions to make PC have good mechanical and physical characteristic with low cost as compared as cement concrete. In this research different types of construction and demolition waste were used as aggregates replacement (i.e. waste of cement/concrete debris, waste of ceramics and the waste of blocks) while the type of polymer resins (i.e. Epoxy) as cement replacements. The weight percentages of resin were changed within (20, 25 and 30) % to manufacture this polymer concrete. The tests we done like physical such as den-sity and mechanical such as compressive strength, flexural strength. Splitting tensile strength and Schmidt hammer rebound hardness.


Author(s):  
Y. Arockia Suganthi ◽  
Chitra K. ◽  
J. Magelin Mary

Dengue fever is a painful mosquito-borne infection caused by different types of virus in various localities of the world. There is no particular medicine or vaccine to treat person suffering from dengue fever. Dengue viruses are transmitted by the bite of female Aedes (Ae) mosquitoes. Dengue fever viruses are mainly transmitted by Aedes which can be active in tropical or subtropical climates. Aedes Aegypti is the key step to avoid infection transmission to save millions of people in all over the world. This paper provides a standard guideline in the planning of dengue prevention and control measures. At the same time gives the priorities including clinical management and hospitalized dengue patients have to address essentially.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 3309-3315
Author(s):  
Manahil B Elamin ◽  
Amani Abd Elrazig Salman Abd Elaziz ◽  
Emad Mohamed Abdallah

Heterocyclic chemistry has provided an inexhaustible source of pharmaceutical molecules. Heterocyclic compounds such as benzothiazole moieties and its derivatives area substantial class of compounds in pharmaceutical chemistry and exhibited therapeutic capabilities, such as antitumor, anticancer, antioxidant, antidiabetic, antiviral, antimicrobial, antimalarial, anthelmintic and other activities. Besides, some antibiotics such as penicillin and cephalosporin have heterocyclic moiety. The growing prevalence of multi-drug resistant pathogens represents serious global concern,which requires the development of new antimicrobial drugs. Moreover, the emergence of pandemic SARSCoV-2 causing Covid-19 disease and all these health dilemmas urge the scientific community to examine the possible antimicrobial and antiviral capacities of some bioactive benzothiazole derivatives against these severe causative agents.This mini-review highlights some recent scientific literature on different benzothiazole molecules and their derivatives. It turns out that, there are numerous synthesized benzothiazole derivatives which exhibited different mode of actions against microorganisms or viruses and accordingly suggested them as an active candidate in the discovery of new antimicrobial or antiviral agents for clinical development. The recommended bioactive benzothiazole derivatives mentioned in the current study are mainly Schiff bases, azo dyes and metal complexes benzothiazole derivatives; the starting material for most of these derivatives are 2-aminobenzothiazole although careful pharmaceutical studies should be conducted to ensure the safety and efficacy of these bioactive synthesized molecules as an antimicrobial or antiviral drug in the future.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 1278-1285
Author(s):  
Mohamed Yafout ◽  
Amine Ousaid ◽  
Ibrahim Sbai El Otmani ◽  
Youssef Khayati ◽  
Amal Ait Haj Said

The new SARS-CoV-2 belonging to the coronaviruses family has caused a pandemic affecting millions of people around the world. This pandemic has been declared by the World Health Organization as an international public health emergency. Although several clinical trials involving a large number of drugs are currently underway, no treatment protocol for COVID-19 has been officially approved so far. Here we demonstrate through a search in the scientific literature that the traditional Moroccan pharmacopoeia, which includes more than 500 medicinal plants, is a fascinating and promising source for the research of natural molecules active against SARS-CoV-2. Multiple in-silico and in-vitro studies showed that some of the medicinal plants used by Moroccans for centuries possess inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2. These inhibitory activities are achieved through the different molecular mechanisms of virus penetration and replication, or indirectly through stimulation of immunity. Thus, the potential of plants, plant extracts and molecules derived from plants that are traditionally used in Morocco and have activity against SARS-CoV-2, could be explored in the search for a preventive or curative treatment against COVID-19. Furthermore, safe plants or plant extracts that are proven to stimulate immunity could be officially recommended by governments as nutritional supplements.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 475-481
Author(s):  
Jotheeswari P ◽  
Yuvaraj M ◽  
Balaji K ◽  
Gunapriya Raghunath ◽  
Kumaresan M

COVID-19 is a current sensational and dangerous threat that affects millions of people across the world. As the day progresses the rate of growth of COVID-19 drastically increases. No vaccine or specific antiviral drug are active against corona, therefore, preventing the exposure to the virus is the base of support against its spread across the world. Despite the implementation of preventive measures, the rate of virus-infected cases progressively increases which stimulates our thought process to raise a question, whether the preventive measures that we follow are effective against the spread of COVID-19 infection. Evidence from previous literature obtained from various online tools implies multiple preventive measures that should be followed and also illustrates their mechanism of action against the active spread of COVID-19 infection. According to the results from the evidence, we can identify the gold standard preventive measure among the described preventive measures. The precautionary measure encompasses both pharmaceutical interventions and non- pharmaceutical interventions among which non-pharmaceutical measures are superior in the prevention of the developing pandemic. Among the non-pharmaceutical interventions, social distancing is the paramount to other measures in the mitigation of the spread of viral infection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-53
Author(s):  
Галина Глембоцкая ◽  
Galina Glembockaya ◽  
Станислав Еремин ◽  
Stanislav Eremin

In order to identify promising strategic development possibilities for the pharmaceutical industry in the Russian Federation, a pilot study was conducted, which has analyzed the main trends in the development of innovative medicines. As a result of the content analysis of available sources of scientific literature, the characteristics of options used in the world practice for increasing the innovative activity of individual subjects and the pharmaceutical market as a whole are presented. Possible reserves for the further development of the innovative component of the pharmaceutical market within the framework of the concept of personalized medicine according to the P4 principle (predictive - personalized - preventive - participatory) are identified and structured. The results of use by individual pharmaceutical companies of scientifically and practically justified approaches to optimizing the costs of development and promoting drugs are presented. The advantages and real prospects of a generally accepted method to reduce the cost of development by «expanding the pharmacological effect» (label expansion) of already existing drugs with a known safety profile in the world practice are shown. A scientific generalization and structuring of the goals and results of the post-registration phase of clinical trials to expand the pharmacological action of a number of drugs already existed at the market have been carried out.


2020 ◽  
pp. 65-75
Author(s):  
S. N. Smirnov

The author considers the problems of typification of society. Some concepts of typification of social stratification models in different countries formulated and justified in historical and legal, historical, sociological, and economic scientific literature are reviewed. The circumstances that make it difficult to formulate universal concepts designed for application in the complex of social Sciences are identified. These circumstances include insufficient consideration of legal factors, including the position of the legislator, the specifics of the corporate legal status, and the characteristics of the mechanism for changing individual legal status. The author offers a variant of classification of society types from the point of view of legal registration of their structure. The possibility of distinguishing types such as consolidated companies and segmented companies is justified.


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