A tailored series of coumarin-based ferrocenyl 1,3-oxazine hybrid compounds was synthesized and investigated for potential antiparasitic activity, drawing inspiration from the established biological ...efficacy of the constituent chemical motifs. The structural identity of the synthesized compounds was confirmed by common spectroscopic techniques: NMR, HRMS and IR. Biological evaluation studies reveal that the compounds exhibit higher in vitro antiparasitic potency against the chemosensitive malarial strain (3D7
) over the investigated trypanosomiasis causal agent (
427) with mostly single digit micromolar IC
values. When read in tandem with the biological performance of previously reported structurally similar non-coumarin, phenyl derivatives (i.e., ferrocenyl 1,3-benzoxazines and α-aminocresols), structure-activity relationship analyses suggest that the presence of the coumarin nucleus is tolerated for biological activity though this may lead to reduced efficacy. Preliminary mechanistic studies with the most promising compound (
) support hemozoin inhibition and DNA interaction as likely mechanistic modalities by which this class of compounds may act to produce plasmocidal and antitrypanosomal effects.
With an intention of identifying chalcone derivatives exhibiting anti-protozoal activity, a cohort of relatively unexplored arylpyrrole-based chalcone derivatives were synthesized in moderate to good ...yields. The resultant compounds were evaluated in vitro for their potential activity against a cultured
427 strain. Several compounds displayed mostly modest in vitro anti-trypanosomal activity with compounds
and
emerging as active candidates with IC
values of 4.09 and 5.11 µM, respectively. More importantly, a concomitant assessment of their activity against a human cervix adenocarcinoma (HeLa) cell line revealed that these compounds are non-toxic.
Southern Africa faces numerous challenges, such as increasing biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Additionally, poor and vulnerable communities suffer from undernourishment and are food ...insecure. Therefore, Southern Africa must adopt inclusive, sustainable food systems that support food security, even under harsh climatic conditions. Wild edible plants can potentially strengthen South African communities’ diets, as they are nutritious, freely available and adapted to survive in marginal conditions. Portulacaria afra, colloquially known as spekboom, is an indigenous succulent to South Africa. This edible plant is resilient even when exposed to weather extremes and is exceptionally easy to grow. Spekboom can potentially contribute to food security since food-insecure communities can access the plant in a socially acceptable way. However, spekboom awaits culinary development to increase its consumption. This review presents the current knowledge of spekboom. As there is limited published research, the review aims to stimulate research in food science and nutrition on this undervalued plant and introduce it as a new food and ingredient.
Portulacaria afra (P. afra) is a highly adaptable edible wild-growing succulent plant known as Spekboom. It thrives in gardens and the wild in arid and semi-arid regions of Southern Africa. It has a ...pleasant and citrusy acidic flavour. The study determined the consumer liking and sensory profile of five Spekboom treatments (raw, blanched, oven-baked, stir-fried and steamed). Ninety-four panellists ranked it on a nine-point hedonic scale and selected sensory characteristics which best described the taste using the Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) assessment. The overall liking assessment showed the fresh sample was ‘neither liked nor disliked’ (5.06), while the other treatments were ‘disliked slightly’. The most frequently checked terms in the CATA assessment were “leafy appearance” (201) and sour taste (369). Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering and External Preference Mapping indicated two clusters. Cluster 1 indicated the raw leaves as fresh, green, leafy, and crispy, while the second cluster preferred blanched, oven-baked, and steamed leaves with descriptors like sour, bitter, chewy, juicy and pungent. All the treatments, except stir-frying, appeared to be acceptable to consumers. Thus, this plant has an acceptable taste. It could assist in ensuring sustainable food security and reduce the vulnerability of rural and urban food-insecure households in Southern Africa.
•The spekboom leaves have a juicy, crunchy taste, with an acidic lemon flavour.•Raw, blanched, oven-baked and steamed were acceptable cooking methods.•Some consumers preferred sour, bitter, chewy, juicy, and pungent flavours.•Other consumers preferred the fresh, green, crispiness of raw leaves.•Spekboom leaves could be used in recipes as a flavourful ingredient.
Southern Africa faces numerous challenges, such as increasing biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. Additionally, poor and vulnerable communities suffer from undernourishment and are food ...insecure. Therefore, Southern Africa must adopt inclusive, sustainable food systems that support food security, even under harsh climatic conditions. Wild edible plants can potentially strengthen South African communities' diets, as they are nutritious, freely available and adapted to survive in marginal conditions. Portulacaria afra, colloquially known as spekboom, is an indigenous succulent to South Africa. This edible plant is resilient even when exposed to weather extremes and is exceptionally easy to grow. Spekboom can potentially contribute to food security since food-insecure communities can access the plant in a socially acceptable way. However, spekboom awaits culinary development to increase its consumption. This review presents the current knowledge of spekboom. As there is limited published research, the review aims to stimulate research in food science and nutrition on this undervalued plant and introduce it as a new food and ingredient.
The convergence of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases in South Africa is challenging to health systems. In this analysis, we assessed the multimorbidity health needs of individuals and ...communities in rural KwaZulu-Natal and established a framework to quantify met and unmet health needs for individuals living with infectious and non-communicable diseases.
We analysed data collected between May 25, 2018, and March 13, 2020, from participants of a large, community-based, cross-sectional multimorbidity survey (Vukuzazi) that offered community-based HIV, hypertension, and diabetes screening to all residents aged 15 years or older in a surveillance area in the uMkhanyakude district in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Data from the Vukuzazi survey were linked with data from demographic and health surveillance surveys with a unique identifier common to both studies. Questionnaires were used to assess the diagnosed health conditions, treatment history, general health, and sociodemographic characteristics of an individual. For each condition (ie, HIV, hypertension, and diabetes), individuals were defined as having no health needs (absence of condition), met health needs (condition that is well controlled), or one or more unmet health needs (including diagnosis, engagement in care, or treatment optimisation). We analysed met and unmet health needs for individual and combined conditions and investigated their geospatial distribution.
Of 18 041 participants who completed the survey (12 229 67·8% were female and 5812 32·2% were male), 9898 (54·9%) had at least one of the three chronic diseases measured. 4942 (49·9%) of these 9898 individuals had at least one unmet health need (1802 18·2% of 9898 needed treatment optimisation, 1282 13·0% needed engagement in care, and 1858 18·8% needed a diagnosis). Unmet health needs varied by disease; 1617 (93·1%) of 1737 people who screened positive for diabetes, 2681 (58·2%) of 4603 people who screened positive for hypertension, and 1321 (21·7%) of 6096 people who screened positive for HIV had unmet health needs. Geospatially, met health needs for HIV were widely distributed and unmet health needs for all three conditions had specific sites of concentration; all three conditions had an overlapping geographical pattern for the need for diagnosis.
Although people living with HIV predominantly have a well controlled condition, there is a high burden of unmet health needs for people living with hypertension and diabetes. In South Africa, adapting current, widely available HIV care services to integrate non-communicable disease care is of high priority.
Fogarty International Center and the National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the South African Department of Science and Innovation, the South African Medical Research Council, the South African Population Research Infrastructure Network, and the Wellcome Trust.
For the isiZulu translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.
Abstract
Background
In low- and middle-income settings, obtaining informed consent for biobanking may be complicated by socio-economic vulnerability and context-specific power dynamics. We explored ...participants experiences and perceptions of the research objectives in a community-based multidisease screening and biospecimen collection platform in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Methods
We undertook semi-structured in-depth interviews to assess participant understanding of the informed consent, research objectives and motivation for participation.
Results
Thirty-nine people participated (individuals who participated in screening/biospecimen collection and those who did not and members of the research team). Some participants said they understood the information shared with them. Some said they participated due to the perceived benefits of the reimbursement and convenience of free healthcare. Most who did not participate said it was due to logistical rather than ethical concerns. None of the participants recalled aspects of biobanking and genetics from the consent process.
Conclusions
Although most people understood the study objectives, we observed challenges to identifying language appropriate to explain biobanking and genetic testing to our target population. Engagement with communities to adopt contextually relevant terminologies that participants can understand is crucial. Researchers need to be mindful of the impact of communities’ socio-economic status and how compensation can be potentially coercive.
Agriculture is one of the sectors that contribute to the development of the country as it is also a basic source of livelihood for people in rural areas. With an increase in the population, the ...demand for food also increases. As a result, agriculture is unable to meet this demand because of climate change affecting productivity. Climate change which is a long-term shift in weather pattern impact on the environment has made it difficult to produce enough to accommodate the growing population. To overcome this problem smart Agriculture is adopted. Smart agriculture is making use of IoT devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) plays an important role in weather prediction since accuracy is crucial to produce crops. However, the adoption of smart agriculture is still in the very early stages, especially in the rural areas of developing nations. Despite some level of awareness about climate issues regarding agriculture especially in the developed countries, in the rural areas of developing nations, the small-scale farmers have little or no knowledge about climate change which impacts their productivity. This article presents a general review of the innovation and technologies in smart agriculture using IoT. This paper also discusses the IoT-based commercial solutions developed for smart farming. Based on the review of these existing works and commercial products, a conclusion can be drawn that key challenges and future scope of research in this domain are found. One of the findings is that all the existing solutions or the proposed solutions cater to developed nations and financially stable and big farmers less to rural small-scale farmers. As the methods that they are currently using to predict the weather condition due to recent climate change, these methods' prediction accuracy is very low. Hence, there is a need to further explore other approaches that can be adopted by small-scale farmers for highly accurate weather prediction which this study aims to achieve.
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