Objective: To develop a simple, sensitive, precise, and accurate stability-indicating high performance thin-layer chromatographic method for analysis of curcumin (the main active constituent of turmeric). Methods: The separation was achieved on TLC aluminum plates precoated with silica gel 60F254 using toluene-chloroform-methanol (5:4:1, v/v/v) as a mobile phase. Densitometric analysis was performed at 430 nm. Results: This system was found to have compact spot of curcumin at RF value of (0.31±0.02). For the proposed procedure, linearity (r2= 0.99354 ± 0.00120), limit of detection (50 ng/spot), limit of quantification (200 ng/spot), recovery (ranging from 98.35% - 100.68%), and precision (≤2.25%) were found to be satisfactory. Statistical analysis reveals that the content of curcumin in different geographical region varied significantly.Conclusions:The highest and lowest concentration of curcumin in Turmeric was found to be present in sample of Erode (Tamilnadu) and Surat (Gujrat) respectively which inferred that the variety of turmeric found in Erode (Tamilnadu) is much superior to other region of India.

Childhood obesity is an established problem in many countries and emerging in others. Epidemiological data on obesity in children is essential in order to plan public health policy and services. A study was conducted to determine the prevalence of obesity in schoolchildren in the fifth grade of elementary school (10-12 years old) in the district of Kuala Selangor. Ten schools of which five are in urban and five in rural areas were selected consisting of 699 eleven year old schoolchildren from the three major ethnic groups. Using international cut-off points for obesity, we report an overall prevalence of obesity of 7.2%. Prevalence of obesity in urban children is 7.2% whereas in rural children it is 7.0 %. Analysed by gender, there were 8.9% obese boys and 5.3% obese girls. Among the 3 major ethnic groups, the Malays had the highest prevalence of obesity at 9.3% followed by the Chinese with 6.6% while among Indians 3.0%. The data obtained from this study suggests that obesity in Kuala Selangor children is a cause for concern in urban and rural areas.
Obesity ; seconds ; Child ; Prevalence aspects ; rural area

Scientifi cally known as Allium Cepa L., onion is a plant which contains various benefi ts and has been used as food and medicine over the years by many nations and races. This research is conducted to identify the benefi ts of onion for human body from the perspectives of Islamic medical scholars and scientifi c research. The literature data for this study has been collected from four Islamic medical books and 14 articles of a variety of related journals. The cumulative data has been analysed by using Nvivo10.0 to identify emerging suitable categories and subsequently generate the fi ndings. The fi ndings of this study discovered that there are at least 17 benefi ts of onion. This includes six which are based on the perspectives of Islamic scholars which are to treat epiphora, to treat ear problems, to medicate infections from dog bites, to neutralize poisons, to stimulate sexual desire and to treat water-borne diseases. Another 11 benefi ts identifi ed in the scientifi c researches include its potential as an antiplatelet agent, anti-fat formation agent, antioxidant agent, antithrombotic agent, anticarcinogen agent, antidepressant agent, antiinfl ammatory agent, antiasthmatic agent, and antibiotic agent, as well as it helps decrease hyperglicemia levels and reduce the risk of atherosclerosis. Thus, this study suggest that onion should be highlighted as one of organic treatment/remedy as well as an alternative to conventional treatment.
Onions

Patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) commonly presents with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), which can be of obstructive symptoms such as hesitancy, incomplete voiding, post void dribbling or of irritative symptoms such as urgency, frequency and nocturia. Various recent studies indicate that nocturia is a very important and bothersome lower urinary tract symptom especially among patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). The aim of the study was to determine the frequency of common urinary symptoms among patients with BPH in HUSM as well as to evaluate the extent of bothersomeness of each and every symptom to these patients. This study too was aimed at evaluating the success of TURP in resolving pre operative LUTS. This was a questionnaire-based survey using a validated ICSBPH model whereby patients with BPH were selected and quizzed personally by an investigator. A subset of patients who had undergone TURP was further questioned regarding their satisfaction with the procedure. When nocturia is defined as waking up at night once or more to pass urine, the prevalence of nocturia was about 90%, but only 1 in 6 patients considered this is a very serious symptom. Even if the definition was changed to waking up twice or more, the prevalence is still quite high at over 80%. Urgency was noted in half of the patients, but only a quarter of them consider it a serious problem. 1 in 5 patients experienced significant leak and almost all consider it serious. About one third of the studied population had to be catheterized due to urinary obstruction and interestingly only about half of them considered it as a very serious event. Overall, a great majority of these patients considered suffering from these urinary symptoms for the rest of their life as very devastating. This study concludes that although the prevalence of nocturia was high among BPH patients, but it was not considered serious by majority of them. In fact, LUTS in our BPH patients did not differ much from BPH patients elsewhere. On the whole, TURP resolved most of the LUTS effectively.
symptoms <1> ; Prostatic Hypertrophy, Benign ; Nycturia ; Benign ; Urinary Tract

Graves’ disease is a common cause of hyperthyroidism. Treatment options for Graves’ disease include antithyroid medication, surgery or radioactive iodine (I-31) or RAI. This review will focus on the approach to RAI therapy; discussing dose selection, patient preparation, and consideration before and after administering RAI, examining aspects of pre-treatment with antithyroid medication as well as discussing possible adverse events including hypothyroidism and possible worsening of thyroidassociated opthalmopathy. Follow-up is lifelong with the aim of ensuring the patient remains euthyroid or on replacement therapy if there is evidence of hypothyroidism. While there are controversies in treatment of thyrotoxicosis with RAI, with appropriate patient selection and regular follow-up, radioiodine is a safe and effective modality in achieving high cure rates.

Amblyopia is one of the most common causes of visual defi cit in children. Presently, in the Ministry of Health Malaysia hospitals, there is no documented data on the characteristic and profi le of amblyopia cases. This study was conducted to describe the profi le of new amblyopia cases seen by optometrists at the Ministry of Health (MOH) Hospitals. This study was a retrospective and multicenter study including all MOH hospitals with optometry clinics. Clinical record data of amblyopic patients aged 3 to 17 years old who were newly diagnosed between 1st August 2010 to 31st January 2011 and who fulfi lled the inclusion criteria were obtained. Data collected included demography, systemic history, ocular history and optometric fi ndings and diagnosis. Thirty eight MOH hospitals participated and a total of 301 patients were diagnosed with functional amblyopia within the study period. Mean age for these amblyopic patients was 7.70 + 0.16 years old. Boys were the predominant gender (57.1%) and Malay preceded the other races with a 65.4% occurrence. Mild amblyopia was found in 51.5% of the patients, 31.6% were with moderate amblyopia and only 16.9% of patients were severe amblyopia. The underlying amblyogenic causes assessed were ametropia (61.5%), anisometropia (25.2%), strabismus (9.3%) and stimulus deprivation (4.0%). Refractive error was discovered as the most common cause of amblyopia in this study. It is crucial for optometrists to detect this type of visual impairment and undertake an early optometric intervention

Aims: The purpose of this experiment was to determine the artificial symbiosis interaction of Herbaspirillum seropedicae (Z78) on oil palm embryogenic calli. Methodology and results: For this purpose, symbiotic associations were established between Z78 and embryogenic calli of oil palm tissue cultured. A total of five treatments involved, in particular: i) + 3.0 mg/L 2,4-D + 100% N MS medium (control), ii) + Z78 pellet cells (1 mL) + 25% N MS medium, iii) + Z78 supernatant (1 mL) + 25% N MS medium, iv) + Z78 broth culture (1 mL) + 25% N MS medium, and v) + Z78 sonicated cells (1 mL) + 25% N MS medium. All treatments were supplied with minimal N sources (25% N), ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate, while the control was treated with 100% N sources. Treated samples were harvested on D80 and observed for biomass and diameter increment (%), formation of embryoids, and Z78 colonization. The results showed embryogenic calli in the inoculated treatments that contained depleted N produced similar result to the control treatment which contained 100% N nutrients. Positive interactions occurred between the diazotroph and host plant tissues as viewed under FESEM and EFTEM. Among the treatments, Z78 sonicated cell showed better growth of embryogenic calli compared to others. Conclusion, significance and impact study: The in vitro nitrogen-depleted artificial symbiosis environment allowed the diazotroph (Z78) to be expressed and provide the nitrogen sources and indole-3-acetic acid for cell growth. This study represents beneficial co-culture interaction effects of different inocula of diazotrophic bacterial cells with in vitro embryogenic calli of oil palm.

Introduction: Morinda citrifolia or also known as noni is commonly consumed raw or blanched as side dishes or ‘ulam’. As cancer is one of the most leading causes of death in the world, we aimed to evaluate the anti-proliferative potential of noni shoot against various types of cancer cell lines. Methods: The breast cancer (MDA-MB-231), liver cancer (HepG2), and colorectal cancer (HT-29) cell lines were treated with 70% ethanol extract of noni shoot for cytotoxicity testing using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. Apoptosis induction effects were examined using AO/PI dual fluorescent assay and cell cycle analysis using flow cytometry. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) was also carried out to characterize the active compounds in noni shoot. Results: The cytotoxicity assay demonstrated noni shoot had IC50 of 49.72 µg/mL, 307.5 µg/mL and 65.43 µg/ mL against MDA-MB-231, HepG2, and HT-29 cell lines, respectively. The AO/PI staining showed apoptotic bodies such as cell blebbing, chromatin condensation, and nuclear fragmentation was markedly induced in the selected cancer cell lines-treated with noni shoot extract. Apoptosis induction by noni shoot was showed by a significant increase in sub G0/G1 phase in MDA-MB-231 and HT-29 cell lines of cell cycle analysis. It was found that noni shoot extract contained mostly acetic acid and ethriol that may contribute to its anti-cancer properties. Conclusion: These findings showed the potential anticancer properties of noni shoot extract thereby, further studies are needed to understand the mechanism of noni as anti-cancer agent and possibility to be developed as a nutraceutical or functional food products.
Phytochemicals

Introduction: The lack of evidence that proves the benefit of traditional and complementary medicines (T&CM) in treating chronic medical conditions does not deter its usage among patients worldwide. Prevalence of usage among post-stroke patients in Malaysia especially is unknown. This study aims to determine the prevalence, practice and perception of T&CM use among stroke survivors attending an outpatient rehabilitation program in a teaching hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 104 post stroke patients attending an outpatient rehabilitation program. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients, as well as types of therapy used and perception on T&CM usage. Descriptive analysis was done, and bivariate analysis was used to determine associations between categorical data. Results: Mean age of patients was 62 years (SD 12.2), 54% were Chinese and 75% of the patients had ischaemic stroke. Mean age of T&CM users was younger compared to nonT&CM users (61 years vs. 66 years, p=0.04). Two-thirds (66%) of patients admitted to concurrent T&CM usage while attending conventional post stroke rehabilitation. Acupuncture (40.4%), massage (40.4%) and traditional Chinese medicine (11.5%) were the most common T&CM used. Positive perception was recorded in terms of ability of T&CM usage to relieve post stroke symptoms (68%), and it was safe to use because it was made from ‘natural sources'. Negative perception recorded: T&CM caused significant adverse effects (57.6%) and was not safe to be used in combination with other conventional medicines (62.5%). Conclusions: Concurrent T&CM usage among post-stroke patients attending structured outpatient rehabilitation program is widely practised especially acupuncture, massage and traditional Chinese medici
Complementary Therapies, Stroke

Realising possible unmet needs of final year medical students we initiated a weekly informal face-toface discussion forum between them and the teaching faculty of the department of medicine. Various academic and non-academic topics, as dictated by the students, were discussed in 19 weekly sessions. Evaluation by the students was subsequently done by means of an on-line questionnaire after the final examinations. The aim of this study was to evaluate this forum, undertaken for the first time in our institution, by assessing student feedback. We conclude that although the number of attendees and responders were small, feedback was generally positive. This type of forum can be improved upon and serve as another portal for benefitting students.