Syzygium guineense Wall. leaf is being used as a traditional medicine against hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Unlike its efficacy, the safety profile of this plant upon long-term administration has not been investigated yet. Therefore, this study investigated the sub-chronic toxicity of S. guineense leaves in rats. Wistar albino rats, 10/sex/group were randomly assigned into four groups. Group I-III respectively received 250, 500, and 1000 mg/kg of body weight of 70 % ethanol extract ofS. guineense leaves for 90 consecutive days. Group IV (control) received distilled water. Throughout the experiment, clinical observations were carried out, food intake and weight of the rats also were measured. Finally, different biochemical parameters, organ weight, and histopathology of liver and kidneys were evaluated. Administration of 70 % ethanol extract ofS. guineense leaves decreased food intake and body weight gain of the test animals. Rats treated with 1000 mg/kg of S. guineense extract showed significantly increased serum alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase levels. Serum urea levels also increased in female rats treated with 500 and 1000 mg/kg body weight of S. guineense. Moreover, the blood glucose level of rats treated with 1000 mg/kg body weight was significantly decreased compared to the control group. However, the histology of the liver and kidneys were not significantly altered by any of the doses administered. Administration ofS. guineense in rats at a dose of 1000 mg/kg body weight affected the food consumption, weight gain, and serum levels of liver and kidney enzymes suggesting that S. guineense intake at high doses may be toxic. Therefore, liberal consumption of S. guineense leaves should be taken curiously and cautiously.

Dove Press is a member of the Open Access Initiative, specializing in peer reviewed Medical Journals. View articlesor submit your research for publishing

Background: The consistency of GeneXpert and Cobas RT-PCR assays for detecting SARS-CoV-2 in pooled versus individual samples remains uncertain. Sample pooling combines multiple patient samples into a single test reaction to increase efficiency. Only one study in Ethiopia has evaluated pooling performance for SARS-CoV-2 detection, but it failed to directly compare these two widely used diagnostic tests. Purpose: This study evaluated the performance of the Cepheid Xpert^® Xpress (Xpert) and Roche Cobas^® (Cobas) SARS-CoV-2 assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection in pooled nasopharyngeal swab samples. Patients and Methods: The study used a cross-sectional study design on 50 confirmed SARS-CoV-2-positive samples grouped by their Cycle Threshold (CT) values. These samples were pooled with SARS-CoV-2-negative samples and tested using both assays. A total of 200 pooled samples were tested. Results: Of the 200 poled samples tested, 91.0% and 81.0% tested positive with Xpert and Cobas, respectively, with an overall agreement of 89% (κ=0.552). Strong correlation was observed between the CT values of the initial individual samples and the pooled samples for both assays. In pool-4 and pool-6, the Xpert assay detected 94.0% of positives, while Cobas assay detected 82.0%. Overall, 80.5% of pooled samples were positive and 8.5% were negative with both assays (overall concordance of 89.0%), Percent Positive Agreement of 93.6%, and Negative Agreement of 60.7%. Conclusion: Overall, these findings suggest that implementing sample pooling can be particularly beneficial in low-resource settings where testing resources are limited, enabling an increase in overall testing capacity. Xpert assay performed effectively for pooling up to six samples, whereas the Cobas assay showed reduced sensitivity, especially with low viral loads. This implies that pooling of nasopharyngeal samples from asymptomatic individuals may be missed by the Cobas assay, underscoring the importance of considering pool size, viral load and assay choices when implementing pooled SARS-CoV-2 testing.