Objective: Current treatment for second-degree burn wounds, including silver sulfadiazine (SSD) application, may cause side effects such as delayed and incomplete wound healing, leaving a scar. Traditional plants empirically used for burn wounds, such as Aloe vera, seem to be a promising option with good safety profiles. Methods: We therefore compared Aloe vera to SSD for second-degree burn wounds based on a review of clinical trials obtained by an organized search through the Cochrane, PubMed, and DynaMed databases. Three randomized clinical trials studies were selected, two of which were critically appraised. The third study, with a different outcome assessment, was analyzed separately. Results: Two studies showed that Aloe vera was more effective in treating second-degree burn wounds than SSD 1% with an absolute risk reduction of 0.2, relative risk reduction of 0.83–1.0, and number needed to treat five patients. The Aloe vera group showed faster healing, earlier epithelialization, and earlier pain alleviation. The third study combined Aloe vera with other herbs, which showed better healing ability and restored skin hydration than those with SSD. Conclusion: Each of the three articles stated that Aloe vera was more effective than SSD for treating second-degree burn wounds. Nevertheless, each of the studies lacked methodology and comprehensive data reporting.

Liver diseases are one of the major health problems worldwide and often difficult to treat. Hypoxia condition is one of its pathogenesis. This study was aimed to prove the hepatoprotective effects of the combination of Acalypha indica (AI) and Centella asiatica (CA) against hypoxia. Seven groups of Spraque-Dawley rats are used as follows: negative control without hypoxic condition, six other groups were put in hypoxic chamber and treated with water, AI, CA, two groups of AI-CA combination, and vitamin C, respectively. After 7 d of treatment, Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels were measured in plasma and liver. One of the AI-CA combination groups showed significant protective effect against hypoxia in liver (p < 0.001) but not in plasma

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related mortality worldwide, necessitating the need for an effective therapeutic strategy. Beta vulgaris (beetroot) possesses active compounds that exert anti-cancer properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of beetroot as a preventative agent against the progression of CRC using differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis and network pharmacology approaches. The protein-protein interaction network and molecular docking analyses were employed to assess the key interactions of beetroot active compounds with CRC-related target protein. Cytotoxicity of beetroot extract was experimentally evaluated using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay on the HT29 cell line. The result of this study showed that protein in the cell cycle was significantly enriched in CRC, with cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) gene as one of the specific genes. Quercetin, galangin, hesperidin, farrerol, and betanin were the most typical compounds of beetroot based on the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). Molecular docking studies revealed the strong binding affinity between quercetin (-7.04 kcal/mol) and bentanin (-8.11 kcal/mol) with CDK4. Beetroot demonstrated anticancer properties against the HT29 cell line with IC50 value of 39.03±1.4 µg/mL. In conclusion, the beetroot extract has inhibitory activity against HT29 cell line proliferation, highlighting its potential in preventing the development of CRC through the substantial suppression of gene expression within the cell cycle pathway.

Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) levels were affected by aging. Brain BDNF levels were known to decrease along with advanced age thus correlated with any diseases such as cognitive impairment and Alzheimer. Mesenchymal Stem Cell (MSC) is one of the potential modalities actively investigated against age-related diseases. This study evaluated the effect of human MSC administration to brain BDNF levels in aged rats. Intravenous injection of 10 million per body weight human MSC were given four times in 3 months interval to 22-24 months old female and male Spraque–Dawley rats. As control group, aged rats were injected by normal saline at the same volume and frequencies. Moreover, young 3-6 months rats also examined as negative control. By the end of the experiment, we analyzed three rats from each group. Brain BDNF levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and normalize to the protein levels. One-way ANOVA and LSD post hoc analysis was performed to compare the differences between groups. BDNF levels in male appeared similar between young, aged, and MSC treated groups. Meanwhile, control aged female groups had significantly lower BDNF levels compared to young (p = 0.019) and MSC-treated aged rats (p = 0.001). There was no difference of BDNF levels between young and MSC-treated aged in female rats (p = 0,068). Both sex had similar BDNF levels (p = 0.249) in control-aged groups. In contrast, female young and MSC-treated aged rats achieved significantly higher BDNF levels (p = 0.009 and p <0.001) compared to the male groups, respectively. These results suggest that human mesenchymal stem cell intravenous injection can increase brain BDNF levels in female aged rats.