Poppies as a sleep aid for infants: The "Hypnos" remedy of Cretan folk medicine.

Opium Poppy ( L.) is considered as one of the earliest medicinal plants known to mankind. Derived from the Greek name "opos" meaning juice, referring to its psychotropic latex, the plant was known and extensively used since Antiquity during religious rituals and for Medical purposes, mainly as hypnotic and pain reliever agent.

Maternal diet, prenatal exposure to dioxins and other persistent organic pollutants and anogenital distance in children.

We investigated the potential endocrine disruptive effect of prenatal exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) through maternal diet, by measuring anogenital distance in newborns and young children. We included 231 mothers and their newborns measured at birth from the Rhea study in Crete, Greece and the Hmar study in Barcelona, Spain and 476 mothers and their children measured between 1 and 2 years from the Rhea study. We used food frequency questionnaires to assess maternal diet and estimated plasma dioxin-like activity by the Dioxin-Responsive Chemically Activated LUciferase eXpression (DR-CALUX®) and other POPs in maternal samples.

Anogenital distances in newborns and children from Spain and Greece: predictors, tracking and reliability.

Background: Anogenital distance has been associated with prenatal exposure to chemicals with anti-androgenic effects. There are limited data in humans concerning descriptive patterns, predictors, and the reliability of measurement of anogenital distances. We examined anogenital distance measurements and their predictors in males and females and further estimated the reliability of these measurements.

In utero exposure to dioxins and dioxin-like compounds and anogenital distance in newborns and infants.

Background: Anogenital distance in animals is used as a measure of fetal androgen action. Prenatal exposure to dioxins and dioxin-like compounds in rodents causes reproductive changes in male offspring and decreases anogenital distance.

Objective: We assessed whether in utero exposure to dioxins and dioxin-like compounds adversely influences anogenital distance in newborns and young children (median age, 16 months; range, 1-31 months).