Amount Of Ointment Research Articles

The House that Race Built

The House that Race Built E. Patrick Johnson (bio) The year 1970 was spiteful. It was a year of the United States’ continued reckoning with its racist past, present (and future); its sexism and misogyny; its homophobia; its class wars; its jingoism and imperialism. It was the year that Angela Davis was fired from UCLA for being a communist; it was the year that race riots occurred in Augusta, GA, Miami and Daytona Beach, FL; it was the year that Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton was released from jail. And the list goes on. The country needed a salve for the wound inflicted by white supremacy, though no amount of ointment would scab over centuries of the deeds of white men. As they always already had done, black women came to the rescue with their own form of root work on this more “imperfect” union. The sweat and toil of their labor in the fields and in white folks’ houses that would spill into the streets and on picket lines, was the historical context for what emerged as a black feminist consciousness made manifest materially and rhetorically. In the preface to her 1970 black feminist anthology, The Black Woman, for example, writer Toni Cade Bambara proclaims, “We are involved in a struggle for liberation: liberation from the exploitive and dehumanizing system of racism, from the manipulative control of a corporate society; liberation from the constrictive norms of ‘mainstream’ culture, from [End Page 678] the synthetic myths that encourage us to fashion ourselves rashly from without (reaction) rather than from within (creation)” (1970, 7). And as if singing a harmonic alto to Bambara’s soprano, the twin namesake Toni Morrison punctuates Bambara’s declaration with an exclamation mark: The Bluest Eye. Indeed, the story of Pecola Breedlove in The Bluest Eye is exemplary of what happens when we fail to loosen the hold of the “synthetic myths” that are often internalized as a reaction to white supremacy: when we are seduced by the seeming “innocence” of language that formulates the “Dick and Jane” children’s book primer that opens the novel; when we, like Cholly Breedlove, buy the lie of what manhood should be and feels like, and get trapped in the pursuit of an ideal that leaves one forever wanting and ultimately, “a ratty nigger” (Morrison 2000, 17); when we, like Pauline Breed-love, become maimed by our obsession with an external “other” rather than the other within, which keeps us from living our best life; indeed, when we, like all our ancestors and the yet unborn yield to the temptation of racism it keeps us “distracted,” as Morrison, speaking in a different context, notes, from doing our work because “there will always be one more thing” (1975). Ultimately, like the entire Breedlove family, we sometimes drape around us a stunningly beautiful yet deceptively cheap cloak of ugly that does not belong to us—“a cloak of ugliness” we have accepted to wear without question (2000, 39). Given this “ugly” historical context, fifty years is an eye blink— or a mother’s side eye. We have been stuck in the changing same for over three centuries, and so it is the themes of Morrison’s first novel that call us to reckon with what it all means—this so-called black American life in which the election of a black president lulled us into a quietude that actually awoke a sleeping giant. And now we know that orange is definitely not the new black and there were no marigolds in the fall of 2016. Fifty years. The reckoning continues and the ante has been upped. How apropos, then, that we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of one of the greatest novels in the history of American arts and letters. Pecola’s tragic story is a necessary precautionary tale that has stood the test of the half century of its existence. It has done so not only because racism and our internalization of it persists, but also because Morrison provides us a language—a primer—to put a name to that process of internalization. But putting a name to it was only the first step. It actually may...

In Vivo Wound Healing Activity of Spirulina platensis

Spirulina is a microalga used in traditional folk medicine in Morocco for the treatment of various health disorders. The wound healing activity of Moroccan Spirulina is unknown. In the current study, aqueous extracts of Spirulina platensis were investigated for acute toxicity and wound healing activity in Swiss Albino mice and White New Zealand rabbits, respectively. The LD50 (amount of substance required to kill 50% of the test population) of the microalga was greater than 5,000 mg/kg. Healing after application of the same amount of ointment on differently induced (mechanical, chemical, and thermal) wounds was about the same, over five weeks. Aqueous extract had remarkable healing activity on rabbits’ skin, possessing significantly greater healing effect for mechanical and chemical burns than controls. Moreover, the hair growing time was faster in treated groups; Spirulina-treated groups did not show any contamination with microbes compared to others. This study affirms that Spirulina platensis can be considered as a potential therapeutic agent for wound healing not only as a complementary medicine but also in conventional medicine.

Randomized trial of lidocaine ointment versus placebo for the treatment of postpartum perineal pain

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the efficacy of lidocaine ointment in relieving pain after a vaginal delivery with an episiotomy or perineal laceration. METHODS: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 200 women received lidocaine ointment ( n = 108) or a placebo ( n = 92). Pain relief was assessed by the amount of ointment used (weight of jar before use − weight of jar after use), total number of pain pills used, and a pain questionnaire. The sample size was calculated using a β of .2 and an α of .05 with an expected reduction of other pain medications from an average use of six pills to four pills for the population. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the amount of lidocaine versus placebo used for postpartum day 1 (5.1 g versus 4.0 g, respectively [ P = .13]) or day 2 (3.7 g versus 2.6 g, respectively [ P = .18]). Patients receiving lidocaine instead of the placebo showed no significant difference in the total amount of postpartum pain medications (6.3 versus 6.8 tablets, respectively [ P = .53]), subjective pain parameters ( P = .36), or satisfaction from ointment ( P = .99). Patients with an episiotomy used more pain medications than those with a laceration (7.9 versus 5.6 tablets, respectively [ P = .003]). Those with minor versus major lacerations required fewer pain pills (6.1 versus 10.8 tablets, respectively [ P < .001]) and used less ointment (4.3 g versus 7.9 g, respectively [ P = .02]) on the first postpartum day. CONCLUSION: Topical application of 5% lidocaine ointment was not effective in relieving episiotomy or perineal laceration pain.

Pharmacokinetics of Tacrolimus(FK506) Ointment after a Single Dermal Application to the Rat.

The pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus (FK506) were studied in the male rat after a single dermal application of FK506 ointment over an application period of 24 hours. In the typical experiment, the amount of ointment applied was 100 mg per each rat, and application area was 10 cm2. The pharmacokinetic parameters estimated were maximal blood concentration (Cmax), time to reach Cmax (Tmax), and area under the blood concentration-time curve (AUC). 1. Blood concentrations of FK506 were determined after a single dermal application of FK506 ointment under the occlusive or non-occlusive dressing condition. After respective application of 0.5 and 0.1% FK506 ointment to the intact and damaged skin, Cmax and AUC values did not differ significantly between either dressing conditions. Blood concentrations of FK506 after a single dermal application of FK506 ointment to the damaged skin were much higher than those applied to the intact skin. The bioavailability of FK506 after application of 0.5% FK506 ointment to the intact skin was 5% and that to the damaged skin was 62%. 2. After a single dermal application of 0.03, 0.1 and 0.5% FK506 ointment to the intact skin, the Cmax and AUC values increased in proportion to the strength of the ointment. After a single dermal application of 0.3% FK506 ointment to 2.5, 5 and 10 cm2 of the intact skin, the Cmax and AUC values increased proportionally to the area of the skin. The Cmax and AUC values did not the differ significantly after single dermal application of 10, 30, 100 and 300 mg of 0.3% FK506 ointment to the intact skin.