Efficacy of Some Essential Oils to Cure Some Common Problems in Human Beings

Essential oils now form a part of day-to-day life of people. There are different varieties of essential oil used for fragrance and flavours. The quality and composition of these oils play an important role in determining their role in therapeutics. The present paper gives an account of the medicinal plants containing essential oils and their therapeutic properties. Different oil yielding plants were surveyed to find out the efficacy of essential oils in disease treatment

DCE-MRI and parametric imaging in monitoring response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast carcinoma : a preliminary report

Purpose: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is recommended in patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) enables evaluation of the tumour neovasculature that occurs prior to any volume change, which helps identify early treatment failures and allows prompt implementation of second-line therapy. Material and methods: We conducted a prospective study in 14 patients with histopathologically proven breast cancer. DCE-MRI data were acquired using multisection, T1-weighted, 3D vibe sequences with fat suppression before, during, and after IV bolus injection (0.1 mmol/kg body weight, Gadoversetamide, Optimark). Post-processing of dynamic contrast perfusion data was done with the vendor's Tissue 4D software to generate various dynamic contrast parameters, i.e. Ktrans, Kep, Ve, initial area under the time signal curve (IAUC), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and enhancement curve. Patients underwent MRI examinations at baseline, and then after two cycles, and finally at completion of chemotherapy. Results: Based on Sataloff criteria for pathological responses, four patients out of 14 were responders, and 10 were non-responders. At the 2nd MRI examination, IAUC was significantly smaller in responders than in non-responders (p = 0.023). When the results of the first and second MRI examinations were compared, Kep decreased from baseline to the second MRI (p = 0.03) in non-responders and in responders (p = 0.04). This change was statistically significant in both groups. The ADC values increased significantly in responders from baseline to the third MRI (p = 0.012). Conclusions: In our study, IAUC and ADC were the only parameters that reliably differentiated responders from non-responders after two and three cycles of chemotherapy

Prospective analysis of flap perfusion by measuring Capillary Glucose levels in pedicled flap and free tissue transfer

INTRODUCTION: Flap surgery is one of the most commonly performed surgeries in the field of reconstructive surgery. Early detection of flap failure and rapid re-exploration are important for flap salvage and hence a reliable monitoring method is required. This study is to evaluate flap blood glucose measurement (BGM) as a reliable method for flap monitoring. OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy of flap capillary glucose level and its best cut-off value in the post-operative monitoring of pedicled and free flaps. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 60 different flaps were included in study. Post-operative examination was done every hour for the first 6 hours, and every 6th hour thereafter till 5 days. Flap capillary glucose levels were measured by using accu check glucometer. Glucose levels of flap with necrosis and without necrosis were compared. Statistical analysis was done by ROC curve to determine the best cutoff value for the flap blood glucose monitoring. RESULT: Out of 60 flaps 42 flaps survived fully without any complication, while there was minor distal necrosis in 11 flaps and major partial necrosis was seen in four flaps (two reverse sural artery flap and two random pattern flaps. Complete flap loss was seen in 3 patients (two free flaps and one pedicled axial flap). To detect flap ischemia a cut-off value of 61 mg/dL was determined for the flap BGM, at which the sensitivity and specificity were 91% and 80% respectively. CONCLUSION: From the current study we concluded that flap capillary glucose levels less than 61 mg/dl is suggestive of ischemia of flap. This test allows early detection of vascular compromise which helps in early intervention for flap salvage. Flap blood glucose monitoring is an Objective, Easy to do, In-expensive, sensitive and specific test. This test can be done by any medical professional (Nurses/ Interns/ Paramedics) without need of any specialised setup

Orbitally driven spin reorientation in Mn doped YBaCuFeO5_{5}

Oxygen-deficient layered perovskite YBaCuFeO$_{5}$ (YBCFO) is one rare type-II multiferroic material where ferroelectricity, driven by incommensurate spiral magnetic order, is believed to be achievable up to temperatures higher than room temperature. A cycloidal spiral rather than helical spiral order is essential ingredient for the existence of ferroelectricity in this material. Motivated by a recent experimental work on Mn-doped YBCFO where the spiral plane is observed to cant more towards the crystallographic $c$ axis upon Mn doping at Fe sites compared to that in the parent compound, we performed a detailed theoretical investigation using the density functional theory calculations to understand the mechanism behind such spin reorientation. Our total energy calculations, within GGA+U+SO approximation, reveal that Fe/Cu spin moments indeed align more towards $c$ axis in the Mn-doped compounds than they were in parent compound YBCFO. Largest exchange interaction (Cu-Cu in the $ab$-plane) is observed to decrease systematically with Mn doping concentration reflecting the lowering of transition temperature seen in experiment. Further, the inter-bilayer Cu-Mn exchange interaction becomes ferromagnetic in the doped compound whereas the corresponding Cu-Fe exchange was antiferromagnetic in the parent compound giving rise to frustration in the commensurate magnetic order. Most importantly, our electronic structure calculations reveal that in the doped compounds because of hybridization with the d$_{z^2}$ orbital of Mn, the highest occupied Cu orbital becomes d$_{z^2}$ as opposed to the parent compound where the highest occupied Cu orbital is d$_{x^2-y^2}$. Therefore, we believe that the occupancy of out of plane oriented Cu d$_{z^2}$ orbital in place of planar d$_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital along with the frustrating exchange interaction drive the spins to align along $c$ in doped compound

Green solvents for the dissolution and processing of biopolymers

Dissolution and processing of biopolymers perhaps is one of the oldest chemical processes in the world, and there are several breakthrough inventions took place in this area. How- ever, with the advent of technological interventions, the number of improvements in the processing technologies of the bio- polymers has been made to address the efficiency and tech- noeconomics of the developed processes. Application of alternate solvent systems is one of the strategies being popularly used in many such cases. The search of alternative solvent systems to solubilise and process biopolymers is always challenging from sustainability point of view. Bio- polymers are conventionally solubilised in aqueous systems and processed using multistep tedious protocols. Ionic liquids, deep eutectic solvents and bio-derived solvents are emerging as alternative solvents for biomass pretreatment and extraction of natural polymers from the resources. Application of bio- derived and green solvents in various industrial processes can be envisaged in near future, and hence, studies on such sol- vents to critically assess their potential towards industrial ap- plications should be performed. Considering these points, the present review article compiles various recent literature and reports pertaining to the sustainable processing of natural polymers using green solvents for practical applications.publishe

QSAR Studies of Flavonoids Derivatives for Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity

The biological activity and the molecular structures are the two main aspects for the QSAR study of a specific compound, which leads to generate a new chemical moiety. The Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) paradigm is based on the assumption that there is an underlying relationship between the molecular structure and biological activity. Physico-chemical properties were calculated employing the modeling software Win CAChe 6.1. The calculated descriptors were conformational minimum energies (CME) , HOMO energy, LUMO energy, heat of formation (HF), ionization potential (IP), molar refractivity(MR), Shape Index (basic kappa, order 1) (SI1), log P, electron affinity (EA), solvent accessible surface area (SAS). In random selection, 18 compounds were in training set and 10 in test set. Subsequently with the stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was carried out to achieve the best models. The equation generated was validated. The selected QSAR model showed correlation coefficient R2 0.7609, and cross-validated squared correlation coefficient Q2   of 0.5041 for antioxidant activity  ANOVA of predicted value for  Variance were found as 0.063638, 201.73 and 0.112396 for group -1.51851, 86.27 and -8.151 respectively. Source of Variation for between and within group i.e. SS value 40522.91 df value 2, MS value 20261.45 F value 301.0527 and p-value 1.01E-17. The HOMO-LUMO range were 73.149 to 84.775, Molar refractivity range was observed -7.409 to -8.84, Predicted value range was -2.52559 to -2.98191 for compound V1 to V5 and R1, R2. The result of study indicated that C5 [1-(2- hydroxyphenyl)-5-phenylpenta-2,4-dien-1-one]; is only inactive against Streptococcus mutans. All 3-hydroxyflavone derivatives exhibited their MIC to be in range of 250-125 µg/ml., 2,3-dihydroflavan-3-ol derivatives exhibited their MIC to be in  range of  1000- 500 µg/ml. The chalcone derivatives exhibited their MIC to be at 250µg/ml. Keywords: QSAR, Streptococcus mutans, Win CAChe 6.1 and antioxidant activit

WITHDRAWN: QSAR analysis and 3D QSAR kNN-MFA approach on a series of substituted quinolines derivatives as angiotensin II receptor antagonists

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief because of excessive self-citations of the author in various articles submitted to the journal.The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy

WITHDRAWN: An approach to design antihypertensive agents by 2D QSAR studies on series of substituted benzimidazoles derivatives as angiotensin II receptor antagonists

This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief because of excessive self-citations of the author in various articles submitted to the journal.The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy