GC-MS ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF BIOACTIVITIES OF KAEMPFERIA PARISHII - A NATURAL SOURCE OF TOTAROL

Objective: The present study was aimed for phytoconstituent analysis, in vitro antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of leaf and rhizome extracts of an unexplored plant, Kaempferia parishii (Zingiberaceae).Methods: The extracts were analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to determine volatile chemical constituents. Antioxidant activity of extracts was determined using DPPH assay whereas the antimicrobial effects were tested by inhibition zone diameter and minimum inhibitory concentration.Results: GC/MS analysis revealed the presence of 7 and 8 identified components accounting for 92.1% and 82.86% of the leaf and rhizome extract of Kaempferia parishii respectively. In leaf extract phytol (72.55±0.5%), hexadecanoic acid methyl ester (4.94±0.2%), hexahydro farnesyl acetone (3.78±0.2%), dibutyl phthalate (3.31±0.2%) were found to be the major constituents and those of rhizome extract were totarol (74.96±0.86%), cembrene (2.83±0.2%), borneol (1.23±0.15). Both the extracts exhibited low to moderate antioxidant activity. They possess very weak activities against some tested microorganisms while the extracts had no activity against some microorganisms.Conclusion: Totarol, an antimicrobial agent, was found to be the major constituent of Kaempferia parishii rhizome extract. Thus, Kaempferia parishii can be used as a natural source of totarol. This is the first report on the unexplored plant, Kaempferia parishii.Keywords: Kaempferia parishii, GC-MS analysis, Totarol, Phytol, Antioxidant activity, Antimicrobial activit

Emerging Biomedical Applications of the Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Glycoprotein

Nanoparticles (NPs) made of metals, polymers, micelles, and liposomes are increasingly being used in various biomedical applications. However, most of these NPs are hazardous for long- and short-term use and hence have restricted biomedical applications. Therefore, naturally derived, biocompatible, and biodegradable nanoconstructs are being explored for such applications. Inspired by the biology of viruses, researchers are exploring the viral proteins that hold considerable promise in biomedical applications. The viral proteins are highly stable and further amenable to suit specific biological applications. Among various viral proteins, vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (VSV-G) has emerged as one of the most versatile platforms for biomedical applications. Starting with their first major use in lentivirus/retrovirus packaging systems, the VSV-G-based reagents have been tested for diverse biomedical use, many of which are at various stages of clinical trials. This manuscript discusses the recent advancements in the use of the VSV-Gbased reagents in medical, biological research, and clinical applications particularly highlighting emerging applications in biomedical imaging

The effect of annealing on structural, optical and photosensitive properties of electrodeposited cadmium selenide thin films

Cadmium selenide (CdSe) thin films have been deposited on indium tin oxide coated glass substrate by simple electrodeposition method. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) studies identify that the as-deposited CdSe films are highly oriented to [002] direction and they belong to nanocrystalline hexagonal phase. The films are changed to polycrystalline structure after annealing in air for temperatures up to 450 °C and begin to degrade afterwards with the occurrence of oxidation and porosity. CdSe completely ceases to exist at higher annealing temperatures. CdSe films exhibit a maximum absorbance in the violet to blue-green region of an optical spectrum. The absorbance increases while the band gap decreases with increasing annealing temperature. Surface morphology also shows that the increase of the annealing temperature caused the grain growth. In addition, a number of distinct crystals is formed on top of the film surface. Electrical characteristics show that the films are photosensitive with a maximum sensitivity at 350 °C

Shape of Field-Induced Nanostructures Formed by STM

Creation of controlled and reproducible nanostructures on material surfaces using scanning tunneling microscope is a novel technique, which can be used for a variety of applications. We have examined the shape of the nanostructures so formed on the gold film using tungsten tip and examined the formation parameters, which govern their shape and size. During our investigations it is found that the reproducibility of mound formation can reach up to 90% under optimum operating conditions, whereas the pit formation can be made with almost 100% reproducibility. Formation mechanism of such nanostructures is also discussed

Transcriptome profiling of Curcuma longa L. cv. Suvarna

Turmeric is an economically valued crop, because of its utility in the food, pharmaceutical industries and Ayurvedic medicine, attracts the attention in many areas of research work. In the present study, we executed resequencing through transcriptome assembly of the turmeric cultivar Suvarna (CL_Suv_10). Resequencing of Suvarna variety has generated 5 Gbases raw data with 75 bp paired-end sequence. The raw data has been submitted to SRA database of NCBI with accession number SRR4042181. Reads were assembled using Cufflinks-2.2.1 tool which ended up with 42994 numbers of transcripts. The length of transcripts ranged from 83 to15565, with a N50 value 1216 and median transcript length 773. The transcripts were annotated through number of databases. For the first time transcriptome profiling of cultivar Suvarna has been done, which could help towards identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) between Suvarna and other turmeric cultivars for its authentic identification

Nickel concentration dependent structural and optical properties of electrodeposited diamond like carbon thin films

Diamond like carbon (DLC) and composite nickel incorporated diamond-like carbon (Ni-DLC) films have been synthesized on ITO coated glass substrates using low voltage electrodeposition method. Modifications of structural and optical properties of thin films have been investigated with varying Ni concentration. Average grain size of Ni-DLC granules is found to decrease with increasing molarity of Ni in electrolytic solution. XRD pattern depicts multi-phase nature of Ni-DLC film. Incorporation of Ni nanoparticles in DLC matrix has been confirmed by TEM. Interestingly optical bandgap energy decreases from 2.31 to 1.58 eV with decrease in nickel content in the electrolytic bath. Simultaneously Urbach energy exhibits an increasing trend from 1.972 to 2.374 eV. Presence of sp2 and sp3 bonded carbons has been indicated by FTIR spectra. The number of sp2 bonding in carbon matrix is enhanced with dilution of electrolyte. The peaks in the range of ~600–750 cm−1 in Ni-DLC films have been attributed to metal incorporation into DLC matrix. Study reveals that the bandgap and the particle size of carbon nanocomposite films can be tailored by controlling the amount of nickel in the electrolyte