FOLKLORE MEDICINAL ORCHIDS FROM SOUTH INDIA: THE POTENTIAL SOURCE OF ANTIOXIDANTS

Objective: Orchids are widely used the economically important ornamental plant. Conventionally, they were also used for the treatment of several diseases. In the present study, five species of medicinal Orchids from South India were selected to evaluate their antioxidant potential.Methods: The selected species were extracted by Soxhlet method using 70% ethanol. The extracts obtained were analyzed for various quantitative and antioxidant assays followed by correlation analysis in between quantitative and antioxidant activity.Results: Antioxidant data revealed that among the extracts of five orchids, Coelogyne breviscapa was proved to be superior in terms of antioxidant activities, followed by Aerides maculosum, Dendrobium macrostachyum, Pholidota pallida, and Vanda testacea. Correlation analysis was performed, and the results proved simple positive correlation and highest average value of r†(correlation coefficient) for antioxidant activities with quantitative were the total antioxidants, total phenolics, total flavonoids, and ascorbic acid content. Among the qualitative antioxidant activities, the highest average value of r†was shown by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, iron chelating, 2,2-azinobis-3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid, and superoxide radical.Conclusion: The study documents that orchid plants have significant antioxidant potential which can contribute to human health

BIOPROSPECTING OF MUNTINGIA CALABURA: BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS AND ITS ANTIOXIDANT, ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTHELMENTHIC ACTIVITY.

Objective: Muntingia calabura is widely cultivated and has become one of the common roadside trees in most parts of the world. The present study aimed to evaluate medicinal property of leaves and fruits of M. calabura, by using antioxidant, antimicrobial and antihelmenthic activities for methanol crude extract.Methods: Standard methods were used to evaluate secondary metabolites in methanol crude extract of leaves and fruits of M. calabura. Total phenolic contents (TPC) were evaluated according to Folin-Ciocalteu method. The free radical quenching ability of extracts were explored by various in vitro assays, such as DPPH, hydroxyl radical scavenging and reducing power assay. Additionally, the antimicrobial and anthelminthic activity was conducted to evaluate the biological efficiency of the plant extract.   Results: Qualitative phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, tannins, glycosides, flavonoids and phenols. The reduction of free radical content were observed in dose dependent manner in all tested methods for both leaves and fruits methanol extract of the plant. Further, the antimicrobial activity of plant extract indicates the region where tested microorganisms failed to thrive and the methanol extract also showed evidence to have anthelminthic property.Conclusion:  The presence of secondary metabolites and biological activity of methanol crude extract of leaves and fruits of M. calabura ensure the pharmaceutical importance. Â

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF NATURAL ANTIOXIDANTS AND FREE RADICAL SCAVENGING ACTIVITIES OF CRUCIFERAE VEGETABLES

Objective: The aim of this research program is to evaluate the antioxidant potentialities comprehensively utilizing commonly available cruciferous vegetables of India, viz., cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, and radish.Methods: The plant materials were procured and processed for cold extraction procedure using 70% ethanol. The extracts were primarily assessedfor their phytoconstituents and further for their in vitro antioxidant activity using various qualitative and quantitative estimations. The results of quantitative estimations were expressed in terms of equivalence with respective standards, and the antioxidant potentiality of various scavenging and chelating activities were expressed in terms of 50% effective concentration. Further, correlation studies were made between quantitative and qualitative assays to study the relationship between the effects of different phytoconstituents groups.Results: In this study, the results revealed that all the four cruciferous vegetable extracts possess potential antioxidant activities. Among the extractsunder study kohlrabi has recorded superior antioxidant potential than others. It is clear from the study that the tested cruciferous vegetablesmanifested differential expression of antioxidant capacity due to their phytoconstituents.Conclusion: From the results, it can be concluded that the Cruciferae vegetables have potent antioxidant activity contributing to the use for healthbenefits in addition to their nutritive role as vegetable.Keywords: Cruciferae vegetables, Phytochemicals, In vitro antioxidant activity, Correlation

Mapping QTL for bruchid resistance in rice bean (Vigna umbellata)

This research articles was published in Euphytica journal, volume 207, 2016The damage caused to stored seed by bruchids (Callosobruchus maculatus) is considered to be a major production constraint in rice bean (Vigna umbellata). Breeding for genetically determined resistance is the most environmentally benign and cost-effective means to mitigate the losses to bruchid infestation. Here, a screen of rice bean germplasm identified two sources of resistance, and determined the genetic basis of the resistance using a quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping approach. The two resistant accessions (LRB238 and JP100304) were each crossed to a common susceptible cultivar (LRB26) to generate F2 mapping populations, one of which (LRB238 × LRB26) was genotyped with a range of Vigna sp. microsatellite assays and by sequence related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) fingerprinting. The resulting linkage map comprised ten linkage groups and covered a genetic distance of 872.1 cM with a mean inter-marker distance of 32.05 cM. The subsequent QTL analysis detected the presence of 11 QTL, distributed over all ten linkage groups, most of which were associated with the % damage caused to the seed. Two major QTL, Cmpd1.5 (flanked by the SRAP markers E2M9-270 and E12M7-311) and Cmpd1.6 (flanked by the SRAP marker E7M10-141 and the microsatellite locus CEDG259) mapped within 11.9 cM and 13.0 cM of the flanking markers, respectively, accounted for, 67.3 and 77.4 % of the variance respectively, for % damaged seeds. A bulked segregation analysis carried out in the JP100304 × LRB26 population revealed that the resistance donor harboured some resistance factors not represented in LRB238

Single lesion multibacillary leprosy, a treatment enigma: a case report

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Selective masking and demasking for the stepwise complexometric determination of aluminium, lead and zinc from the same solution

Background: A complexometric method based on selective masking and de-masking has been developed for the rapid determination of aluminium, lead and zinc from the same solution in glass and glass frit samples. The determination is carried out using potassium cyanide to mask zinc, and excess disodium salt of EDTA to mask lead and aluminium. The excess EDTA was titrated with standard Mn(II)SO(4) solution using Erichrome Black-T as the indicator. Subsequently selective de-masking agents - triethanolamine, 2,3-dimercaptopropanol and a formaldehyde/acetone mixture - were used to determine quantities of aluminium, lead and zinc in a stepwise and selective manner. Results: The accuracy of the method was established by analysing glass certified reference material NBS 1412. The standard deviation of the measurements, calculated by analysing five replicates of each sample, was found to be less than 1.5% for the method proposed. Conclusion: The novelty of the method lies in its simplicity and accuracy afforded by there not being a need for a prior separation or instrumentation. The proposed method was found to be highly selective for the precise determination of aluminum, zinc and lead in the routine analysis of glass batch and allied materials

Financing Universal Coverage in Malaysia: a case study

One of the challenges to maintain an agenda for universal coverage and equitable health system is to develop effective structuring and management of health financing. Global experiences with different systems of health financing suggests that a strong public role in health financing is essential for health systems to protect the poor and health systems with the strongest state role are likely the more equitable and achieve better aggregate health outcomes. Using Malaysia as a case study, this paper seeks to evaluate the progress and capacity of a middle income country in terms of health financing for universal coverage, and also to highlight some of the key underlying health systems challenges

Early prediction of response to radiotherapy and androgen-deprivation therapy in prostate cancer by repeated functional MRI: a preclinical study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In modern cancer medicine, morphological magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is routinely used in diagnostics, treatment planning and assessment of therapeutic efficacy. During the past decade, functional imaging techniques like diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI have increasingly been included into imaging protocols, allowing extraction of intratumoral information of underlying vascular, molecular and physiological mechanisms, not available in morphological images. Separately, pre-treatment and early changes in functional parameters obtained from DWMRI and DCEMRI have shown potential in predicting therapy response. We hypothesized that the combination of several functional parameters increased the predictive power.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We challenged this hypothesis by using an artificial neural network (ANN) approach, exploiting nonlinear relationships between individual variables, which is particularly suitable in treatment response prediction involving complex cancer data. A clinical scenario was elicited by using 32 mice with human prostate carcinoma xenografts receiving combinations of androgen-deprivation therapy and/or radiotherapy. Pre-radiation and on days 1 and 9 following radiation three repeated DWMRI and DCEMRI acquisitions enabled derivation of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and the vascular biomarker <it>K</it>^trans, which together with tumor volumes and the established biomarker prostate-specific antigen (PSA), were used as inputs to a back propagation neural network, independently and combined, in order to explore their feasibility of predicting individual treatment response measured as 30 days post-RT tumor volumes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ADC, volumes and PSA as inputs to the model revealed a correlation coefficient of 0.54 (p < 0.001) between predicted and measured treatment response, while <it>K</it>^trans, volumes and PSA gave a correlation coefficient of 0.66 (p < 0.001). The combination of all parameters (ADC, <it>K</it>^trans, volumes, PSA) successfully predicted treatment response with a correlation coefficient of 0.85 (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We have in a preclinical investigation showed that the combination of early changes in several functional MRI parameters provides additional information about therapy response. If such an approach could be clinically validated, it may become a tool to help identifying non-responding patients early in treatment, allowing these patients to be considered for alternative treatment strategies, and, thus, providing a contribution to the development of individualized cancer therapy.</p

DNA microarray revealed and RNAi plants confirmed key genes conferring low Cd accumulation in barley grains

List of genes down-regulated in both W6nk2 and Zhenong8 after 15 days exposure to 5 ΟM Cd. (DOC 130 kb