OPTIMIZATION OF EXTRACTION PARAMETERS FOR TOTAL FLAVONOIDS FROM GARDENIA GUMMIFERA GUM RESIN BY RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

Objective: To optimize the extraction parameters for determining the highest yield of Total Flavonoids from Gardenia gummifera gum resin.Methods: In the present study, response surface methodology (RSM) with three level Box Behenken design (BBD) was performed to optimize extraction parameters for total flavonoids. Solvent concentration(A), extraction time (B) and extraction temperature(C) were considered for single factor experiment.Results: The highest flavonoid concentration was obtained with acetone 45.00% v/v, time 101.46 min, temperature 41.57 °C. The average experimental TFC under optimal conditions was 161.14 mg/g which was in close agreement with the predicted value of 163.42 mg/g.Conclusion: RSM-BBD is successfully applied in optimizing extraction conditions for extraction of total flavonoids from G. gummifera gum resin

A study on knowledge and practices of over the counter medications among 1st year medical students

Background: Self-medication is widely practiced worldwide and often considered as a component of self-care. Selfmedication assumes a special significance among the medical students as they are the future medical practitioners and have a potential role in counselling the patients about the advantages and disadvantages of self-medication. Self-medication assumes a special significance among the medical students as they are the future medical practitioners. Medical students also differ from the general population because they are well-exposed to the knowledge about diseases and drugs. Therefore the present study was taken up to assess the extent of knowledge and practices of over the counter (OTC) drugs among the first year medical students in a tertiary care teaching hospital.Methods: A descriptive, cross sectional, non-interventional, observational study was conducted from November 2017 to January 2018 among 246 first year medical students. The data analyzed using descriptive statistics with percentages and averages using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).Results: In the present study, it was found that 86% students practiced self-medication. Most common conditions for taking self-medication with OTC was fever (89%) followed by cough and cold (75%). 15% of them experienced adverse reactions on OTC self-medicated drugs. The main source of information during self-medication was reading material (56.3%) followed by advice from seniors/pharmacist (43.7%).Conclusions: Self-medication is widely practiced among undergraduate medical students. In this situation, we should educate the students about advantages and disadvantages of self-medication of over the counter drugs

A REVIEW ON “DRY SYRUPS FOR PAEDIATRICS”

Suspensions may be defined as preparations containing finely divided drug particles (the suspensoid) distributed somewhat uniformly throughout a vehicle with or without stabilizers and other additives in which drug exhibits a minimum degree of solubility hence conventional oral suspension can be administered immediately (ready to use form) and not requiring reconstitution at the time of dispensing are simply designated as “Oral Suspension”. There is an important category of suspension that are available as dry powders intended for suspension in liquid vehicles. These are dry mixtures containing the drug and suitable suspending and dispersing agents to be diluted and agitated with a specific quantity of vehicle, most often purified water. Drugs that are instable if maintained for extended periods in the presence of aqueous vehicle (eg., many antibiotic drugs) are frequently supplied as dry powder mixtures for reconstitution at the time of dispensing. This type of preparation is designated in the USP by a title “for Oral Suspension”. The reconstituted system is the formulation of choice when the drug stability is a major concern. After reconstitution, these systems have a short but acceptable life if stored at refrigerator temperatures. Reconstitutable oral systems show the adequate chemical stability of the drug during shelf life, avoids the physical stability problems related to solubility, pH and incompatibilities with other ingredients and also reduce the weight of the final product because the aqueous vehicle is absent and consequently the transportation expenses may be reduced. Dry syrup form of the drug is also useful in case of bioavailability as it has high bioavailability rather than tablets and capsules as it disintegrates in water outside of the oral cavity and directly the suspension is gone through the gastrointestinal tract. So the suspension easily absorbs in the GIT. A number of commercial and official preparations are available as dry powder mixtures. The present review gives an account of the excipients used, methods of preparation of dry syrups along with their evaluations, their packaging, examples of research articles, few marketed preparations

Analysis of gastrointestinal drugs in patients admitted in CCU and ICCU of a tertiary care hospital in Goa, India

Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases are a common problem worldwide. They are frequently encountered in non-critical as well as in critically ill hospitalized patients.Methods: This was a prospective and observational study conducted on patients admitted in CCU and ICCU of Goa Medical College and Hospital. Data was collected from the patients’ case records and was analysed referring to WHO prescribing indicators. Data was represented as Mean±SD, number and frequency.Results: A total of 2250 drugs were prescribed, out of which 376 (16.71%) were gastrointestinal drugs. Most common route of administration was oral 323 (85.90%). Prescription patterns of GI drugs were:  275 (73.14%) from National List of Essential Medicines, 20 (5.31%) as fixed dose combinations and 4 (1.06%) by generic names. Pantoprazole 183 (48.67%) was the most frequently prescribed drug for peptic ulcer in present study.Conclusions: From the findings of this study we noted that among the GI drugs used, those for peptic ulcer were the most commonly prescribed. Also majority were from the essential drug list. But prescribing by generic names was low. Review of drug utilization trends is a necessary aid to formulate and modify existing protocols and guidelines to improve treatment outcomes in a given setting

Correlation of peak expiratory flow rate and single breath count in normal adults

Background: Spirometry mandates the requirement of equipments and skilled technicians which may be difficult to acquire in resource limited situations. Thus simple alternative tests like Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) and Single Breath Count (SBC) can be used to assess the pulmonary functioning of an individual.Methods: Hundred healthy participants of both genders between the age group of 18-50 years were recruited for this study. They were asked to perform PEFR using the Mini Wright Peak Flow Meter and SBC using a metronome. Three reading were noted and the best of three readings were used for analysis.Results: The mean age and BMI of the participants were 31.54±10.42 years and 23.88±5.14 kg/m2 respectively. The Spearman’s correlation coefficient of PEFR and SBC was 0.7048 with p<0.001 indicating a strong positive correlation.Conclusions: SBC can be used as a simple, convenient and cost-effective alternative to PEFR to assess pulmonary function in adults.

Perception and practice of self-medication amongst second year medical students in a tertiary care teaching hospital

Background: Management of medical ailments requires sound knowledge of diseases and drugs. Medical students are more likely to practice self-medication due to easy access to information. Inappropriate and inadequate treatment can lead to morbidity and mortality. Thus, the current study was carried out to understand the perception and practice of self-medication in medical students so that habit of ethical practice can be inculcated in them.Methods: A self-developed and prevalidated questionnaire was distributed amongst 145 students of second MBBS after approval from Institutional ethics Committee. Data was collected; analysed using MS Excel and the results were expressed as counts and percentages.Results: In this study authors noted 136 (93.79%) out of the 145 students practised self-medication. The commonest reason being effectiveness of medications for similar conditions in the past 92 (69.17%). 111 (81.61%) students reported fever as the most common indication. Analgesics/anti-pyretics 117 (86.02%) were the most frequently used drug groups. Majority 87 (63.97%) obtained information from friends and relatives. Adverse effects of self-medication were noted in 20 (14.70%).Conclusions: This study indicates higher prevalence of self-medication in medical students of Goa. Students can be sensitised and made aware about possible adverse effects and drug interactions with self-medication and how simple looking illness may take an ugly turn. Students being future doctors will continue this chain of spread of awareness of self-medication. Easy access to healthcare can also solve these problems

Design Analysis Fabrication and Testing of Progressive Air Suspension Strut

Ride comfort and adjustability has always been deprived on low budget suspensions. The main problems faced in the current market shocks are that, they being heavy and having no adjustability. There should be a way to provide the masses with a highly efficient shock absorber for a very low price. The project aims to provide the reader an ideal way to design, analyze, simulate and manufacture a non-conventional shock absorber having adjustability in the ride parameters

Synthesis, and biological screening of chloropyrazine conjugated benzothiazepine derivatives as potential antimicrobial, antitubercular and cytotoxic agents

A series of twenty new chloropyrazine conjugated benzothiazepines (22-41) have been synthesized with 58%–95% yields. The compounds were characterized by using different spectroscopic techniques including FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The synthesized compounds (22-41) and their precursor chalcones (2-21) were evaluated for antitubercular and cytotoxic activities. Additionally, compounds 22-41 were also tested for antimicrobial activity. Among the chalcone series (2-21), compounds 7 and 14 showed significant antitubercular activities (MICs 25.51 and 23.89 µM, respectively), whereas among benzothiazepines (22-41), compounds 27 and 34 displayed significant antimicrobial (MICs 38.02 µM, 19.01 µM) and antitubercular (MIC 18.10 µM) activities. Compounds 7 and 41 displayed cytotoxic activities with IC₅₀ of 46.03 ± 1 and 35.10 ± 2 µM respectively. All the compounds were evaluated for cytotoxic activity on normal human liver cell lines (L02) and found to be relatively less selective towards this cell line. The most active compounds identified through this study could be considered as potential leads for the development of drugs with possible antimicrobial, antitubercular, and cytotoxic activities

Face Sketch to Image Generation using Generative Adversarial Network

Numerous studies have been conducted in the area of sketch to picture conversion and they got the good outcomes, but sometimes it is not accurate that they observed the blurry boundaries, the mixing of two colors that is the color of hair and face or mixing of both. These results are of the convolution neural networks that are basic of GAN. So to overcome their drawbacks we proposed a novel generative adversarial network using conditional GAN. For that we converted the original image in sketch and both the sketch and original image as reference is applied as input. We got more realistic and sharp colored images as compared to other. We focused on the feature detection, and the results are good. For the experimentation we used the STL-10 dataset. We overcome the problem of mixing of colors and got the different colors for hair, lips, and skin using conditional GAN as compared to CNN modern with increased performance and precision