EVALUATION OF ANTIBIOTIC AND BIOCHEMICAL POTENTIAL OF BRYOPHYTES FROM KUMAUN HILLS AND TARAI BELT OF HIMALAYAS

Objective: Today, one of the major problems in the treatment of disease is the development of resistance against conventional antibiotics. One way to curb the problem of increasing antibiotic resistance is to use botanicals. Bryophytes, one of the earliest land inhabitants, are generally not known to get affected by any disease in nature owing to their unique chemical constituents. Therefore, the study was aimed to test the efficacy of bryophytes as an alternative to the synthetic drugs by exploring their antimicrobial and biochemical potential.Methods: Antibacterial, biochemical and antioxidant characterization of 2 liverworts, Reboulia hemisphaerica L. (Raddi), Marchantia palmata Reinw., Nees & Blume and one moss species, Hydrogonium gracilantum (Mitt). P. C. Chen was done under laboratory conditions.Results: Both acetone and ethanol extracts of the collected bryophytes inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Erwinia chrysanthemi and Pseudomonas aeruginosa on an agar plate. The ethanol extract of H. gracilantum was the most potent inhibitor of E. chrysanthemi followed by ethanol extract of R. hemisphaerica against E. coli.Conclusion: E. chrysanthemi was the most sensitive pathogen to ethanol extract of H. gracilentum while E. coli and B. cereus were inhibited most by ethanol extract of R. hemispherica. However, P. aeruginosa was most sensitive to acetone extracts of M. palmata and H. gracilantum and ethanol extract of R. hemisphaerca. All the plant extracts had moderate content of phenols and flavonoids. The antioxidant activity of corresponding extracts could be related with the total phenol and flavonoid contents.Keywords: Bryophytes, Reboulia hemisphaerica, Marchantia palmata, Hydrogonium gracilantum, Phenols, antioxidants, Flavonoids, Antibacterial Â

Piecing the evidences: Barriers to utilization of Antenatal Care Services by Currently Married Women in Rural Uttarakhand- A community-based study

Background: High maternal mortality has always been an area of concern in developing countries. Availability and availment of adequate antenatal care play a significant role in reduction of maternal deaths. Aim & Objective: To know the extent of antenatal care (ANC) services utilization by the currently married women of rural Uttarakhand during their last pregnancy, to find the barriers for utilization of ANC services and correlate the socio-demographic variables with the non-utilization of ANC services. Methods and Material: This correlational study was conducted in rural areas of 3 randomly selected districts in Uttarakhand. Multistage stratified and simple random samplings were used for area selection and PPS technique was used to recruit the participants. Overall, 637 currently married women (CMW) who delivered in last 5 years prior to survey, were interviewed by trained social workers. Chi-square test was used to ascertain association between variables and regression analysis was done to adjust for confounding associations. Results: Overall 496 (77.9%) women availed one or more ANC services during their last pregnancy, but the complete package was availed by only 210 (33%) of the CMW. Majority of the women who did not avail any ANC services were older, illiterate, labourer, spouse of labourer/ unemployed person and belonged to lower socio-economic status. Unawareness was the most commonly cited reason for not availing ANC services followed by financial issues and unfelt need. Conclusions: Women in Uttarakhand are pliant to ANC services, but there is a need to create demand for it by increasing awareness and improving the quality of ANC services