GC–MS analysis of phytoconstituents from Amomum nilgiricum and molecular docking interactions of bioactive serverogenin acetate with target proteins

Amomum nilgiricum is one of the plant species reported from Western Ghats of India, belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, with ethno-botanical values, and is well-known for their ethno medicinal applications. In the present investigation, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of A. nilgiricum were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to identify the important functional groups and phytochemical constituents. The FTIR spectra revealed the occurrence of functional characteristic peaks of aromatic amines, carboxylic acids, ketones, phenols and alkyl halides group from leaf and rhizome extracts. The GC–MS analysis of ethyl acetate and methanol extracts from leaves, and methanol extract from rhizomes of A. nilgiricum detected the presence of 25 phytochemical compounds. Further, the leaf and rhizome extracts of A. nilgiricum showed remarkable antibacterial and antifungal activities at 100 mg/mL. The results of DPPH and ferric reducing antioxidant power assay recorded maximum antioxidant activity in A. nilgiricum methanolic leaf extract. While, ethyl acetate leaf extract exhibited maximum α-amylase inhibition activity, followed by methanolic leaf extract exhibiting aldose reductase inhibition. Subsequently, these 25 identified compounds were analyzed for their bioactivity through in silico molecular docking studies. Results revealed that among the phytochemical compounds identified, serverogenin acetate might have maximum antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant and antidiabetic properties followed by 2,4-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane and (1,3-13C2)propanedioic acid. To our best knowledge, this is the first description on the phytochemical constituents of the leaves and rhizomes of A. nilgiricum, which show pharmacological significance, as there has been no literature available yet on GC–MS and phytochemical studies of this plant species. The in silico molecular docking of serverogenin acetate was also performed to confirm its broad spectrum activities based on the binding interactions with the antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant and antidiabetic target proteins. The results of the present study will create a way for the invention of herbal medicines for several ailments by using A. nilgiricum plants, which may lead to the development of novel drugs

Electric field induced structural, magnetic and ferroelectric properties of 0.6PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3-0.4BiFeO3 multiferroic solid solution

In this paper, 0.6PbFe0.5Nb0.5O3-0.4BiFeO3 (PBFN) multiferroic was electrically poled at room temperature. The influence of electric poling on structure was studied in detail by XRD and Raman measurements. The poling impacts on magnetic and ferroelectric properties were studied through susceptibility and ferroelectric measurements. XRD analysis of the poled sample exhibits the strengthening of Fe/Nb/Bi–O bonds. Raman measurements were carried out at different temperatures (300 K–650 K). Raman spectra of the unpoled sample exhibited seven active modes at 254, 470, 566, 684, 804, 979 and 1111.1 cm−1 at room temperature. The poled sample showed change in intensity around Bi–O and Fe–O modes due to spin-phonon coupling. Temperature dependent magnetization measurements revealed the presence of converse magnetoelectric effect. Ferroelectric measurements showed the influence of electric poling with increase in coercive field. Hence, controlling the magnetization with electrical poling finds more potential applications in multiferroics

Study of rotating Bénard-Brinkman convection of Newtonian liquids and nanoliquids in enclosures

Taylor-Bénard convection of water and water-based nanoliquids confined in three different types of high porosity rectangular enclosures, viz., shallow, square and tall, is studied analytically using both infinitesimal and finite amplitude stability analyses. We make use of the modified-Buongiorno-Brinkman model(MBBM) for the governing equations concerning nanoliquid-saturated porous enclosures bounded by rigid-rigid boundaries and obtain analytical results. Among three types of enclosures, maximum and minimum heat transfers are observed in tall and shallow enclosures respectively. Water well dispersed with a dilute concentration of single-walled carbon nanotubes(SWCNTs) is considered as a working medium. The water-SWCNTs is able to flow in the porous medium because the medium is loosely-packed with porosity in the range 0.5 ≤ ϕ ≤ 1. In addition to this, the maximum volume fraction of nanoparticles considered in the system is 6% and thus this does not alter the fluidity of the system. We found from the study that the presence of low concentration(volume fraction-0.06) of SWCNTs in a water-saturated porous medium effectively improves the heat transport of the system due to its high thermal conductivity and large surface area. Due to the presence of a porous medium, however, the onset of convection gets delayed and heat transport in nanoliquids gets substantially reduced in a Bénard-Brinkman configuration resulting from the weak thermal conductivity of the porous medium. Thus the porous medium acts as the heat storage system. Also, in a rotating frame of reference the heat transport gets reduced and rotation serves as an external mechanism of regulating heat transport in the system. The nonlinear dynamics of the system is studied using the 6-mode Lorenz model. Chaotic motion in the system is studied using the maximum Lyapunov exponent(MLE). The Hofp-bifurcation point of the system along with the MLE is used to investigate periodic, nearly periodic and mildly chaotic behaviors of the system

SDVADC: Secure Deduplication and Virtual Auditing of Data in Cloud

Over the last few years, deploying data to cloud service for repository is an appealing passion that avoids efforts on significant information sustenance and administration. In distributed repository utilities, deduplication technique is often exploited to minimize the capacity and bandwidth necesseties of amenities by erasing repetitive data and caching only a solitary duplicate of them. Proof-of-Ownership mechanisms authorize any possessor of the identical information to approve to the distributed repository server that he possess the information in a dynamic way. In repository utilities with enormous information, the repository servers may intend to minimize the capacity of cached information, and the customers may want to examine the integrity of their information with a reasonable cost. We propose Secure Deduplication and Virtual Auditing of Data in Cloud (SDVADC) mechanism that realizes integrity auditing and

Proteome Analysis of Male Accessory Gland Secretions in Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) , a Solanum melongena L. Pest

Male accessory gland (MAG) proteins are transferred along with the sperm to females at the time of mating and have diverse effects on female reproductive physiology in a wide range of insects. In this study, we sought to identify the MAG proteins in Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee, a Solanum melongena L. pest, by analyzing the MAG proteins of virgin and mated male moths by nano-LC-ESI-MS/MS techniques. A total of 142 and 131 proteins in virgin and mated males were identified, respectively, among which 17 (12.0%) and 10 (7.6%) proteins were found to show secretory signals in virgin and mated males, respectively. These secretory proteins were shown to be involved in several biological processes in insects, including egg development, sperm-related functions/capacitation, defense, metabolism, and protein chaperoning. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to perform a proteome analysis of the MAG proteins of L. orbonalis, and offers an opportunity for further investigation of the functions of these proteins. In insects, certain MAG proteins are known to inhibit mating whereas others accelerate egg-laying. Therefore, the identification of these proteins in L. orbonalis may be useful for pest control

An Introduction to QoS in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor is deployed in an environment to monitor a physical phenomenon, collect data, execute light processes, and send either raw data or aggregate processed information to a destination. Usually, the number of sensor nodes is large and have a limited communication range. A message must be forwarded in multiple hops via neighboring nodes in order to reach the remote sink node

Pbib-Designs and Association Schemes Arising from Minimum Bi-Connected Dominating Sets of Hypercubes

In this paper we disprove a result on the PBIB designs arising from γbc-sets in Q4, with m = 4 association schemes proved by Chaluvaraju et al. (Afr Math 29:47–63, 2018). In Ref. [11], the authors had posed an open problem to find the PBIB designs in hypercubes of dimension higher than 5. Here, we settle the problem for the first few values, and give a general iterative proof technique for higher dimensional hypercubes

Nanostructured Silica Particles from Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees Ex Steud.) : Extraction, Characterization and Study of their Blend with Osteoporotic Drugs

Cymbopogon flexuosus (lemongrass) is one of the potential herbaceous sources for the extraction of silica. Silica plays a vital role in formation of bone and its maintenance by improving the quality of the bone matrix and facilitating bone mineralization. This work presents the extraction of silica nanoparticles from different parts of lemongrass such as root, stem and leaf. IR spectra of all the three extracts confirmed the presence of siloxane and silanol linkage. The SEM analysis revealed the SiNPs from root, stem and leaves to be aggregates of tubular, fibrous and spherical structures, respectively. Significant differences were observed in elemental composition of SiNPs as determined by EDAX. Optimization of the acid leaching process further enhanced the yield by around 30% from leaves. EDAX revealed significant differences in the elemental composition. The DLS histogram showed a size distribution of 62.4 nm validating Zetasizer evaluation having PdI of 0.127. The work also reports the screening of drugs through in silico approach wherein the drug risedronate showed ideal parameters satisfying the Lipinski's rule of 5. Further, the cytotoxicity of SiNPs and SiNPs with risedronate (drug) was tested on HUVEC and Saos-2 cell lines. The SiNPs showed lesser IC50 value in comparison with risedronate and SiNPs with risedronate tested on both the cell lines. LDH assay elaborated prominent cell leakage by risedronate-anchored SiNPs which is found significant in comparison with bare SiNPs. Treatment of the osteoporotic cells with risedronate/silica blend (1:1000) revealed efficient deposition of calcium and drug in the cells as determined by microscopic observations. Drug release studies of SiNPs with risedronate were performed. FTIR indicated the presence of siloxane (Si–O–Si) and silanol (Si–OH) functional groups. In vitro study of different ratios of risedronate with silica on Saos-2 cell lines was performed to determine the mineralization potential of the combinatorial drug. It was found that the cells incubated with 0.6 mg/ml and 0.8 mg/ml of risedronate with silica showed efficient deposition of calcium inside the cells. The wild variety of Cymbopogon flexuosus could be a potential source for the extraction of SiNPs, which finds much use in biomedical applications

Surface plasmon-enhanced p-type MSM UV photodetector using gold quantum dots

A novel surface plasmon-enhanced MSM UV photodetector (PD) was fabricated by sputtering (< 5 nm) gold Quantum dots (QDs) on the surface of the active layer of Sb doped ZnO nanostructures. The nanostructures were grown on ITO/PET substrates using Sol-gel and low-temperature hydrothermal methods. The MSM contacts were deposited using thermal evaporation technique. The influence of the plasmonic layer on the PD was studied by performing structural (HRTEM, EELS, and XRD) and electrical studies (IV curves without and with UV light of 365 nm, stability and dynamic response). Hall measurements were performed on the device and the device was found to have a hole concentration of 1.0224 × 1020/cm3 and Hall mobility of 2231 cm2/ (V.s). Upon exposure to UV light of 365 nm, the surface plasmon polaritons are scattered by gold QDs, leading to the creation of hot-holes that can cross into the active layer of Sb doped ZnO nanostructures, where they are collected as the photocurrent. The device exhibited high performance with the dark current as 3.92 mA and photocurrent as 148 mA, at 5 V of applied bias. The PD also showed very high responsivity and External Quantum Efficiency (EQE) of 5.67A/W and 1.93 × 103%, respectively. The ratio of photocurrent to dark current was 37.75. These values prove that the device had a high response to UV illumination