New England School of Acupuncture is the first Chinese Medicine School in the United States. From the aspects of school history, status of students and situation of teachers, curriculum design, clinical practice and scientific research, this present article makes a simple introduction for this school, and briefly compares the Chinese Medicine education between China and west. Different from China, the American education is more lively and vivid, open and flexible, but lacks enough attention on the study of classic and clinical practice. In a word, China and the West could learn from each other and make the best of the both worlds.
Acupuncture ; education ; history ; manpower ; organization & administration ; Acupuncture Therapy ; history ; Faculty ; History, 20th Century ; History, 21st Century ; Humans ; Learning ; Medicine, African Traditional ; history ; New England ; Students

Spigelia anthelmia Linn is used as a herb and is a common annual weed of cultivation in open re-growths, on unused land in towns as well as on road sides. The plant can grow to approximately 30 cm in height. The aim of this study was to screen extracts of Spigelia anthelmia for their anthelmintic activity against an experimental Nippostrongylus braziliensis infection in rats. Acute oral toxicity occurred at a dose of 1,140 mg/kg, while anthelmintic trials against Nippostrongylus braziliensis in rats using the aqueous fraction showed a progressive decrease in worm count with increasing dose (10, 13, 16, 20 and 25 mg per kg body weight) (p < 0.05). At 25 mg per kg body weight, the worm count was significantly lower than that at 10 mg per kg body weight (p < 0.05).
Animals ; Anthelmintics/*pharmacology/toxicity ; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical ; Lethal Dose 50 ; Loganiaceae/*chemistry ; Medicine, African Traditional ; Nigeria ; Nippostrongylus/*growth&development ; Phytotherapy/*methods ; Plant Extracts/*pharmacology/toxicity ; Rats ; Rats, Wistar ; Strongylida Infections/*drug therapy/parasitology

This study investigated the extent to which recourse to traditional healers depended on biometric variables; ways of knowing in good time what ailments were more likely to be better handled by traditional healers; rationale behind traditional healing methodologies. On the whole, four research questions were engaged. The sample for the study included residents in urban (Benin City) and rural (Ehime Mbano) communities in Nigeria. The instruments comprised of two questionnaires. The traditional healers were also interviewed in addition. The findings of the research included the following: in both rural and urban areas, women and more elderly persons had more recourse than other groups to traditional medicine; Christians, less educated persons, self-employed persons and women affirmed most strongly to the efficacy of traditional medicine over Western medicine with respect to certain ailments; ways for averting spiritual illnesses included obeying instructions from ancestors and offering regular sacrifices to the gods; methods used by traditional healers to determine whether an ailment was "spiritual" or as a result of home problems included diagnosis linked to divination, interpretation of dreams particularly those involving visits by ancestors, interpretation of nightmares and omens such as the appearance of owls; methods for curing patients included use of herbs particularly those believed to have magical powers, offering of sacrifices, use of incantations and wearing of protective medicine.
Adult ; Africa, Western ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Medicine, African Traditional ; methods ; psychology ; utilization ; Metaphysics ; Middle Aged ; Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical ; physiology ; Nigeria ; Rural Population ; statistics & numerical data ; Social Values ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Virtues

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the in vitro antibacterial properties and the ability to potentiate some common antibiotics effects of the methanol extracts of 11 Cameroonian food plants on 29 Gram-negative bacteria expressing multidrug resistant (MDR) phenotypes.

METHODSThe antimicrobial activity of the extracts was performed using the broth microdilution method. The phytochemical screening of these extracts was also performed using standard methods.

RESULTSOcimum basilicum, Gnetum africanum and Eucalyptus robusta extracts possessed an antibacterial activity against all the 29 studied bacteria. The extracts from G. africanum and E. robusta were the most active with the lowest minimal inhibitory concentration of 64 μg/mL on Escherichia coli AG100A for both extracts and also against Klebsiella pneumoniae K24 for G. africanum. When tested in the presence of phenylalanine-arginine β-Naphtylamide (PAβN), an efflux pump inhibitor, the extract of Thymus vulgaris and E. Robusta showed the best activities on most tested strains. E. Robusta extract showed good synergistic effects, improving the activity of commonly used antibiotics in about 85% of cases.

CONCLUSIONThe overall results obtained provide the baseline information for the use of the tested plants in the treatment of bacterial infections.

Anti-Bacterial Agents ; pharmacology ; Cameroon ; Drug Resistance, Multiple ; drug effects ; Eucalyptus ; chemistry ; Gnetum ; chemistry ; Gram-Negative Bacteria ; drug effects ; Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections ; drug therapy ; microbiology ; Humans ; Medicine, African Traditional ; methods ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Ocimum basilicum ; chemistry ; Phytotherapy ; methods ; Plant Preparations ; pharmacology ; Plants, Edible ; chemistry