Phytochemical and ethnopharmacological overview of endangered Homalomena aromatica Schott: An aromatic medicinal herb of Northeast India

Northeast India falls under the Indo-Burma mega biodiversity hotspot and is considered one of the richest repositories of aromatic and medicinal plants in the World. The region is also known for its rich ethnic diversity comprising about 130 major tribes and 300 sub-tribes or groups. Each ethnic tribal community utilizes wide varieties of plant species as food and medicine. However, of late, this rich plant diversity of the region has been threatened mainly due to ever increasing pressure of anthropogenic interferences including large scale jhuming and unsustainable collection of forest resources from its natural habitats. Homalomena aromatica Schott. is one such aromatic medicinal herb found in this region. The rhizomes are known to possess medicinal properties like antiinflammatory, analgesic, antidepressant, antiseptic, sedative, antispasmodic, treating joint pain, and skin infections. The rhizomes contain an essential oil having mainly sesquiterpenoids group that is used for blending of most oriental perfume. It has a high demand in perfumery and cosmetic industries. The spent material after oil extraction is largely used in Dhup manufacturing. However, despite its importance, conservation of this herb is one of the major challenges confronting the region. Large-scale indiscriminate collection directly from its natural habitat has endangered this species. This review presents a comprehensive overview of ethnomedicinal uses and phytochemical composition of the essential oil of H. aromatica. It also highlights the economic potential and future research directions towards conservation and utilization of H. aromatica

Kajian pustaka efektivitas dan keamanan penggunaan Tocilizumab pada pasien Covid-19

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) adalah penyakit pneumonia langka pertama kali ditemukan di Wuhan, China disebabkan oleh virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Tocilizumab yang memiliki sifat antagonis terhadap reseptor Interleukin-6 (IL-6) direkomendasikan oleh World Health Organization (WHO) untuk pasien COVID-19 pada derajat severe - critical. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengkaji artikel terkait efektivitas dan keamanan penggunaan Tocilizumab pada pasien COVID-19, menggunakan metode non-eksperimental dengan pendekatan kajian literatur naratif, menggunakan database Pubmed dan Trip Database, kombinasi kata kunci dan strategi pearl grow. Didapatkan 9 artikel dengan desain penelitian Cohort, Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), dan Case control. Kriteria subjek penelitian adalah pasien terkonfirmasi Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) terinfeksi virus SARS-CoV-2 derajat sedang - berat. Parameter yang diamati adalah data laboratorium (IL-6, C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Ferritin, D-Dimer), kebutuhan ventilator, tingkat mortalitas, perbaikan klinis pasien berdasarkan Six Ordinal Scale. Hasil yang didapat, terjadi penurunan kadar IL-6, CRP, D-dimer, dan Ferritin namun tidak dapat disimpulkan penurunannya signifikan atau tidak karena tidak dibandingkan dengan kelompok kontrol, terapi dengan Tocilizumab menurunkan tingkat mortalitas dan kebutuhan ventilator, perbaikan klinis pasien dengan Six ordinal scale tidak signifikan, infeksi sekunder terjadi di kedua kelompok eksperien pada artikel terpilih dan fungsi hati menunjukkan adanya kenaikan serum ALT dan AST. Tidak dapat disimpulkan efektivitas Tocilizumab dalam menurunkan kadar CRP, D-dimer, Ferritin dan IL-6. Namun, Tocilizumab cukup efektif dalam mengurangi tingkat mortalitas dan jumlah kebutuhan ventilator pasien. Pada parameter keamanan, didapatkan hasil bahwa Tocilizumab cukup aman sebagai terapi pasien COVID-19 namun memerlukan perhatian khusus terhadap adanya infeksi sekunder dan perlu dilakukan pemantauan fungsi hati pasien

Phytochemical and ethnopharmacological overview of endangered <i>Homalomena aromatica </i> Schott: An aromatic medicinal herb of Northeast India

18-31Northeast India falls under the Indo-Burma mega biodiversity hotspot and is considered one of the richest repositories of aromatic and medicinal plants in the World. The region is also known for its rich ethnic diversity comprising about 130 major tribes and 300 sub-tribes or groups. Each ethnic tribal community utilizes wide varieties of plant species as food and medicine. However, of late, this rich plant diversity of the region has been threatened mainly due to ever increasing pressure of anthropogenic interferences including large scale jhuming and unsustainable collection of forest resources from its natural habitats. Homalomena aromatica Schott.is one such aromatic medicinal herb found in this region. The rhizomes are known to possess medicinal properties like antiinflammatory, analgesic, antidepressant, antiseptic, sedative, antispasmodic, treating joint pain, and skin infections. The rhizomes contain an essential oil having mainly sesquiterpenoids group that is used for blending of most oriental perfume. It has a high demand in perfumery and cosmetic industries. The spent material after oil extraction is largely used in Dhup manufacturing. However, despite its importance, conservation of this herb is one of the major challenges confronting the region. Large-scale indiscriminate collection directly from its natural habitat has endangered this species. This review presents a comprehensive overview of ethnomedicinal uses and phytochemical composition of the essential oil of H. aromatica. It also highlights the economic potential and future research directions towards conservation and utilization of H. aromatica

Good Agricultural Practices and Economic Analysis of Naga King Chilli Cultivation

&lt;p&gt;Naga King Chilli (Capsicum chinense Jacq.) was previously acknowledged by the Guinness World Records as the world's hottest chili in 2006. This exotic chilli, native to North-Eastern India, was the first product from Nagaland to receive GI tag. Its production is limited and confined to North-Eastern India only. Scientific cultivation on a larger scale through the adoption of Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) has a huge potential to improve the production significantly. Based on the information and analysis in the present study, it is observed that the gross return and the net returns obtained after adopting GAP as opposed to conventional farming practices are yet to show significant results in the long run as the adoption of the new technologies was undertaken over a 1 year time frame. However, it remains to be determined that significant differences will occur in the long term once farmers are comfortable with the newly introduced GAP. Cost analysis indicated that the cost of production in conventional farming method and the newly introduced GAP approach were minimally different. The introduction of the new technology has motivated more farmers to take up Chilli cultivation in a short period of time. The study showed that the gross return in one acre of land is about Rs. 1, 20,000/-, whereas the net returns is about Rs. 58,400/- after adoption of GAP. It is further observed that the maximum amount is invested in labour cost. Therefore, there is a need to develop labour saving practices by utilising improved tools and optimising planting and harvesting techniques.&lt;/p&gt

Organotin(IV) complexes derived from proteinogenic amino acid: synthesis, structure and evaluation of larvicidal efficacy on Anopheles stephensi mosquito larvae

Five new organotin(IV) complexes of composition [Bz2SnL1]n (), [Bz3SnL1H⋅H2O] (), [Me2SnL2⋅H2O] (), [Me2SnL3] () and [Bz3SnL3H]n () (where L1 = (2S)-2-{[(E)-(4-hydroxypentan-2-ylidene)]amino}-4-methylpentanoate, L2 = (rac)-2-{[(E)-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)methylidene]amino}-4-methylpentanoate and L3 = (2S)- or (rac)-2-{[(E)-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethylidene]amino}-4-methylpentanoate) were synthesized and characterized using 1H NMR, 13C NMR, 119Sn NMR and infrared spectroscopic techniques. The crystal structure of reveals a distorted trigonal-bipyramidal geometry around the tin atom where the oxygen atoms of the carboxylate ligand and a water ligand occupy the axial positions, while the three benzyl ligands are located at the equatorial positions. On the other hand, the analogous derivative of enantiopure L3H () consists of polymeric chains, in which the ligand-bridged tin atoms adopt the same trans-Bz3SnO2 trigonal-bipyramidal configuration and are now coordinated to a phenolic oxygen atom instead of H2O. In , the OH hydrogen of the ketoimine substituent has moved to the nearby nitrogen atom while in the salicylidene derivative , the OH is located almost midway between the phenolic oxygen atom and the nitrogen atom of the C[DOUBLE BOND]N group. For the dibenzyltin derivative , a polymeric chain structure is observed as a result of a long intermolecular Sn⋅⋅⋅O bond involving the exocyclic carbonyl oxygen atom from the tridentate ligand of a neighbouring tin-complex unit. The tin atom in this complex has distorted octahedral coordination geometry. In contrast, the racemic dimethyltin(IV) complexes and display discrete monomeric structures with a distorted octahedral- and trigonal-bipyramidal geometry, respectively. The structures show that the coordination mode of the Schiff base ligand depends primarily on the number of bulky benzyl ligands (R) at the tin atom, as indeed found in the structures of related complexes where R = phenyl. With three bulky R groups, the tridentate chelating O,N,O coordination mode is preferred, whereas with fewer or less bulky R ligands, only the carboxylate and hydroxy groups are involved, which leads to polymers. Larvicidal efficacies of two of the new tribenzyltin(IV) complexes ( and ) were assessed on the second larval instar of Anopheles stephensi mosquito larvae and compared with two triphenyltin(IV) analogues, [Ph3SnL1H]n and [Ph3SnL3H]n. The results demonstrate that the compounds containing Sn–Ph ligands are more effective than those with Sn–Bz ligands. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

<i>In vitro </i>regeneration of <i>Begonia rubrovenia</i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style:italic"> var. <i>meisneri</i> C.B. Clarke— A rare and endemic ornamental plant of Meghalaya, India</p>

300-303In vitro plant regeneration from leaf and petiole explants of Begonia rubrovenia meisneri C.B. Clarke, an endemic and rare plant of Meghalaya, has been established. Multiple shoots were induced on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various concentrations of 6-benzyl aminopurine (BAP) and thidiazuron (TDZ). In vitro produced leaf and petiole sections (secondary explants) exhibited enhanced shoot proliferation in MS medium supplemented with either BAP or TDZ in different concentrations (0.05-5.0 mg/L). A maximum, 65 shoots/petiole were formed on MS+0.1 mg/L TDZ. The in vitro-raised shoots formed roots in MS medium containing 0.1 mg/L indole 3-acetic acid (IAA), with a maximum of 13.8 roots/shoot. About 73.33% of the 500 plantlets transferred acclimatized successfully within 4 wk in a glasshouse. On being transferred to the field, all the acclimatized plantlets survived after 8 wk. </p