MINERAL ANALYSIS OF AVERRHOA BILIMBI L. – A POTENTIAL FRUIT

Averrhoa bilimbi L. (Oxalidaceae) is widely distributed and cultivated throughout tropical countries for their fruits. Parts such as leaves, bark, fruits are widely used in medicine as a folk remedy for many symptoms. This study provides morphological and biochemical characteristics of half-ripen bilimbi fruits. During present study physical and chemical properties of Bilimbi fruits were studied at half-ripen stage for potential benefits based on its mineral content. Phosphorus content of the fruits was higher at half-ripen stage i.e. 39 ± 1.7%, while in case of minor elements, Molybdenum is present in least amount i.e. 0.04 ± 0.05 ppm.  This Chemical studies reveals; these fruits are good source of minerals such as Potassium, Phosphorus, Nitrogen, Calcium, Magnesium and Iron suggesting its use as a potential fruit.Keywords: Averrhoa, Bilimbi, Mineral analysis, Oxalidaceae

Role of Drug Repurposing in Cancer Treatment and Liposomal Approach of Drug Targeting

Cancer is the leading cause of death, and incidences are increasing significantly and patients suffering from it desperately need a complete cure from it. The science of using an already-invented drug that has been approved by the FDA for a new application is known as “drug repurposing.” Currently, scientists are drawn to drug repositioning science in order to investigate existing drugs for newer therapeutic uses and cancer treatment. Because of their unique ability to target cancer cells, recently repurposed drugs and the liposomal approach are effective in the treatment of cancer. Liposomes are nanovesicles that are drastically flexible, rapidly penetrate deeper layers of cells, and enhance intracellular uptake. More importantly, liposomes are biocompatible, biodegradable; entrap both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs. This chapter summarizes various approaches to drug repurposing, as well as drug repurposing methods, advantages and limitations of drug repurposing, and a liposomal approach to using repurposed drugs in cancer targeting. This chapter also summarizes liposomal structure, drug loading, and the mechanism of liposomes in targeted cancer treatment. The lipid-based liposomal approach is emerging as a powerful technique for improving drug solubility, bioavailability, reducing side effects, and improving the therapeutic efficacy of repurposed drugs for cancer treatment

Evaluation of seasonal variation in Veerya of visha dravya Kuchala

Introduction - Medicinal plants, as well as poisonous plants, have different alkaloid compositions in every season. According to the traditional texts of Ayurveda, Visha Dravya have greater potency in Varsha Ritu, which reduces due to Agasti rising in Sharad Ritu. Objective - To evaluate the potency of Visha in Varsha and Sharad Ritu through estimation of the concentration of Strychnine in Strychnos nux- vomica L. Materials and Methods – Quantitative analysis of Strychnine in Varsha and Sharad Ritu by HPTLC. Results – The concentration of Strychnine was observed higher in Varsha Ritu than in Sharad Ritu. Conclusion – The study confirms that the potency of Visha is greater in Varsha Ritu than in Sharad Ritu

Gnidia glauca- and Plumbago zeylanica-Mediated Synthesis of Novel Copper Nanoparticles as Promising Antidiabetic Agents

Rapid, eco-friendly, and cost-effective one-pot synthesis of copper nanoparticles is reported here using medicinal plants like Gnidia glauca and Plumbago zeylanica. Aqueous extracts of flower, leaf, and stem of G. glauca and leaves of P. zeylanica were prepared which could effectively reduce Cu2+ ions to CuNPs within 5 h at 100°C which were further characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Further, the CuNPs were checked for antidiabetic activity using porcine pancreatic α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition followed by evaluation of mechanism using circular dichroism spectroscopy. CuNPs were found to be predominantly spherical in nature with a diameter ranging from 1 to 5 nm. The phenolics and flavonoids in the extracts might play a critical role in the synthesis and stabilization process. Significant change in the peak at ∼1095 cm−1 corresponding to C-O-C bond in ether was observed. CuNPs could inhibit porcine pancreatic α-amylase up to 30% to 50%, while they exhibited a more significant inhibition of α-glucosidase from 70% to 88%. The mechanism of enzyme inhibition was attributed due to the conformational change owing to drastic alteration of secondary structure by CuNPs. This is the first study of its kind that provides a strong scientific rationale that phytogenic CuNPs synthesized using G. glauca and P. zeylanica can be considered to develop candidate antidiabetic nanomedicine

Controlled growth of well-aligned gas nanohornlike structures and their field emission properties

Here, we report the synthesis of vertically aligned gallium sulfide (GaS) nanohorn arrays using simple vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) method. The morphologies of GaS nano and microstructures are tuned by controlling the temperature and position of the substrate with respect to the source material. A plausible mechanism for the controlled growth has been proposed. It is important to note that the turn-on field value of GaS nanohorns array is found to be the low turn-on field 4.2 V/&#956;m having current density of 0.1 &#956;A/cm<SUP>2</SUP>. The striking feature of the field emission behavior of the GaS nanohorn arrays is that the average emission current remains nearly constant over long time without any degradation

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN