Anti-hyperalgesic and anti-inflammatory activity of Alternanthera maritima extract and 2″-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosylvitexin in mice

Alternanthera maritima are used in Brazilian popular medicine for the treatment of inflammatory and infectious diseases. Species of Alternanthera have demonstrated biological activities in previous scientific studies. The aim of this study was to determine whether the ethanol extract of the aerial parts of A. maritima (EEAM) and the isolated compound 2″-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-vitexin inhibit mechanical hyperalgesia and parameters of inflammation in mice. The oral administration of EEAM significantly inhibited carrageenan (Cg)-induced paw edema and reduced leukocyte migration into the pleural cavity. 2″-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosylvitexin significantly inhibited paw edema and reduced both leukocyte migration and the leakage of protein into the pleural cavity. Both EEAM and 2″-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosylvitexin significantly prevented the Cg-induced hyperalgesia. Local administration of 2″-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosylvitexin significantly prevented the Cg- and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-induced hyperalgesia. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that EEAM is an anti-inflammatory and anti-hyperalgesic agent, and the results suggested that 2″-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosylvitexin is responsible for the effects of EEAM and the mechanism involves the TNF pathway.

Tempos de barbante: declínio e revitalização da literatura de cordel. Da Primeira República à contemporaneidade

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Mutagenic Activity of Glycoallkaloids from Solanum palinacanthum Dunal (Solanaceae) in the Brazilian cerrado

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A Cultura clerical e a folia popular

Este artigo aborda o confronto entre um catolicismo autoritário, tridentino e romanizador, que penetrou no Brasil na segunda metade do século XIX e se consolidou nas primeiras décadas do século XX, e o catolicismo tradicional vigente, de fortes raízes populares. em sua obsessão pela unanimidade, o ultramontanismo negou as outras formas de ser católico, estabelecendo as dicotomias entre o velho e o novo, o bom e o mau. Entretanto, as velhas formas de religiosidade popular resistiram, mantendo ainda hoje uma inesgotável fonte de devoção e de fé.

A quantitative and qualitative evaluation of reports of clinical trials published in six Brazilian dental journals indexed in the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO)

Introduction: Open access publishing is becoming increasingly popular within the biomedical sciences. SciELO, the Scientific Electronic Library Online, is a digital library covering a selected collection of Brazilian scientific journals many of which provide open access to full-text articles. This library includes a number of dental journals some of which may include reports of clinical trials in English, Portuguese and/or Spanish. Thus, SciELO could play an important role as a source of evidence for dental healthcare interventions especially if it yields a sizeable number of high quality reports. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify reports of clinical trials by handsearching of dental journals that are accessible through SciELO, and to assess the overall quality of these reports. Material and methods: Electronic versions of six Brazilian dental Journals indexed in SciELO were handsearched at www.scielo.br in September 2008. Reports of clinical trials were identified and classified as controlled clinical trials (CCTs - prospective, experimental studies comparing 2 or more healthcare interventions in human beings) or randomized controlled trials (RCTs - a random allocation method is clearly reported), according to Cochrane eligibility criteria. Criteria to assess methodological quality included: method of randomization, concealment of treatment allocation, blinded outcome assessment, handling of withdrawals and losses and whether an intention-to-treat analysis had been carried out. Results: The search retrieved 33 CCTs and 43 RCTs. A majority of the reports provided no description of either the method of randomization (75.3%) or concealment of the allocation sequence (84.2%). Participants and outcome assessors were reported as blinded in only 31.2% of the reports. Withdrawals and losses were only clearly described in 6.5% of the reports and none mentioned an intention-to-treat analysis or any similar procedure. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that a substantial number of reports of trials and systematic reviews are available in the dental journals listed in SciELO, and that these could provide valuable evidence for clinical decision making. However, it is clear that the quality of a number of these reports is of some concern and that improvement in the conduct and reporting of these trials could be achieved if authors adhered to internationally accepted guidelines, e. g. the CONSORT statement.

Walking for leisure among adults from three Brazilian cities and its association with perceived environment attributes and personal factors

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Protease inhibition activity of extracts from Salicaceae species from Brazilian Cerrado and Atlantic Rain Forest and of an enriched fraction of clerodane diterpenes (casearins)

Considerando o uso popular de Casearia sylvestris Sw., Salicaceae, para o tratamento de problemas gástricos e resultados pré-clínicos que mostraram potencial atividade anti-ulcerogênica, foi realizado um screening farmacológico para avaliar a atividade biológica de outras espécies de Salicaceae. Para isso, foi utilizado um ensaio de inibição de proteases como um modelo farmacológico molecular para screening de extratos com atividade anti-ulcerogênica. Os extratos etanólico e aquoso dos galhos e folhas de C. gossypiosperma, C. decandra e C. rupestris mostraram inibição da atividade da pepsina em aproximadamente 50% com a concentração de 1 μg/mL. Curiosamente, C. obliquoa e Flacourtia ramontchi não apresentaram atividade sobre a pepsina, mas seus extratos mais apolares mostraram atividade inibitória sobre a subtilisina. A fração enriquecida de diterpenos clerodânicos mostrou atividade inibitória (42,75%) sobre a pepsina com a concentração de 1 μg/mL, mas não sobre a subtilisina (23,76%). Os resultados obtidos com os extratos e folhas das espécies testadas mostraram um padrão de atividade diferente sobre os dois tipos de proteases, a pepsina e a subtilisina, as quais estão relacionadas com diferentes tipos de atividades biológicas. Ainda mais, os resultados com a fração enriquecida de diterpenos clerodânicos sugerem que estas substâncias podem estar relacionadas com a atividade do extrato bruto de C. sylvestris.

Uma escola para homem rural: a cultura popular, os camponeses e o movimento de educação de base (1960-1964)

Nos idos dos anos 1960, a intervenção sobre a cultura popular tornou-se um suposto da ação política de agentes modernizadores da sociedade brasileira. Por meio da Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil (CNBB), a Igreja Católica elaborou um projeto educacional de dimensão nacional, articulando suas emissoras de rádio no território brasileiro aos centros de educação radiofônica rural e criando, em 1961, o Movimento de Educação de Base (MEB). Os pressupostos teóricos e filosóficos do Movimento transcendiam as questões do aprendizado formal e pautavam-se por estratégias de ação da Igreja sobre os problemas de crescimento econômico e desenvolvimento social das regiões pobres brasileiras. O artigo em questãoversa sobre o camponês que participou do MEB e suas experiências escolares, avaliando os preceitos de educação rural, educação cívica e alfabetização de adultos propostos na ação dos agentes e das instituições modernizadoras do campo brasileiro. Analisamos os processos de assimilação e resistência do camponês aos princípios e projetos modernizantes externos à sua cultura. Novos ritmos de tempo, novas representações e novos significados foram introduzidos pela escola sobre práticas culturais seculares do campesinato brasileiro. No MEB, tal fenômeno resultou tanto na assimilação dos novos estímulos trazidos pela escola, quanto na insurreição de costumes e hábitos interligados às funções ritualísticas e costumeiras do indivíduo e/ou da comunidade rural.

Genetic variability in natural populations of Zeyheria montana mart. from the Brazilian Cerrado

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Natural Conditions and Environmental Impacts in a Coastal Hydrographic Basin in the Brazilian Amazon

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Assessment of DNA damage by extracts and fractions of Strychnos pseudoquina, a Brazilian medicinal plant with antiulcerogenic activity

Strychnos pseudoquina St. Hil. is a native plant of the Brazilian Savannah, used in popular medicine to treat a number of conditions. Since it contains large quantities of alkaloids with proven antiulcer activity, we tested the genotoxic potential of crude extracts and fractions containing alkaloids and flavonoids from the leaves of this plant, on Salmonella typhimurium and performed the micronucleus test on peripheral blood cells of mice treated in vivo. The results showed that the methanol extract of the leaves of S. pseudoquina is mutagenic to the TA98 (-S9) and TA100 (+S9, -S9) strains of Salmonella. The dichloromethane extract was not mutagenic to any of the tested strains. Fractions enriched with alkaloids or flavonoids were not mutagenic. In vivo tests were done on the crude methanol extract in albino Swiss mice, which were treated, by gavage, with three different doses of the extract. The highest dose tested (1800 mg/kg b.w.) induced micronuclei after acute treatment, confirming the mutagenic potential of the methanol extract of the leaves of S. pseudoquina. In high doses, constituents of S. pseudoquina compounds act on DNA, causing breaks and giving rise to micronuclei in the blood cells of treated animals. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Conhecimento popular sobre plantas medicinais em comunidades rurais de mata atlântica - Itacaré, BA, Brasil

This study's goal was to caryy out an ethnobotanical survey focusing on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants within two rural communities (Marambaia and Camboinha), which are situated in an Environmental Protection Area in Atlantic Forest of Southern Bahia, Brazil. These communities use medicinal plants as an important therapeutic activity, which permits the rural inhabitants to be self-sufficient regarding health care. Data were collected through interviews with 26 families (24% of the total). The medicinal plants collected (98 species) were catalogued, identified and deposited at the Herbarium Rio Clarense (HRCB). They belong to 40 families so that Lamiaceae was the most cited. The majority of these species (78%) are cultivated, usually in backyards by local inhabitants. The leaf is the most common part of the plant used in medicinal preparations. The species with the greatest number of citations were Chenopodium ambrosioides L. and Lippia alba (Mill) N.E. Br. These species are also associated with the highest number of therapeutic uses. Use agreement and diversity index from this survey were compared to other surveys conducted in Brazilian Tropical Forests.

(RE)arranjos de uma utopia do som nacional: A bossa nova como realização do projeto musical modernista de Mário de Andrade

This text aims to argument about the historic relation between Mário de Andrade's project to Brazilian music (his national sound utopia, as Arnaldo Contier called it) and one of its possible realization with bossa nova. The text presents in general lines the Andradian project, its committed character, its incursions in the problems of popular and erudite and its filiations to the national obsession with formation. It exposes punctually the possible comprehension of bossa nova as a modernist project, suggesting a logicality of continuity in Brazilian musical experience.

Mutagenic activity of glycoallkaloids from Solanum palinacanthum dunal (Solanaceae) found in the Brazilian cerrado

Solanaceous plants are widely distributed around the world and they are traditionally used as drugs for the treatment of cancer and herpes, and include familiar foods such as potato, tomato and eggplant and some berries popular in Brazil. As part of a program of research on pharmacologically active new molecules, the aim in this study was to assess the mutagenic effects of Solanum palinacanthum, known popularly as joá. The crude 95% ethanol extract and purified solamargine obtained from the fruits of S. palinacanthum Dunal were investigated by the Ames test, using the Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98, TA97a, TA100 and TA102 as test organisms, with and without metabolic activation. The concentrations tested ranged from 0.07 to 15.0 mg/plate for the crude ethanolic extract and from 1.25 to 5.0 mg/plate for the solamargine. The results showed a mutagenic effect of both the extract and the solamargine in the TA98 strain (without metabolic activation). The present study showed the potential mutagenicity and suggests confirming this effect in other models, before recommending their indiscriminate consumption by the population.