Medicinal cups made of pure antimony metal were once common but are now rare and only about ten have been described. An unusual cup which belonged to Captain James Cook, the explorer, which has not previously been reported in the medical literature is described here.

Protozoa of the Leishmania genus cause a variety of disease forms that rank at the top of the list of neglected tropical diseases. Anti-leishmanial drugs based on pentavalent antimony have been the mainstay of therapy for over 60 years and resistance against them is increasingly encountered in the field. The biochemical basis for this is poorly understood and likely diverse. No stringent correl...

An axenic amastigote culture system was utilized to directly assess the stage-specific antileishmanial effects of antimony on amastigotes of Leishmania donovani devoid of the macrophage host cell. Pentostam, which contains antimony in the form of sodium stibogluconate and the preservative chlorocresol, was used. Cell density was quantified by measuring the activity of the stable enzyme ornithin...

Leishmania are protozoan parasites distributed worldwide. About 1.5-2.0 million cases are reported in the world annually from this disease and the death toll is estimated to be 57,000. Along with Brazil, Sudan and Bangladesh, India contributes to 90 per cent of the global burden of visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The absence of effective vaccines and vector control programmes, makes chemotherapy t...

A non-randomized controlled clinical trial was carried out in order to evaluate both azithromycin and antimony efficacy in cutaneous leishmaniasis in Manaus, AM, Brazil. Forty nine patients from both genders, aged 14 to 70, with cutaneous ulcers for less than three months and a positive imprint for Leishmania spp. amastigotes were recruited into two groups. Group I (26 patients) received a dail...

A dose of 5.0310 antimony (Sb) ions cm was implanted into silicon wafers at an energy of 70 keV, at different tilt angles ~0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, and 60°!. One set of samples was preamorphized with 160 keV germanium (Ge) ions with a dose of 1310 cm. The second set consisted of implants into single crystal silicon. After implantation the samples were annealed at 700 °C for 30 s in a pure nitrogen am...

A new visual colorimetry for trace antimony(V) based on ion-pair solid-phase extraction to a PTFE-type membrane filter with bis[2-(5-chloro-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenolato]cobalt(III) ion ([Co(5-Cl-PADAP)(2)](+)) has been developed. Experiments showed that hexachloroantimonate(V) ion (SbCl(6)(-)) was adsorbed with [Co(5-Cl-PADAP)(2)](+) to the front surface of the PTFE filter. The adsorpt...

Visceral Leishmaniasis is a macrophage associated disorder for the treatment of which antimony based drugs like SAG and SSG were the first choice in the recent past. The clinical value of antimony therapy is now declined against VL because increasing cases of Sodium Antimony Gluconate (SAG) resistance have reached outstanding proportion in Bihar, India. Within this context we looked into the pr...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Heavy metals are considered as one of the major contaminants that can enter into the bottled waters. Antimony (Sb) is a contaminant, which may leach from the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles into the water. The aim of this study was to investigate the content of antimony and other trace elements in bottled waters which was kept in varied storage conditions and ...