This review describes national plans of action for nutrition (NPANs) in six Southeast Asia countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) in order to provide an understanding of the approach and framework undertaken by these countries in the formulation and implementation of NPANs, as well as the similarities and differences in various NPAN components. The six countries recognised the persistent undernutrition and escalating rates of obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases as the key drivers for nutrition action plan implementation. The prioritisation of nutrition interventions outlined in these NPANs are based on respective country context and needs. Although differing in strategies and targets set, these countries show similarities in several components including objectives, stakeholder involvement, nutritional issues to be addressed, implementation, monitoring and evaluation mechanism, programme/ activities identified and challenges in implementing NPANs. Countries have recognised that effective implementation, monitoring and evaluation are essential to successfully address both extremes of the challenging nutrition situation. Several important similarities in the NPANs studied suggest that closer collaboration among countries and stakeholders on NPANs would be beneficial. Opportunities should be created for periodic exchanges to enable sharing of experiences in the development and implementation of NPANs among the countries. Recommendations and conclusions drawn from this review could serve as useful reference for nutrition policy and planning in the future.

OBJECTIVEMyanmar has a long history of using medicinal plants for treatment of various diseases. To the best of our knowledge there are no previous reports on antiglycation activities of medicinal plants from Myanmar. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluate the antioxidant, antiglycation and antimicrobial properties of 20 ethanolic extracts from 17 medicinal plants indigenous to Myanmar.

METHODSIn vitro scavenging assays of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), nitric oxide (NO), superoxide (SO) radicals were used to determine the antioxidant activities. Folin-Ciocalteu's method was performed to determine the total phenolic content. Antiglycation and antimicrobial activities were detected by bovine serum albumin-fluorescent assay and agar well diffusion method.

RESULTSTerminalia chebula Retz. (Fruit), containing the highest total phenolic content, showed high antioxidant activities with inhibition of 77.98% ± 0.92%, 88.95% ± 2.42%, 88.56% ± 1.87% and 70.74%± 2.57% for DPPH, NO, SO assays and antiglycation activity respectively. It also showed the antimicrobial activities against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans with inhibition zone of 19, 18, 17, 25 and 15 mm, respectively. Garcinia mangostana Linn. showed the strongest activities for SO and antiglycation assays with inhibition of 93.68% ± 2.63% and 82.37% ± 1.78%. Bark of Melia sp. was the best NO radical scavenger with inhibition rate of 89.39%± 0.60%.

CONCLUSIONThe results suggest that these plants are potential sources of antioxidants with free radical-scavenging and antiglycation activities and could be useful for decreasing the oxidative stress and glycation end-product formation in glycation-related diseases.

Anti-Bacterial Agents ; analysis ; pharmacology ; Anti-Infective Agents ; analysis ; pharmacology ; Antioxidants ; analysis ; pharmacology ; Bacteria ; drug effects ; growth & development ; Biphenyl Compounds ; metabolism ; Candida albicans ; drug effects ; growth & development ; Fruit ; Garcinia ; chemistry ; Glycation End Products, Advanced ; metabolism ; Humans ; Magnoliopsida ; chemistry ; Medicine, Traditional ; Melia ; chemistry ; Myanmar ; Nitric Oxide ; metabolism ; Oxidative Stress ; drug effects ; Phenols ; analysis ; pharmacology ; Phytotherapy ; Picrates ; metabolism ; Plant Bark ; Plant Extracts ; chemistry ; pharmacology ; Plants, Medicinal ; Superoxides ; Terminalia ; chemistry