Volume 2, Issue 1

Philip G. Kerr

pp. 3–4 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.2 · 2012

Approximately 80% of mainland Australia is considered to be arid or semi-arid.[1] Most of the desert flora remains unexplored. There is a wealth of anecdote from first nation Australians, with a number of books detailing…

Lakshmi P.T.V.

pp. 5–11 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.3 · 2012

The renaissance on traditional usage of medicinal plants as drugs for various human ailments has increased interest in the search for information on plant medicinal systems. A demand by the pharma-industry on the sources…

Ihsan L. Al-Omari, Fatma U. Afifi, Abdulazim S. Salhab

pp. 12–20 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.4 · 2012

Background:Zingiber officinale aqueous extracts have traditionally been used by diabetic patients in Jordan. Objective:The present study aims to evaluate the hypoglycemic and antihyperglycemic effects of ginger crude ext…

Zaid O. Ibraheem, Munavvar A. Sattar, Nor A. Abdullah, Rathore Hassaan, Edward J. Johns

pp. 21–30 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.5 · 2012

Palm oil is one of the main contributors to vegetable oil industry. Its fronds are always discarded as waste products. Nowadays, there are some studies focused the light on the biomedical importance of palm oil leaf extr…

Rajiv Gupta, H. K. Singh

pp. 31–36 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.6 · 2012

Introduction:High Performance Thin Layer chromatography is an important tool used qualitatively as well as quantitatively for the purity and identity determinations of crude drugs and one of the major recent advances in …

B. Bindu Madhavi, R. Ramalingam, A. Ravinder Nath, David Banji

pp. 37–41 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.7 · 2012

Background: Peptic ulcers remain a challenge for identifying more effective and safer anti-ulcer therapies. Over the last few decades herbs have become the major source for the treatment of various diseases. The common s…

Mita Ghosh, Arun Kumar Pal

pp. 42–46 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.8 · 2012

Introduction:A wide variety of substances derived from herbs and spices have been shown to possess potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic and anticarcinogenic activities. The study of the modulation of gen…

I.E. Cock, Shimony Mohanty, Alan White, Michael Whitehouse

pp. 47–56 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.9 · 2012

Introduction:Despite its long history as an antiseptic, the image of CS has been badly ‘tarnished’ by opportunistic promoters, lack of quality controls (QC), deliberate misinformation and reprehensible scare tactics. Thi…

M Vanitha, T Karpagam, B Varalakshmi, R. Suja Pandian

pp. 57–61 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.10 · 2012

In the present study, the anti-diabetic property of an ethanolic extract of Aloe vera leaf gel and fine crude powder of Fenugreek seeds were compared. Oral administration of Aloe vera gel extract at a concentration of 30…

Annamalai A, Christina V.L, Lakshmi P.T.V.

pp. 62–65 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.11 · 2012

Background:Genetic diversity at the intra species level arises from differences in climatic conditions, geographical distribution and environmental stress. Thus the study of genetic diversity assists in determining the p…

I.E. Cock

pp. 66–71 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.12 · 2012

Introduction:Australian Acacia species also had a role as traditional bush medicines for Australian Aborigines, including uses as antiseptic agents. Methods: The antimicrobial activity of methanolic extracts of Acacia au…

I.E. Cock, J. Vesoul

pp. 72–79 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.13 · 2012

Introduction:A.bidwillii is an endemic Australian plant traditionally used by Australian Aborigines as a food. Its nuts are known to keep well, raising the possibility that they may contain antimicrobial compounds and th…

M.J. Cheesman

pp. 80–82 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.14 · 2012

The School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS)1 at The University of Queensland (UQ) is an acknowledged leader in biomedical sciences in Australia. UQ is typically ranked around 30 globally in the top 100 for Life Sciences acc…

I.E. Cock

pp. 83 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.15 · 2012

Zingiber officinale (ginger): Ginger is a medicinal and food plant that has been widely used in a variety of ethnomedicinal systems, including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayuverda, for thousands of years. Ging…

I.E. Cock

pp. 84–86 · DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.16 · 2012

This occasional section within the Journal surveys visions and achievements, often not on the main track of the developing biomedical sciences, but all relating to discoveries and developments of medicinals – both ancien…

I.E. Cock

pp. 87–88 · DOI: DOI: 10.5530/pc.2012.1.17 · 2012

There is currently a bias to publish only results that are perceived as ‘successful’; i.e. results that are positive (showing a significant finding) and/or that fit within the current model for a given research field. Re…