International Journal of Integrative Medical Sciences

30-40

Authors: Kartikeya Tiwari, Inampudi Sailaja, Ivvala Anand Shaker.

A long time back the discovery of penicillin opened the new door for fungal antibiotics. Gradually a large number of secondary metabolites harnessed by various scientists and used now a days as antibiotics. Although the new area to be yet explored is fungal endophytes. All plants in natural ecosystems appear to be symbiotic with fungal endophytes. This highly diverse group of fungi can have profound impacts on plant communities through increasing fitness by conferring abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, increasing biomass and decreasing water consumption, or decreasing fitness by altering resource allocation. Endophytic fungi are an important part, are ubiquitous and occur within almost all the plants, including a broad range of hosts in various ecosystems, and therefore play an important role in the natural environment. Despite extensive work in this field, the ecological significance of these fungi remains poorly characterized. More than 1 million species of endophytic fungi are estimated to exist based on a ratio of vascular plants to fungal species of 1:4 or 1:5. Nevertheless, our recognition of endophyte diversity is limited at present. In surveys of endophyte diversity, traditional techniques, such as cultivation-dependent methods, have been routinely used in previous studies collectively, more than 100 years of research suggests that most, if not all, plants in natural ecosystems are symbiotic with mycorrhizal fungi and/or fungal endophytes. The discovery of endophytic fungi in natural environments, however, has been limited by traditional methodology due to some non-sporulating and non-culturable fungi. Molecular techniques, such as DNA fingerprinting and sequencing methods, have been successfully employed in the detection and identification of endophytic fungi, and different endophyte diversity and community composition have been documented by cultivation-dependent and molecular techniques. So what next, are endophytes the future medicines? The present review explore the potential of fungi with respect to the production of various secondary metabolites/medicines.

45-47

Authors: Aroona Selvarajan

Spontaneous perforation of a normal stomach is a rare event especially in the paediatric non-neonatal age group and mainly reported in the Chinese and Japanese literature. We report the first case in the Asia Pacific preceded by a generalised fit. A previously healthy 2 year old Malay boy presented with convulsions and vomiting. Post-ictally, his abdomen was distended. He was intubated for airway protection. Transfer to a paediatric surgical centre was delayed by about 12 hours because the diagnosis was disputed and by then patient became unstable with a tension hydropneumoperitoneum resulting in cardiovascular collapse. This was relieved by an abdominal needle paracentesis and he was stable for transfer. The findings of the laparotomy was a simple perforation at the lesser curvature of the stomach. The child survived following intensive postoperative care with neurological impairment. Histopathological report did not show any abnormality. Hence we postulate that epilepsy could cause gastric distension leading to perforation. In conclusion, gastric rupture can follow an epileptic fit and patients deteriorate rapidly hence early diagnosis is vital.