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The interplay between free radicals, antioxidants, and co-factors is important in maintaining health, aging and age-related diseases. Free radicals induce oxidative stress, which is balanced by the body's endogenous antioxidant systems with an input from co-factors, and by the ingestion of exogenous antioxidants. If the generation of free radicals exceeds the protective effects of antioxidants, and some co-factors, this can cause oxidative damage which accumulates during the life cycle, and has been implicated in aging, and age dependent diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and other chronic conditions. The life expectancy of the world population is increasing, and it is estimated that by 2025, 29% of the world population will be aged > or = 60 years, and this will lead to an increase in the number of older people acquiring age-related chronic diseases. This will place greater financial burden on health services and high social cost for individuals and society. In order to acheive healthy aging the older people should be encouraged to acquire healthy life styles which should include diets rich in antioxidants. The aim of this review is to highlight the main themes from studies on free radicals, antioxidants and co-factors, and to propose an evidence-based strategy for healthy aging.

Amidst a significant shift in global governance marked by the erosion of multilateralism, the failure of the rules-based trade regime, and the increased use of unilateral economic discretion by major powers, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has emerged as a new model of governance. This paper examines the BRI not merely as an infrastructure or development initiative, but as an evolving legal and governance paradigm aimed at restoring trust, predictability, equity, and equality among nations, and fostering cooperation in cross-border economic relations. The first section of the paper conceptualizes global governance as a necessary mechanism for managing and ensuring interdependence in a fragmented international system. It analyzes the paradox of growing international legal instruments amid declining global security, equity, and equality among nations, and declining compliance. It attributes this ever-increasing gap to power asymmetries and selective enforcement of international law. The second section explores the BRI's approach to conflict management and dispute resolution, focusing on China's preference for mediation, consensus-building, and policy coordination alongside formal legal mechanisms. The third section revisits the evolution of the international trade and legal order, tracing the shift from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO)-based rules regime toward a discretion-based global trade environment shaped by unilateral tariffs and bilateral coercion. The fourth section reemphasizes the BRI as a response to this fragmentation, emphasizing the role of law in transforming physical connectivity into sustainable and equitable economic integration. The paper concludes that the BRI's legal architecture, reinforced by the Global Development, Security, Civilization, and Governance Initiatives, may represent a durable shift from the contemporary power-based order toward a principled, predictable, and justice-oriented model of global governance.

This paper reviews the life and contributions of the late scholar Khurshid Ahmad, particularly his service for the cause of Islam and Islamic paradigm of life. He was not only a prominent Pakistani figure and global thought leader, but also a staunch ambassador of Islamic thought, Pakistan and the Muslim Ummah, earning him widespread respect, even from across ideological and political divides. His writings and initiatives, which explain the distinction between Islamic economics, socialism, and capitalism, helped shape modern Islamic economic theory. The article is composed of two parts: the first part explores his diverse contributions; the second part looks at his life trajectory.

While the problems of political instability, polarization, corruption, etc., are not unique to Pakistan and continue to afflict all countries and societies, a more representative, multi-tier system of governance can resolve such problems more efficiently and effectively with genuine public participation. Pakistan is currently facing serious political and economic crises. However, these crises point towards symptoms of the problem, the cause lies in governance. The challenge of good governance can be met by reforming the electoral system, among other things. There are mainly two electoral systems in vogue in the world – the traditional ‘first-past-the-post’, and the ‘proportional representation’. This paper argues that the former only promotes individual and parochial interests, while disenfranchising majority votes. The latter one represents all segments of society besides promoting national feeling and character. The constitution of Pakistan though gives an elaborate and practicable framework for governance, it still has room for amendments in keeping with the demands of changing times. Introducing electoral reforms, improving the existing system, at national and local level, and focusing on the quality of ‘governors’ are crucial steps to achieve better governance.

Protein glycation involves formation of early (Amadori) and late advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) together with free radicals via autoxidation of glucose and Amadori products. Glycation and increased free radical activity underlie the pathogenesis of diabetic complications. This study investigated whether aged garlic has more potent antiglycation and antioxidant properties compared to fresh garlic extract in vitro in a cell-free system. Proteins were glycated by incubation with sugars (glucose, methylglyoxal or ribose) ±5–15 mg/mL of aged and fresh garlic extracts. Advanced glycation endproducts were measured using SDS-PAGE gels and by ELISA whereas Amadori products were assessed by the fructosamine method. Colorimetric methods were used to assess antioxidant activity, free radical scavenging capacity, protein-bound carbonyl groups, thiol groups and metal chelation activities in addition to phenolic, total flavonoid and flavonol content of aged and fresh garlic extracts. Aged garlic inhibited AGEs by 56.4% compared to 33.5% for an equivalent concentration of fresh garlic extract. Similarly, aged garlic had a higher total phenolic content (129 ± 1.8 mg/g) compared to fresh garlic extract (56 ± 1.2 mg/g). Aged garlic has more potent antiglycation and antioxidant properties compared to fresh garlic extract and is more suitable for use in future in vivo studies.

The epidemic that broke out in the last days of 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan was perceived by the world as a local health hazard for many days. But it was not long before the epidemic turned into a pandemic, spreading over nearly to the whole world within a matter of few weeks. The pandemic has created an atmosphere of fear, mainly due to its excessive coverage in media and inappropriate and unregulated altercations on social media. So, regardless of the comparative difference between the fatality rates caused by coronavirus and other prevalent diseases in the world population of over 7.5 billion, the fear of the pandemic has immediately prompted major changes in human behaviors and activities. Learning from the experiences of China to mitigate the dreaded effects of Covid-19, a large number of countries have enforced lockdown. Consequently, most of the production and trading activities, with the exception of food and medicine-related items, have been put on hold. What will follow in the coming days is difficult to predict at this point, as in spite of the revealing patterns for the spread and effects of the pandemic by now, the process is still evolving. Nevertheless, in any such situation, it is imperative for the policymaking elite and leadership to understand the dynamics of the emerging scenario and review their vision, priorities and narratives accordingly.

Biotic elicitors can be used to stimulate the production of secondary metabolites in plants. However, limited information is available on the effects of biotic elicitors from endophytic fungi on their host plant. Trichoderma atroviride D16 is an endophytic fungus isolated from the root of Salvia miltiorrhiza and previously reported to produce tanshinone I (T-I) and tanshinone IIA (T-IIA). Here, the effects of extract of mycelium (EM) and the polysaccharide fraction (PSF), produced by T. atroviride D16, on the growth and secondary metabolism of S. miltiorrhiza hairy roots are reported. The results indicated that both EM and PSF promoted hairy root growth and stimulated the biosynthesis of tanshinones in hairy roots. EM slightly suppressed the accumulation of phenolic acids, while PSF had no significant influence on the accumulation of these compounds. When comparing the effects of EM versus PSF, it was concluded that PSF is one of the main active constituents responsible for promoting hairy root growth, as well as stimulating biosynthesis of tanshinones in the hairy root cultures. Moreover, the transcriptional activity of genes involved in the tanshinone biosynthetic pathway increased significantly with PSF treatment. Thus, PSF from endophytic T. atroviride D16 affected the chemical composition of the host plant by influencing the expression of genes related to the secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathway. Furthermore, treatment with PSF can be effectively utilized for large-scale production of tanshinones in the S. miltiorrhiza hairy root culture system.

Geniposide is a well-known iridoid glycoside compound and is an essential component of a wide variety of traditional phytomedicines, for example, Gardenia jasminoides Elli (Zhizi in Chinese), Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. (Duzhong in Chinese), Rehmannia glutinosa Libosch. (Dihuang in Chinese), and Achyranthes bidentata Bl. (Niuxi in Chinese). It is also the main bioactive component of Gardeniae Fructus, the dried ripe fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis. Increasing pharmacological evidence supports multiple medicinal properties of geniposide including neuroprotective, antidiabetic, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antidepressant-like, cardioprotective, antioxidant, immune-regulatory, antithrombotic, and antitumoral effects. It has been proposed that geniposide may be a drug or lead compound for the prophylaxis and treatment of several diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and diabetic complications, ischemia and reperfusion injury, and hepatic disorders. The aim of the present review is to give a comprehensive summary and analysis of the pharmacological properties of geniposide, supporting its use as a medicinal agent.

Bunge is a common Chinese herbal medicine, and its major active ingredients are phenolic acids and tanshinones, which are widely used to treat vascular diseases. However, the wild form of possess low levels of these important pharmaceutical agents; thus, improving their levels is an active area of research. Transcription factors, which promote or inhibit the expressions of multiple genes involved in one or more biosynthetic pathways, are powerful tools for controlling gene expression in biosynthesis. Several families of transcription factors have been reported to participate in regulating phenolic acid and tanshinone biosynthesis and influence their accumulation. This review summarizes the current status in this field, with focus on the transcription factors which have been identified in recent years and their functions in the biosynthetic regulation of phenolic acids and tanshinones. Otherwise, the new insight for further research is provided. Finally, the application of the biosynthetic regulation of active ingredients by the transcription factors in are discussed, and new insights for future research are explored.

(1) Background: Colon polyps are common protrusions in the colon’s lumen, with potential risks of developing colorectal cancer. Early detection and intervention of these polyps are vital for reducing colorectal cancer incidence and mortality rates. This research aims to evaluate and compare the performance of three machine learning image classification models’ performance in detecting and classifying colon polyps. (2) Methods: The performance of three machine learning image classification models, Google Teachable Machine (GTM), Roboflow3 (RF3), and You Only Look Once version 8 (YOLOv8n), in the detection and classification of colon polyps was evaluated using the testing split for each model. The external validity of the test was analyzed using 90 images that were not used to test, train, or validate the model. The study used a dataset of colonoscopy images of normal colon, polyps, and resected polyps. The study assessed the models’ ability to correctly classify the images into their respective classes using precision, recall, and F1 score generated from confusion matrix analysis and performance graphs. (3) Results: All three models successfully distinguished between normal colon, polyps, and resected polyps in colonoscopy images. GTM achieved the highest accuracies: 0.99, with consistent precision, recall, and F1 scores of 1.00 for the ‘normal’ class, 0.97–1.00 for ‘polyps’, and 0.97–1.00 for ‘resected polyps’. While GTM exclusively classified images into these three categories, both YOLOv8n and RF3 were able to detect and specify the location of normal colonic tissue, polyps, and resected polyps, with YOLOv8n and RF3 achieving overall accuracies of 0.84 and 0.87, respectively. (4) Conclusions: Machine learning, particularly models like GTM, shows promising results in ensuring comprehensive detection of polyps during colonoscopies.