1.
Essling, Elise, et al.
(författare)
Pharmacy employees’ self-rated knowledge, use and attitudes toward homeopathy: A comparative survey in Sweden and Germany
2019
Ingår i: European Pharmaceutical Journal. - : de Gruyter. - 2453-6725. ; 66:1, s. 19-27
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Background: Homeopathy is being increasingly practiced within different medical areas of use. Homeopathic medicines are sold in German pharmacies, whereas the assortment of Swedish pharmacies does not include homeopathic medicines. Despite differences between Sweden and Germany, homeopathic medicines are classified as drugs in both countries. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the pharmacy employees’ self-rated knowledge, use, and attitudes toward homeopathy in Sweden and Germany. Methods: A quantitative web survey was sent to 30 pharmacies in Sweden and 30 pharmacies in Germany, which were selected by using a multi-stage clustering sampling. The questionnaire contained closed-ended rating scales. To compare the self-rated knowledge, use, and attitudes toward homeopathy of Swedish and German pharmacy employees, chi-square tests and Mann-Whitney tests were performed in SPSS. Results: A total of 209 pharmacy employees answered the survey (108 in Sweden and 101 in Germany). German participants estimated their knowledge higher than the Swedish participants (p < 0.01). In both countries, most participants thought that pharmacy employees should have knowledge about homeopathy. Although most Swedish participants stated that they receive questions about homeopathy, the German pharmacy employees receive questions about homeopathy more frequently (p <0.01). Swedish participants reported less experience of own use of homeopathic medicines and less belief in their effectiveness as compared to the German participants (p < 0.01). However, in both countries, most participants stated that homeopathic medicines should be sold in pharmacies. Conclusion: As pharmacy employees should act professionally to advise customers on all drugs, increased homeopathic knowledge in pharmacy employees could potentially improve pharmaceutical practice.
2.
Bustos, Atma Sol, et al.
(författare)
Interaction Between Phenolic Compounds and Lipase : The Influence of Solubility and Presence of Particles in the IC50 Value
2018
Ingår i: Journal of Food Science. - : Wiley. - 0022-1147 .- 1750-3841. ; 83:8, s. 2071-2076
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat) abstract
Obesity is one of the principal human health problems and one of the main treatments against it is the inhibition of pancreatic lipase, the main responsible enzyme of lipid digestion. For that purpose, previous studies have tested several phenolic compounds against lipase, without considering their aggregation behavior in aqueous solutions. Because of this, the present study focuses on understanding how the solubility and the presence of particles affect the IC50 value of the interaction between lipase and phenolic compounds present in beverages like fruit juices and teas. Therefore, the inhibitory capacity against pancreatic lipase and the aggregate formation of 9 phenolic compounds (quercetin, rutin, myricetin, catechin, epigallocatechin gallate, cyanidin, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, and vanillic acid) were analyzed. The results obtained together with the solubility data from literature were treated by principal component analysis and indicate that the IC50 value does not correlate with the solubility or aggregate formation of the phenolic compounds. However, the IC50 values of phenolic compounds which aggregate during the assay conditions have low reproducibility. This study shows that the aggregate formation of phenolic compounds plays an important role during in vitro assays for pancreatic lipase inhibition and should be considered in future experiments as it can lead to false positive results. In terms of particle formation, the flavonoids investigated in this study are more prone to aggregation compared to the phenolic acids.
