Phytochemical And Biological Investigations of Rutaceous plants

The Rutaceae family consists of 150 genera and 1,500 species, which are herbs, shrubs, and trees. The members of genus Glycosmis and Clausena are aromatic (contain volatile oils) and traditionally used for fever, swollen spleen, digestion, topical infections, skin itch, scabies, boils and ulcers. Accordingly from this family, Tetractomia roxburghiana, Glycosmis calcicola, and Clausena excavata were selected for systematic biological screening to exploit and identify compounds which may serve as subsequent leads for the treatment of skin diseases. While the initial aim of the programme had been to characterise these barely studied plants, the programme was subsequently extended to study their biological activity in order to justify their traditional use as medicines. During the course of this study, supporting analytical methodologies were used extensively and ultimately the evaluation of these methodologies contributed a significant proportion of the overall research programme. Initially crude extract was subjected to column chromatography and the compounds were isolated by overloading an analytical HPLC column. By the end of the programme, crude extracts were being analysed directly by gradient reversed-phase HPLC with subsequent direct scale up to preparative isolation on a (250 22) mm id column. Analytical reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of the crude methanolic leaf extracts of T. roxbhurghina, G. calcicola, and C. excavata was carried out in order to qualitatively assess the number of constituents present in each fraction. Separation was achieved by using ACE-5-C18 (250 4.6 mm) with a flow rate of 1.5 ml/min, with the UV detection at 254 nm. Semi-preparative and preparative HPLC were also carried out in order to isolate components of these mixtures. Using spectral analysis, as swertisin, gallic acid, α-asarone and angelicin (furanocoumarin) were identified. In the same way, angelicin was identified from the methanolic leaf extract of Glycosmis calcicola and preparative HPLC of the methanolic leaf extract of Clausena excavata afforded three compounds, namely 2-(3,4-dimethoxy-phenyl)-5,7-dimethoxy-chromen-4-one, 2-(3,4-dimthoxy-phenyl) 3,7-dihydroxy-5-methoxy-chromen-4-one and 5,7-dihydroxy-2-phenyl-chromen-4-one (chrysin), which were confirmed by spectroscopic methods. Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) was evaluated as a possible high-resolution technique for checking the purity of fractions isolated from preparative RP-HPLC. However it proved more effective to exploit orthogonal ( to RP-HPLC) modes of LC by using –NH2 and –SCX ion-exchange HPLC columns and/or, if resolution on analytical RP-HPLC was possible, structural elucidation was carried out using LC-NMR-MS. With respect to biological activity, a range of procedures that had been established at the University for checking activity against skin diseases was used. Free radical induced lipid peroxidation model has been selected for evaluation of antioxidant activity of the extract. The anti-oxidant activity of these extracts and compounds were assessed by free radical induced lipid peroxidation model. The results indicated that the methanolic leaf extract of Tetractomia roxburghiana showed marked anti-oxidant activity whereas methanolic leaf extract of Glycosmis calcicola and Clausena excavata showed moderate anti-oxidant activity. The IC50 value of the methanolic leaf extract of Tetractomia roxburghiana was found to be 201.3 µg/ml; whereas those for Glycosmis calcicola and Clausena excavata were found to be 450.6 µg/ml and 1106 µg/ml respectively. For all the extracts, no anti-bacterial activity was found against Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Propionibacterium acne. Also no anti-fungal activity against Candida albicans was found. A total of three crude methanolic plant extracts, four isolated compounds and eleven semi-purified fractions were tested for in-vitro efficacy, using an agar incorporation method to determine the minimum inhibition concentration (MIC), against the dermatophyte species; Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Epidermatophyton floccusum. The MIC value for crude methanolic extracts of Tetractomia roxbhurghiana and Glycosmis calcicola was found to be 62.5 µg/ml and 31.2 µg/ml against T.rubrum and T.mentagrophytes, whereas the methanol extract of Clausena excavata did not show any activity against dermatophytes. In conclusion, the anti-oxidant activity of Tetractomia roxburghiana was found to be comparable with that of propylgallate, which was used as a standard drug thus confirming, as anticipated, that Tetractomia roxburghiana might be a good source of anti-oxidant drugs. The extended degree of anti-oxidant activity displayed by methanolic extract of Tetractomia roxburghiana could be contributed to the presence of swertisin, gallic acid and angelicin, which are proven anti-oxidants. The anti-fungal activity of Glycosmis calcicola could be partly due to the presence of angelicin

For whom the bell tolls : periodic reactivation of sensory cortex in the gamma band as a substrate of visual working memory maintenance

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sarcopenia and vascular risk in a healthy elderly UK population (BRAVES study)

Introduction Sarcopenia, the loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength that occurs with advancing age [1] is correlated with functional decline and disability but little is known about its relationship with cardiovascular risk. Bioimpedence analysis (BIA) is a validated technique for measuring muscle mass, convenient for use in large cohort studies. Arterial stiffness (compliance) is an independent predictor of cardiovascular events. Methods The BRAVES study was designed to compare cardiovascular risk between two healthy elderly cohorts in the UK and in Italy. We used data from the UK cohort to investigate the relationship between sarcopenia and vascular compliance. Participants were eligible if aged 65-85 years, lived within the Brighton area and had weight loss of no more than 5% in the last month. All underwent physical exam, BIA assessment of skeletal mass index (SMI) and two measures of arterial compliance. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) was measured between carotid-femoral and carotid-radial arteries and the augmentation index (AIx) derived from carotid and radial arteries. A bivariate correlation was performed. Results Ninety patients (64 female; 26 male) had mean age 73, mean FFM 46.84kg (range 34.7-74.7) and mean SMI 6.77 (range 4.84-10.09). There was a negative relationship between SMI and Radial AIx (R=0.-542, p=0.000) as well as Carotid AIx (R=-0.391, p=0.002) but not PWV. Using multiple regression to control for the effects of age and gender, SMI was independently related to radial AIx (p=.013). Conclusions Skeletal muscle mass index is strongly negatively correlated with augmentation index, a measure of vascular stiffness. This finding suggests that elderly patients with higher muscle mass have a more compliant aorta and hence lower cardiovascular risk. Whether sarcopenia acts as a marker for CV risk or plays an active role in cardiovascular disease progression is not yet established and deserves further investigation

Characterization of Fly Ash for Their Effective Management

Coal based thermal power plants more or less producing 150 tons of fly ash each year. Endeavours to utilize fly ash powder have come to just a twenty to thirty percent reutilization rate. Around 80 percent of the power generation is from coal based power plants; rest on gas and oil. As most of the power plants are using bituminous coal and sub-bituminous coal leading towards high production of fly ash. Due to high percent of ash in the coal give rise to large volumes of fly ash. Utilization is becoming huge problem in India. The country’s dependence on coal for power generation has unchanged so we need to look at the strategies to encourage and establish technological concepts to utilize fly ash in bulk. We have plenty of uses of fly ash, but we need to analyse the uses such that effective utilization of fly ash takes place. Production of fly ash depends upon the coal source, plant operations and many more factors. The various fly ash characteristics are discussed including classifications, physical characteristics, chemical properties and chemical compositions. In spite of the fact that far reaching examination has been performed on the utilization of fly ash and took environmental concerns also a major problem like mobilization of toxic elements, biota impact, microbial impact, handling dangers, and pertinent regulations. Finally, extensive research has done to reutilization of fly ash and recommendation is provided to cover deficiencies found in the literature

Does arterial ageing differ between Europeans and Japanese and Korean patient samples? Results from current UK studies

Objective: Vascular stiffness has long been linked with the ageing process. However, it is only since the development of accurate methods for measuring arterial compliance that unravelling this relationship has become possible. Arterial stiffening over time appears to differ between ethnic groups and/or geographic areas. We investigated how the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) varied with chronological age to make initial comparisons of its change with age between this European study and published data from Japanese and Korean patient populations. Method: 312 participants (180 men, 132 women), age 63.7±12.9 (mean±SD), range 25-92 years. The following were measured: CAVI using VaSera VS-1500N® (Fukuda Denshi, Japan); brachial BP using OMRON705-IT; baseline characteristics and physical examination of cardiovascular health. These data are from current UK studies of healthy volunteers with approximately 20% having two or more cardiovascular risk factors. Results: CAVI was significantly correlated with age (r=0.63, p<0.001), more closely in men (r=0.71, p<0.001) than women (r=0.54, p<0.001). These data were used to create a preliminary set of ‘usual’ average CAVI values for each age category (Table) and compared against data from Japan[1] and Korea[2] (plot 1 & 2). Korean men had lower CAVI values at each age. Conclusions: This suggests CAVI is closely related to ageing and may be a useful indicator of vascular age. In initial comparisons, the slope of arterial ‘ageing’ may be steeper for Europeans, especially men over 60 years, than for Japanese and particularly Koreans, but detailed analysis has not yet been done due to lack of raw data