Ferulone A and ferulone B: two new coumarin esters from Ferula orientalis L. roots, Natural Products Research

Ferula orientalis (Apiaceae) is a well known perennial herb growing wild in Iran used in traditional medicine. To perform phytochemical studies, dried ground roots of F. orientalis were sequentially Soxhlet-extracted using n-hexane, dichloromethane and methanol. A combination of vacuum liquid chromatography and preparative thin layer chromatographic analyses were performed to isolate coumarin esters. The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic means, and in vitro free-radical-scavenging property was determined by the DPPH assay.Two new coumarin esters, 7-O-(4,8,12,16-tetrahydroxy-4,8,12,16-tetramethyl-heptadecanoyl)-coumarinand 7-O-(4-hydroxy-4,8,12-trimethyl-trideca- 7,11-dienoyl)-coumarin, named ferulone A and ferulone B, respectively, were isolated from the n-hexane extract of the roots of F. orientalis. Both compounds showed a low level of free-radical-scavenging property with the RC50 values of 0.252 and 0.556mg/mL for compounds 1 and 2, respectively, as opposed to that of the positive control (quercetin) 0.004 mg/mL. This is the first report on the purification of coumarin esters from the genus Ferula

Chemical Composition, Some Allelopathic Aspects, Free-Radical-Scavenging Property and Antifungal Activity of the Volatile Oil of the Flowering Tops of Leucanthemum vulgare Lam.

Hydrodistillation of the ground flowering tops of Leucanthemum vulgare (Asteraceae), collected from Heyran (Ardabil Province, Iran), afforded a greenish yellow oil (yield 0.15%, v/w), which was analyzed by the GC-MS and the GC-FID. The volatile oil comprised 47 compounds representing 90.3% of the oil. Caryophyllene oxide (21.2%), aromadendrene oxide (13.7%), cis-β-farnesene (6.5%), 1-octen-3-yl-acetate (5.6%) and trans-caryophyllene (4.9%) were the major compounds. The volatile oil composition of L. vulgare collected from Iran (present study) was significantly different from that collected from elsewhere, indicating two possible chemotypes. The volatile oil showed free-radical-scavenging, antifungal and allelopathic effects

Short-Lived Trace Gases in the Surface Ocean and the Atmosphere

The two-way exchange of trace gases between the ocean and the atmosphere is important for both the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere and the biogeochemistry of the oceans, including the global cycling of elements. Here we review these exchanges and their importance for a range of gases whose lifetimes are generally short compared to the main greenhouse gases and which are, in most cases, more reactive than them. Gases considered include sulphur and related compounds, organohalogens, non-methane hydrocarbons, ozone, ammonia and related compounds, hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Finally, we stress the interactivity of the system, the importance of process understanding for modeling, the need for more extensive field measurements and their better seasonal coverage, the importance of inter-calibration exercises and finally the need to show the importance of air-sea exchanges for global cycling and how the field fits into the broader context of Earth System Science

Psychological symptoms

Psychological symptoms are highly prevalent in people requiring palliative care. They are much more challenging to elicit, and more controversy exists about what is normal and what might require intervention than physical symptoms. There are significant issues in determining what is normal and what is not. Sadness, distress, anxiety, and depression can coexist and require careful assessment. Management of psychological symptoms and conditions can broadly be considered in terms of non-pharmacological and pharmacological therapies, “the talking and the drug therapies.” These are not mutually exclusive, and for people with limited energy, failing cognition, and limited time, some pragmatic decisions may be necessary. To be distressed and immobilized by emotion is not normal. Depression is not a normal part of dying. There should be discussion about the nature of psychological issues and conditions, explanation of common somatic symptoms, and a plan for intervention and support. The burden on the carer, both professional and personal, in such situations should not be underestimated.Gregory B. Crawfor

Global mortality associated with 33 bacterial pathogens in 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Reducing the burden of death due to infection is an urgent global public health priority. Previous studies have estimated the number of deaths associated with drug-resistant infections and sepsis and found that infections remain a leading cause of death globally. Understanding the global burden of common bacterial pathogens (both susceptible and resistant to antimicrobials) is essential to identify the greatest threats to public health. To our knowledge, this is the first study to present global comprehensive estimates of deaths associated with 33 bacterial pathogens across 11 major infectious syndromes.Methods We estimated deaths associated with 33 bacterial genera or species across 11 infectious syndromes in 2019 using methods from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019, in addition to a subset of the input data described in the Global Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance 2019 study. This study included 343 million individual records or isolates covering 11 361 study-location-years. We used three modelling steps to estimate the number of deaths associated with each pathogen: deaths in which infection had a role, the fraction of deaths due to infection that are attributable to a given infectious syndrome, and the fraction of deaths due to an infectious syndrome that are attributable to a given pathogen. Estimates were produced for all ages and for males and females across 204 countries and territories in 2019. 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) were calculated for final estimates of deaths and infections associated with the 33 bacterial pathogens following standard GBD methods by taking the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles across 1000 posterior draws for each quantity of interest.Findings From an estimated 13.7 million (95% UI 10.9-17.1) infection-related deaths in 2019, there were 7.7 million deaths (5.7-10.2) associated with the 33 bacterial pathogens (both resistant and susceptible to antimicrobials) across the 11 infectious syndromes estimated in this study. We estimated deaths associated with the 33 bacterial pathogens to comprise 13.6% (10.2-18.1) of all global deaths and 56.2% (52.1-60.1) of all sepsis-related deaths in 2019. Five leading pathogens-Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa-were responsible for 54.9% (52.9-56.9) of deaths among the investigated bacteria. The deadliest infectious syndromes and pathogens varied by location and age. The age-standardised mortality rate associated with these bacterial pathogens was highest in the sub-Saharan Africa super-region, with 230 deaths (185-285) per 100 000 population, and lowest in the high-income super-region, with 52.2 deaths (37.4-71.5) per 100 000 population. S aureus was the leading bacterial cause of death in 135 countries and was also associated with the most deaths in individuals older than 15 years, globally. Among children younger than 5 years, S pneumoniae was the pathogen associated with the most deaths. In 2019, more than 6 million deaths occurred as a result of three bacterial infectious syndromes, with lower respiratory infections and bloodstream infections each causing more than 2 million deaths and peritoneal and intra-abdominal infections causing more than 1 million deaths.Interpretation The 33 bacterial pathogens that we investigated in this study are a substantial source of health loss globally, with considerable variation in their distribution across infectious syndromes and locations. Compared with GBD Level 3 underlying causes of death, deaths associated with these bacteria would rank as the second leading cause of death globally in 2019; hence, they should be considered an urgent priority for intervention within the global health community. Strategies to address the burden of bacterial infections include infection prevention, optimised use of antibiotics, improved capacity for microbiological analysis, vaccine development, and improved and more pervasive use of available vaccines. These estimates can be used to help set priorities for vaccine need, demand, and development. Copyright (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license