Preparation and assessment of ocular inserts containing sulbactum for controlled drug delivery

Ocuserts or Ophthalmic inserts are sterile preparations containing drug as dispersion or as solution in the polymeric support. The sulbactum is highly used as antibacterial agent in combination with other antibacterial agent. This study aims to formulate novel sulbactum ocuserts to enhance patient compliance through providing controlled drugs release from polymeric matrix. Ocuserts were prepared by solvent-casting method using different polymers HPMC, K4M, Polyvinyl alcohol,ethyl cellulose as polymer gelatine and propylene glycol and dibutyl phthalate as plasticizer in different ratios. The prepared ocusters were physic-chemichally evaluated for their weight, thickness, drug content uniformity, surface pH, swelling index (SI) and folding endurance. The viscosity of the polymeric solution used for the formulations was determined using Brookfield viscometer. In-Vitro Drug Release study and Accelerated stability studies were also performed. The prepared ocuserts show uniform weight, thickness and drug content. Their surface pH was in the physiological range and showed acceptable folding endurance. HPMC formulas had higher SI values. Results of in-vitro testing for one of the prepared ocuserts shows slow release of drugs up to 24 hours. One of the prepared ocuserts is promising for once-daily effective and safe drug delivery system of sulbactum for glaucoma treatment. Keyword: Ocuserts, sulbactum, viscosity, Ophthalmi

Determination of microbial load, total Phenolic and flavonoids contents in polyherbal formulation “yograj guggulu vati”

Yograj guggulu vati (YGV), a polyherbal formulation is recommended for the management of diseases like arthritic, anodyne or analgesic, spasm, muscle relaxant, flatulence, digestive problem, cough, hyperglycaemia, fat burner and obesity. Though Yograj guggulu vati is widely used for the treatment of diseases in Ayurvedic System of Indian Medicine, but till date, it’s Phenolic and flavonoids contents and contamination studies have not been carried. In the present article, we evaluated the total phenolic and flavonoids contents and contamination of YGV. Total phenolic contents were evaluated by Folin Ciocalteu reagent. Aluminum chloride colorimetric method was used for the determination of total flavonoid contents. Contamination study such as microbial load was also performed. Microbial load study revealed that total bacterial counts and total fungal counts were under limits. The total phenolic content and total flavonoid content were 190.16 mg/g and 20.87 mg/ g dry extract respectively. Microbial load studies showed that the formulation has a good quality and purity. Presence of abundance phenolic and flavonoids compound indicated that YGV can be used for different biological activities. Keywords: Microbial load, Yograj Guggulu Vati, total phenolic content

Total phenolic and flavonoids contents in the standardized polyherbal formulation “vayusadi guggulu”

Vayusadi guggulu vati (VGV), a polyherbal formulation is recommended for the management of diseases like obesity, arthritis, hyperlipidaemia and hyper cholesterol. Though Vayusadi guggulu vati is widely used for the treatment of obesity in Ayurvedic System of Indian Medicine, but till date, its quality standard study has not been carried out.  In the present article, we evaluated the total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the standarised polyherbal VGV. The total phenolic content was determined by Folin Ciocalteu reagent (FC reagent) method. Aluminum chloride colorimetric method was used for total flavonoids contents determination. The VGV was standardized by physic-chemical parameters like total ash value, acid insoluble ash, loss on drying (LOD), PH, extractive value, phytochemical tests and thin layer chromatography (TLC). Determination of microbial load in different dilutions was also performed. Quality determination of vati (tablet) was also evaluated with help of various tablet parameters. Microbial load study revealed the growth of microbes increases with increases the dilutions. The phenolic and flavonoid contents in VGV were 190.16 ± 5.07 mg/g and 80.216 ± 2.07 mg/ g respectively. Physicochemical parameters such as total ash value (9.73 ± 1.45% W/W), acid insoluble ash (1.85± 0.40 % W/W), LOD (4.77 ± 0.45%W/W), PH 1% (4.6) water soluble extract (64.69 ± 3.42% W/W), alcohal soluble extract (50.56 ± 2.48% W/W) were assessed in preliminary physicochemical scanning. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) fingerprints study revealed that alcoholic and hexane extract of formulation showed 3 spots with different resolution in long wave UV 366 nm. TLC study revealed genuinely, quality and purity of formulation. Physico-chemical and microbial load result revealed that the formulation has a good quality. The inference from the present study may be used as reference standard in the further quality control researches. Key words:  Phenolic contents, flavonoid contents, microbial load, vayusadi guggulu vat

Breast density classification for cancer detection using DCT-PCA feature extraction and classifier ensemble

It is well known that breast density in mammograms may hinder the accuracy of diagnosis of breast cancer. Although the dense breasts should be processed in a special manner, most of the research has treated dense breast almost the same as fatty. Consequently, the dense tissues in the breast are diagnosed as a developed cancer. In contrast, dense-fatty should be clearly distinguished before the diagnosis of cancerous or not cancerous breast. In this paper, we develop such a system that will automatically analyze mammograms and identify significant features. For feature extraction, we develop a novel system by combining a two-dimensional discrete cosine transform (2D-DCT) and a principal component analysis (PCA) to extract a minimal feature set of mammograms to differentiate breast density. These features are fed to three classifiers: Backpropagation Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and K Nearest Neighbour (KNN). A majority voting on the outputs of different machine learning tools is also investigated to enhance the classification performance. The results show that features extracted using a combination of DCT-PCA provide a very high classification performance while using a majority voting of classifiers outputs from MLP, SVM, and KNN

Nephroprotective activity of ethanolic extract of Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark against acetaminophen induced nephrotoxicity in albino rats

Objective: To investigate the protective activity of ethanolic extract of Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark (EECZB) against acetaminophen induced nephrotoxicity in albino rats. Methods: Wistar albino rats (150-200 g) were divided into six groups and toxicity was induced by acetaminophen (750 mg/kg) for 10 days. 100 and 200 mg/kg of ethanolic extract of Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark and 100 mg/kg of silymarin as a reference standard was treated to rats 2 h before acetaminophen administration. Various biochemical parameters like serum urea, serum creatinine, uric acid and total protein levels and antioxidant activity were determined. Histopathological analyses of kidney injury were also determined. Result: Treatment with ethanolic extract of Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark (100, 200 mg/kg, bw) significantly (p˂0.001, p˂0.01) decreased serum urea and serum creatinine as compared with acetaminophen rats. Decreased levels of uric acid and total protein were also significantly restored with extract of Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark treatment. Silymarin significantly (p˂0.001) decreased serum urea and serum creatinine as compared with acetaminophen rats. It is also significantly restored the altered levels of SOD, CAT and GSH in kidney tissue. Apart from these, extract of Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark treatment also reduced histopathological alteration induced by acetaminophen in kidney. Conclusion: It was observed that ethanolic extract of Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark has a significant nephroprotective activity against acetaminophen induced nephrotoxicity in albino rats. Keywords: Cinnamomum zeylanicum, acetaminophen, nephroprotective activity

Enhancing branch predictors using genetic algorithm

Dynamic branch prediction is a hardware technique used to speculate the direction of control branches. Inaccurate prediction will make all speculative works useless while accurate prediction will significantly improve microprocessors performance. In this work, we have shown that Genetic Algorithm (GA) can be used to select (near) optimal parameters for branch predictors in most cases. The GA-enhanced predictors take time to find suitable parameters, but once the values of these parameters are determined, the GA-enhanced predictors take the same time to execute as the basic predictors with increased accuracy. © 2019 IEEE.E

Extraction, HPTLC Analysis and Antiobesity Activity of <i>Jatropha tanjorensis</i> and <i>Fraxinus micrantha</i> on High-Fat Diet Model in Rats

The accumulation of body fat due to an imbalance between calorie intake and energy expenditure is called obesity. Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Jatropha tanjorensis (J.T.) and Fraxinus micrantha (F.M.) leaf extracts on high-fat diet-induced obesity in rats. Normal control, high-fat diet (HFD) control, orlistat standard, and test groups were created using male Albino Wistar rats (n = 6 per group) weighing 190 ± 15 g. Except for the control group, all regimens were administered orally and continued for 6 weeks while on HFD. Evaluation criteria included body weight, food intake, blood glucose, lipid profile, oxidative stress, and liver histology. High-Performance Thin Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) analysis was performed using a solvent system (7:3 hexane: ethyl acetate for sitosterol solution and Jatropha tanjorensis extracts and 6:4 hexane: ethyl acetate: 1 drop of acetic acid for esculetin and Fraxinus micrantha extracts). There were no deaths during the 14 days before the acute toxicity test, indicating that aqueous and ethanolic extracts of both J.T. and F.M. did not produce acute toxicity at any dose (5, 50, 300, and 2000 mg/kg). The ethanolic and aqueous extracts of J.T. and F.M. leaves at 200 and 400 mg/kg/orally showed a reduction in weight gain, feed intake, and significant decreases in serum glucose and lipid profile. As compared to inducer HFD animals, co-treatment of aqueous and ethanolic extract of both J.T. and F.M. and orlistat increased the levels of antioxidant enzymes and decreased lipid peroxidation. The liver’s histological findings showed that the sample had some degree of protection. These results indicate that ethanolic samples of J.T. have antidiabetic potential in diabetic rats fed an HFD. The strong antioxidant potential and restoration of serum lipid levels may be related to this. Co-treatment of samples JTE, JTAQ, FME, FMAQ and orlistat resulted in an increase in antioxidant enzymes and reduction in lipid peroxidation as compared to inducer HFD animals. We report, for the first time, on using these leaves to combat obesity

Herbal medicine for sports: a review

The use of herbal medicinal products and supplements has increased during last decades. At present, some herbs are used to enhance muscle strength and body mass. Emergent evidence suggests that the health benefits from plants are attributed to their bioactive compounds such as Polyphenols, Terpenoids, and Alkaloids which have several physiological effects on the human body. At times, manufacturers launch numerous products with banned ingredient inside with inappropriate amounts or fake supplement inducing harmful side effect. Unfortunately up to date, there is no guarantee that herbal supplements are safe for anyone to use and it has not helped to clear the confusion surrounding the herbal use in sport field especially. Hence, the purpose of this review is to provide guidance on the efficacy and side effect of most used plants in sport. We have identified plants according to the following categories: Ginseng, alkaloids, and other purported herbal ergogenics such asTribulus Terrestris, Cordyceps Sinensis. We found that most herbal supplement effects are likely due to activation of the central nervous system via stimulation of catecholamines. Ginseng was used as an endurance performance enhancer, while alkaloids supplementation resulted in improvements in sprint and cycling intense exercises. Despite it is prohibited, small amount of ephedrine was usually used in combination with caffeine to enhance muscle strength in trained individuals. Some other alkaloids such as green tea extracts have been used to improve body mass and composition in athletes. Other herb (i.e. Rhodiola, Astragalus) help relieve muscle and joint pain, but results about their effects on exercise performance are missing