FORMULATION, STANDARDIZATION, AND EVALUATION OF POLYHERBAL DISPERSIBLE TABLET

Objective: The study was designed as formulation, standardization, and evaluation of polyherbal dispersible tablet prepared for the management of kidney disorders. To overcome the problem of dyspepsia in geriatric patients by the use of polyherbal dispersible tablets.Methods: Dispersible tablets were prepared using aqueous root extract powder of the selected plant viz. A. officinalis, B. diffusa, C. papaya, C. fistula, C. intybus, F. hispida, F. indica, C. nurvala, S. virgaurea, and V. negundo with the help of superdisintegrant addition technique using crospovidone, sodium starch glycolate and croscarmellose sodium in different percentage. Evaluation assessments such as the substantial test, weight variation, hardness, friability, content uniformity, disintegration, in vitro dispersion, stability study and IR compatibility were carried out.Results: Micromeritics of extracts powder were determined for all formulation, which signifying good flow properties. The substantial examination was established, which comply with official requirements for uniformity test, and the drug content was close to 100% in all formulations. Disintegration time was observed for all formulation in which the polyherbal formulation-3 (PHF-3) showing 1.10±0.10 min; during in vitro dispersion time, all formulation showed appropriate dispersion in which the PHF-3 captivating 2.00±0.45 min only. The IR compatibility shows none chemical interaction between the extracts and excipients.Conclusion: The PHF-3 showed satisfactory disintegration and in vitro dispersion time due to crospovidone and reported as the best formulation. The stability study and IR compatibility validate the PHF may represent new easily swallow dispersible tablet that may enhance drug permeability and advance bioavailability for nephrotic patients.Â

EVALUATION OF ETHANOLIC ROOT EXTRACT OF PARTHENIUM HYSTEROPHORUS LINN FOR ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY

Objective: The work is aimed to draw out the health beneficial properties of a weed (Parthenium hysterophorus Linn). The present work is organized to evaluate the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of the ethanolic root extract of Parthenium hysterophorus Linn.Methods: In the present work the ethanolic extract was determined by using soxhlet apparatus. The antioxidant scavenging activity of this extract was determined by applying three different assay methods: (1) DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl) free radical method. (2) Nitric oxide scavenging assay and (3) Reducing power method. The anti-inflammatory activity was determined by in vivo method i.e. Carrageenan induced rat paw edema.Results: DPPH radical scavenging activities of the standard antioxidant and extracts were found to be increased in dose dependent manner. The percentage inhibition increases from 4.19% to 97.09% within the concentration range of 10µg/ml to 160µg/ml. Parthenium hysterophorus Linn effectively reduced the generation of nitric oxide radicals from sodium nitroprusside solution in a concentration dependent manner and percentage inhibition increases from 3.53% to 55.21% within the concentration range 10µg/ml to 160µg/ml. All the concentrations of extract significantly showed higher absorbance than the absorbance of control reaction (0.9705) in reducing power assay. A Higher absorbance indicates high reducing power due to the formation of reduced intermediates. Parthenium hysterophorus Linn showed highly significant anti-inflammatory activity at a dose of 200 mg/kg and the lesser effect was observed at 100 mg/kg with the percentage change in paw volume at 0 min, 30 min, 60 min, 90 min and 120 min.Conclusion: Thus, from above experimental observations, it can be stated that Parthenium is a natural antioxidant and bearing anti-inflammatory activity.Â

EFFECT OF POLYMERIC BLEND ON EX-VIVO PERMEATION STUDIES OF ACECLOFENAC LOADED FILM FORMING GEL

Objective: To date, film-forming systems have been intensively investigated for transdermal drug delivery. Film-forming systems offers various advantages compared over conventional transdermal drug delivery systems. The objective of the present study was to study the effect of polymeric blend on ex-vivo permeation studies of topical film-forming gel of aceclofenac. Methods: Film-forming gels were prepared by using Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and Eudragit polymeric blend in varied concentrations, polyethylene glycol 400 as plasticizer, ethanol as solvent and tween 80 as a penetration enhancer. The prepared film-forming gels were evaluated and the influence of the concentration and ratio of polymeric blends used plasticizer and ethanol were investigated. Results: All the prepared film-forming gels showed satisfactory properties regarding homogeneity, compatibility, viscosity and pH value. Variation in the concentration of polymers showed a variable effect on drug permeation rate from film-forming gels. Almost, all formulations permeated up to 80% of drug in 12 h and formulation F1 showed a maximum release about 97.54 % in 12 h. Conclusion: Film-forming gels of aceclofenac with sustained-release profile were successfully developed and may provide a promising effective formulation which may improve patient compliance

Formulation, characterization and pharmacological evaluation of anti-inflammatory polyphyto matrix tablet as a novel drug delivery system

Objective: To deal with the formulation, characterization and pharmacological evaluation of anti-inflammatory polyphyto matrix tablet containing Carica papaya, Vitex negundo, Moringa oleifera and Boswellia serrata used as a novel drug delivery system. An attempt has been made to develop polyphyto matrix tablets by using HPMC and ethyl cellulose. Methods: Pharmacological screening of polyphyto matrix tablet was evaluated by using the carrageenan-induced paw edema rat model and the study carried out by using various doses (100, 200 and 300 mg/kg body weight) of three different polyphyto matrix formulations. Diclofenac sodium was used as a standard drug, due to its considerable report on antiinflammatory importance. Data were expressed by mean±SD; statistical analysis was performed by using ANOVA and p less than 0.05 considered as statistically significant. Results: Physical and chemical evaluation parameters of polyphyto matrix formulation exhibits potent and dose-dependent anti-inflammatory activity in all the tested animal groups. Formulation F1 significantly (p less than 0.05) suppresses the inflammation in the rat paw and found to be preeminent and stable in comparison with standard and other two (F2 and F3) formulations. Conclusion: Study reveals that the polyphyto matrix formulation could be useful as either an alternative or a complementary therapy in the management of all types of inflammation. It may be due to presence of terpenoids, alkaloids, glycosides and other phytochemical in herbs

EVALUATION OF SALVIA LANATA LEAF EXTRACT FOR ANTI-INFLAMMATORY AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY

Objective: The work is aimed to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity of the ethanolic leaf extract of Salvia lanata. Methods: Anti-inflammatory activity of the leaf extract of S. lanata at a dose of 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg against the standard drug indomethacin at a dose of 10 mg/kg i.p. was evaluated by carrageenan-induced rat paw edema and protein denaturation method. Antioxidant activity was determined by 1, 1 diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method, reducing power method, and nitric oxide scavenging assay. Results: S. lanata leaf extract showed highly significant dose-dependent efficacy against carrageenan-induced paw edema at a dose of 200 mg/kg and lesser effect at 100 mg/kg. It inhibited heat-induced albumin denaturation with a maximum inhibition of 79.26% at 160 μg/ml. DPPH free radical scavenging activity of extract exhibited inhibition of 25.96%–87.74% within the concentration range of 10 μg/ml–160 μg/ml, nitric oxide assay from 12.26% to 79.22% in the same concentration range. In reducing power assay with an increase in concentrations, an increase in the absorbance of the reaction mixture was observed. Antioxidant activity was compared to standard drug ascorbic acid. Conclusion: The leaf extract of S. lanata has potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity

Epidemiology of fungal infections in critical care setting of a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India: a prospective surveillance study

Background: During recent years, fungal infections have risen exponentially and are a cause of significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients, especially in the critical care setting. There is paucity of data from India on fungal pathogens. Methods: We prospectively studied patients admitted to medical and surgical critical care section of a tertiary care institute in northern India. The clinical samples of patients were processed in Department of Microbiology for isolation and identification of fungi by using standard protocols over a period of one year. The patients were categorized into fungal infection and colonization groups. The demographic data and risk factors for fungal infection and colonization were evaluated. Results: Ninety one (82.7%) of the 110 patients enrolled in the study, had fungal infection, whereas 19 (17.3%) had fungal colonization. Candida were isolated from 85/91 (93.4%) and 19/19 (100%) patients with fungal infection and colonization respectively. There was predominance of non-albicans Candida spp both in fungal infection 61/85 (71.7%) patients as well as fungal colonization group 16/19 (84.2% ). In non-albicans Candida spp., Candida tropicalis was the most common isolate observed in both fungal infection (85.3%) and fungal colonization (63.1%) groups. Overall, in patients with fungal infection, candiduria was detected in 68/91 (74.7%) whereas candidaemia was observed in 19/ 91 (20.8%) patients. The risk factors for fungal infections included urinary catheterization (85.7%), central line insertion (81.3%), mechanical ventilation (52.7%), use of corticosteroids (23.1%), total parentral nutrition (6.6%) and peritoneal dialysis (3.3%). Conclusions:The emergence of non-albicans Candida similar to the trends in the western countries should be a cause of concern in our country. Proper surveillance of fungal pathogens is important to improve quality of care in critical care setting and measures should be focussed to control these infections, especially in patients with these risk factors

Advances and Challenges in Biocatalysts Application for High Solid-Loading of Biomass for 2nd Generation Bio-Ethanol Production

Growth in population and thereby increased industrialization to meet its requirement, has elevated significantly the demand for energy resources. Depletion of fossil fuel and environmental sustainability issues encouraged the exploration of alternative renewable eco-friendly fuel resources. Among major alternative fuels, bio-ethanol produced from lignocellulosic biomass is the most popular one. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant renewable resource which is ubiquitous on our planet. All the plant biomass is lignocellulosic which is composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, intricately linked to each other. Filamentous fungi are known to secrete a plethora of biomass hydrolyzing enzymes. Mostly these enzymes are inducible, hence the fungi secrete them economically which causes challenges in their hyperproduction. Biomass’s complicated structure also throws challenges for which pre-treatments of biomass are necessary to make the biomass amorphous to be accessible for the enzymes to act on it. The enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass is the most sustainable way for fermentable sugar generation to convert into ethanol. To have sufficient ethanol concentration in the broth for efficient distillation, high solid loading >20% of biomass is desirable and is the crux of the whole technology. High solid loading offers several benefits including a high concentration of sugars in broth, low equipment sizing, saving cost on infrastructure, etc. Along with the benefits, several challenges also emerged simultaneously, like issues of mass transfer, low reaction rate due to water constrains in, high inhibitor concentration, non-productive binding of enzyme lignin, etc. This article will give an insight into the challenges for cellulase action on cellulosic biomass at a high solid loading of biomass and its probable solutions

Inferring linear-B cell epitopes using 2-step metaheuristic variant-feature selection using genetic algorithm

Abstract Linear-B cell epitopes (LBCE) play a vital role in vaccine design; thus, efficiently detecting them from protein sequences is of primary importance. These epitopes consist of amino acids arranged in continuous or discontinuous patterns. Vaccines employ attenuated viruses and purified antigens. LBCE stimulate humoral immunity in the body, where B and T cells target circulating infections. To predict LBCE, the underlying protein sequences undergo a process of feature extraction, feature selection, and classification. Various system models have been proposed for this purpose, but their classification accuracy is only moderate. In order to enhance the accuracy of LBCE classification, this paper presents a novel 2-step metaheuristic variant-feature selection method that combines a linear support vector classifier (LSVC) with a Modified Genetic Algorithm (MGA). The feature selection model employs mono-peptide, dipeptide, and tripeptide features, focusing on the most diverse ones. These selected features are fed into a machine learning (ML)-based parallel ensemble classifier. The ensemble classifier combines correctly classified instances from various classifiers, including k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN), random forest (RF), logistic regression (LR), and support vector machine (SVM). The ensemble classifier came up with an impressively high accuracy of 99.3% as a result of its work. This accuracy is superior to the most recent models that are considered to be state-of-the-art for linear B-cell classification. As a direct consequence of this, the entire system model can now be utilised effectively in real-time clinical settings

Upgrading the value of anaerobic fermentation via renewable chemicals production: A sustainable integration for circular bioeconomy

The single bioprocess approach has certain limitations in terms of process efficiency, product synthesis, and effective resource utilization. Integrated or combined bioprocessing maximizes resource recovery and creates a novel platform to establish sustainable biorefineries. Anaerobic fermentation (AF) is a well-established process for the transformation of organic waste into biogas; conversely, biogas CO2 separation is a challenging and cost-effective process. Biological fixation of CO2 for succinic acid (SA) mitigates CO2 separation issues and produces commercially important renewable chemicals. Additionally, utilizing digestate rich in volatile fatty acid (VFA) to produce medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) creates a novel integrated platform by utilizing residual organic metabolites. The present review encapsulates the advantages and limitations of AF along with biogas CO2 fixation for SA and digestate rich in VFA utilization for MCFA in a closed-loop approach. Biomethane and biohydrogen process CO2 utilization for SA production is cohesively deliberated along with the role of biohydrogen as an alternative reducing agent to augment SA yields. Similarly, MCFA production using VFA as a substrate and function of electron donors namely ethanol, lactate, and hydrogen are comprehensively discussed. A road map to establish the fermentative biorefinery approach in the framework of AF integrated sustainable bioprocess development is deliberated along with limitations and factors influencing for techno-economic analysis. The discussed integrated approach significantly contributes to promote the circular bioeconomy by establishing carbon-neutral processes in accord with sustainable development goals