Nanoencapsulation of Pesticides: Sustainable Perspective in Agriculture

The concern towards the increasing challenges of sustainable agriculture made the researchers towards significant technological development and innovations in recent years. In particular, Nanotechnology offers potential solutions to improve agricultural production assuring sustainability. The incorporation of nanotechnology as a means of nano pesticides delivers the pesticides appropriately i.e., targeted delivery of pesticides by lowering the indiscriminate use of conventional pesticides. The assets of a nanoencapsulated pesticide formulation are controlled releasing properties with enhanced solubility, specificity, permeability and stability. They provide in-built switches to control the release and subsequent availability of pesticides to be used effectively over a given period of time and their design enables them to resist the severe environmental processes such as leaching, evaporation, photolytic hydrolytic and microbial degradation over conventional pesticides. This review provides fundamental information to critically assess the significant role of nanotechnology for the encapsulation of pesticides. © 2020 Author(s)

REVERSED PHASE-HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY METHOD DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF ATORVASTATIN IN BULK DRUG AND FORMULATION

Objective: To develop and validate a simple, selective, rapid, precise, and accurate high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method fordetermination of atorvastatin in bulk and its pharmaceutical formulation product.Method: Reversed phase-HPLC (RP-HPLC) method was performed by a mobile phase consisting mixture of methanol and ammonium acetate buffer(pH 4.5) in the proportion 60:40 v/v. A ZORBAX Eclipse plus C(4.6 mm × 100 mm, 3.5 μ) column was used as a stationary phase. HPLC analysis ofatorvastatin was carried out at a wavelength of 241 nm with a flow rate of 1 ml/minute.18 Results: The linear regression analysis data for the calibration curve showed a good linear relationship with a correlation coefficient 0.9984. Thelinear regression equation was y=3726540.2x+27390388.1. This was found to give a sharp peak of atorvastatin at a retention time of 2.77 minutes.Validation parameters were evaluated for the method according to the ICH (Q2R1) guidelines. The limit of detection and limit of quantification for themethod were 0.6721 μg/mL and 1.9989 μg/mL, respectively. The % relative standard deviation values for intra-day precision and inter-day precisionwere found to be 0.31% and 0.30%, respectively. An accuracy of the method was determined through recovery studies which were found to be within97.57-102.22%.Conclusion: The method was validated for system suitability, accuracy, precision, robustness, and ruggedness. The precision, accuracy, sensitivityshort retention time and composition of the mobile phase indicated that this method is better than the earlier methods developed for the quantificationof atorvastatin.Keywords: Atorvastatin, Reversed phase-high performance liquid chromatographic method development, Validation

Nanoencapsulation of pesticides: Sustainable perspective in agriculture

The concern towards the increasing challenges of sustainable agriculture made the researchers towards significant technological development and innovations in recent years. In particular, Nanotechnology offers potential solutions to improve agricultural production assuring sustainability. The incorporation of nanotechnology as a means of nano pesticides delivers the pesticides appropriately i.e., targeted delivery of pesticides by lowering the indiscriminate use of conventional pesticides. The assets of a nanoencapsulated pesticide formulation are controlled releasing properties with enhanced solubility, specificity, permeability and stability. They provide in-built switches to control the release and subsequent availability of pesticides to be used effectively over a given period of time and their design enables them to resist the severe environmental processes such as leaching, evaporation, photolytic hydrolytic and microbial degradation over conventional pesticides. This review provides fundamental information to critically assess the significant role of nanotechnology for the encapsulation of pesticides. © 2020 Author(s)

A case study of mesospheric planetary waves observed over a three-radar network using empirical mode decomposition

In this paper an attempt is made to study equatorial Kelvin waves using a network of three radars: Kototabang (0.204° S, 100.320° E) meteor radar, Pameungpeuk (7.646° S, 107.688° E) medium-frequency radar, and Pontianak (0.003° S, 109.367° E) medium-frequency radar. We have used the continuous data gathered from the three radars during April–May 2010. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD), Lomb–Scargle periodogram (LSP) analysis, and wavelet techniques are used to study the temporal and altitude structures of planetary waves. Here, we used a novel technique called EMD to extract the planetary waves from wind data. The planetary waves of  ∼  6.5 and  ∼  3.6 days periodicity are observed in all three radar stations with peak amplitudes of about 12 and 11 m s−1, respectively. The 3.6-day wave has an average vertical wavelength from the three radars of about 42 km. The 3.6- and 6.5-day planetary waves are particularly strong in the zonal wind component. We find that the two waves are present at the 84–94 km height region. The observed features of the 3.6- and 6.5-day waves at the three tropical-latitude stations show some correspondence with the results reported for the equatorial-latitude stations

DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF STABILITY INDICATING REVERSE PHASE HIGH‑PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHIC METHOD FOR THE ESTIMATION OF PIRIBEDIL IN BULK DRUG

ABSTRACTObjective: A simple, precise, fast, economic, accurate, robust, and stability indicating isocratic reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatographicmethod was developed for the analysis of Piribedil.Method: The chromatographic conditions were standardized using Unisol C-18 (4.6 × 150 mm × 3.0 μ) column with UV detection at 244 nm, and themobile phase composed of methanol:acetate buffer-pH 5.0 (85:15, v/v).Results: The retention time of Piribedil was found to be 3.4 minutes. The calibration curve was linear with correlation coefficient of 0.999 over aconcentration range of 20-100 μg/ml with linear regression equationy=74,69,224.37x−39,46,924.90. The limit of detection and limit of quantitationwere found to be 0.04 and 0.4 μg/ml, respectively.Conclusion: The proposed method has been validated according to the ICH guidelines. Piribedil was subjected to stress conditions includingacidic, alkaline, oxidation, photolysis, and thermal degradation. Piribedil is more sensitive to photolytic stress. There are no interfering peaks fromdegradation products at analyte retention time, and thus the method is specific for the estimation of Piribedil in the presence of degradation products.Thus, the proposed method can be successfully applied in the routine quality control and stability samples of Piribedil in bulk drug.Keywords: Piribedil, Validation, Stability indicating, Reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatographic

Development of a RP-HPLC method for evaluation of in vitro permeability of voriconazole in the presence of enhancers through rat skin

AbstractAn isocratic RP-HPLC–UV method for the analysis of voriconazole in skin diffusate samples has been developed and validated. Experimental design was employed to optimize the method. The method was validated as per ICH guidelines. Linearity was observed over the concentration range of 2–100μgmL−1 (r2=0.999). Limits of detection and quantification were 0.6 and 2μgmL−1, respectively. Intra-day and inter-day precision (% RSD) was within the ICH limits (⩽2%). The method was successfully used to analyze skin diffusate samples, and the effectiveness of different permeation enhancers was compared with respect to flux and permeability coefficient

Nanocomposite Hydrogels for Wastewater Treatment

The insufficient access to drinking water is one of the most prevailing problems throughout the world. It is highly essential for future demands to bring wastewater to reusable form. Hence, water purification has been the focus and attention of many scientists and governmental agencies. The combination of adsorption and nanotechnology-oriented approach with conventional treatment methods has offered interesting benefits to treat waste water. During the last decade, hydrogels have been used as potential adsorbents for the removal of different types of water pollutants. The combination of hydrogels and nanomaterials with multifunctional framework leads to the development of hybrid hydrogels that gives synergistic effect to the novel materials. Because of their biocompatibility and ability to mix with other materials, hydrogels coupled with versatile chemical groups with well-defined three-dimensional porous structure were potentially used for removal of toxic pollutants in water. This article briefly reviews the recent progress in nanobased hydrogels with particular emphasis on wastewater treatment applications. © 2022 Author(s)

NANOCOMPOSITE HYDROGELS FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT

The insufficient access to drinking water is one of the most prevailing problems throughout the world. It is highly essential for future demands to bring wastewater to reusable form. Hence, water purification has been the focus and attention of many scientists and governmental agencies. The combination of adsorption and nanotechnologyoriented approach with conventional treatment methods has offered interesting benefits to treat waste water. During the last decade, hydrogels have been used as potential adsorbents for the removal of different types of water pollutants

Effect of Sintering Temperature on the Magnetodielectric Performance of Nickel Ferrite

Nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) nanopowder has been synthesized by a sol-gel auto-combustion process and further sintered at various sintering temperatures. The sintered samples were characterized by XRD, SEM and VSM. Enhancement of apparent density of the sample has been observed with the increase in sintering temperature and has a great influence on the magnetic and dielectric properties of NiFe2O4. The SEM results reveal that the grain size increases with increasing sintering temperature. The electrical resistivity decreases and the dielectric constant increases with increasing sintering temperature has been observed. The magnetic studies shown that the ferrimagnetic behaviour increases with sintering temperature. These results suggest that sintering temperature has a prominent effect on the magnetodielectric properties. © 2022 Author(s)