Screening of Plants Used as Traditional Anticancer Remedies in Mkuranga and Same Districts, Tanzania, Using Brine Shrimp Toxicity Bioassay.

Background: Inadequate specialized cancer hospitals and high costs are contributing factors that delay cancer patients from accessing health care services in Tanzania. Consequently, majority of patients are first seen by Traditional Health Practitioners (THPs) before they access specialized services. This study presents ethnomedical information and preliminary evaluation of 25 plant species claimed by THPs in Mkuranga and Same districts of Tanzania on use for treatment of cancer.

Biopiracy versus One-World Medicine-From colonial relicts to global collaborative concepts.

Background: Practices of biopiracy to use genetic resources and indigenous knowledge by Western companies without benefit-sharing of those, who generated the traditional knowledge, can be understood as form of neocolonialism.

Hypothesis: The One-World Medicine concept attempts to merge the best of traditional medicine from developing countries and conventional Western medicine for the sake of patients around the globe.

Study Design: Based on literature searches in several databases, a concept paper has been written.

Biopiracy of natural products and good bioprospecting practice.

Background: Biopiracy mainly focuses on the use of biological resources and/or knowledge of indigenous tribes or communities without allowing them to share the revenues generated out of economic exploitation or other non-monetary incentives associated with the resource/knowledge.

Methods: Based on collaborations of scientists from five continents, we have created a communication platform to discuss not only scientific topics, but also more general issues with social relevance. This platform was termed 'PhytCancer -Phytotherapy to Fight Cancer' (www.

Curricular transformation of health professions education in Tanzania: the process at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (2008-2011).

Tanzania requires more health professionals equipped to tackle its serious health challenges. When it became an independent university in 2007, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) decided to transform its educational offerings to ensure its students practice competently and contribute to improving population health. In 2008, in collaboration with the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), all MUHAS's schools (dentistry, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health and social sciences) and institutes (traditional medicine and allied health sciences) began a university-wide process to revise curricula.

Clinical pharmacy to meet the health needs of Tanzanians: education reform through partnership across continents (2008-2011).

In 2009, the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) School of Pharmacy began to revise its BPharm curriculum for students entering in 2011. Its goal was to assure these pioneer students and their successors would be prepared to lead pharmacy practice to improve patient care and health outcomes in Tanzania. Building on its own experience and recommendations from other parts of the world, MUHAS actively engaged counterparts from the University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy.

Chemical composition and in vitro antimicrobial activity of the essential oils of two Helichrysum species from Tanzania.

The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained from the aerial parts of Helichrysum cymosum and H. fulgidum, from Tanzania, were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. A total of sixty-five compounds, representing 92.

Screening of some Tanzanian medicinal plants from Bunda district for antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activities.

Extracts from 50 plant parts obtained from 39 different plants belonging to 22 families used to treat infectious diseases in Bunda district, Tanzania, were screened against twelve microorganisms, including the bacteria Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Salmonella typhimurium, the fungi Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, and the viruses Herpes Simplex Virus type 1, Vesicular Stomatitis Virus T2, Coxsackie B2 and Semliki Forest A7. The highest activity was obtained for the n-hexane extract of Elaeodendron schlechteranum root bark against the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus cereus (MIC 0.97 microg/ml and MBC 1.

Ethnopharmacological survey of the Bunda district, Tanzania: plants used to treat infectious diseases.

An ethnobotanical study was carried out in six villages in the Bunda district, Mara Region, Tanzania, where the use of plants still has a special meaning to the society, in the treatment of various diseases. Information was obtained from the traditional healers and other experienced persons, having some knowledge on medicinal plants. Fifty-two plants were reported for use in the treatment of various infectious diseases.

Screening of Tanzanian medicinal plants for anti-Candida activity.

Background: Candida albicans has become resistant to the already limited, toxic and expensive anti-Candida agents available in the market. These factors necessitate the search for new anti-fungal agents.

Methods: Sixty-three plant extracts, from 56 Tanzanian plant species obtained through the literature and interviews with traditional healers, were evaluated for anti-Candida activity.

Medicinal plants used by Tanzanian traditional healers in the management of Candida infections.

An ethnomedical survey in Coast, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro and Tanga regions of Tanzania has resulted in the identification of 36 plant species belonging to 21 plant families that are used traditionally for the treatment of Candida infections. Twenty-one plants constituting 58.3% of all collected plants are used to treat of oral candidiasis (Utando) one of the important signs of HIV/AIDS.

Evaluation of the potential cancer chemotherapeutic efficacy of natural product isolates employing in vivo hollow fiber tests.

The hollow fiber test has been developed for the preliminary in vivo assessment of cancer chemotherapeutic efficacy of selected natural products. Using this model, we have established growth conditions for HL-60, HUVEC, Ishikawa, KB, KB-V1, LNCaP, Lu1, MCF-7, Mel2, P-388, and SW626 cells implanted at the intraperitoneal (i.p.

Antimicrobial activity of tanzanian chewing sticks against oral pathogenic microbes.

Methanol extracts from the bark and wood of ten plants used as chewing sticks in Morogoro region, in Tanzania, were tested for their ability to inhibit the growth of cariogenic bacteria, Streptococcus mutans , Actinomyces viscosus and a yeast Candida albicans . Screening for antimicrobial activity was done by the agar-hole diffusion method, and minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) were determined by the agar dilution method. Extracts from seven out of the ten plants showed varying degrees of growth inhibitory effect on the microorganisms, with Acacia senegal var.

Lupane derivatives from Lophopetalum wallichii with farnesyl protein transferase inhibitory activity.

Chloroform-soluble extracts of the stems and of the mixed stems and stem bark of Lophopetalum wallichii were found to be inhibitory in a farnesyl protein transferase (FPTase) bioassay system. During the course of activity-guided fractionation, the known lupane-type triterpenes, ochraceolide A (1), ochraceolide B (2), betulin, and lupeol and the new lupane lactone, dihydro ochraceolide A (4), were isolated. The stereochemistry of the epoxide group of ochraceolide B (2) was determined by preparation of both epoxide isomers [2, and the new semisynthetic derivative, 20-epi-ochraceolide B (3)] from 1.

Quinone-methide triterpenes and salaspermic acid from Kokoona ochracea.

Tingenone[1],20-hydroxy-20-epi-tingenone[2],celastrol[ 3], and salaspermic acid [4] have been isolated from Kokoona ochracea stem bark. The quinone-methide triterpenes 1-3 exhibited strong but non-specific in vitro cytotoxicity against P-388 murine lymphocytic leukemia cells and a panel of human cancer cell lines. Salaspermic acid [4] was not active in all the cancer cell lines used in this investigation.

Isolation of echinocystic acid-3-O-sulfate, a new triterpene, from Tetrapleura tetraptera, and evaluation of the mutagenic potential of molluscicidal extracts and isolates.

A known triterpene glycoside, 3-O-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1"-6')-2'-acetamido-2'-deoxy-beta-D-gluco pyranosyl]olean-12-en-28-oic acid [3], and new sulfated triterpene, echinocystic acid-3-O-sodium sulfate [4], have been isolated from the stem bark of Tetrapleura tetraptera. Compound 3 was 100% lethal to Biomphalaria glabrata at 20 ppm, while 4 was not molluscicidal at the same concentration. In a forward mutation assay utilizing Salmonella typhimurium strain TM677, T.

Further lupane lactones from Kokoona ochracea.

Additional new lupane lactones were isolated from the stem bark of Kokoona ochracea (Celastraceae). Their structures have been elucidated, through the application of 1D and 2D nmr spectroscopic methods, as 20,29-dihydroxy-3-oxolupan-30,21 alpha-olide (ochraceolide D) [1] and 28-hydroxy-3-oxolup-20(29)-en-30,21 alpha-olide (ochraceolide E) [2]. These compounds and the mono- and di-acetates of ochraceolide D (4 and 5, respectively) were evaluated for in vitro cytotoxic activity against P-388 murine lymphocytic leukemia cells and a panel of human cancer cell systems.

New cytotoxic lupane lactones from Kokoona ochracea.

Three new compounds, ochraceolides A, B, and C, were isolated from nonpolar extracts derived from Kokoona ochracea stem bark. Based on spectroscopic data, their structures were determined to be the closely related lupane lactones: 3-oxolup-20(29)-en-30,21 alpha-olide, 20,29-epoxy-3-oxolupan-30,21 alpha-olide, and 3,6-dioxolup-20(29)-en-30,21 alpha-olide. Compounds 1 and 3 exhibited significant cytotoxic activity with cultured P-388 cells (ED50 values of 0.