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Human Serum albumin as well as other biological products prepared by blood fractionation for clinical purposes, was found to contain different amount of aluminum in different commercially available human albumin solutions. It has been reported that interaction of chemicals with the container material can occur during plasma collection, manufacture and storage, so aluminum is introduced into albumin products. Albumin solution is produced by Cohn fractionation. These solutions were analyzed and albumin content was measured by atomic absorption spectrometry, using electrothermal atomizer (Graphite Furnace) and the aluminum concentration in final products and in-process fractions in 21 batch of albumin 20% and 8 batch of albumin 5% were investigated. Also the content of aluminum was determined after 3 months storage in glass container. We found that the aluminum content in all investigated containers had remarkably reduced during the fractionation process. Only in one stage the aluminum content has been increased, and it is probably due to the filters and other chemicals which are used to adjust pH and elec-trolyte concentration. On the other hand concentration may have an important role in increasing alumi-num content in this stage. Aluminum overload may result in development of some diseases, so indicating the need to monitor aluminum level in the albumin to avoid the potential hazard.

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Chemical investigation of Garcinia eugenifolia and Calophyllum enervosum yielded six compounds. One of these was found to be a novel compound identified as enervosanone. Five known compounds cambogin, epicatechin, osajaxanthone, rubraxanthone and isocowanol, were also isolated. These compounds were tested for their bioactivity as antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxicagents. Antimicrobial assay was performed using disc diffusion method. The antioxidative activity was evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method by electron spin resonance. The cytotoxicity was measured by the MTT assay against MCF7 cell line. Enervosanone and rubraxanthone were active against Bacillus subtilis , Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus with MIC value of 26.82, 26.82, 26.82, 26.82 and 60.97, 30.48, 60.97, 60.97 m M, respectively. Rubraxanthone and epicatechin exhibited antioxidant activities with IC 50 of 0.89 m M and 2.6 m M, respectively. The cytotoxicity assay on MCF7 cell line showed that enervosanone was found to be active in inhibiting cell proliferation of MCF7 with IC 50 of 1.07 m M .

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Walnut is a medicinal plant that its different parts such as leaf, seed, root and green husk was shown to reduce blood glucose. In Iranian traditional medicine, septum of walnut shell (SWS) was recommended to reduce blood glucose. But this effect should be determined with scientific researches. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the aqueous extract of SWS on blood glucose and histopathological structure of pancreas. For this purpose, 41 male bulb/C mice 25-30 gm were divided into five groups. All the animals received IP injection of streptozotocin (STZ) (220 mg/kg). Two weeks later, the diabetic animals were received daily oral treatment of normal saline and aqueous extract of SWS (200, 400, 600 and 800 mg/kg) respectively for four weeks. Blood samples were taken from retro-orbital sinus before the start of the experiment and repeated each two week. At the end of experiment, the animals were sacrificed and the pancreatic tissues were fixed, prepared and stained by Hematoxylin-Eosin for light microscope studies. The results showed that in each group, the SWS extract reduced blood glucose in long time ( p < 0.05), but this effect was not dose-dependent between groups. This study also showed that the SWS extract had not any effect on pancreatic structure. It seems that aqueous extract of SWS may reduce blood glucose without any effect on pancreatic structure. However, more investigations should be done to clarify these results.

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Positive role of niacin on serum lipid profile of rats treated with glucocorticoids (GCs) has been reported. This study aims to evaluate effect of niacin on bone changes in GC-induced dyslipidemic rats. A number of 28 growing rats divided into four groups and treated as control, Methyl prednisolone (MP) group (3.5 mg/kg five days a week, SC); MPN group (MP + niacin 200 mg/kg/day orally) and MPA group (MP + alendronate 0.03 mg/kg/day, SC). After 4 weeks, serum lipid profile and histomorphometric parameters including trabecular width (Tb.Wi), trabecular separation (Tb.Sp) and number (Tb.N), bone area/tissue area (B.Ar/T.Ar) and osteoid thickness (O.Th) in metaphyseal side of growth plate of femoral head were determined. Obvious dyslipidemia and decreased B.Ar/T.Ar and O.Th were observed in MP group. Niacin alleviated dyslipidemia, however MPN rats had appreciably lower Tb.N and higher Tb.Sp as compared to MP group. Alendronate had a moderate positive effect on bone changes. Although niacin effectively ameliorates GC-induced dyslipidemia in growing rats, it may exacerbate bone changes.