Murraya koenigii is a culinary important plant of Indian origin, and also been a component of many formulations used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine since many centuries. A scrutiny of literature reveals some notable pharmacological activities of the plant. Carbazole alkaloids which are abundantly present in the leaves, fruits, roots and bark of this plant, have been reported for their antidiabetic, anticancer, antibacterial, anti-nociceptive and antioxidant activities. Besides these activities, the plant is described to have a wide array of therapeutic activities. Phytochemistry and pharmacology of this plant necessitates a comprehensive review of its prospects as an important therapeutic agent for the management of numerous diseases commonly affecting humans. The current review provides a detailed report of the phytochemical, pharmacological, clinical and pre-clinical works carried out on this culinary plant and also throws light on its therapeutic prospects.

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Malnutrition is a serious issue in Pakistani society. During the past few years, many nutritional programmes have been initiated by the governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Some of these programmes focus on raising awareness among the masses while others focus on either directly supplying nutrients to the people or fortification of dietary components. However, the root of the problem-illiteracy, poverty, and socioeconomic deprivation-is still being neglected. These programmes have not yet been able to take control of the situation and Pakistan is still far behind other countries when it comes to nutrition. This article reviews the nutritional programmes in place in Pakistan, analyses their limitations and suggests a way forward.

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Obesity leads to chronic, excessive adipose tissue expansion resulting in an increase in the risk for cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and other metabolic abnormalities. This is primarily thought to stem from the low-grade, systemic inflammatory response syndrome that characterizes adipose tissue in obesity. With a global increase in the prevalence of obesity, nutrition and exercise play a key role in its prevention and treatment. Natural product (nutraceutical) interventions are currently being investigated on a large-scale basis as potential treatments for obesity and weight management. Apart from taking care of the imbalance between energy intake and energy output, nutraceuticals should have the potential to ameliorate the development of oxidative stress and inflammation in obesity, thereby limiting the onset of obesity complications. The current article aims to examine current research on nutraceuticals and their role in the management of obesity and body composition.

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Objectives: To study the nutritional status of school going adolescent girls in Lucknow district, Uttar Pradesh, India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in urban as well as rural schools of Lucknow district from October 2008 to September 2009. Multistage random sampling was used to select the requisite number of girls. A total of 847 school going adolescent girls between 10 and 19 years of age were interviewed and anthropometric measurements were recorded for assessing the nutritional status. Results and Conclusions: The mean weight in all age groups in both urban and rural schools showed significant difference with the ICMR mean weight for respective ages except in ages 18 and 19 years in urban school girl's and in ages 10 and 19 years in rural school girls. The mean height in all age groups in both urban and rural schools showed significant difference with the ICMR mean height for respective ages except in ages 18 and 19 years in urban schools and in ages 16, 17, 18, and 19 years in rural schools. Overall prevalence of thinness was found to be 17.0% and 11.4% (BMI <5th percentile according to NCHS-CDC reference) among urban and rural school going adolescent girls respectively. Overall prevalence of overweight was found to be 5.4% and 3.9% (BMI >85th percentile according to NCHS-CDC reference) among urban and rural school going adolescent girls, respectively.

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The advance in bioinformatics brings several new "omics" sciences that can be applied in medicine. An important new "omics" science in present biomedicine is the nutrigenomics, which is the specific "omics" that deals with the nutrition and genomics issue. Similar to other "omics" sciences, the basic requirements for manipulation is the database and tool. Here, the author briefly reviews and discusses on some important computational online databases and tools in nutrigenomics.

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An increasing proportion of patients coming for anesthesia and surgery have some form of nutritional deficiency disorder which can have extremely variable presentation ranging from anorexia nervosa to obesity. All these nutritional disorders produce various pathophysiological changes in cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, endocrine, and immune systems, which make these patients highly susceptible to various anesthetic complications. The serious biochemical alterations and interaction of anesthetic drugs with various psychiatric drugs used for treatment of psychiatric nutritional disorders should also be kept in mind while anesthetizing such patients. A careful preoperative planning and optimization of general condition of these patients is mandatory to prevent any catastrophe. The importance of intense perioperative and postoperative monitoring cannot be underestimated in preventing any untoward incident during this period.

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Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is the most common cause of severe, irreversible, vision loss in elderly people. It is estimated that 20 to 25 million people suffer from ARMD worldwide, of which 8 million people experience blindness. The treatment options are few and usually not successful in restoring the vision back. The anti-oxidants prevent the damage to the macula by free radicals and are beneficial in retarding the progress of ARMD. They also prevent the onset of ARMD. Anti-oxidant supplements are indicated to prevent the onset and retard the progression of ARMD. The Age-Related Eye Disease Study found that the daily supplementation of vitamin C 500 mg, vitamin E 400 IU and beta carotene 15 mg, zinc 80 mg and copper 2 mg for five years significantly retarded the progression of ARMD. Based on the results of this high quality, double blinded study, the American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends that patients with intermediate and severe ARMD consider taking antioxidants plus zinc on a daily basis.

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Background: Nutraceuticals are increasingly being used in psychiatric practice. However the literature continues to be limited for most of these agents. Prescription of nutraceuticals to psychiatric patients has not been systematically studied in Indian setting. The current study is aimed at assessment of prescription pattern of nutraceuticals in psychiatry out-patient setting in a tertiary care center. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out at the out-patient department of a tertiary care hospital. The sample frame was constituted by all the prescriptions from the out-patient psychiatry department. The information was collected for the socio-demographic variables using a semi-structured proforma. The patients were diagnosed based on the ICD-10 and the diagnoses were grouped as per the 10 categories of ICD-10. The prescriptions were screened for the nutraceuticals. The data were analyzed using SPSS ver 14.0. Results: A total of 174 consecutive prescriptions from the consenting patients were included in the study. Highest proportion of the study subjects (36.8%) belonged to the 'mood disorder' category (F 30-39), followed by 'schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders' category (F 20-29) (24.1%). Majority of the prescriptions at first visit (75.9%) did not include a nutraceutical. 63.2% of the last prescriptions did not include any nutraceutical. The different diagnostic categories did not differ significantly with regards to prescription of nutraceutical at the first visit. However there was a significant difference between the different diagnostic categories with regards to nutraceutical in the last prescription. Conclusions: Of all the diagnostic categories, prescriptions of individuals diagnosed with 'mood (affective) disorders' and 'neurotic, stress related and somatoform disorders' demonstrated significant increase in prescription of nutraceutical at the last prescription as compared to the first prescription.

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Type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk for atherosclerosis. Oxidative stress plays a key role in the onset of diabetes and in the development of vascular complications of the disease. Low-density lipoproteins (LDL) are important targets of oxidation, and oxidative modification of LDL is involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Hyperglycemia is a major factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis in diabetes. Present study has been carried out to know the sensitivity of LDL to oxidation and assessing whether hyperglycemia in diabetes mellitus is associated with increased LDL oxidation and whether these relationships are related to diabetic complications. The study was carried out in 120 diabetic subjects, classified into two groups with and without complication. LDL from the serum sample was precipitated by heparin-citrate precipitation method. The LDL fractions were exposed to oxidation with CuSO4 to measure its sensitivity to oxidation and its correlation with HbA1c was also evaluated. The present study was demonstrated that sensitivity of LDL oxidation was increased in all diabetic groups and it was positively correlated with HbA1c. In type 2 diabetes increased sensitivity of LDL for oxidation is due to hyperglycemia induced oxidative stress.

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