Current status of the efficacy and effectiveness of albendazole and mebendazole for the treatment of Ascaris lumbricoides in North-Western Indonesia

Objective:To investigate the efficacy and effectiveness of albendazole and mebendazole in the treatment of Ascaris lumbricoides(A.lumbricoides) in the North-Western Indonesia.Methods: 229 primary school children who were positive for A.lumbricoides in their stool were recruited in the study.123 children received single-dose of 400 mg albendazole and 106 children received single-dose 500 mg of mebendazole.After 1 week,their stools were examined for the cure rate (CR) and egg reduction rate(ERR).Egg culture was also performed and observation was made on week-1,-3,-4.Results:have shown a non-significant difference in CR 96.7%vs.100%:and ERR of 99.3%vs.100.0%for albendazole and mebendazole groups respectively(P】0.05).In-vitro egg culture has shown trends of decrease in the percentage of the unfertilized eggs and in≥2 cell eggs in both treatment groups(P【0.05).The embryonated eggs from the albendazole groups has shown an increase from 7.3%on week-1 to 13.8%on week-4,whilst the mebendazole group has shown a constant increase during the whole 4 weeks of culture from 7.5%to 28.3%(P【0.01). Conclusions:No evidence of drug resistance is noted so far from the area of North-Western part of Indonesia.In addition,although both drugs showed incomplete ovicidal effects,single-dose albendazole is better than mebendazole in sterilizing A.lumbricoides eggs.

Binding Ability of Corn Cobs Hemicellulose toward Cadmium

Non-Starch Polysaccahride (NSP) is an agricultural byproduct containing of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Hemicellulose has a hydroxyl functional group and carboxylic function on the monomer hemicellulose used as a binding ability for cadmium ion and hence as a pharmaceutical active ingredient to prevent cadmium toxicity. The purpose of this study is to isolate and evaluate hemicelluloses from corn cobs as a binding ability toward cadmium ion. The study is conducted by isolating the corn cobs in such way using 0.2 M NaOH, characterization of hemicellulose from corn cobs produced by Infra Red Spectrofotometry. Binding ability of corn cobs hemicellulose (CCH) was done in 3 ways. The first, it was by titrimetric with cadmium 3 mg/cm3 as a titrant and indicator of 0.05 N NaOH. The second, it was by in vitro test at pH 2 as a comparison to use pectin. The third, the in vivo test was conducted in 3 variations of treatment covering CCH 10 mg, 100 mcg of cadmium for 10 weeks. Assay of cadmium was conducted using atomic absorption spectrophotometry with flame at a wavelength of 228.8 nm. The research result showed that the highest yield of hemicellulose (12.04%) was obtained from delignication with 0.03 M NaOH in 60% ethanol and 3% H2O2, hemicellulose isolation with 500 cm3 of 0.2 M NaOH, and precipitation with 1:4 ratio of 10% acetic acid in 95% ethanol. Characteristics of CCH on infrared vibration methods provide vibrational hemicellulose in the region of 1820-1600 cm-1. It meant that the functional group carbonyl was present, and the vibration widened near 3400-2400 cm-1. It indicated that there was the functional group vibration region of hydroxyl. It also meant that there was carboxylic group and finger print at 1500-500 cm-1. Test results of the titrimetric holding ability showed that CCH was binding 100 mg of cadmium (46.17 ± 0.9256) mg or 46.17%. Binding ability test results at pH 2 showed that 300 mg of CCH yield was binding 30 mg cadmium of (26.68 ± 0.1490) mg or 88.93%. The results of in vivo tests showed that cadmium levels decreased by 95.05%. Based on the exposure, it can be concluded that the CCH isolation yields of 12.04% and can reduce cadmium levels in the blood. It means that the CCH can be used as a chelating agent of cadmium ions by in vitro and in vivo.

Effects of Secondary Chamber on Gas Yield by Pre-Vacuum Chamber Pyrolysis of Rubber Wood

Global warming awareness criticizes further usage of fossil fuels and insists promotion of renewable energy usage. Additionally, many people in rural areas of developing countries cannot access electricity. To solve this sort of energy crisis including global warming, current authors developed a proto-type of a pyrolysis plant equipped with a prevacuum chamber, which can be used to produce combustible gases for an engine generator in rural areas where people cannot access electricity. The plant is simple and easily maintained in consideration of special conditions that a rural area can receive very few maintenance service, technical assistance, and supply of spare parts. However, gas yield obtained by the proto-type of plant was around 20 wt% of feedstock. One way to enhance gas yield from this proto-type of plant is to utilize reaction of secondary tar cracking. This research work aims to examine possibility of gas yield enhancement keeping a simple structure of the proto-type of plant and using a simple technique of secondary tar cracking. Two tar cracking methods are examined: one is homogeneous tar cracking and the other is heterogeneous tar cracking using catalysis. In the homogeneous tar cracking, pyrolysis gases must be heated up to 650oC to 700oC and in the heterogeneous tar cracking, wood char is used as catalysis, because wood char is byproduct of pyrolysis. It is concluded that the homogeneous tar cracking is quite unlikely in the secondary chamber, but on the other hand, heterogeneous tar cracking using wood char can produce 30 wt% of gas yield from 1 kg of feedstock.

Numerical Analysis on Wood Pyrolysis in Pre-Vacuum Chamber

In the previous experimental work, a new technology system for wood pyrolysis was developed to aim at mitigating climate change, global warming, and energy crisis as well as enhancing low electrification in rural areas in developing countries. The new technology system equipped with a pre-vacuum chamber requires low cost and less maintenance. However, large wood pyrolysis in the pre-vacuum chamber is rather complicated. To obtain a good understanding of the previous experimental results, a numerical analysis taking account of heat-mass transfer and chemical reaction is carried out. Two-step general reaction model is proposed for the numerical analysis. The first stage is volatile and char formation from the wood pieces and the second state is decomposition of the volatile to five species including vapor of tar. In this analysis, chemical formulae of the volatile and the tar are successfully identified hypothetically. The results obtained by this numerical analysis can explain the experimental results reasonably and provide useful information about time evolution of volatile formation, temperature change in pre-vacuum chamber with time, and species mole concentration decomposed from the volatile.

Wood Pyrolysis in Pre-Vacuum Chamber

Climate change, global warming, and energy crisis are critical issues to be solved urgently in a global framework. Alternative energy and renewable energy technologies must be quickly developed to be substituted for fossil fuels like oil, gases, and coal. USA, UE, and Japan invested huge budgets to develop biomass renewable energy technology. Their target is to develop a commercial base large-scaled plant. On the other hand, in developing countries, especially in rural areas, people who can access electricity is still less than 70%, To decelerate or prevent global warming and improve electrification in rural areas, a new technology for wood pyrolysis, which requires low manufacturing cost and less maintenance, and of which gases are directly applicable to the gas engine generator, is developed in a laboratory scale. This paper reports the performance of this new plant and effects of several parameters on the performance. It is concluded that the new technology is quite feasible in rural areas, and upgrading of the plant is easily possible.

Effect of Curcuma longa L.extract on the AP1 expression in rat cochlear fibroblasts under noise conditions

Noise-induced cellular stress can cause damage to fibroblasts within the cochlear supporting tissues and lateral wall. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the role of curcumin as the safe and effective therapeutic agent in the prevention and treatment of this condition according to the expression of activator protein-1(AP1). A total of 24 Rattus norvegicus were randomly divided into four groups(n = 6). Group 1: control; group 2: noise(+); group 3: noise(+), 50 mg/day curcumin(+); group 4: noise(+), 100 mg/day curcumin(+). All groups(except for group 1) were subjected to a sound pressure level(SPL) of 100 d B for 2 h/day during 2 weeks. Curcumin used in this study was derived from Curcuma longa L.(Turmeric), and it was orally administered for 2 weeks. All samples were immunohistochemistrically examined for the expression of AP1 in cochlear fibroblasts. The results showed that there were significant differences for the AP1 expression(P<0.05) among all groups, except for between groups 1 and 3, or between groups 1 and 4. Our data proved that curcumin was potentially effective in the prevention and treatment of damage of fibroblasts within the cochlear supporting tissues and lateral wall due to the decreased AP1 expression following noise exposure.