BACKGROUND: Constipation is a common chronic bowel disorder with an incidence of more than 50% in the elderly population. Complementary and alternative medicine is a cost-effective and satisfactory treatment for constipation used widely by the elderly. OBJECTIVE: This study evaluates the efficacy of an herbal formula made from Foeniculum vulgare Mill. and Rosa damascena for the treatment of constipation in an elderly population and consequent changes to their quality of life. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTION: This double-blind randomized active controlled clinical trial, with parallel group allocation ratio of 1:1, was conducted in a referral clinic in Afzalipour Hospital, affiliated to Kerman University of Medical Sciences in Kerman, Southeastern Iran. Individuals over 60 years of age, diagnosed with functional constipation (based on the Rome IV criteria), were included in this study. Participants received a sachet of 10 g F. vulgare and R. damascena (herbal formula group) or polyethylene glycol 4000 (PEG 4000 group) with a glass of warm water two times a day for 4 weeks and were followed up for 4 additional weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Constipation severity, stool consistency, and the quality of life were used as the primary outcomes. Drug side effects were used as a secondary outcome. The outcomes were assessed using the Constipation Assessment Scale, the Bristol Stool Form Scale, and the Patient Assessment of Constipation Quality of Life questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 25 participants in each group completed the four-week treatment cycle and the eight-week follow-up. At the end of the four-week treatment cycle, all clinical outcomes had significant improvements in both groups (P < 0.05). The analysis of constipation severity (P < 0.001), stool consistency (P < 0.001), and the quality of life (P < 0.001) showed significant improvements with fewer side effects (mild diarrhea) and a longer duration of symptom relief in the herbal formula group compared to the PEG 4000 group. CONCLUSION: Although both interventions significantly improved the treatment outcomes, constipation severity, stool consistency and the quality of life were improved more effectively by the herbal formula than by PEG 4000; however, the mechanism of action is not yet understood. TRIAL REGISTRATION This trial was registered in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCTID: IRCT20200108046056N1).
Aged ; Constipation/drug therapy* ; Double-Blind Method ; Foeniculum ; Humans ; Iran ; Middle Aged ; Quality of Life ; Rosa ; Treatment Outcome

The aim of this paper was to study the protective effect of total flavonoids from Rosa multiflora(TF-RM) on the injury of HUVEC induced by oxidized low density lipoprotein(ox-LDL). SPF male SD rats were randomly divided into blank group, simvastatin group(1.8 mg·kg~(-1)·d~(-1)) and TF-RM group(2.5 g·kg~(-1)·d~(-1)), with 10 rats in each group. They were intragastrically administered with drugs for 7 days, and then blood was collected from the abdominal aorta to prepare drug-containing serum. The HUVEC injury model was established through ox-LDL induction, and added with 15% simvastatin, 5% TF-RM, 10% TF-RM, 15% TF-RM drug-containing serum and blank serum, respectively. Reactive oxygen species(ROS) was determined by flow cytometry. Nitric oxide(NO) content was determined by nitrate reductase method. The contents of ET-1, P-selectin, E-selectin, ICAM-1, VCAM-1, IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α were determined by ELISA. The expression of Lox-1 protein was determined by Western blot. Compared with the blank group, ROS level in HUVEC and the contents of ET-1, P-selectin, E-selectin, ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and IL-1β in HUVEC were significantly increased(P<0.05), NO decreased significantly(P<0.01),Lox-1 protein expression increased significantly(P<0.05), and TNF-α and IL-6 showed an increasing trend. Compared with the model group, TF-RM significantly reduced ROS level in HUVEC and ET-1, P-selectin, E-selectin, ICAM-1, TNF-α, IL-1β content in supernatant(P<0.05), significantly increased NO content(P<0.01), and inhibited Lox-1 protein expression(P<0.05). VCAM-1, IL-6 contents showed a decreasing trend. Serum containing TF-RM acts on lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptors, and exerts a protective effect on vascular endothelial cells by reducing cell oxidative damage, regulating vasoactive substances, and reducing adhesion molecules and inflammatory cascades.
Animals ; Cells, Cultured ; Endothelial Cells ; Endothelium, Vascular ; Flavonoids/pharmacology* ; Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1/genetics* ; Lipoproteins, LDL ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Rosa

Halophytes are expected to possess abundant secondary metabolites and various biological activities because of habitat in extreme environments. In this study, we collected 14 halophytes (Asparagus oligoclonos, Calystegia soldanella, Carex pumila, Chenopodium glaucum, Elymus mollis, Glehnia littoralis, Limonium tetragonum, Messerschmidia sibirica, Rosa rugosa, Salsola komarovii, Spergularia marina, Suaeda glauca, Suaeda maritima, and Vitex rotundifolia) native to Korea and compared their total polyphenol contents, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. The total polyphenol contents of R. rugosa (27.28%) and L. tetragonum (13.17%) were significantly higher than those of the other 12 halophytes and L. tetragonum, R. rugosa, and M. sibirica showed significantly greater antioxidant activities than the other 11 halophytes, as determined by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl). A. oligoclonos, E. mollis, and C. pumila showed significantly greater anti-inflammatory activities than the other 11, as determined by NO (Nitric oxide) and PGE₂ (Prostaglandin E₂) levels. In contrast, these three extracts had normal and low total polyphenol contents among the 14 halophytes. Consequently, the total polyphenol content in the 14 studied halophytes appeared to be related to antioxidant, but not anti-inflammatory activity levels.
Apiaceae ; Calystegia ; Caryophyllaceae ; Chenopodiaceae ; Chenopodium ; Ecosystem ; Elymus ; Korea ; Plumbaginaceae ; Rosa ; Salsola ; Salt-Tolerant Plants ; Vitex

A new isoflavone derivative was isolated from Rosa damascena by using various chromatographic techniques including silica gel, Sephadex LH-20, and preparative RP-HPLC separation. Its structure was identified as 4'-hydroxy-7-(3-hydroxypropanoyl)-6-methoxy-isoflavone using combined examinations of their UV, IR, MS, and NMR spectroscopic data. Biological activity test showed that this compound showed prominent antibacterial activity with MIC₉₀ value of (46±4) mg·L⁻¹ for methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) strain. This value is close to that of levofloxacin [with MIC₉₀ value (53±5) mg·L⁻¹].
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Isoflavones ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus ; drug effects ; Microbial Sensitivity Tests ; Phytochemicals ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Rosa ; chemistry

Twelve years have passed since my first editorial for the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, on the occasion of the silver anniversary of our journal and the golden anniversary of the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery (PSO-HNS).1 Special editorials have similarly marked our thirtieth (pearl)2 and thirty-fifth (coral or jade)3 journal anniversaries, punctuating editorials on a variety of themes in between. Whether they were a commentary on issues and events in the PSO-HNS or Philippine Society, or on matters pertaining to medical research and writing, publication and peer review, I have often wondered whether my words fell on deaf ears. But write, must I-- despite my writer's doubt.

What then, do a dozen years symbolize? As a baby boomer, I am all too familiar with what "cheaper by the dozen" meant in daily life, outwardly displayed in the matching attire my siblings and I wore on special occasions -- such as Yuletide when we would sing the carol "twelve days of Christmas."4 We read the comedy "Twelfth Night"5 in school, although I admittedly enjoyed "The Dirty Dozen"6 more than Shakespeare. College ROTC introduced me to the "Daily Dozen" and the grueling Navy count- 1,2,3, ONE! One, two, three, TWO! (One, two, three, four! I love the Marine Corps!) And that is as far as my list of memorable dozens goes, covering five dozen years of life.

Of these, one fifth or 20% of my life has been devoted to our journal. From that perspective, I cannot help but wonder whether, or how it mattered. After 12 years, the day-to-day routine has hardly changed; neither have the periodic problems that precede the birth of each issue. I still find it difficult to solicit and follow-up reviews, and I still burn the midnight oil on weekends and holidays, patiently guiding authors in revising their manuscripts. Nevertheless, our journal has come a long way from where it was when we started (although it has not reached as far and as quickly as I would have wanted it to). Much depends on our authors and the caliber of their contributions, and our reviewers and the quality and timeliness of their reviews. However, despite our efforts to conduct education and training sessions on Medical Writing and Peer Review, the new batch of submissions and reviews each year evinces the need to repeat these regularly. In this regard, the increasing response-ability of our associate editors and continuing support of our society are needed to ensure our progress.

This year, we welcome Dr. Eris Llanes as our new Managing Editor as we thank and congratulate Dr. Tony Chua (who retains his position as Associate Editor) for serving in that role for the past 12 years. We have finally migrated from our previous platform to the Public Knowledge Platform - Open Journal Systems (PKP-OJS) available from https://pjohns.pso-hns.org/index.php/pjohns/index. The PSO-HNS has become a member of the Publishers International Linking Association (PILA), which manages and maintains, deposits and retrieves, Metadata and Digital Identifiers inclusive of associated software and know-how. This will enable us to register Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for all our content using the Crossref® system (https://www.crossref.org/about/), making our "research outputs easy to find, cite, link, and assess."7 We are also subscribing to the Crossref® Similarity Check plagiarism detection software service powered by iThenticate® (https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/)7 and are exploring ways and means of converting all our articles to eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format. These steps reflect our continuing efforts to comply with the requirements for indexing in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)8 and our re-application for indexing in Scopus®.9 These steps would not have been possible without the full support of the PSO-HNS Board of Trustees under the leadership of our President, Dr. Aggie Remulla, for which we are truly grateful.

Indeed, the past 12 years may represent a complete cycle (such as 12 hours on a clock, or months in a year, or 12 signs of the zodiac), the first steps in the rebirth of our journal. Although they may not count among the "memorable dozens" of my life, each of these years may be likened to a rose (with its attendant thorns) - a bouquet of a dozen roses that I offer to all of you.

"for there's no rose without a thorn,

no night without the morn,

no gain without some meaningful loss ..."10

Blue toe syndrome is characterized by tissue ischemia secondary to cholesterol crystal or atherothrombotic embolization. It leads to the occlusion of small vessels. The treatment option is usually surgery for most causes of blue toe syndrome. However, endovascular aortic repair by aorto-iliac stent graft become more and more popular because of its effectiveness and its less invasive characteristic. We present a 57-year-old man who suffered from blue toes syndrome on both legs caused by embolizing aorto-iliac lesions. Successful Endurant stent graft (Medtronic Vascular, Santa Rosa, CA, USA) was performed on infrarenal abdominal aorta and on proximal portion of right and left common iliac artery.
Aorta, Abdominal ; Blood Vessel Prosthesis ; Blue Toe Syndrome* ; Cholesterol ; Humans ; Iliac Artery ; Ischemia ; Leg ; Middle Aged ; Rosa ; Thromboembolism ; Toes

Rosa rugosa Thunb, a deciduous shrub of the genus Rosa, has been widely used to treat stomach aches, diarrhoea, pain, and chronic inflammatory disease in eastern Asia. In recent years, our research team has extensively studied the Rosa rugosa flower extract, and specifically undertook pharmacological experiments which have optimized the extraction process. Our methods have yielded a standard extract enriched in phenolic compounds, named PRE. Herein, we expand our efforts and evaluated the anti-inflammatory activity of PRE on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammation in RAW 264.7 macrophages. PRE significantly inhibited production of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a, interleukin (IL)-6, and interleukin 1β (IL-1β), as well as expression of their synthesizing enzymes, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase2 (COX-2). Furthermore, PRE inhibited activity of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) as well as nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) signaling pathway. Our findings are the first to explain the anti-inflammatory mechanism by PRE in LPS-stimulated macrophages. Given these results, we propose that PRE has therapeutic potential in the prevention of inflammatory disorders.
Dinoprostone ; Far East ; Flowers* ; Inflammation ; Interleukins ; Macrophages* ; Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases ; Nitric Oxide ; Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II ; Phenol ; Rosa* ; Stomach ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

BACKGROUND: Rosa damascena, a type of herb, has been used for wound healing in Eastern folk medicine. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of rose placenta from R. damascena in a full-thickness wound model in mice. METHODS: Sixty six-week-old C57BL/6N mice were used. Full-thickness wounds were made with an 8-mm diameter punch. Two wounds were made on each side of the back, and wounds were assigned randomly to the control and experimental groups. Rose placenta (250 microg) was injected in the experimental group, and normal saline was injected in the control group. Wound sizes were measured with digital photography, and specimens were harvested. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to assess the expression of epidermal growth factor (EGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), and CD31. Vessel density was measured. Quantitative analysis using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for EGF was performed. All evaluations were performed on postoperative days 0, 2, 4, 7, and 10. Statistical analyses were performed using the paired t-test. RESULTS: On days 4, 7, and 10, the wounds treated with rose placenta were significantly smaller. On day 2, VEGF and EGF expression increased in the experimental group. On days 7 and 10, TGF-beta1 expression decreased in the experimental group. On day 10, vessel density increased in the experimental group. The increase in EGF on day 2 was confirmed with ELISA. CONCLUSIONS: Rose placenta was found to be associated with improved wound healing in a mouse full-thickness wound model via increased EGF release. Rose placenta may potentially be a novel drug candidate for enhancing wound healing.
Animals ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Epidermal Growth Factor ; Medicine, Traditional ; Mice* ; Photography ; Placenta* ; Rosa ; Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A ; Wound Healing* ; Wounds and Injuries*

A new phenylpropanoid (1), together with seven known ones (2-8), has been isolated from the flowers of Rosa rugosa collected from Shanxi province by using various chromatographic techniques. Compound 1 is a new compound, and it displayed cytotoxicity against NB4, SH-SY5Y, PC3, A549 and MCF7 cell lines with IC₅₀ values of 8.2, 6.2, 4.3, 2.8, and 9.6 µmol · L⁻¹ respectively.
Cell Line ; Cell Survival ; drug effects ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Flowers ; chemistry ; Humans ; Molecular Structure ; Phenylethyl Alcohol ; chemistry ; isolation & purification ; pharmacology ; Rosa ; chemistry ; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization

BACKGROUND: Long-term use of topical steroids for inflammatory skin diseases can induce complications, and efforts to find a better treatment are being continued. Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPARalpha) suppresses the skin's inflammatory reaction, maintains the homeostasis of the skin, and plays an important role in skin barrier function. OBJECTIVE: This study analyzed the effects of a skin moisturizer containing PPARalpha activator on various inflammatory skin diseases causing facial erythema and evaluated the observed improvements. METHODS: The PPARa activator used for this study is composed of supercritical extracts from Euryale ferox, Euphorbia lathyris, and Rosa multiflora, which showed significant effects in the transactivation assay compared to Wy14643. Moisturizer containing PPARalpha was applied to the faces of 31 patients with symmetric facial erythema, with PPARalpha applied on one-half of the face and a control moisturizer on the other half of the face twice a day for 2 weeks. The percentage of erythema index, erythema index, skin hydration, and transepidermal water loss was checked to evaluate treatment effect. Both patients and clinicians each assessed the improvement of erythema on both sides of a patient's face. RESULTS: Moisturizer containing PPARalpha agonist significantly improved erythema index measured with Mexameter MX18(R) and percentage of erythema index by polarization color imaging system (DermaVision-PRO(R)) (p<0.05). However, there was no significant improvement in skin hydration and transepidermal water loss. Improvement of erythema was also shown on both the patient and clinician graded assessments. CONCLUSION: Topical PPARalpha agonist applied during clinical practice was relatively safe and effective. This can be applied clinically to various inflammatory skin diseases causing erythema.
Erythema* ; Euphorbia ; Homeostasis ; Humans ; PPAR alpha* ; Rosa ; Skin ; Skin Diseases ; Steroids ; Transcriptional Activation