Under the conditions used to prepare the traditional sugar syrups and caramels, commercial sucrose is heated with small amounts of water in order to attain supersaturated (at room temperature) solutions. Undesuch conditions, a lag phase in sucrose thermal degradation was experimentally observed. This lag phase was also observed in the formation of reaction products, and can be interpreted has a...

Sleep disturbance is a very common finding in patients with persistent cough1. This is especially apparent in infants with common cold or influenza and the continuous crying can lead to considerable distress for the parents. Cough syrups which are easily available as over the counter medications can induce sleep, and many parents turn to this medication when their infant is suffering from persi...

The influence of temperature and water activity (aw) on growth and patulin production by Byssochlamys nivea in apple syrups was determined over a 44-day incubation period. The minimum aw at which the mold was capable of growing was 0.915 and 0.886 at 21 and 30 degrees C, respectively. Growth at 37 degrees C was observed at 0.871 aw. Minimum aw values for patulin production were 0.978, 0.968, an...

BACKGROUND Rational prescription is a considerable issue which must be paid more attention to assess the behavior of prescribers. The aim of this study was to examine factors affecting family physicians' drug prescribing. METHODS We carried out a retrospective cross-sectional study in Khuzestan province, Iran in 2011. Nine hundred eighty-six prescriptions of 421 family physicians (including 3...

BACKGROUND Herbal and Ayurvedic preparations, widely used in Pakistan and the developing world, present serious risk of heavy metal toxicity related to their medicinal content and prolonged use by patients. The objective of this study was to find out the concentration of heavy metals in Herbal & Ayurvedic liquid preparations commonly used for treatment of different diseases, from local markets ...