Potential Healing Agents Research Articles

Enhancing concrete durability in chloride-rich environments through manual application of healing agents

Concrete structures in chloride-rich environments are prone to deterioration, especially when ions can intrude via cracks towards the steel reinforcement. Self-healing concrete could significantly extend the service life of reinforced concrete. Hence, selecting appropriate healing agents to improve the durability is a critical challenge for the construction industry. This study investigates the use of three potential healing agents: water-repellent agent (WRA), sodium silicate (SS), and polyurethane (PU). The agents are tested separately under two conditions: exposure to a 3.3 % NaCl concentration at 20 °C and exposure to cyclic freeze-thaw conditions. The agents are manually injected into the cracks and evaluated for their healing efficiency using the capillary absorption test and microscopy analysis. Additionally, their resistance to freeze-thaw cycles by monitoring mass loss and chloride bulk diffusion is measured using sprayed silver nitrate, titration, and EDX mapping. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of PU in completely preventing chloride ingress and withstanding the freeze-thaw cycles. On the other hand, WRA showed a significant reduction in scaling, being the only healing agent to keep scaling below the appropriate scaling level of 1 kg/m2. Although WRA had the best performance in the scaling test and prevented chloride ingress, some influence was observed from the freeze-thaw cycles with regard to chloride ingress. Samples treated with SS performed better than the reference samples but did not show the same effectiveness as samples treated with PU or WRA in preventing chloride ingress. Overall, the study highlights the potential of healing agents in improving the durability of concrete structures in chloride-rich environments, with PU and WRA being the most promising for further development and optimization.

Waste cooking oil based capsules for sustainable self-healing asphalt pavement: Encapsulation, characterization and fatigue-healing performance

Waste cooking oil has surfaced as a hazardous waste that induces severe environmental contamination. Encapsulation technology presents a viable solution to regenerate the waste oil and augment the self-healing ability of asphalt materials. This study characterized capsules synthesized with selected waste oil for self-healing asphalt mixture, and evaluated the self-healing and environmental impact. The wetting ability, capillary, anti-aging, and self-healing performance of three potential healing agents were analyzed, and the optimal healing agent was obtained by evaluating the comprehensive behavior with the radar chart method. Capsules were synthesized using the ionic gelation method, and their thermal stability, chemical structure, mechanical performance, and morphology were characterized. Fatigue-healing performance asphalt mixture with capsules were investigated by indirect tensile fatigue test with intermittent time. Leakage of waste oil core were measure to verify it environmental impact to surroundings. Results showed that all healing agents could restore the aged asphalt, and waste rapeseed oil had superior overall performance with comprehensive fi value of 0.993 in radar chart evaluation. The compression characteristic of the capsules could transform from brittleness to plasticity as the water-to-oil(WO) ratio decreases from 15 to 5. SEM observation implied when the WO ratio varied from 10 to 15, the multi-pore structure of capsules could be appropriately filled. The addition of capsules in the mixture increased the fatigue life extension rate (HDf) of aged mixtures (with intermittent time 0.1 s∼0.8 s) by 10∼30%. Leakage of waste oil from the mixture was inhibited, substantially reducing 38% release of waste oil. This can serve as a means for the sustainable utilization of waste oil, thereby mitigating environmental pollution and negative effects caused by waste oil.

The Holy Oil of Moses, A Potential Healing Agent

In the Torah (Pentateuch) we find the chapter Exodus. It describes the exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt and the migration through the Sinai Peninsula. It describes how Moses received from God the recipe for a Holy (Anointing) Oil. He used it to treat the diseases of the people, with success. The composition of the oil is described here. A modern-day production would have to be considered.

A PROPOLIS AS A HEALING AGENT FOR PULP INJURIES

As one of the natural resin materials produced by bees, propolis has been used as a traditional medicine for various diseases because of its biological and pharmacological activities. The purpose of this study was to analyze the potential of propolis as a healing agent for pulp injuries. A total of 35 journals from PubMed, Ebsco, ResearchGate, Wiley Online Library, and other international journal databases were analyzed. Propolis is very rich in active components such as flavonoids that have biological functions such as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant which can act as a potential healing agent

Alleviation of Malathion Toxicity Effect by Coffea arabica L. Oil and Olea europaea L. Oil on Lipid Profile: Physiological and In Silico Study.

The community health plans commonly use malathion (MAL), an organophosphate pesticide (OP), to eliminate pathogenic insects. The objective of the present research is to evaluate the consequences of Coffea arabica L. oil and Olea europaea L. oil on MAL-intoxicated male rats. Six equal groups of animals were used for conducting this study (n = 10). Animals in group one were designated as control, animals belonging to group two were exposed to MAL in the measure of hundred mg per kg BW (body weight) for forty-nine days (seven weeks), rats in the third and fourth groups were administered with 400 mg/kg BW of Coffea arabica L. and Olea europaea L. oils, respectively, and the same amount of MAL as given to the second group. Groups five and six were administered with the same amount of Coffea arabica L. oil and Olea europaea L. oil as given to group three. Exposure of rats to 100 mg/kg body weight of MAL resulted in statistical alteration of the serum lipid profile. A marked decline was noticed in the severe changes of these blood parameters when MAL-intoxicated rats were treated with Coffea arabica L. oil and Olea europaea L. oil. Two compounds from Coffea arabica L. oil (Chlorogenic acid) and Olea europaea L. oil (Oleuropein) demonstrated good interaction with xanthine oxidase (XO) and 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) enzymes that are associated with cholesterol production. The present study indicated that Coffea arabica L. oil and Olea europaea L. oil could be considered prospective and potential healing agents against metabolic conditions induced by MAL.

Role of Medicinal Plants of Traditional Use in Recuperating Devastating COVID-19 Situation

In the present scenario of COVID-19 strike and lack of potential antiviral medicines/vaccines against this extremely contagious lethal infection, identifying potential natural plant sources that can help in fighting this disease either by being viricidal or by boosting the immune system can provide significant therapeutic support. Around the globe as of 26th July 2020, there is ~15.78 million confirmed cases and 0.64 million deaths. The COVID-19 infection is produced by virulent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, which belongs to large corona virus family. These viruses are responsible for many recent infection outbreaks, SARS in 2003, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) in 2012 and recent most fatal COVID-19. Also, mortality rate related to COVID-19 is found to be very high in case of people with weak immune system e.g. elderly patients, children or patients with preexisting health problems. In this relevance, medicinal plants can act as potential healing agents that can help people to fight against this infection by boosting their immune system or by posing viricidal effect. And thus, can contribute in reducing mortality rate related to SARS-CoV-2 infections. In this review, we attempted to compile and discuss different traditional medicinal plants and their bioactive components that help in strengthening our immune system and also play key role in combatting microbial infections including COVID-19. This article will help researchers and industries to identify and scrutinize potential medicinal plants that can meet their interests for various applications including development of herbal/Ayurvedic antiviral drugs, designing antimicrobial/antiviral materials, development of immunopotentiator, preparation of potential sanitizer systems etc.

EFFECT OF THE WATER EXTRACT OF THE FOUR O’CLOCK HERB (MIRABILIS JALAPA L.) ON THE HEALING OF OPEN WOUNDS IN RATS

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the effect on wound healing following treatment with a water extract of Mirabilis jalapa L. by investigatingwound contraction and the associated histopathological changes in rat skin.Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into five groups, namely negative control, positive control (povidone-iodine), dose 1, dose 2, anddose 3. A 20-×10-mm rectangular wound area was created for the test. In dose 1, 2, and 3 groups, the corresponding dose variation of a 0.5-mLM. jalapa L. water extract (dose 1: 5% v/v, ≈243.1 mg/kg body weight BW; dose 2: 10% v/v, ≈486.2 mg/kg BW; and dose 3: 20% v/v, ≈972.4 mg/kg BW)was topically applied for 14 days on open wounds of rats. Widespread wound contractions were measured on days 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13, andhistopathological changes in the skin were observed on day 15 using hematoxylin and eosin staining.Results: The M. jalapa L. water extract accelerated wound healing. The optimal dose was found to be 20% v/v (≈972.4 mg/kg BW).Conclusion: M. jalapa L. extracts are potential healing agents for open wounds.

Preparation and polymeric encapsulation of powder mineral pellets for self-healing cement based materials

Using mineral additives and admixtures as self-healing agents in cement-based composites has been extensively researched. However, if the minerals are added directly to the cementitious matrix without any protection, they could immediately react, leading to a decrease in self-healing efficiency with further associated side-effects on the mechanical properties of cementitious composites. Thus, this paper describes the development of coated pellets as a self-healing system in cement based materials. Pan pelletisation was utilised for producing pellets from three different powder minerals as potential healing agents: reactive magnesium oxide (MgO), silica fume and bentonite. Of these materials, two types of developed prototype pellets in addition to another two commercial types of MgO pellets with different pellet sizes were then encapsulated in a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) based film coating. The PVA coating was evaluated for the apparent solubility in water and in alkaline solution, swelling property, water permeability, dynamic mechanical properties, and shell thickness on pellets. Although PVA coating exhibited a decrease in its mechanical properties in water or in the simulated concrete environment, it retained integrity and stability in both environments. The PVA shell thickness varied from 10 to 50 µm. As the coated pellets partially replaced the natural sand in mortar mixtures, they were characterised in comparison with sand for the particle size distribution, density, porosity, crushing strength and particle shape. Experimental results indicated that the different types of pellets showed higher porosity and lower crushing strength compared to sand. In mortar mixtures, the pellets showed excellent compatibility with minimal influence on the fresh mixture properties and the compressive strength of the hardened specimens. This was accompanied by good distribution inside the concrete matrix. Further investigations on the self-healing performance of these pellets are under way.

Compassion & Self-compassion: Exploration of Utility as Potential Components of the Rehabilitation Counseling Profession

Compassion and self-compassion are two constructs emerging within the research as useful agents in reducing negative thoughts, feelings, and outcomes while also promoting positive ones. To date, these constructs have not been studied or applied to the rehabilitation counseling profession or the needs ofindividuals with disabilities. In an effort to bridge this gap and to enhance rehabilitation counseling professionals' awareness of their potential value, an in-depth review of the literature and research on these two constructs was conducted. Throughout this article, compassion and self-compassion are more clearly conceptualized and barriers which may hinder their development are discussed. A review of empirical research is provided to help demonstrate their usefulness as potential healing agents in the lives of individuals with disabilities. Recommendations are proved to rehabilitation counseling professionals who work with persons with disabilities.