Ethnoveterinary medicinal plants used in Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu

Ethnoveterinary medicine is the holistic interdisciplinary study of the localknowledge and the socio-cultural structures and environment associated with animalhealthcare and husbandry. Perambalur, partially plain and a hilly district of Tamil Nadustate is rich in ethnoveterinary medicinal plants. In the present study, 21 plants belonging to16 families used as veterinary medicines have been documented. Due to poor availability ofmodern healthcare facilities and poverty of indigenous people, they fully or partially dependon local ethnic medicinal plants for the healthcare of their domestic animals. In this way, anattempt has been made to document the traditional knowledge of Perambalur district peopleabout ethnoveterinary medicinal plants and their usages on the treatment of variousveterinary diseases, their botanical names, local names, methods of drug preparation andadministration of drugs are given

Traditional Phytotherapy for Diabetes Used by the People of Perambalur District, Tamilnadu, South India

Diabetes is caused due to deficiency in production of insulin by the pancreas, or by the ineffectiveness of the insulin produced. It is a global problem and the numbers of people affected are increasing day by day. Plants provide a potential source of antidiabetic drugs. In India, most of the people, especially in rural areas use traditional medicine of plants to treat many diseases including diabetes. The aim of the present study was to document medicinal plants, traditionally used to treat diabetes by the people of Perambalur district. Traditional health practitioners were interviewed with standardized questionnaires in order to obtain information on medicinal plants traditionally used for the management of diabetes. Thirty species of 29 genera and 22 families were encountered during this study

A REVIEW ON SUPRAMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY IN DRUG DESIGN AND FORMULATION RESEARCH

Supramolecular chemistry, other way called as intermolecular chemistry disclose the relationship of molecules with environment. It exploits while exposing the physicochemical phenomina that happens when two like or unlike molecules/ions/systems contact each other. Drug action involve the target recognition process and response triggered by the intermolecular complex of drug and target. Drug design therefore require in depth study of intermolecular forces that exist between drug and target. Formulation of the drug or Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) is also regulated by these forces. Compatibility and incompatibility in formulations are nothing but of the effect of the intermolecular forces on physical behavior of systems. Therefore review of intermolecular chemistry in general and its role particularly in pharmaceutical research is presented here for the benefit of the students and research scholars who aspire to work on interdisciplinary projects in the field of pharmacy. Key words: intermolecular forces, hydrogen bond, drug design, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), crystal

Improved Micropropagation Method for the Enhancement of Biomass in Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni

Incorporation of a range of higher concentrations of CuSO4_5H2O in MS medium significantly enhanced direct shoot bud induction and proliferation from cultured leaf and nodal explants taken from mature plants of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. Shoot bud induction medium was supplemented with BAP (2.2 µM) and NAA (2.8 µM). When the concentration of CuSO4_5H2O in the induction medium was raised to 0.5 µM (five times the MS level, i.e. 0.1 µM) there was significant increase in percentage response along with increase in shoot bud number per explant. The shoots were healthy, well developed with dark green broader leaves. There was remarkable increase in total biomass at increased (0.5 µM) copper level in the medium. During proliferation stage also presence of high copper levels in the medium favoured increase in shoots bud number per explant

An exploratory study of ERM perception in Oman and proposing a maturity model for risk optimization

Enterprise Risk management is a process vital to enterprise governance which has gained tremendous momentum in modern business due to the dynamic nature of threats, vulnerability and stringent regulatory requirements. The business owners have realized that, risk creates opportunity which in turn creates value. Identifying and mitigating risk proactively across the enterprise is the purview of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).However, key errors in the ERM process such as misinterpretation of statistical data, overlooking change management, inadequate attention to supply chain interdependencies, excessive trust of insiders and business partners, ambiguous grouping of risks and poor documentation has contributed significantly to the failure of ERM. To examine the ERM perception in Oman, the authors have conducted a survey among various risk management practitioners. Based on the findings, the authors have broadly classified risk into three types namely business risks, technical risks and regulatory risks and threat vs. consequence mapping is defined to provide direction to moderately group risks. Further, this article defines various ERM approaches including due diligence, probabilistic risk analysis, scenario-based analysis and system analysis which offers a wide range of decision-support tools to the management

SOLID DISPERSION TECHNIQUE TO ENHANCE THE SOLUBILITY AND DISSOLUTION OF FEBUXOSTAT AN BCS CLASS II DRUG

Objective: The present study was aimed to enhance the solubility of poorly water-soluble drug (BCS Class II) Febuxostat using water-soluble polymers.Methods: Pre-formulation studies like drug excipient compatibility studies by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopyDifferential scanning calorimetry and determination of saturation solubility of drug individually in various media like distilled water and pH 7.4 phosphate buffer. Solid dispersions of Febuxostat was prepared using Polyethylene glycol (PEG 6000) (fusion method) and Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP K30) (solvent evaporation method) in various ratios like 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 separately. The formulated solid dispersions were evaluated for percentage yield, drug content and in vitro dissolution studies.Results: From the results of pre-formulation studies it was revealed that there was no interaction between drug and excipients and the pure drug was poorly soluble in water. The percentage yield of all formulations was in the range of 54-78 %, and drug content was in the range of 43-78 mg. The solid dispersion containing polyvinylpyrrolidone K 30 in 1:4 ratio showed the highest amount of drug release at the end of 30 min than other formulations.Conclusion: Finally it was concluded that solid dispersion prepared with PVP K-30 in 1:4 ratio by solvent evaporation method was more soluble than by fusion method

DREB1A overexpression in transgenic chickpea alters key traits influencing plant water budget across water regimes

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is mostly exposed to terminal drought stress which adversely influences its yield. Development of cultivars for suitable drought environments can offer sustainable solutions. We genetically engineered a desi-type chickpea variety to ectopically overexpress AtDREB1A, a transcription factor known to be involved in abiotic stress response, driven by the stress-inducible Atrd29A promoter. From several transgenic events of chickpea developed by Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation, four single copy events (RD2, RD7, RD9 and RD10) were characterized for DREB1A gene overexpression and evaluated under water stress in a biosafety greenhouse at T6 generation. Under progressive water stress, all transgenic events showed increased DREB1A gene expression before 50 % of soil moisture was lost (50 % FTSW or fraction of transpirable soil water), with a faster DREB1A transcript accumulation in RD2 at 85 % FTSW. Compared to the untransformed control, RD2 reduced its transpiration in drier soil and higher vapor pressure deficit (VPD) range (2.0–3.4 kPa). The assessment of terminal water stress response using lysimetric system that closely mimics the soil conditions in the field, showed that transgenic events RD7 and RD10 had increased biomass partitioning into shoot, denser rooting in deeper layers of soil profile and higher transpiration efficiency than the untransformed control. Also, RD9 with deeper roots and RD10 with higher root diameter showed that the transgenic events had altered rooting pattern compared to the untransformed control. These results indicate the implicit influence of rd29A::DREB1A on mechanisms underlying water uptake, stomatal response, transpiration efficiency and rooting architecture in water-stressed plants

PARP3 affects the relative contribution of homologous recombination and nonhomologous end-joining pathways

The repair of toxic double-strand breaks (DSB) is critical for the maintenance of genome integrity. The major mechanisms that cope with DSB are: homologous recombination (HR) and classical or alternative nonhomologous end joining (C-NHEJ versus A-EJ). Because these pathways compete for the repair of DSB, the choice of the appropriate repair pathway is pivotal. Among the mechanisms that influence this choice, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) end resection plays a critical role by driving cells to HR, while accurate C-NHEJ is suppressed. Furthermore, end resection promotes error-prone A-EJ. Increasing evidence define Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 3 (PARP3, also known as ARTD3) as an important player in cellular response to DSB. In this work, we reveal a specific feature of PARP3 that together with Ku80 limits DNA end resection and thereby helps in making the choice between HR and NHEJ pathways. PARP3 interacts with and PARylates Ku70/Ku80. The depletion of PARP3 impairs the recruitment of YFP-Ku80 to laser-induced DNA damage sites and induces an imbalance between BRCA1 and 53BP1. Both events result in compromised accurate C-NHEJ and a concomitant increase in DNA end resection. Nevertheless, HR is significantly reduced upon PARP3 silencing while the enhanced end resection causes mutagenic deletions during A-EJ. As a result, the absence of PARP3 confers hypersensitivity to anti-tumoral drugs generating DSB

Alpha-foetoprotein in umbilical cord in relation to severe pre-eclampsia, birth weight and future breast cancer risk

Women born after pre-eclamptic pregnancies have been reported to be at reduced risk of breast cancer as adults, because of reduced intrauterine oestrogen influence on breast tissue; high levels of α-foetoprotein (a glycoprotein with anti-oestrogenic properties), however, could also be important. In severe pre-eclampsia, placental function and foetal growth are reduced, and umbilical cord plasma levels of α-foetoprotein could reflect the underlying processes. Umbilical cord blood was collected in 12 804 consecutive deliveries. Among 307 pregnancies with clinical pre-eclampsia, 66 singleton pregnancies were identified as clinically severe, and 610 singleton pregnancies were selected as controls. Oestradiol and α-foetoprotein were measured from umbilical plasma, and birth weight was standardized as the ratio between the observed and expected birth weight, adjusted for differences in gestation length and offspring sex. Cord plasma levels of α-foetoprotein were significantly higher in severe pre-eclampsia than controls (P<0.01) after adjustment for gestational age and birth weight. For oestradiol, there was no difference in cord plasma levels between the severe pre-eclampsia group and controls, after adjustment for length of gestation and birth weight. These results suggest that an anti-oestrogenic effect associated with pre-eclampsia may be mediated through high levels of α-foetoprotein rather than low levels of oestradiol