"Enhancement of solubility of a poorly soluble antiplatelet aggregation drug by cogrinding technique"

Objective: The goal of this study was to formulate ticagrelor tablets with enhanced dissolution rate using cogrinding technique. However, it belongs to the biopharmaceutical classification system Class IV molecule, poorly soluble, and permeable.Methods: Various ratios (0.2:1–1.67:1) of povidone (PVP)/drug were used in the formulations. Ticagrelor was coground with different percentage of PVP K 25 (carrier) in a mortar with a pestle for 30 min, then mixed with the rest excipients. A high-performance liquid chromatography stability indicating assay was developed to test the stability of ticagrelor in the selected formulae.Results: The results showed that the presence of PVP in relatively high ratios compared to the drug is desirable for enhancing the dissolution rate of ticagrelor. The best-optimized formulae found were that F8 and F9 which showed good disintegration and dissolution rate of ticagrelor more than 92% after 30 min while the dissolution rate for ticagrelor standard was only 22% after 30 min. Stability studies were performed on the selected formulae F8 and F9. Conclusion: The optimized formulae were evaluated for thickness, weight variation, hardness, friability, dissolution, and accelerated stability study for a period of 6 months. Cogrinding using PVP K 25 proved to enhance the dissolution of ticagrelor which may be due to the formation of a soluble complex between ticagrelor and PVP. The selected formulae F8 and F9 showed good stability

FORMULATION, OPTIMIZATION, AND EVALUATION OF SITAGLIPTIN AND SIMVASTATIN RAPIDLY DISSOLVING TABLETS

Objective: The scope of this work was to formulate sitagliptin and simvastatin rapidly dissolving tablets. However, simvastatin is practically insoluble in water. For improving its poor oral bioavailability and with the aim of facilitating administration to patients facing problems with swallowing rapidly dissolving tablets were preparedMethods: Tablets were prepared using superdisintegrant addition technique using croscarmellose sodium (Ac-di-sol), sodium starch glycolate (explotab) and crospovidone in different percentages. Evaluation tests such as weight variation, thickness, and content variation, and friability, disintegration, wetting time, in vitro dispersion and in vitro dissolution were carried out.Results: The results showed that the presence of crospovidone could enhance the dissolution rate of simvastatin greatly. The best-optimized formulae found were that F8, F9, and F10 which showed good disintegration and the dissolution rate of simvastatin and sitagliptin was more than 90% after 10 min while the dissolution rate for simvastatin and sitagliptin pure standards was 12% and 30%, respectively after 10 min.Conclusion: Some tablet formulae showed acceptable pharmacotechnical properties and complied with compendium requirements. Results of dissolution studies revealed that F8-F10 showed an increase in the dissolved sitagliptin and simvastatin to be more than 90% after 10 min.Â

Improvement of postharvest keeping quality of white pepper fruits (Capsicum annuum, L.) by hydrogen peroxide treatment under storage conditions

Sweet pepper is one of the most important vegetable crops in the world, it has excellent nutritive value but it is susceptible to relatively fast quality changes after harvest time. The objective of the present research was to evaluate the effect of dipping pepper fruits in hydrogen peroxide solutions on postharvest keeping quality during storage time. Whole pepper fruits were soaked for 30 min in a solutions of hydrogen peroxide (0, 1, 5 and 15 mM) then, air dried and stored at room temperature (20ºC) for 2 weeks and in fridge (10ºC) for 4 weeks. Hydrogen peroxide treatments significantly reduced weight loss, rot rate index and nitrate content of fruits specially with 15 mM hydrogen peroxide as compared with control treatement (0 mM hydrogen peroxide). Moreover, hydrogen peroxide treatments significantly increased general appearance, ascorbic acid content and the activity of the antioxidant enzymes such as ascorbate peroxidase and dehydroascorbate reductase. For dry matter and TSS%, there are no significant differences among treatments. Therefore, the use of hydrogen peroxide in postharvest treatments have a good potential strategy to improve the postharvest quality, extend shelf life period and maintained some nutritional quality as well as inhibited decay development of white peppers which natural infected under storage conditions

p-Convex Functions in Discrete Sets

We study the new concept of a p-convex function and A-p-convex sets for somenbsp set A of a vector spacenbsp E. These concepts may have applications in convex and non linear analysis and other topics of mathematical sciences

Effect of organic fertilizers combined with benzo (1,2,3) thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid S-methyl ester (BTH) on the cucumber powdery mildew and the yield production

Organic fertilizers such as compost, compost tea and seaweed extracts (Algean) combined with benzo (1,2,3) thiadiazole-7-carbothioic acid S-methyl ester (BTH)) showed significant effect on the powdery mildew-infected cucumber leaves with Sphaerotheca fuliginea. We have shown that spraying the infected cucumber leaves with the BTH (0.05 mM) combined with the organic fertilizers strongly decreased the disease severity of the cucumber powdery mildew fungus from 85.1% to 3.4% as compared to the control leaves which infected only with the pathogen. Furthermore, organic fertilizers combined with BTH increased significantly vegetative growth characters of cucumber (stem length, number of leaves /plant, leaf area /plant and chlorophyll content) especially at the earlier stage of growth as compared to the control plants (chemical fertilizer only). Also, most of the organic materials produced the highest cucumber early yield and fruit quality, but total yield was equal or less than the chemical fertilizers. Interestingly enough, that organic fertilizers combined with BTH elevated the ascorbic acid content (chemical quality of cucumber fruits) and decreased the nitrate content which very harmful as well as increased the fruit yields as compared to the control plants

The value of honey bees (Apis mellifera, L.) as pollinators of summer seed watermelon (Citrullus lanatus colothynthoides L.) in Egypt

The value of honey bee, Apis mellifera L., as pollinator of summer seed watermelon plants, Citrullus lanatus colothynthoides L. was studied. The highest percentage of opened flowers, number of bees/m2/min and amount of trapped pollen/ colony/h were recorded between 9.00 and 10.00 h, with significant (P<0.01) correlations between them. Eleven insect species belonging to eleven families and five orders were recorded as pollinators on summer seed watermelon crop, and A. mellifera L., was the predominant species. One hectare of summer seed watermelon could produce 10.47 kg of honey per season. Open pollination treatment produced the highest number of mature fruits and seed yield as compared with caged plants without any insect visitors which did not produce any fruits at all. It could be recommended to move the honey bee colonies to summer seed watermelon plantations during its flowering period to build-up the colonies and increase seed yield

ON - LINE BIOMECHANICAL ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION : Biomechanical analysis is that branch of science which involves a description of the position and movement of the body and its parts and the forces acting on them. This analysis may include the energy released or consumed by these parts. On-line analysis means the technique of collecting electronically measured date from an experiment and fed directly into a computer for immediate date processing and result sorting. The idea of an on-line computer system for recording biomechanical date was discussed for 25 years by the Biomechanical Laboratory or Pennsylvania State University [1]. This work and others showed three advantages for the on-line system; fast and accurate measurement and collection of biomechanical data, drastic reduction of processing time for a large number of parameters and finally the possible immediate feedback from the on-line system operator to the subject or the player under analysis. Recent advances in multimedia and the simplicity of handling multimedia packages permit the trainer and coach to efficiently operate on-line biomechanical analysis systems

Validation of the PILL-5: A 5-Item Patient Reported Outcome Measure for Pill Dysphagia.

Objectives: Pill dysphagia is common and costly with a significant risk of pill retention, caustic injury, and poor medication compliance. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the validity and reliability of the PILL-5, a self-administered patient reported outcome measure (PROM) to quantify the degree of pill (tablet and capsule) dysphagia. The PILL-5 is a 5-item questionnaire with a maximum symptom score of 20. Methods: The PILL-5 was administered to 190 patients with dysphagia referred for videofluoroscopic esophagography (VFE). Construct validity was assessed by comparing PILL-5 composite scores to delayed barium tablet transit on VFE. Normative data was obtained by administering the instrument to a cohort of healthy community based volunteers. Internal consistency was assessed with the Cronbach alpha. Test/retest reliability was determined by administering the instrument to the same cohort of patients at two time points. Results: The mean PILL-5 was 5.6 (±4.9) for persons with dysphagia and 1.6 (±2.7) for healthy volunteers (p &lt; 0.001). The internal consistency of the instrument was high (Cronbach alpha = 0.85). The mean PILL-5 was 4.3 (±4.1) for patients with normal transit and 7.6 (±5.3) for patients with delayed barium tablet transit on esophagography, indicating excellent criterion based validity (p &lt; 0.001). Reproducibility was high with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.83 (p &lt; 0.001). Conclusions: Healthy individuals report some degree of swallowing difficulty with pills. Normative data suggest that a PILL-5 &gt; 6 is abnormal (mean + 2 SD). The instrument demonstrated excellent criterion based validity and reliability. The PILL-5 is the first validated patient reported outcome measure for pill dysphagia