Pharmacological Activity of a Polyherbal Formulation by Haemoglobin Glycosylation Assay

Present study involves the development of a polyherbal formulation by using four different herbs i.e. Chirata (Swertia chiratia), Haldi (Curcuma longa), Neem (Azadirachta indica), Gudmar (Gymnema sylvestre), Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Gokharu (Pedalium murex), Methi (Trigonella foenum-graecum), Jammun (Syzygium cumini), relating to antidiabetic activity. Freshly collected and authenticated herbs were characterized by studying its morphological and pharmacognostic character. Antidiabetic and antioxidant activity of the formulation was determined by in vitro haemoglobin glycosylation assay and H2O2 radical scavenging method respectively. In the above study it was found that ethanolic extract of polyherbal formulation possess promising antidiabetic and antioxidant activity which can be consider for further biological investigation. Keywords: polyherbal formulation, Swertia chiratia, Curcuma longa, Azadirachta indica, Gymnema sylvestre, Withania somnifera, Pedalium murex, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Syzygium cumin

DEVELOPMENT AND IN VITRO EVALUATION OF FAST DISSOLVING TABLETS OF TIZANIDINE HYDROCHLORIDE BY DIRECT COMPRESSION METHOD

In the present work, fast dissolving tablets (FDTs) have been prepared by direct compression method using Tizanidine hydrochloride as a drug candidate. Tizanidine HCl is a centrally acting α-2 adrenergic agonist muscle relaxant with a slightly bitter taste having short half-life of 2.5 h. The tablets were prepared with three superdisintegrants e.g. sodium starch glycolate, crosscarmellose sodium and crospovidone. Formulations were evaluated for pre compression parameters such as bulk density, tapped density, angle of repose, Carr’s index and Hausner’s ratio. The prepared tablets were also evaluated for hardness, friability, thickness, drug content, disintegration time, wetting time and in-vitro dissolution studies. The compatibility of drug with other ingredients was checked by FTIR studies. In-vitro release is presented by zero order and first order plot. From the point of view of maximum drug release within 20 minutes, formulation TZN8 within 8 formulations is the best and hence optimized one. From this study it was concluded that fast dissolving tablets prepared by direct compression method using different superdisintegrants enhanced dissolution which will lead to improved bioavailability and effectiveness of tizanidine hydrochloride

(RESEARCH (RE SEARCH ARTICLE) BIOSTATISTICAL OPTIMIZATION OF SUSTAINED RELEASE TABLET OF ACYCLOVIR USING LINEAR REGRESSION MODEL AND DETERMINATION OF ITS RELEASE MECHANISM

Acyclovir is an antiviral agent which is active in vitro against Herpes simplex (HSV) types I and II and Varicella zoster virus (VZV). Fluctuating biological short half life, low bioavailability, distorted therapeutic drug regimen are some of the characteristics that bestow upon acyclovir to be an ideal Sustained release candidate. The present research paper focuses on designing sustained release tablets of acyclovir to ensure time-dependent, sustained release formulation with optimizing the process variables and perform pre-formulation studies. The results obtain show the linear regression analysis of all the fabricated tablets shown as R2 values. When the data were plotted according to the first-order equation, for all formulations (ACL1 to ACL8) showed a fair linearity, with regression (R2) values between (0.685-0.915) clearly indicate that drug was not release as per first order mechanism. These values suggested that more than one mechanism may be involved in release kinetic. In the case of formulation ACL3 with Xanthan gum and sodium alginate shows non-fickian diffusion mechanism with n value as (0.925) therefore diffusion with erosion mechanism play role release from natural gum. So ACL3 was taken as a best formulation to achieve a prolonged maintenance of effective concentrations of drug for a period of 12hrs

Experimental Investigation of Multiple Fry Waste Soya Bean Oil in an Agricultural CI Engine

Meeting the growing energy demand for sustainability and environmental friendly fuels is a continuous process. Several oxygenated fuels were tried and tested according to the availability depending upon the geographical locations to find a solution against rapidly depleting fossil fuels (gasoline and diesel). In the present investigation, the viability of waste fry cooking oil converted into biodiesel fuel and its various physiocochemical properties was evaluated. In this regard, the performance and emission of a CI engine was compared using biodiesel fuel and mineral diesel fuel. Experimental research was performed on a single-cylinder agricultural CI engine with indirect injection, and biodiesel fuel was used with three different types of fry oils. The fry oil was classified as one-time fry, two-time fry, and three-time fry. Engine efficiency and tail pipe emission attributes were evaluated for the three different fuels. The different fuel blends used for the experiment were B60 and B80 and were tested at full load, at different engine speed (rpm). It was found that brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased with increasing speed, whereas brake thermal efficiency reduced with increasing engine speed. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) reduces with increase in the engine speed because of a poor air–fuel ratio at high speed. CO2 emission is higher because of the higher density and heating value of the biodiesel fuel, which depends on the blending ratio and the frying time of the fuel. It was also encountered that NOx emission was higher for maximum test fuels except one-time fry waste cooking oil biodiesel at 60% blend, which showed lower NOx than diesel fuel. Smoke opacity in both the blends have a decreasing trend with increasing speed and are lower than pure diesel. The 1FWCOB (fry waste cooking oil biodiesel), 2FWCOB, and 3FWCOB fuel exhaust gas temperature (EGT) is reduced because of higher cetane number and lower heating value. Based on the result obtained, it was concluded that by increasing the frying time of the soya bean waste cooking biodiesel, the emission characteristics and engine performance were affected. The need for sustainable fuel is important, thus the use of waste fry cooking oil is a potential replacement for diesel

Analysis of Exergy and Energy of Gasifier Systems for Coal-to-Fuel

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance features of coal-to-fuel systems based on different gasification technologies. The target products are the Fischer–Tropsch synthetic crude and synthetic natural gas. Two types of entrained-flow gasifierbased coal-to-fuel systems are simulated and their performance features are discussed. One is a single-stage water quench cooling entrained-flow gasifier, and another one is a two-stage syngas cooling entrained-flow gasifier. The conservation of energy (first law of thermodynamics) and the quality of energy (second law of thermodynamics) for the systems are both investigated. The results of exergy analysis provide insights about the potential targets for technology improvement. The features of different gasifier-based coal-to-fuel systems are discussed. The results provide information about the research and development priorities in future

Prevalence of anemia among reproductive-age females in the Tharu tribe of the Indo-Nepal border region

Background: India shares the largest number of anemia patients globally. Anemia in reproductive-age female, affects not only the maternal mortality and morbidity but inversely affect the pregnancy outcome also. Tribals in India are geographically isolated and most of them belong to very low socio-economic status. Regarding Tharu tribes, to date, there is no study to find the prevalence of anemia in this community. Aim: We aim to find the prevalence of anemia in the reproductive-age female of the Tharu community. Additionally, we also accessed the severity and possible causes of anemia. Materials and Methods: A total of 440 reproductive age females from the Tharu community were recruited in this study from Tharu predominant Tulsipur tehsil of Balrampur district on 8 December 2019. CBC of each sample was performed by a 3-part basic hematology analyzer. Results: The mean (SD) hemoglobin level of the study group observed was 11.11 (±1.96) gm/dl with a median value of 11.3 gm/dl. Prevalence of anemia was noted in 283 (64.32%) participants. Amongst the anemic subjects, mild, moderate, and severe anemia was noted in 33.57%, 57.24%, and 9.19%, respectively. Microcytic, normocytic, and macrocytic anemia was noted in 53.00%, 44.88%, and 2.12%, respectively. Conclusion: The high prevalence of mild and moderate anemia in reproductive-age women is a matter of concern and should be dealt with priority. Community-based screening for hemoglobinopathies is also needed to evaluate the actual cause of anemia

Thermodynamic, exergetic and environmental evaluation and optimization of a bio-fuel fired gas turbine incorporated with wind energy derived hydrogen injection

The fluctuating nature of wind energy and shortage of biomass resources, as two types of renewables, can be fulfilled via their hybridization. In this respect, present research proposes a hybrid biomass/wind energy driven power generation framework based on combined gas turbine-Rankine cycle scheme. The gas turbine includes a reheat stage where the produced hydrogen is added to the combustion chamber for increasing flue gas temperature to enhance output power. The injected hydrogen is generated via a water electrolyzer which is powered by electricity from the wind turbines. The proposed scheme of biomass/wind powered system leads to a reduction in biomass consumption and will fulfill the fluctuations and non-continuous availability of wind energy. To appraise the feasibility of developed hybrid scheme, thermodynamic first and second law-based analyses were performed. Also, the exergo-environmental evaluation of the hybrid plant is conduced using three exergo-environmental indices. Finally, optimum operation conditions of the proposed hybrid plant is determined based on the minimization of environmental damage index. The results under optimum operation indicate that, the proposed hybrid power generation plant yields exergy efficiency of 47.35 % with environmental damage index of 0.0104