Chapters authored
Medicinal Plants Having Antifungal Properties
In the past few decades, a worldwide increase in the incidence of fungal infections has been observed as well as rise in the resistance of some species of fungi to different fungicidal used in medicinal practice. Besides, fungi are the one of the most neglected pathogens as demonstrated by the fact that the amphotericin B and other sold treatments are still used as gold standard as antifungal therapy. The majority of used antifungal treatments have various drawbacks in terms of toxicity, efficacy as well as cost and their frequent use has also led to the emergence of resistant strains. Hence, there is a great demand for developing an antifungal belonging to a wide range of structural classes, selectively acting on new targets with least side effects. Natural products, either as pure phytocompounds or as standardized plant extracts, provide unlimited opportunities for new drug lads because of their having normally matchless chemical diversity. Present chapter focused on the work done in the field of antifungal activities of various plant components and novel approaches which will be the future prospective for the new drug discoveries and providing better antifungal therapy.
Part of the book: Medicinal Plants
Potential Application of Nanoporous Materials in Biomedical Field
Nanoporous materials are the substances having pores of size 100 nanometers in a frame work organic or inorganic substance. These substances are used in medical devices such as bioartificial organ and biosensing. Nanoporous material has also importance in the field of diagnostics. This chapter basically explains about the nanoporous material in detail along with its types. The methods of fabrication of these nanoporous material area also explained. The chapter also deals with the characterization of the materials. Moreover present application of nanoporous material such as in the field of biomedicals along with the future prospects is explained in the present chapter.
Part of the book: Nanopores
Hepatocytes and Their Role in Metabolism
Liver is one of the vital organ that performs many functions in the human body. Prominently it acts as a metabolizing organ for the body. This chapter elaborately describes hepatocytes along with their morphological features. In addition, it explains the structure of hepatocytes and different parts such as kupffer cells, hepatic stellate and hepatic sinusoids. Moreover present chapter elaborates the varieties of functions that hepatocytes perform such as filtration of blood, acting as a viral incubator, lipophagy and regulation of insulin and glucose. This chapter also explains hepatic injury that is caused by chronic consumption of alcohol along with the mechanism behind it.
Part of the book: Drug Metabolism