Origin of ancient Indian toxicology can be dated back to vedic literature. Toxins of both animate and inanimate world were very well understood during the era. Rig and Atharva vedic texts describe such details. After classifying such toxins, Charaka Samhitha, thebasic literature of Indian Medicine used gold and ghee as panaceas to counter act them. Ayurveda considers toxicology as one among the eight specialized branches of medical wisdom. Unfortunately, the available literature on this is very limited. Moreover, they have been discussed briefly in Charaka and Sushrutha Samhitha. Mangarasa I, a Jain scholar who lived on the foothills of the Western Ghats, in Southern India in 1350 A.D., felt this vacuum and composed an independent, elaborate Kannada text on toxicology. His less known text Khagendra Mani Darpana (KMD) is the first ever documented complete text on toxicology in the world. Medieval Indian wisdom on plant and animal diversities are very well reflected in this unique toxicological text. Centuries past to Linnean era, KMD gives vivid descriptions on zoological and botanical diversities of the time. This astonishing fact is an evidence of our ancestor's curiosities about the nature around them. A critical overview of the bio-diversity described in KMD text is discussed in this paper.

Acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APML) is characterised by the t(15;17)(q22;q21), that results in the fusion of the promyelocytic leukaemia (PML) gene at 15q22 with the retinoic acid α-receptor (RARA) gene at 17q21. The current case report describes a 13-year-old male with APML, who was negative for PML/RARA fusion signal but reported to have an atypical translocation t(16;17). To the best of our knowledge this is the first case report of APML responsive to ATRA with such a translocation.

Objective: To investigate the antibacterial activity and photochemicals of five green leafy vegetables against a panel of five bacteria strains.
Methods: Disc diffusion method was used to determine the antibacterial activity, while kanamycin was used as a reference antibiotic. The phytochemical screening of the extracts was performed using standard methods.
Results:All methanol extracts were found active against all the test bacterial strains. Overall maximum extracts shows antibacterial activity which range from 6 to 15 mm. Proteins and carbohydrates was found in all the green leaves, whereas alkaloid, steroids, saponins, flavonoids, tannins were found in most of the test samples.
Conclusions:The obtain result suggests that green leafy vegetables have moderate antibacterial activity and contain various pharmacologically active compounds and thus provide the scientific basis for the traditional uses of the studied vegetables in the treatment of bacterial infections.

Anemia ; Adolescent ; Public Health

Arm is a site for frequent injuries and it is involved in many surgical procedures. Variations in the arm have immense clinical significance. During the dissection of a right upper limb, brachial artery was found to divide into radial and ulnar arteries, 3cm above the inter-epicondylar plane. The ulnar artery and the median nerve were then passing through a tunnel formed by an extensive additional humeral head of the pronator teres muscle. Two centimetres long fibromuscular tunnel formed by the humeral head of the pronator teres was found to arise from the medial intermuscular septum and also from the fibrous arch form the shaft of the humerus to the medial intermuscular septum. In the same cadaver, the superior ulnar collateral artery was found to arise from the profunda brachii artery which is otherwise a branch of the brachial artery. Accurate knowledge of these variation patterns is of considerable clinical significance in conduct of surgeries of arm, fracture management of humerus and diagnosis of various compressive neuropathies.

Lumbricals are important small intrinsic muscles of the hand, which arise from the tendons of the flexor digitorum profundus in the palm distal to the flexor retinaculum and are inserted on to the dorsal digital expansion. Variations in the unipinnate/bipinnate pattern of lumbricals, absence of one or more muscles, origin from the superficial flexor tendons and flexor retinaculum have been reported earlier. In the present case, all four lumbricals were arising from the tendons of the flexor digitorum profundus, proximal to the flexor retinaculum in the anterior part of the forearm and extending into the palm through the carpal tunnel. However, there was no variation found with regard to their normal unipinnate (first two) and bipinnate (last two) pattern of origin. In the palm all the four lumbricals were found to be bulkier than their normal size, first one being the bulkiest. The bulky and high origin of lumbricals within the carpal tunnel makes the tunnel a compact space. Therefore, such variation is one of the predisposing factors for the carpal tunnel syndrome. Thus, the knowledge of such variant origin of lumbricals is helpful not only during carpal tunnel release but also during the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound based diagnosis of carpal tunnel and during the flexor tendon repair and reconstruction.

In general, testicular artery (TA) usually arises from the antero-lateral part of the abdominal aorta below the origin of the renal arteries at second lumbar vertebrae level. Very rarely variations in the origin of the testicular arteries are observed. We here report a rare case of bilateral unusual origin and course of the testicular artery. On the right side, testicular artery aroused from the aorta about 0.5cm above the origin of the renal artery and gave off inferior suprarenal artery. In contrast, left testicular artery springs from the pre-hilar branch of the left renal artery, 2cm before reaching the hilum of kidney. On both sides, testicular arteries descended in front of the hilar structures of the kidney. Since, the origin and course of the testicular artery is important to consider during surgical and diagnostic interventions, knowledge of such variation may be helpful in avoiding diagnostic and surgical errors and adverse consequences especially during laparoscopic approaches.

Gingival cyst of infant is an odontogenic cyst. It is developmental in nature. It arises from the epithelial remnant of dental lamina called cell rests of Serres. The Gingival cyst may appear within three months of age. Clinically it appears on the maxillary and mandibular ridges, and appears creamish white in color. The cyst usually does not need treatment because it tends to undergo involution and disappears. We present a case report of a solitary gingival cyst observed in a baby age four months.

After arising from the brachial artery in the cubital fossa the ulnar artery usually passes deep into the superficial flexor muscles of the forearm. In the lower two-thirds, it typically follows a sub-fascial course. In the present case, during a routine undergraduate course dissection of a cadaver, it was found that the ulnar artery arose normally as a terminal branch of the brachial artery in the cubital fossa, followed a sub-fascial course by lying superficial to the flexor muscles then completed the superficial palmar arch in hand. This artery gave only minute muscular branches in the forearm. Moreover, the main branches that usually arise from the ulnar artery were given off by the radial artery. This type of variation is of importance for both the clinicians and surgeons due to its vulnerability to injuries and of academic interest for anatomists.

Objective: This case control study was undertaken to ascertain the frequency of subclinical and overt hypothyroidism in patients with various types of primary headache disorders in Kashmir, North India. Methods: The study was conducted in a tertiary care (university of Kashmir) hospital of North India. The study subjects consisted of 250 patients with primary headache disorders. This was compared with an age-sex matched control of 500 subjects. Thyroid function tests were performed by new automated immunochemiluminometric assay. Results: Among patients with primary headache disorders, subclinical hypothyroidism was present in 22% and overt hypothyroidism in 7.2%. On the other hand, subclinical hypothyroidism was observed in 11.2% and overt hypothyroidism in 1.2% of cases in the control group, the differences between primary headache and control group was statistically significant (p<0.05). Frequency of hypothyroidism was more in chronic headache disorders (chronic tension-type headache and migraine). The frequency of hypothyroidism in patients with primary headache disorders was higher among females than males, but this was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). Conclusion: Hypothyroidism is found to be a co-morbidity or predisposes to the development of chronic headache (tension-type headache and migraine) in this North Indian study.
Headache Disorders ; Hypothyroidism ; Migraine Disorders