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Thursday 26 February 2015

Meetings between Kinder Morgan and feds leave no paper trail via @VanObserver http://tinyurl.com/mcrflky

Meetings between Kinder Morgan and feds leave no paper trail via @VanObserver http://tinyurl.com/mcrflky

The Tyee The Entitled Get More Brazen by the Day

The Entitled Get More Brazen by the Day | The Tyee http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/02/23/Entitled-Get-Brazen/ via @TheTyee

How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts

Candis Callison's new book, How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts (Duke UP, 2014) is being launched at the Liu Institute March 9th at 4 pm.

More information can be found here:

 http://www.ligi.ubc.ca/?p2=modules/liu/events/view.jsp&id=1301



Please note, this event precedes the next Science & Society talk at Green College (5 pm the same day, March 9th).

“Which Self? The Rationalities of Self-Interest from the Enlightenment to the Cold War” March 30, 2015 4:30-6:00pm Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Room 182

** ANNOUNCING: This year's Straker Lecture will be given by Lorraine Daston **

We have employed the UBC Aumni Office to run registration for the Straker Lecture. Please take a a minute or two to register for the event by following this link:

http://www.gifttool.com/registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=1420&EID=19661.

Information about Daston's talk can be found on the STS website and below.
http://sts.arts.ubc.ca/colloquium-events/stephen-straker-memorial-lecture/



“Which Self? The Rationalities of Self-Interest from the Enlightenment to the Cold War”
March 30, 2015
4:30-6:00pm
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Room 182



Lorraine J. Daston, one of the world’s leading historians of science, is Executive Director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and Visiting Professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. Daston has held visiting or continuing appointments with institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, Brandeis, Göttingen, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. She has also held fellowships in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Forschung in Bielefeld, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Institut des études avancées in Paris. In 2012, Daston was awarded the History of Science Society’s George Sarton Medal, a lifetime achievement award that is given annually to an outstanding historian of science from the international community.
Among Daston’s many publications are Classical Probability in the Enlightenment (Princeton UP, 1989), Wonders and the Order of Nature (Zone, 1998, with Katherine Park), Objectivity (Zone, 2007, with Peter Galison), and most recently (with many others), How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind: The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality (U Chicago P, 2013). Daston’s Straker Lecture will be drawn from her continuing work on the history of rationality.


the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Diana Kormos-Buchwald


 

In His Own Words: the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein

Diana Kormos-Buchwald

California Institute of Technology
Einstein continues the fascinate the public 60 yrs after his death, and 100 yrs after his monumental General Theory of Relativity was born. Everything, from his admittedly turbulent romantic life to his views on religion, psychology, and politics, have been fair game. But only now are we getting a clear picture of this. Einstein's massive written legacy comprises some 1,000 writings and 29,000 items of correspondence, that allow insight into one of the most effervescent periods in the history of science. The ongoing edition of his manuscripts - the "Einstein project" - one of the most ambitious contemporary scholarly publication efforts ever attempted, has transformed received perceptions of Einstein, and continues to illuminate novel aspects of his life and work.
To learn more please visit her webpage.
 http://www.hss.caltech.edu/content/diana-l-kormos-buchwald


the Centenary of General Relativity:

Wed Apr 01, 2015
St. John's College
Steve Carlip (UC, Davis):
Quantum Black Holes 

http://pitp.physics.ubc.ca/quant_lect/2015/Carlip.html

The cost of delaying action to stem climate change: A meta-analysis | VOX, CEPR’s Policy Portal

The cost of delaying action to stem climate change: A meta-analysis | VOX, CEPR’s Policy Portal

Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America

Book Documenting Northwest Native American Uses of Medicinal Plants is Recipient of 2014 ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award

Ancient Pathways(AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 25, 2015) The nonprofit American Botanical Council (ABC) is pleased to announce the recipient of its 2014 James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award. Nancy J. Turner, PhD, will receive the award for her two-volume work — Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014) — which is based on her research concerning the plants, practices, and ecology of native tribes. Dr. Turner is an ethnobotanist and Distinguished Professor and Hakai Professor in Ethnoecology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

The ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award was created in 2006 in honor of noted economic botanist and author, James A. Duke, PhD. It is awarded annually to books that provide a significant contribution to the literature in the fields of botany, taxonomy, ethnobotany, phytomedicine, or other disciplines related to the vast field of medicinal plants. Along with his expansive and prestigious career achievements in economic botany and ethnobotany and decades of work at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Dr. Duke has authored more than 30 reference and consumer books. He is also a co-founding member of ABC’s Board of Trustees and currently serves as Director Emeritus.

Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge represents four years of research and writing, drawing from Dr. Turner’s previous work and publications. She compiled a database of plant names from approximately 50 Indigenous languages and major dialects of the First Peoples, whose territories extend through most of the area covered in the book — from central Alaska to the Columbia River and east to the Rocky Mountains in western North America. “That showed some amazing connections, in some cases across long distances, that must have resulted from communication and linkages going way back into the past,” said Dr. Turner.

“I tried to write the book in an accessible way,” Dr. Turner continued, “so that it would be useful and of interest to a large and diverse group, from undergraduate university and college students to interested members of the general public. Most especially, I wanted to honor the elders and knowledge holders from Indigenous communities, and hope that younger generations will find the information in the book relevant and important as a part of their own cultural heritage.”

As Dr. Duke noted in his review of Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge in issue 105 of ABC’s peer-reviewed journal HerbalGram, “I have long admired Dr. Turner’s great work. As I skim pleasantly through her books, I can see interesting parallels between the late, great [Harvard ethnobotanist] R.E. Schultes, PhD, and his students assembling anthropological and ethnobotanical data on the First Amazonian Americans into a solid framework. Nancy and her students have done the same for approximately 500 ethnobotanical species of the First Americans in Northwest America.”
Nancy Turner
Dr. Nancy J. Turner


Dr. Turner, who has been studying ethnobotany and the cultures of Indigenous American peoples since 1967, has taught full-time at the University of Victoria since 1991. She has written more than 20 books and numerous articles, and also has an impressive array of awards, grants, and honors to her name, including Distinguished Economic Botanist of the Year from the Society for Economic Botany in 2011 and appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2009. ABC has proudly included her on its Advisory Board since 1996. Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge represents the culmination of a career of almost 50 years.


“I was always interested in plants and people,” said Dr. Turner. “Once I learned that this study was called ethnobotany … that’s what I wanted to study. It’s in my high-school yearbook (1965). I remember [that] in grade four, I was already serving dandelion and wild greens salad to my friends, much to their parents’ concern.” Thanks to her continued dedication to teaching through experience, Dr. Turner’s students absorb much more than names and places, and it is this idea that permeates her text. “[The students] learn that humans can live within Nature without destroying it, working with natural processes and Nature’s wonderful abilities to regenerate and restore itself,” she said.

“Dr. Nancy J. Turner collects, preserves, and explores biological information for (not from) Indigenous cultures, primarily First Nation groups in British Columbia,” said Steven Foster, noted author, photographer, and former president of the ABC Board of Trustees. “Her five decades of shared wisdom challenge how we think about people as a part of, rather than apart from, ecosystems. Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge is a magnum opus of timeless value that will define ethnobiology and ethnoecology for generations forward.”

“Ethnobotany is a key foundation of modern herbal medicine,” said ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal. “Much of the herbal knowledge we have today is based on the traditional uses of plants by people in Indigenous cultures. Nancy Turner’s documentation of the plant use in northwestern North America is a true treasure.”

Past recipients of the James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award include Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy: Modern Herbal Medicine, 2nd ed (Churchill Livingstone) by Kerry Bone and Simon Mills in 2013; Medicinal Plants and the Legacy of Richard E. Schultes (Missouri Botanical Garden) by Bruce E. Ponman and Rainer W. Bussmann, PhD, in the reference/technical category and Smoke Signals (Scribner) by Martin A. Lee in the consumer/popular category in 2012; Healing Spices (Sterling Publishing) by Bharat B. Aggarwal, PhD, in the consumer/popular category and the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia’s Botanical Pharmacognosy (CRC Press) in the reference/technical category in 2011; Botanical Medicine for Women’s Health (Churchill Livingstone) by Aviva Romm, MD, in 2010; An Oak Spring Herbaria (Oak Spring Garden Library) by Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi and Tony Willis in 2009; Mabberley's Plant-Book, 3rd ed (Cambridge University Press) by David J. Mabberley, PhD, in 2008; Google Book Search in 2007; Medicinal Spices (MedPharm Scientific Publishers) by Eberhard Teuscher, PhD, in 2006; and The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety (Churchill Livingstone) by Simon Mills and Kerry Bone in 2005.

Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge can be purchased for $100.00 through the publisher, the American Botanical Council online bookstore, and other online retailers. (ABC members receive 10% off when purchasing from the online bookstore.)

The ABC James A. Duke Excellence in Botanical Literature Award will be presented at the 10th Annual ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony on March 5, 2015, in Anaheim, California. The event, for ABC Sponsor Members, occurs during the NEXT Innovation Summit nutrition, natural products, and dietary supplements conference and Natural Products Expo West.

The ABC Botanical Celebration and Awards Ceremony is underwritten by generous contributions from the following members of the herb, dietary supplement, and natural products industry:

Alkemist Labs
Amin Talati & Upadhye
ChromaDex
EuroPharma
Horphag Research
Indena USA
Martin Bauer Group
MegaFood

Natural Factors Nutritional Products
New Chapter
New Hope Natural Media
PlusPharma
RFI Ingredients
Ryan Turner Specialty
Traditional Medicinals
United Natural Products Alliance

Medicinal plants of the Achuar (Jivaro) of Amazonian Ecuador: Ethnobotanical survey and comparison with other Amazonian pharmacopoeias

Medicinal plants of the Achuar (Jivaro) of Amazonian Ecuador: Ethnobotanical survey and comparison with other Amazonian pharmacopoeias


Abstract

Aim of the Study and Ethnopharmacological relevance

This paper presents the first ethnobotanical survey conducted among the Achuar (Jivaro), indigenous people living in Amazonian Ecuador and Peru. The aims of this study are: (a) to present and discuss Achuar medicinal plant knowledge in the context of the epidemiology of this population (b) to compare the use of Achuar medicinal plants with the uses reported among the Shuar Jivaro and other Amazonian peoples.

Materials and methods

The author conducted field research in 9 indigenous villages in the region of Morona Santiago and Pastaza in Ecuador. Semi-structured interviews on local illnesses and herbal remedies were carried out with 82 informants and plant specimens were collected and later identified in Quito. A literature research was conducted on the medicinal species reported by Achuar people during this study.

Results

The most reported medicinal plants are species used by the Achuar to treat diarrhoea, parasites infection, fractures, wounds, and snakebites. Informants reported the use of 134 medicinal species for a total of 733 recorded use-reports. Of these 134 species, 44 are reported at least 3 times for one or more specific disease condition for a total of 56 uses. These species are considered a core kit of medicinal plants of the Achuar of Ecuador. Most of these medicinal species are widely used in the Amazon rainforest and in many other parts of Latin America.

Conclusion

The author documented a core kit of 44 medicinal plants used among the Achuar of Ecuador and found that this core set of medicinal plants reflects local epidemiological concerns and the pharmacopoeias of the Shuar and other Amazonian groups. These findings suggest that inter-group diffusion of medicinal plant knowledge had a prominent role in the acquisition of current Achuar knowledge of medicinal plants.

Graphical abstract

Full-size image (47 K)

Keywords

  • Ethnomedicine;
  • Achuar;
  • Traditional medicine;
  • Medicinal plant knowledge;
  • Medicinal plants;
  • Amazon;
  • Medicinal plants Ecuador

Correspondence address: Natural Capital and Plant Health Department, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, West Sussex RH17 6TN, UK. Tel. +44 1444 894116; fax +44 1444 894110.

Berberine activates thermogenesis in white and brown adipose tissue http://go.nature.com/ooOzWw

Berberine activates thermogenesis in white and brown adipose tissue http://go.nature.com/ooOzWw

Ageratum conyzoides L.: A review on its phytochemical and pharmacological profile Kamboj A, Saluja AK - Int J Green Pharm

Ageratum conyzoides L.: A review on its phytochemical and pharmacological profile Kamboj A, Saluja AK - Int J Green Pharm

Wednesday 25 February 2015

How Not to Test a Dietary Supplement

How Not to Test a Dietary Supplement http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/dna-barcoding-new-york-dietary-supplement via @newyorker

US Today Pueraria youth-promoting herb for women

http://ustoday.org/health/pueraria-thailands-youth-promoting-herb-for-women/

Pueraria, Thailand’s youth-promoting herb for women

marketformedicinehunter.jpg
Aug. 1, 2014: People buy food during a marketplace in executive Bangkok. (REUTERS)
At a bustling outside marketplace in Thailand, we examined what looked like large, dusty yams. “Oh, that’s Pueraria mirifica,” my botanist crony remarked. “Women use it, generally as they age.” He done a criticism to a lady offered a herb, who forked proudly to both of her breasts with a big, accessible smile. we was uncertain how to take that.
Thailand’s many famous herb, Pueraria mirifica (Pueraria for short) belongs to a same family as soy, and contains a same estrogen-like sterols genistein and daidzein, found in that renouned bean. The herb is also famous as Krao Krua, though this is rather confusing, as that name is also used for a opposite herb used by men. But Pueraria also contains stigmasterol, B-sitosterol, miroestrol and deoxymiroestrol, that possess even aloft estrogenic activity. These healthy agents duty like estrogen in a body. Thus Pueraria can play a profitable youth-promoting purpose in a health of women coming menopause, or during menopause. At this time of life, estrogen levels drop, and women knowledge reduced suppleness of skin, discontinued sex expostulate and lubrication, and mood swings.
The use of Pueraria goes behind many centuries, with a initial justification of a credentials described in a Burmese content from antiquity that survived a sacking of Burma by a advance of Kublai Khan and a Mongol hordes in a late 13th century. The text, found in 1931, recommends pulsation and blending a herb into cow’s divert and immoderate a mixture, to safeguard prolonged life and leisure from disease. The sensibility of this is that a several sterols formerly described are softened engrossed by a physique when churned with some dietary fat, as in cow’s milk.
In Thailand, Pueraria is famous as an age retarding agent. Women who use Pueraria news softened breast firmness, increasing suppleness of skin, some-more sleek hair, increasing lubrication, and towering sex drive. These are fundamentally a same effects a lady would get from extra estrogen as used in hormone deputy therapy. Recently, a Japanese association launched “F-cup Cookies,” that enclose a famous herb. Whether a cookies work as betrothed or not, they have combined a stir in Japan’s fruitful herbal products market.
Toxicity tests uncover that Pueraria is protected during endorsed levels, and tellurian clinical studies uncover that Pueraria does in fact urge earthy and mood symptoms of menopause. The dual many renouned uses for Pueraria among Thai women are for softened breast trust and extended passionate function. Accounts of softened breast trust ensuing from a daily sip of usually 100 milligrams of a base are too countless to ignore. For a claims of softened passionate function, there is some clinical evidence. For a inclusion of Pueraria in creams and lotions for approach focus to breasts for softened firmness, we have found no ancillary literature.
Roaming by several markets in Thailand, we found creams containing Pueraria, liquid potions, capsules, tablets, and sachets for creation tea from a herb. And during a Thai Ministry Of Health, we found a dialect of scientists operative on this herb, uncovering a chemical make-up and a several health benefits. Even during roadside stands we saw Pueraria products of several types, ever prepared to explain health and organisation breasts.
Thailand’s Ministry Of Public Health, identical to a possess NIH, unreservedly endorses Pueraria, and has clinging a good understanding of scholarship to this herb. With a prolonged story of protected use and a low sip required, Pueraria mirifica seems good value perplexing for women coming menopause. The herb is found in some Asian grocery stores, online, and in some healthy food stores. Still comparatively unknown, Pueraria has nonetheless to grasp widespread recognition.
Chris Kilham is a medicine hunter who researches healthy remedies all over a world, from a Amazon to Siberia. He teaches ethnobotany during a University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is Explorer In Residence. Chris advises herbal, cosmetic and curative companies and is a unchanging guest on radio and TV programs worldwide. His margin investigate is mostly sponsored by Naturex of Avignon, France. Read some-more at MedicineHunter.com.



Tuesday 24 February 2015

Wonder of Life (kalanchoe pinnata) leaves to treat diabetic foot infections in Trinidad & Tobago: a case control study

Cheryl, 2 of your publications were cited


New citations




Comparison of plants used for skin and stomach problems in Trinidad and Tobago with Asian ethnomedicine.

Article: Comparison of plants used for skin and stomach problems in Trinidad and Tobago with Asian ...



Cited in 1 publication:



Assessing product adulteration in natural health products for laxative yielding plants, Cassia, Senna, and Chamaecrista, in Southern India using DNA barcoding.

Article: Assessing product adulteration in natural health products for laxative yielding plants, Ca...

Gopalakrishnan Saroja Seethapathy, Doss Ganesh, Jayanthinagar Urumarudappa Santhosh Kumar...
Deutsche Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Gerichtliche Medizin 11/2014

View

Int J Legal Med. 2014 Nov 26. [Epub ahead of print]

Assessing product adulteration in natural health products for laxative yielding plants, Cassia, Senna, and Chamaecrista, in Southern India using DNA barcoding.

Abstract

Medicinal plants such as Cassia, Senna, and Chamaecrista (belonging to the family Fabaceae) are well known for their laxative properties. They are extensively used within indigenous health care systems in India and several other countries. India exports over 5000 metric tonnes per year of these specific herbal products, and the demand for natural health product market is growing at approximately 10-15 % annually. The raw plant material used as active ingredients is almost exclusively sourced from wild populations. Consequently, it is widely suspected that the commercial herbal products claiming to contain these species may be adulterated or contaminated. In this study, we have attempted to assess product authentication and the extent of adulteration in the herbal trade of these species using DNA barcoding. Our method includes four common DNA barcode regions: ITS, matK, rbcL, and psbA-trnH. Analysis of market samples revealed considerable adulteration of herbal products: 50 % in the case of Senna auriculata, 37 % in Senna tora, and 8 % in Senna alexandrina. All herbal products containing Cassia fistula were authentic, while the species under the genus Chamaecrista were not in trade. Our results confirm the suspicion that there is rampant herbal product adulteration in Indian markets. DNA barcodes such as that demonstrated in this study could be effectively used as a regulatory tool to control the adulteration of herbal products and contribute to restoring quality assurance and consumer confidence in natural health products.




Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus.

Article: Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus.



Cited in 1 publication:



Wonder of Life (kalanchoe pinnata) leaves to treat diabetic foot infections in Trinidad & Tobago: a case control study.

Article: Wonder of Life (kalanchoe pinnata) leaves to treat diabetic foot infections in Trinidad & ...

Shamir O Cawich, Patrick Harnarayan, Steve Budhooram...
Tropical Doctor 07/2014

View
Trop Doct. 2014 Oct;44(4):209-13. doi: 10.1177/0049475514543656. Epub 2014 Jul 31.

Wonder of Life (kalanchoe pinnata) leaves to treat diabetic foot infections in Trinidad & Tobago: a case control study.

Abstract

: Wonder of Life (kalanchoe pinnata) leaves are commonly used to treat diabetic foot infections. These patients are usually non-compliant with conventional medical therapy. We surmised that these patients would have a higher incidence of treatment failures. Patients admitted with diabetic foot infections were separated into two groups: a Study Group comprised patients who used topical kalanchoe pinnata and a Medical Therapy Group contained patients who were compliant with conventional treatment. The patients were observed over the course of their hospitalisation.

RESULTS:

There were 382 patients in the Medical Therapy Group and 96 in the Study Group, who waited 9.21 ± 5.3 days (Mean ± SD) before seeking medical attention. There were similar rates of all amputations (34.8% vs. 37.5%; P = 0.643) and mortality (0.8% vs. 1.0%; P = 1.000) in the Study and Medical Therapy groups.

CONCLUSIONS:

There may be value in the use of topical kalanchoe pinnata to treat diabetic foot infections.
© The Author(s) 2014 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.

KEYWORDS:

Diabetes; amputation; infection; mortality; topical
PMID:
25082340
[PubMed - in process]

Antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties of nilavembu kudineer choornam: a classical preparation used in the treatment of chikungunya fever.

Antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties of nilavemb... - PubMed - NCBI http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22014740

Did George Washington Use Medical Marijuana? The Daily Beast

Did George Washington Use Medical Marijuana? http://thebea.st/19neIdk via @thedailybeast

citations

Cheryl, 4 of your publications were cited


New citations




Creole Remedies - Case studies of ethnoveterinary medicine in Trinidad and Tobago

Article: Creole Remedies - Case studies of ethnoveterinary medicine in Trinidad and Tobago



Cited in 1 publication:



Ethnoknowledge of Bukusu community on livestock tick prevention and control in Bungoma district, western Kenya.

Article: Ethnoknowledge of Bukusu community on livestock tick prevention and control in Bungoma dis...

Wycliffe Wanzala, Willem Takken, Wolfgang R Mukabana...

Journal of ethnopharmacology 03/2012 140(2):298-324.

View



J Ethnopharmacol. 2012 Mar 27;140(2):298-324. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2012.01.021. Epub 2012 Jan 24.

Ethnoknowledge of Bukusu community on livestock tick prevention and control in Bungoma district, western Kenya.

Abstract

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE:

To date, nomadic communities in Africa have been the primary focus of ethnoveterinary research. The Bukusu of western Kenya have an interesting history, with nomadic lifestyle in the past before settling down to either arable or mixed arable/pastoral farming systems. Their collective and accumulative ethnoveterinary knowledge is likely to be just as rich and worth documenting.

AIM OF THE STUDY:

The aim of the present study was to document indigenous knowledge of the Bukusu on the effect of livestock ticks and ethnopractices associated with their management. It was envisaged that this would provide a basis for further research on the efficacy of these practices that could also lead to the discovery of useful tick-control agents.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Non-alienating, dialogic, participatory action research (PAR) and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) approaches involving 272 women and men aged between 18 and 118 years from the Bukusu community were used.

RESULTS:

Ticks are traditionally classified and identified by colour, size, host range, on-host feeding sites, and habitat preference. Tick-associated problems recognised include kamabumba (local reference to East Coast fever, Anaplasmosis or Heartwater diseases transmitted by different species of livestock ticks) and general poor performance of livestock. Traditional methods of controlling ticks include handpicking, on-host use of ethnobotanical suspensions (prepared from one or more of over 150 documented plants) to kill the ticks and prevent re-infestation, fumigation of infested cattle with smoke derived from burning ethnobotanical products, burning pastures, rotational grazing ethnopractices, and livestock quarantine.

CONCLUSIONS:

The study confirms that the Bukusu have preserved rich ethnoveterinary knowledge and practices. It provides some groundwork for elucidating the efficacy of some of these ethnopractices in protecting livestock from tick disease vectors, particularly those involving the use of ethnobotanicals, which may lead to the discovery of useful ant-tick agents.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.


Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for reproductive problems.

Article: Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for reproductive problems.



Cited in 1 publication:



Artemisia annua as a possible contraceptive agent: a clue from mammalian rat model

Article: Artemisia annua as a possible contraceptive agent: a clue from mammalian rat model

Amos O. Abolaji, Mbeh U. Eteng, Patrick E. Ebong...

Natural Product Research 07/2014

View

Nat Prod Res. 2014;28(24):2342-6. doi: 10.1080/14786419.2014.936016. Epub 2014 Jul 15.

Artemisia annua as a possible contraceptive agent: a clue from mammalian rat model.

Abstract

In a previous study, we evaluated the maternal and fetal safety of antimalarial herb Artemisia annua with artemisinin yield of 1.09%. Here, we attempted to ascertain the contraceptive claim of A. annua. Sexually matured female Wistar rats (180-220 g) were allotted into four study groups of six rats each. The control group received normal saline, while the A. annua-treated groups received 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg of A. annua for 2 weeks, followed by mating with proven fertile males (1:1). The rats were allowed to carry the pregnancy to term. At birth and weaning periods, selected reproductive outcome and fertility indices were determined. The results showed that A. annua significantly reduced litter size, reproductive outcome and fertility indices compared with the control (p <  0.05). These results imply that A. annua could serve as a prospective contraceptive agent in addition to its antimalarial activity.

KEYWORDS:

Artemisia annua; contraceptive effectiveness; fertility indices; reproductive outcome




Ethnoveterinary medicines used for ruminants in British Columbia, Canada.

Article: Ethnoveterinary medicines used for ruminants in British Columbia, Canada.



Cited in 1 publication:



Seasonal variations in phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of Cornus stolonifera plant material: Applications in agriculture

Article: Seasonal variations in phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of Cornus stolonifera p...

Cara K. Isaak, Jay C. Petkau, O Karmin...

Canadian Journal of Plant Science 07/2013 93(4):725-734.

View

Seasonal variations in phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of Cornus stolonifera plant material: Applications in agriculture

Isaak, C.K., Petkau, J.C., O, K., Ominski, K.H., Rodriguez-Lecompte, J.C., and Siow, Y.L. (2013). "Seasonal variations in phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of Cornus stolonifera plant material: Applications in agriculture", Canadian Journal of Plant Science, 93(4), pp. 725-734. doi : 10.4141/CJPS2012-310  Access to full text

Abstract

The present study was carried out to establish the antioxidant capacity of plant material of Cornus stolonifera (syn. Cornus sericea, Red Osier Dogwood) grown in Manitoba, by measuring total phenolic content and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) over a 3-yr period. The presence and concentrations of flavonoids that might account for antioxidant abilities were investigated using ultra-performance liquid chromatography and a total anthocyanins assay. Both ORAC levels and phenolic content increased during the spring, peaked during the summer months (1631.65±166.30 µmol trolox equivalents g-1 DW in July 2011, 220.38±2.29 mg gallic acid equivalents g−1 DW in August 2012), and then declined during the fall in all 3 yr. Analysis of individual flavonoids in 2010 samples revealed that high levels of rutin, a glycoside of quercetin, were present ranging from 7.46±0.09 (July 2010) to 18.77±0.23 mg g-1 dried sample (October 2010). Anthocyanin content was high in the spring, very low in the summer months, and increased in the fall over all 3 yr. Although polyphenolic and antioxidant content in Cornus spp. plants have been largely attributed to their berries, results from this study demonstrate that other plant material may also be an abundant source of these compounds.




Medicinal and ethnoveterinary remedies of hunters in Trinidad.

Article: Medicinal and ethnoveterinary remedies of hunters in Trinidad.



Cited in 1 publication:



Medicinal property, phytochemistry and pharmacology of several Jatropha species (Euphorbiaceae): A review.

Article: Medicinal property, phytochemistry and pharmacology of several Jatropha species (Euphorbia...

Carla W Sabandar, Norizan Ahmat, Faridahanim Mohd Jaafar...

Phytochemistry 11/2012


Volume 85, January 2013, Pages 7–29
Review

Medicinal property, phytochemistry and pharmacology of several Jatropha species (Euphorbiaceae): A review

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Abstract

The genus Jatropha (Euphorbiaceae) comprises of about 170 species of woody trees, shrubs, subshrubs or herbs in the seasonally dry tropics of the Old and the New World. They are used in medicinal folklore to cure various diseases of 80% of the human population in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Species from this genus have been popular to cure stomachache, toothache, swelling, inflammation, leprosy, dysentery, dyscrasia, vertigo, anemia, diabetis, as well as to treat HIV and tumor, opthalmia, ringworm, ulcers, malaria, skin diseases, bronchitis, asthma and as an aphrodisiac. They are also employed as ornamental plants and energy crops. Cyclic peptides alkaloids, diterpenes and miscellaneous compounds have been reported from this genus. Extracts and pure compounds of plants from this genus are reported for cytotoxicity, tumor-promoting, antimicrobial, antiprotozoal, anticoagulant, immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, protoscolicidal, insecticidal, molluscicidal, inhibition AChE and toxicity activities.

Graphical abstract

Species from Jatropha are used in medicinal folklore and known as a purgative. Crude extracts and compounds such as cyclic peptide alkaloids, diterpenes with various skeletons and other compounds from this genus have been reported for cytotoxicity, tumor-promoting, antimicrobial, antiprotozoal, anticoagulant, immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, protoscolicidal, insecticidal, molluscicidal, inhibition AChE and toxicity activities.
Full-size image (38 K)

Highlights

► The medicinal property of several Jatropha species are reviewed. ► The phytochemistry of mostly alkaloid cyclic peptides and diterpenoids is presented. ► The biological activity of crude extracts and pure compounds is succinctly discussed. ► The relationship of medicinal property, biological activity and phytochemistry is also described.

Keywords

  • Euphorbiaceae;
  • Jatropha;
  • Medicinal properties;
  • Phytochemical;
  • Pharmacology

Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 355444619; fax: +60 355444562.
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Carla W. Sabandar was born in 1985, graduated from Haluoleo University of Chemistry Department in Indonesia, in 2009. After she received her Bachelor of Science degree from Haluoleo University by Dr. Sahidin’s research guidance, she moved to Malaysia in 2011 to further her study in M.Sc. by research at Pharmacy Faculty of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. She is also involved in natural product research with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Norizan Ahmat from Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. Her research focuses in the area of isolation of natural products and biological activities (anti-platelet and anti-inflammation agent of crude extracts and pure natural products).
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Norizan Ahmat is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia. She obtained her degree in Chemistry from the Arkansas State University, U.S.A in 1989. She received her M.Sc. in Chemistry in 1995 and Ph.D in Natural Products Chemistry from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2008. In her current research, she is interested in the chemistry and pharmacology of alkaloids, flavonoids and resveratrol oligomers from plants in Malaysia especially from the family of Annonaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Dipterocarpaceae and Gnetaceae. Her multidisciplinary research includes collaborations with researchers from Indonesia and Japan. She is a member of the GA Society for Medicinal Plants and Natural Product Research.
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Faridahanim Mohd Jaafar is a lecturer at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia. She obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemistry from Western Illinois University, U.S.A in 1984 and 1986 respectively. Her research interests includes the chemistry, structure elucidation and pharmacological behavior of chemical compounds from Apocynaceae, Annonaceae, and Rubiaceae plants in Malaysia especially the antimalarial activity of phytochemical compounds to malaria parasites. She is a member of the Malaysian Natural Products Society and Analytical Sciences Society of Malaysia.
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I. Sahidin was born in 1969 and work at the Department of Pharmacy, Haluoleo University, Kendari, South East Sulawesi, Indonesia as a lecturer. He got his Ph.D from Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia in 2006 in natural products chemistry. He visited as a Postdoctoral Researcher the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 2010 (Faculty of Sciences and Technology and Institute of Biology Systems). In his research, Dr Sahidin is interested in the chemical constituents of stilbenes from Dipterocarpaceae, terpenoids from Jatropha and phenolic compounds from Polygonaceae and their biological activities.

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Senior Clinical Training Scholarships in Small Animal Medicine (Two Scholarships, one funded by Alice Noakes Trust)

Senior Clinical Training Scholarships in Small Animal Medicine (Two Scholarships, one funded by Alice Noakes Trust)


UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF VETERINARY MEDICINE
TO START 1 JULY 2015 AND 1 AUGUST 2015
SCHOLARSHIP AWARD £21,390.00 (Year one)
Two Scholarships are available, to start on 1 July and 1 August 2015. The Scholarship provides an outstanding opportunity to study for a postgraduate qualification. The training programme covers all aspects of small animal medicine, including clinical nutrition, oncology and clinical pathology, and is approved by the European College of Veterinary Medicine.
The Scholarship is for one year in the first instance, renewable for periods of one year up to a total of three years. It is subject to an initial monitoring period of six months, and review on an annual basis.
The Scholar will be required to register for a Diploma in the appropriate field. The training programme requires participation in the Department's clinical service, including the out-of-hours rota and first opinion practice, in addition to small-group teaching of veterinary students.
An applicant must be a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, or hold a veterinary degree qualifying her/him for membership. Completion of a recognised internship or a minimum of two years' experience in small animal practice is essential.
Informal enquiries: contact Professor Michael Herrtage on mh10001@cam.ac.uk
Closing Date: 8th March 2015
Interview date: 26th March 2015
Fixed-term: 3 years.
Application form (SCTS1) and information pack: download from link below
Completed application form, curriculum vitae, covering letter: send to Melissa Large, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OES, or email to vetmed@hermes.cam.ac.uk
Please quote reference PP05417 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.
The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Further information

Deeper Ties to Corporate Cash for Doubtful Climate Researcher By JUSTIN GILLIS and JOHN SCHWARTZFEB. 21, 2015


For years, politicians wanting to block legislation on climate change have bolstered their arguments by pointing to the work of a handful of scientists who claim that greenhouse gases pose little risk to humanity.
One of the names they invoke most often is Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who claims that variations in the sun’s energy can largely explain recent global warming. He has often appeared on conservative news programs, testified before Congress and in state capitals, and starred at conferences of people who deny the risks of global warming.
But newly released documents show the extent to which Dr. Soon’s work has been tied to funding he received from corporate interests.


http://nyti.ms/1FHTIvj