Contamination of Asian herbal drugs : Need for its critical evaluation

Herbal drugs have been used as remedies for the treatment of large number of humans, ailments since ancient times as the traditional medicine system; India has a glorious past, having first documented record of fully developed medical science known as Ayurveda written by several ancient Rishi’s. Major groups of indigenous system of medicine are based on herbal drugs. A survey made by WHO indicated that about 80% of the world population relies on herbal drugs. Herbal drugs are becoming more popularized and important even in the developednations with hope of their non-toxicity and may play a role of substitute to overcome the problems of multi drug resistant pathogens. Cultivation of drug plants has been started in large scale without considering the land quality and in certain cases irrigation with waste water. Application of different fungicides, pesticides in that specific field or in neighboring fields may be directly deposited superficially or may be absorbed by the plant system. Therefore in the present situation possibilities of the Asian herbal drugs, contaminated with large number of toxic components cannot be ignored which may severely hurt human life in place of healing or curing.These contaminants may be either alone or in combination and may be originated intrinsically, extrinsically and deliberately. Certain contaminants may be highly toxic and may cause severe adverse effect in the human system. Some of the important contaminants are the heavy metals like lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, copper and pesticides. Adulteration of modern drugs to enhance drug potency and heterogenous microbial population including human pathogens may contaminate both raw and powdered herbal drugs. Among these contaminants, microbial contamination seems more severe and may be due to their dual action on the drug i.e. utilization of medicinally important chemical components as nutrients and in certain cases by producing certain mycotoxins, which may be even carcinogenic under certain conditions . Critical evaluation of both raw and powdered herbal drugs for contaminants is the urgent need of the time in order to provide safety measures in herbal health care medicine

Effect of fertigation on available soil micro-nutrient under Kinnow Mandarin

A field experiment was conducted at Division of Fruit and Horticultural Technology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), on 5-year-old plants at Todapur Orchard, IARI, New Delhi, during 2010-2011, to study the effect of fertigation on nutrient distribution pattern under Kinnow mandarin. Standard dose of fertilizers were 600g of N, 300g of P, and 400g of K per tree per year, scheduled in three splits during the period of February (300g N, 75g P and 100g K), April (150g N, 112.5g P and 150g K) and August (150g N, 112.5g P and 150g K) respectively. The soil nutrient was measured at the start and end of the experiment in February 2010 and January 2011 at three depths, viz. 0-15, 15- 30 and 30- 60 cm corresponding to two radial distances (50 and 100 cm) for different experimental treatments. The highest amount of soil iron at the end of experiment was observed in T6 having 3.98 ppm, followed by 3.78 ppm and 3.72 ppm at three different depths viz: 0-15, 15-30 and 30- 60 cm respectively at 50 cm distance whereas 3.56 ppm followed by 3.49 ppm and 3.32 were found at 100 cm distance away from the tree. T6recorded the highest amount of available copper in soil having 2.76 ppm followed by 2.73 ppm and 2.67 ppm from 0-15, 15-30 and 30- 60 cm depths respectively at the distance of 50 cm while, 2.68 ppm, 2.65 ppm and 2.61 ppm from 0-15, 15-30 and 30- 60 cm depths respectively at 100 cm away from the tree. T8 recorded the highest amount of soil zinc at the end of experiment, 2.59 ppm, 2.50 ppm and 2.20 ppm from 0-15, 15-30 and 30- 60 cm depths respectively from the distance of 50 cm and 2.31 ppm, 2.20 ppm and 1.74 ppm from 0-15, 15-30 and 30- 60 cm depths respectively away from the tree. The highest amount of soil manganese was recorded in T8 at the end of experiment. From 0-15, 15-30 and 30- 60 cm depths respectively 28.38 ppm followed by 24.84 ppm and 21.09 ppm at a distance of 50 cm while 29.88 ppm, 22.40 ppm and 17.43 ppm were observed at 0-15, 15-30 and 30- 60 cm depths respectively away from the tree. Fertigation resulted in increase in concentrationsof micro- nutrients near the zone of active roots (0-15 and 15-30 cm depths), exhibiting a radial decrease with increasing horizontal distance from the point of application, i.e. higher at 50 cmand lower at 100 cm distance from the trunk. It was recommended that fertigation with 75 per cent N and 100 per cent P & K (450 g N, 300g P and 400 g K) can be recommended for application in three splits during February (225N:75P:100K), Apri1(112.5N: 112.5P: 150 K) and August (112.5N: 112.5P: 150 K) for young Kinnow orchards.Keywords: Kinnow, fertigation, micronutrient, depth, distanc

Possibility of extracting the weak phase γ\gamma from Λb→ΛD0\Lambda_b \to \Lambda D^0 decays

We explore the possibility of extracting the weak phase $\gamma$ from pure tree decays $\Lambda_b \to \Lambda (D^0, \bar{D^0}, D^0_{CP})$ in a model independent way. The CP violating weak phase $\gamma$ can be determined cleanly, without any hadronic uncertainties, as these decay modes are free from the penguin pollutions. Furthermore, neither tagging nor time dependent studies are required to extract the angle $\gamma$ with these modes.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex, Minor changes in the text, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

A complete 3D numerical study of the effects of pseudoscalar-photon mixing on quasar polarizations

We present the results of three-dimensional simulations of quasar polarizations in the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing in the intergalactic medium. The intergalactic magnetic field is assumed to be uncorrelated in wave vector space but correlated in real space. Such a field may be obtained if its origin is primordial. Furthermore we assume that the quasars, located at cosmological distances, have negligible initial polarization. In the presence of pseudoscalar-photon mixing we show, through a direct comparison with observations, that this may explain the observed large scale alignments in quasar polarizations within the framework of big bang cosmology. We find that the simulation results give a reasonably good fit to the observed data.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, significant changes, to appear in EPJ

Nonequilibrium Evolution of Correlation Functions: A Canonical Approach

We study nonequilibrium evolution in a self-interacting quantum field theory invariant under space translation only by using a canonical approach based on the recently developed Liouville-von Neumann formalism. The method is first used to obtain the correlation functions both in and beyond the Hartree approximation, for the quantum mechanical analog of the $\phi^{4}$ model. The technique involves representing the Hamiltonian in a Fock basis of annihilation and creation operators. By separating it into a solvable Gaussian part involving quadratic terms and a perturbation of quartic terms, it is possible to find the improved vacuum state to any desired order. The correlation functions for the field theory are then investigated in the Hartree approximation and those beyond the Hartree approximation are obtained by finding the improved vacuum state corrected up to ${\cal O}(\lambda^2)$. These correlation functions take into account next-to-leading and next-to-next-to-leading order effects in the coupling constant. We also use the Heisenberg formalism to obtain the time evolution equations for the equal-time, connected correlation functions beyond the leading order. These equations are derived by including the connected 4-point functions in the hierarchy. The resulting coupled set of equations form a part of infinite hierarchy of coupled equations relating the various connected n-point functions. The connection with other approaches based on the path integral formalism is established and the physical implications of the set of equations are discussed with particular emphasis on thermalization.Comment: Revtex, 32 pages; substantial new material dealing with non-equilibrium evolution beyond Hartree approx. based on the LvN formalism, has been adde

Expert consensus statements for the management of COVID-19-related acute respiratory failure using a Delphi method.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused unprecedented pressure on healthcare system globally. Lack of high-quality evidence on the respiratory management of COVID-19-related acute respiratory failure (C-ARF) has resulted in wide variation in clinical practice. Using a Delphi process, an international panel of 39 experts developed clinical practice statements on the respiratory management of C-ARF in areas where evidence is absent or limited. Agreement was defined as achieved when > 70% experts voted for a given option on the Likert scale statement or > 80% voted for a particular option in multiple-choice questions. Stability was assessed between the two concluding rounds for each statement, using the non-parametric Chi-square (χ <sup>2</sup> ) test (p < 0·05 was considered as unstable). Agreement was achieved for 27 (73%) management strategies which were then used to develop expert clinical practice statements. Experts agreed that COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is clinically similar to other forms of ARDS. The Delphi process yielded strong suggestions for use of systemic corticosteroids for critical COVID-19; awake self-proning to improve oxygenation and high flow nasal oxygen to potentially reduce tracheal intubation; non-invasive ventilation for patients with mixed hypoxemic-hypercapnic respiratory failure; tracheal intubation for poor mentation, hemodynamic instability or severe hypoxemia; closed suction systems; lung protective ventilation; prone ventilation (for 16-24 h per day) to improve oxygenation; neuromuscular blocking agents for patient-ventilator dyssynchrony; avoiding delay in extubation for the risk of reintubation; and similar timing of tracheostomy as in non-COVID-19 patients. There was no agreement on positive end expiratory pressure titration or the choice of personal protective equipment. Using a Delphi method, an agreement among experts was reached for 27 statements from which 20 expert clinical practice statements were derived on the respiratory management of C-ARF, addressing important decisions for patient management in areas where evidence is either absent or limited. The study was registered with Clinical trials.gov Identifier: NCT04534569

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk