Community pharmacies in Nepal and other South Asian countries are in a mediocre state due to poor regulation and the fact that many pharmacies are run by people with insufficient training in dispensing. This has led to the inappropriate use of medicines. The problems due to poor regulation and the mediocre state of community pharmacies in South Asia encompass both academia and clinical practice. In this paper, a 2-week community pharmacy internship programme completed by 2 graduating pharmacy students of Pokhara University (a Nepalese public university) at Sankalpa Pharmacy, Pokhara, Nepal is illustrated. During the internship, they were systematically trained on store management, pharmaceutical care, counselling skills, the use of medical devices, pharmaceutical business plans, medicine information sources, and adverse drug reaction reporting. An orientation, observations and hands-on training, case presentation, discussion, and feedback from 2 senior pharmacists were used as the training method. A proper community pharmacy internship format, good pharmacy practice standards, and a better work environment for pharmacists may improve the quality of community pharmacies.
Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Commerce ; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions ; Education, Pharmacy ; Humans ; Internship and Residency* ; Methods ; Nepal* ; Pharmaceutical Services ; Pharmacies* ; Pharmacists ; Pharmacy* ; Students, Pharmacy*

Aims:The ever-revolving fungi strains and environmental and health concerns due to current practice of synthetic pesticide in agricultural fields have encourages more ventures into bio-pesticides research. Mimusops elengi, a widely available endogenous plant intropical countries and most parts of this plant have been proven to possess medicinal and antimicrobial potential. In this study, M.elengiseeds crude extracts are tested for their antifungal activities on paddy seed-borne and pathogenic fungi.Methodology and results:The dried and grinded M.elengiseeds are macerated separately using water, methanol, ethyl acetate, dichloromethane and petroleum ether as extraction medium. Crude extract of each solvent wasused on paddy seed surface treatment to determine their antifungal inhibition potential on seed-borne fungi and paddy grain germination. Synthetic fungicide mancozeb and thiram are also tested as comparisons to the performance of plant extracts. Water andmethanol extracts exerted the best fungal inhibiting and grain germination results from the five crude extracts tested and qualitative phytochemical screening reveals both extracts contained the most number of phytoconstituents including saponin, flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins and phenolic. Water extract, methanol extracts and synthetic fungicides are then subjected to in-vitro bioassay to observe their effect on mycelial growth of several fungi strains pathogenic to paddy namely, Fusarium fujikuroi,Curvularia aeria,C.lunata andC.eragrostidis.Water and methanol extracts showed a very similar trend of inhibition on all four fungi strains tested with best percentage of inhibition on mycelia growth of C.eragrostidisfollowed by C. aeria, C. lunataand least effective on F.fujikuroi. Further separation of crude extract need to be done to isolate the specific acting compounds contributing to fungal growth inhibition.Conclusion, significance and impact of study:Both water and methanol extracts of the seeds contain promising antifungal properties on seed borne fungi which is as good as the synthetic fungicides compared in this study. A broad range of active phytochemical properties it possesses may be the contributing factor for the fungal growth inhibition. This preliminary screening could narrow down the potential of this seed extracts as natural antifungal agents and the acting active compounds.

Medication review is an intervention with the potential to reduce drug-related problems (DRPs) in the elderly. This study aimed to determine the effect of pharmacists’ medication reviews on geriatric patients. This study accessed two online databases, MEDLINE Complete and Scopus, and examined all studies published in English between 2019 and 2023, except for reviews. The studies included (1) participants over 65 years of age and (2) medication reviews conducted by pharmacists. The titles, abstracts, and full texts were reviewed for data extraction to determine whether the studies satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Forty-four of the initial 709 articles were included in this study. The articles included discussions on the incidence rates of DRPs and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) (n=21), hospitalization (n=14), medication adherence (n=9), quality of life (QoL) (n=8), and falls (n=7). Pharmacist medication reviews were associated with a reduced incidence of DRPs and PIMs, and improved adherence to medications. Patients’ overall QoL is also increasing. However, pharmacist medication reviews were not strongly associated with decreased hospitalization or falls. A pharmacist’s medication review may be a feasible intervention for reducing the incidence rates of DRPs and PIMs, regardless of whether it is performed as a sole intervention or supplemented with other interventions. The intervention was also effective in increasing medication adherence and QoL.