Materialism and reductionism in science and medicine
R. Paul Thompson, Ross E.G. Upshur in Philosophy of Medicine, 2017
Consider larvae of the boll weevil and the corn borer. These are pests that can ruin a cotton crop or a corn crop. Since the 1950s, farmers have used a variety of pesticides. One that has the lowest environmental impact is a toxin produced by Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). It is a bacterium that occurs naturally. Farmers – including organic farmers – have been spraying crops with either the bacterium or the toxin it produces for more than 60 years. For almost 20 years, a biotechnological solution has been developed. The segment of DNA that codes for the toxin produced by Bt has been inserted into the chromosomal DNA of cotton, corn and a number of other plants. Hence, each cell of the plant produces the toxin. As a result, the current exposure level of larvae pests to the toxin is exceptionally high. The concern, from the first regulatory approval of the genetically modified crops, has been the development of resistance to the toxin.
Medicinal Plants of India and Their Antimicrobial Property
Jayanta Kumar Patra, Gitishree Das, Sanjeet Kumar, Hrudayanath Thatoi in Ethnopharmacology and Biodiversity of Medicinal Plants, 2019
Antifungal activity of medicinal plants also varies with concentration. Very good antifungal activity of various concentration of methanolic extract of Saraca indica was reported against Alternaria cajani, Helminthosporium sp., Bipolaris sp., Curvularia lunata and Fusarium sp by Dabur et al. (2007). Furthermore, extracts of medicinal plants are also found to inhibit the noxious toxin production by fungi. Essential oil of Curcuma longa were evaluated at different concentrations (0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.5% (v/v) against Aspergillus flavus and aflatoxin production and reported that oil at 1.0% and 1.5% exhibited excellent inhibitory effect on toxin production by fungi (Sindhu et al., 2011). Contrary to this, Parekh and Chanda (2008) evaluated in vitro antifungal activity of nine Indian medicinal plants against pathogenic yeasts and molds and found that activity was not concentration dependent it varies from plant to plant. Kumar et al. (2007) reported that Chenopodium ambrosioides oil exhibits anti-aflatoxigenic property. Likewise, Ocimum sanctum L. has also been documented for their antifungal activity and anti-aflatoxigenic activity (Kumar et al., 2010).
The safety and quality of food
Geoffrey P. Webb in Nutrition, 2019
This organism is commonly found in soil and thus upon vegetables. It grows in starchy foods and, in the UK and USA, poisoning due to this organism is usually associated with consumption of rice. The organism produces heat resistant spores which may survive cooking of rice. If the cooked rice, containing viable spores, is stored at temperatures that permit the growth of the organism (7°C–49°C) then an infective dose will accumulate. Boiling rice in bulk and then storing it at room temperature prior to flash-frying, e.g. in Chinese restaurants, is a common scenario for food poisoning due to this organism. The resultant illness is acute in onset (1–16 hours) and of short duration (6–24 hours) and it is caused by toxins produced by the organism in food. An infective dose is in excess of 100,000 organisms in the food. The symptoms depend upon the particular toxin involved but may include diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting.
A comprehensive review of cardiotoxic effects of selected plants
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2021
Akbar Anaeigoudari, Nahid Azdaki, Mohammad Reza Khazdair
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), many of people embedded plants as therapeutic agents into their primary health care. Bioactive compounds can be isolated from plants used to produce drugs with higher activity or lower toxicity than the plants themselves (Farnsworth et al.1985). Some plants have beneficial pharmacological effects, whereas another number of them have been revealed to exert the toxic effects on different organs of the animals or humans body (Khazdair et al.2019, Mohebbatia et al.2017). Intentional or accidental exposure of humans or animals to some plant species with these bioactive compounds can result in illness or death (Afshari et al.2004, Amini et al.2012). One of the vital systems affected by toxin of plants is the cardiovascular system. Some plants affect the cardiovascular system by inducing arrhythmia, synus bradycardia, prolonged P-R interval, and other electrocardiogram (ECG) changes by inhibition of Na+/K+-ATPase (Bandara et al.2010). Then, the present review article was aimed to review toxic effects of plants that were frequently grown as an attractive plant in gardens and public city areas which lead to accidental cardiac poisoning.
T-2 toxin induces apoptosis via the Bax-dependent caspase-3 activation in mouse primary Leydig cells
Published in Toxicology Mechanisms and Methods, 2018
Yong Fa Zhang, Pan Ke Su, Lun Ji Wang, Hui Qi Zheng, Xue Fei Bai, Ping Li, Xiang Ping Meng, Jian Ying Yang
T-2 toxin, a fungal secondary metabolite, is one of type A Trichothecenes (Ferruz et al. 2016; Kufuor-Mensah et al. 2016; Zhang et al. 2016). Ingestion by humans or livestock of cereals contaminated by T-2 toxin can cause adverse reactions, such as vomiting, diarrhea and even death (Nesic et al. 2014; De Ruyck et al. 2015; Escrivá et al. 2015). It is reported that T-2 toxin could induce apoptosis in lymphocyte (Shinozuka et al. 1997), thymocytes (Islam et al. 1998), rat ovarian granulosa cells (Wu et al. 2013), human chondrocytes (Liu et al. 2014), human neuroblastoma cells (Agrawal et al. 2015), etc. However, the mechanism of apoptosis induced by T-2 toxin is still unclear. Therefore, in the current study, we chose primary cultured mouse Leydig cells as a model to investigate the effects and regulatory mechanisms of T-2 toxin-induced apoptosis.
Gastroprotective effects of amifostine in rats treated by T-2 toxin
Published in Toxin Reviews, 2018
Vesna Jacevic, Kamil Kuca, Zoran Milovanovic, Aleksandra Bocarov-Stancic, Ilija Rancic, Dubravko Bokonjic, Viktorija Dragojevic-Simic, Zoran Segrt
T-2 toxin is a highly toxic and irritant fungal metabolite produced by several strains of Fusarium fungi which are present in foods of plant and animal origin (Bennett & Klich, 2003; Dohnal et al., 2008; Ueno, 1984; Wu et al., 2010). According to its high stability and difficult detection in the environment, T-2 toxin has been classified as a biological weapon (Kuca & Pohanka, 2010). Intakes of naturally infected cereals with toxic Fusarium fungi bring about serious mycotoxicosis with similar signs of intoxication (emesis, decreased weight gain, lethargy, diarrhea, gastrointestinal injuries, hemorrhage and death) as those attribute to T-2 toxin (Jacevic, 2005; Resanovic et al., 2009; Wu et al., 2010). In humans, T-2 toxin causes a disease called alimentary toxic aleukia (ATA) (Joffe, 1974). Experimentally, T-2 toxin causes outbreak of hemorrhagic diseases associated with ATA in humans (Wu et al., 2013).
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