Edna Tomiko Myiake Kato

Morfoanatomia de folhas e caules de Passiflora edulis Sims, Passifloraceae

Passiflora edulis Sims, especie vegetal empregada na medicina popular e amplamente cultivada no territorio nacional, tem suas folhas e seus caules, muitas vezes utilizados como adulterante de amostras comerciais da droga vegetal oficializada no pais tambem conhecida como maracuja, Passiflora alata Curtis. Caracteres morfoanatomicos de folhas e de caules de P. edulis, foram descritos e documentados. Dentre os caracteres auxiliares na distincao entre a droga oficial e os orgaos aereos de P. edulis podem-se destacar o contorno da lâmina foliar, a forma da nervura mediana em seccao transversal, o numero e a localizacao de nectarios extraflorais e, o indumento

Challenges and Future Prospects of Nanoemulsion as a Drug Delivery System

Nanoemulsion has the potential to overcome several disadvantages in drug formulation. Loading poor water-soluble drugs in the appropriate nanoemulsions enhances their wettability and/or solubility. Consequently, this improves their pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics by different routes of administration. Associated with the optimum nanodroplets size or even combined with key components, the droplets act as a reservoir of drugs, enabling nanoemulsion to be multifunctional platform to treat diverse diseases. A number of important advantages, which comprise nanoemulsion attributes, such as efficient drug release with appropriate rate, prolonged efficacy, drug uptake control, low side effects and drug protection properties from enzymatic or oxidative processes, have been reported in last decade. The high flexibility of nanoemulsion includes also a variety of manufacturing process options and a combination of widely assorted components such as surfactants, liquid lipids or even drug-conjugates. These features provide alternatives for designing innovative nanoemulsions aiming at high-value applications. This review presents the challenges and prospects of different nanoemulsion types and its application. The drug interaction with the components of the formulation, as well as the drug mechanistic interaction with the biological environment of different routes of administration are also presented.

Possible adverse reactions to herbal products: a study with individuals who resort to popular medicine in the city of Diadema, SP, Brazil.

The present study aimed to investigate the occurrence of adverse reactions (ADRs) related to herbal products (HPs), which are purchased over‐the‐counter for self‐treatment, reported by 100 users. Samples of the HPs related to those ADRs were purchased for their pharmacobotanical identification. The ADRs reported were evaluated based on specialized literature and were analyzed according to causality into probable (PR), possible (PO), unrelated (UR) or unclassifiable (UC); according to expectance into unexpected adverse reaction (UNEX) and expected adverse reaction (EX); seriousness into serious adverse event or reaction (S) and non‐serious (NS); and severity into mild (MI), moderate (MO) and severe (SE). Among 100 interviews, five complaints of ADRs were reported in relation to HPs: Senna alexandrina, with a report of cramps (PR; MI; EX; NS); Camellia sinensis, associated with tachycardia (PO; MI; EX; NS); Bauhinia sp., a strong allergic reaction that led to hospitalization (UC; MO; UNEX; S); Picrasma crenata, with several symptoms and hospitalization (UR; MO; UNEX; S); and 21‐herb tea, related to an allergic reaction (UC; MI; EX; NS). The strategies used in this study allowed us to carry out an analysis of ADRs attributed to HPs. This analysis could serve as a model in the study of similar cases. Copyright