Plant latices have been utilized as therapeutic agents to treat various ailments in several traditional systems of medicine. One of the main applications of plant latices is to stop bleeding from minor injuries and to enhance wound healing activity. These activities are associated with hemostatic and fibrinolytic systems. Proteolytic enzymes present in plant latices are found to interfere with hemostatic and fibrinolytic systems. Cysteine proteases of plant latices have been observed for their selectivity towards certain blood coagulation factors and specific cleavage patterns resulting in the induction of blood clot formation. Ficin, a mixture of cysteine proteases from the latex of Ficus carica is shown to activate coagulation factor X. Likewise, the purified cysteine proteases, papain from Carica papaya latex and pergularain e I from Pergularia extensa latex are shown to have thrombinlike activity and directly induce fibrinogen clotting. Plant latex serine proteases including Latex Glycoprotein (LGP) from the latex of Synadenium grantii also exhibit procoagulant properties. However, their mechanism of action is not understood. In addition to clot-inducing activity, both the cysteine and serine proteases dissolve blood clot (plasmin-like activity). These properties of plant latex proteases have to be further investigated for their possible utilization in treatment of hemostatic disorders and other clinical applications.

According to reports from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), within the next 14 years, cancer is predicted to become the leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing ischemic heart disease.

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) has, in recent years, become the focus of intensive research efforts aimed at determining the various factors, as well as their degrees of involvement, in its pathogenesis and progression. Of such factors, the immunocompetent microglial cells have repeatedly been implicated as potentially key contributors to the disease process—having namely garnered much attention from genome-wide association studies, as well as studies conducted using murine models. Despite the versatility and convenience of these models, AD remains a distinctly human condition. The present review aims to consolidate evidence regarding the nature and putative role played by microglial activation in the pathogenesis and progression of AD, as it pertains to the aging human brain.

Vitreous Humor (VH) has been the topic of intrigue and research for decades. Due to its postmortem stability, vitreous humor has high utility in forensic pathology. Postmortem analysis of vitreous humor biochemical constituents has opened many channels for investigating pathological conditions and proved to be of paramount use for forensic pathologists in criminal investigations. The relative stability of vitreous biochemistry is useful in assessing the antemortem metabolic status and in predicting the antemortem serum biochemistry of an individual. Novel formulae to evaluate Postmortem Interval (PMI) using post mortem concentration of vitreous humor constituents have been suggested over the years and its application has extended beyond PMI to postmortem diagnosis of pathological conditions.

Ingestion of indigestible or poorly digestible substances may accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract in the form of a bezoar. On the basis of their composition, bezoars are classified into various types. Phytobezoars (concretions of vegetable matters) are commonly found in the gastrointestinal tract, including stomach and small intestine. Most cases are asymptomatic but intestinal obstruction had been reported in the literature, accounting for only 0.4 to 4%. Here we report a case in which phytobezoar was presented with small intestinal obstruction.