Filamentous Fungal Keratitis in Greece: A 16-Year Nationwide Multicenter Survey.

In a multicenter, prospective study of filamentous fungal keratitis in Greece, predisposing factors, etiology, treatment practices, and outcome, were determined. Corneal scrapings were collected from patients with clinical suspicion of fungal keratitis, and demographic and clinical data were recorded. Fungal identification was based on morphology, molecular methods, and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass-spectrometry.

Depsides and other polar constituents from Origanum dictamnus L. and their in vitro antimicrobial activity in clinical strains.

Phytochemical investigation of the polar extracts of the aerial parts of Origanum dictamnus afforded 15 secondary metabolites. One new depside was isolated, to which the trivial name salvianolic acid P (1) was given, in addition to the known depsides rosmarinic acid (2) and rosmarinic acid methyl ester (3), as well as two monoterpenes, thymoquinone (4) and thymoquinol 2-O-beta-glucopyranoside (5); two simple phenolic acids, oresbiusin A (6) and E-caffeic acid (7); six flavonoids, namely, apigenin (8), kaempferol (9), quercetin (10), eriodictyol (11), taxifolin (12), naringenin (13); and two alicyclic derivatives, that is, 12-hydroxyjasmonic acid (14) and its 12-O-beta-d-glucoside (15). The structures of all isolated compounds were established by spectroscopic methods, mainly 1D and 2D NMR, as well as HPLC-DAD-MS and HR-MS spectrometric analyses.

In vitro anti-Helicobacter pylori activity of Greek herbal medicines.

In this paper, we have studied the anti-Helicobacter pylori effect of 70 Greek plant extracts and a number of commercially available herbs used traditionally in folk medicine against gastric ailments, peptic ulcer included. The extracts of Anthemis melanolepis, Cerastium candidissimum, Chamomilla recutita, Conyza albida, Dittrichia viscosa, Origanum vulgare and Stachys alopecuros have been proved active against one standard strain and 15 clinical isolates of H. pylori.