Context: Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) is a rich source of essential minerals and antioxidants; it has been used in human and animal nutrition. The leaves and flowers are being used by the population with great dietary importance. Objective: The present study was to investigate the therapeutic effects of the hydroethanolic extract of Moringa oleifera (MO) leaves and flowers against hepatotoxicity induced by acetaminophen (APAP) in rats. Materials and methods: In the hepatoprotective study, either flowers or leaves of hydroethanolic extract (200 or 400 mg/kg bw through IP injection) were administered an hour after APAP administration. N-Acetylcysteine (NAC) was used as the positive control for this study. Liver and kidney function tests including lipid peroxidation levels were analyzed and histopathological changes of liver and kidney were also observed. Results: Acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity increased the activities of liver marker enzymes. Histologically, the liver was observed to have inflammation and bridging necrosis. Liver marker enzymes were significantly reduced when treated with flower and leaf extracts of MO in animals with APAP induced toxicity. In addition, there were no significant changes observed in clinical markers of kidney function. Histological observation on liver tissue from the rats treated with MO flower and leaf extract showed reduction in the severity of the liver damage. Discussion and conclusion: These results indicated the possible therapeutic action of flower and leaf extract from MO in protecting liver damage in rats given an over dosage of APAP.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder and the commonest cause of dementia among the aged people. _D-galactose (D-gal) is a senescence agent, while aluminium is a known neurotoxin linked to pathogenesis of AD. The combined administration of rats with d-gal and aluminium chloride (AlCl₃) is considered to be an easy and a cheap method to obtain an animal model of AD. The plant Centella asiatica (CA) is reported to exert neuroprotective effects both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, this study explored the protective effects of CA on cognition and brain ultrastructure in d-gal and AlCl₃ induced rats. Rats were exposed to d-gal 60 mg/kg/b.wt/day + AlCl₃ 200 mg/kg/b.wt/day and CA (200, 400 and 800 mg/kg/b.wt/day) and 1 mg/kg/b.wt/day of donepezil for 70 days. Different cognitive paradigms viz. T maze spontaneous alternation, modified elevated plus maze and novel object recognition test, were used to evaluate full lesions of the hippocampus, spatial learning and memory and non-spatial learning and memory respectively. Nissl's staining was used to determine the survival of hippocampus CA1 pyramidal cells, while transmission electron microscopy was used to check the ultrastructural changes. The results revealed that d-gal and AlCl₃ could significantly impair behavior and cognitive functions, besides causing damage to the hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons in rats. In addition, it also caused ultrastructural morphological alterations in rat hippocampus. Conversely, co-administration o;f CA, irrespective of the dosage used, alleviated the cognitive impairments and pathological changes in the rats comparable to donepezil. In conclusion the results suggest that CA could protect cognitive impairments and morphological alterations caused by d-gal and AlCl₃ toxicity in rats. Biochemical and molecular studies are ongoing to elucidate the probable pharmacodynamics of CA.

Nootropics or smart drugs are well‐known compounds or supplements that enhance the cognitive performance. They work by increasing the mental function such as memory, creativity, motivation, and attention. Recent researches were focused on establishing a new potential nootropic derived from synthetic and natural products. The influence of nootropic in the brain has been studied widely. The nootropic affects the brain performances through number of mechanisms or pathways, for example, dopaminergic pathway. Previous researches have reported the influence of nootropics on treating memory disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases. Those disorders are observed to impair the same pathways of the nootropics. Thus, recent established nootropics are designed sensitively and effectively towards the pathways. Natural nootropics such asGinkgo bilobahave been widely studied to support the beneficial effects of the compounds. Present review is concentrated on the main pathways, namely, dopaminergic and cholinergic system, and the involvement of amyloid precursor protein and secondary messenger in improving the cognitive performance.

Cockle shell is an external covering of small, salt water edible clams (Anadara granosa) that dwells in coastal area. This abundant biomaterial is hard, cheap and readily available with high content of calcium carbonate in aragonite polymorphic form. At present, cockle shell-derived calcium carbonate nanoparticles (CSCaCO₃NPs) with dual applications has remarkably drawn significant attention of researchers in nanotechnology as a nanocarrier for delivery of different categories of drugs and as bone scaffold due to its beneficial potentials such as biocompatibility, osteoconductivity, pH sensitivity, slow biodegradation, hydrophilic nature and a wide safety margin. In addition, CSCaCO₃NP possesses structural porosity, a large surface area and functional group endings for electrostatic ion bonds with high loading capacity. Thus, it maintains great potential in the drug delivery system and a large number of biomedical utilisations. The pioneering researchers adopted a non-hazardous top-down method for the synthesis of CSCaCO₃NP with subsequent improvements that led to the better spherical diameter size obtained recently which is suitable for drug delivery. The method is therefore a simple, low cost and environmentally friendly, which involves little procedural steps without stringent temperature management and expensive hazardous chemicals or any carbonation methods. This paper presents a review on a few different types of nanoparticles with emphasis on the versatile most recent advancements and achievements on the synthesis and developments of CSCaCO₃NP aragonite with its applications as a nanocarrier for drug delivery in nanomedicine.