PHYSICOCHEMICAL, PHYTOCHEMICALS AND ANTIOXIDANT EVALUATION OF GUAZUMA ULMIFOLIA FRUIT

Objective: The present study was designed to evaluate the physicochemical, qualitative, quantitative analysis and antioxidant activity of ethanol fruit extract of Guazuma ulmifolia. Studies were carried out to detect the bioactive component.Methods: The physiochemical properties such as loss on drying, extractive value for ethyl acetate, acetone, ethanol, total ash, acid insoluble ash, water-soluble ash and PH values; the phytochemical such as tannins, phenol, terpenoids, flavonoids, saponin, quinones, cardiac glycosides, coumarin, steroids and acids were found using standard methods. The total phenol and flavonoid content were estimated by Folinciocalteu and Aluminium chloride by colorimetric method. In vitro antioxidants, properties were evaluated by DPPH and FRAP assay.Results: Phytochemical analysis reveals the availability of secondary metabolites like tannins, phenol, terpenoids, flavonoids, coumarin, steroids, and cardiac glycosides in the different extract. The quantitative analysis for ethanolic fruit extract was done for total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC). An ethanolic extract found to have high TPC [27.2797±0.1756] than TFC. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH assay (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl-hydrate) and FRAP (ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma).Conclusion: On the basis of this study, it was found that the Guazuma ulmifolia fruits have potential to act as a source of useful drugs due to the presence of various active phytochemical constituent, which will be helpful in preventing various diseases caused by the oxidative stress

Defluoridation of Drinking Water by Using Calcium Loaded Bentonite

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Removal of lead(II) ions from aqueous solutions using activated carbon from Militia ferruginea plant leaves

The adsorption of lead(II) on to activated carbon developed from an indigenous Ethiopian medicinal plant leaves namely Birbira (Militia ferruginea) was investigated to assess the possible use of this adsorbent. The influences of contact time, adsorbent dose, Pb(II) concentration, pH and temperature on adsorption were investigated. The maximum adsorption took place at 3 h. at a dose of 4.0 g of adsorbent, and 97.3 % of Pb2+ adsorption at pH of 4.0. The amount of lead ion adsorbed per gram of the adsorbent increased with decreasing concentration of Pb2+. The percentage of adsorption had increased with the increasing temperature. The positive value of ∆H indicated that the adsorption of lead ions on the adsorbent was an endothermic process. The values of free energy (∆G) were negative as expected for a spontaneous process. The decrease in ∆G value with increasing temperature revealed that adsorption of the ion on the adsorbent became favorable at a higher temperature. The calculated value of ∆H was 25.05 kJ mol–1, ∆S was 135.48 JK-1 mol-1 and ∆G was also calculated for each temperature. The two theoretical adsorption isotherms, namely, Langmuir and Freundlich were used to describe the experimental results. The Freundlich adsorption isotherm best fits and adsorption capacity was calculated to be 3.3 mg of Pb(II) per g of adsorbent. The adsorption followed the first order kinetics and was found to be pH dependent being maximum at pH 4.0. The pH effect and desorption studies showed that ion exchange mechanism might be involved in the adsorption process. Reuse of the desorbed bio-adsorbent is possible. The effect of foreign ions on the removal of Pb(II) has been investigated. The removal of Pb(II) from industrial wastewater sample was also tested and showed that more than 97 % removal was possible. The results showed that activated carbon prepared from Birbira (Militia ferruginea) leaves could be used for the removal of Pb(II) from wastewater. KEY WORDS: Industrial wastewater, Lead removal, Adsorbent, Militia ferruginea  Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2008, 22(3), 349-360

Antibacterial activity of some selected medicinal plants of Pakistan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Screening of the ethnobotenical plants is a pre-requisite to evaluate their therapeutic potential and it can lead to the isolation of new bioactive compounds.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The crude extracts and fractions of six medicinal important plants (<it>Arisaema flavum</it>, <it>Debregeasia salicifolia</it>, <it>Carissa opaca</it>, <it>Pistacia integerrima</it>, <it>Aesculus indica</it>, and <it>Toona ciliata</it>) were tested against three Gram positive and two Gram negative ATCC bacterial species using the agar well diffusion method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The crude extract of <it>P. integerrima </it>and <it>A. indica </it>were active against all tested bacterial strains (12-23 mm zone of inhibition). Other four plant's crude extracts (<it>Arisaema flavum</it>, <it>Debregeasia salicifolia</it>, <it>Carissa opaca</it>, and <it>Toona ciliata</it>) were active against different bacterial strains. The crude extracts showed varying level of bactericidal activity. The aqueous fractions of <it>A. indica </it>and <it>P. integerrima </it>crude extract showed maximum activity (19.66 and 16 mm, respectively) against <it>B. subtilis</it>, while the chloroform fractions of <it>T. ciliata </it>and <it>D. salicifolia </it>presented good antibacterial activities (13-17 mm zone of inhibition) against all the bacterial cultures tested.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The methanol fraction of <it>Pistacia integerrima</it>, chloroform fractions of <it>Debregeasia salicifolia </it>&<it>Toona ciliata </it>and aqueous fraction of <it>Aesculus indica </it>are suitable candidates for the development of novel antibacterial compounds.</p

Removal of Cadmium From Industrial Wastewater by Using Biomaterials

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<b>Removal of lead ions from industrial waste water by using biomaterials – a novel method</b>

A simple cost effective and eco-friendly method for the remediation of lead from industrial wastewater has been investigated. A novel biomaterial, Tridax procumbens (Asteraceae) a medicinal plant, was used for the removal of lead ions from synthetic wastewater and the method was also applied for real sample analysis. The operational pH of the experimental solution was fixed as 4.5. The optimum amount of bioadsorbent was 3.5 g. The Pb(II) ions removal efficiency of the raw bioadsorbent was also determined. The removal efficiency of the activated carbon of the bioadsorbent was excellent. 98 % removal of Pb(II) ions was achieved at the dose rate of 3.5 g. The optimum contact time was estimated to be 160 minutes

Evalution of anti-ulcer activity of <i>Polyalthia longifolia</i> (Sonn.) Thwaites in experimental animals

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the anti-ulcer activity of ethanol extract of leaves of Polyalthia longifolia (Sonn.) Thwaites. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The ethanol extract of Polyalthia longifolia was investigated for its anti-ulcer activity against aspirin plus pylorous ligation induced gastric ulcer in rats, HCl -Ethanol induced ulcer in mice and water immersion stress induced ulcer in rats at 300 mg/kg body weight.p.o. RESULTS: A significant (P < 0.01, P < 0.001) anti ulcer activity was observed in all the models. Pylorous ligation showed significant (P< 0.01) reduction in gastric volume, free acidity and ulcer index as compared to control. It also showed 89.71% ulcer inhibition in HCl- Ethanol induced ulcer and 95.3% ulcer protection index in stress induced ulcer. CONCLUSION: This present study indicates that P. longifolia leaves extract have potential anti ulcer activity in the three models tested

Heuristic to solve bi-objective allocation problem in distribution logistics

Generalised assignment problem (GAP) is a well-known non-deterministic polynomial (NP) hard combinatorial optimisation problem to find the minimum cost during assignment of jobs to agents so that each job is assigned exactly once and agents are not overloaded. In this research, we look at the GAP from a bi-objective point of view to accommodate some real world situations. The application of BGAP for a typical practical supply chain problem of allocating a set of retailers to multiple distributors possessing different capacities with two specific performance objectives such as travel distance and travel time is considered. We propose a simulated annealing for an intensive search to find the Pareto optimal solutions to solve BGAP in a shorter period of time. Extensive computational experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Trials on benchmark data-sets and on a large number of test-problems have yielded encouraging results.bi-objective generalised assignment problem, BGAP, simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, GAs, bi-objective allocation, distribution logistics, supply chain management, SCM, Pareto optimal solutions,

Heuristic to solve bi-objective allocation problem in distribution logistics

Generalised assignment problem (GAP) is a well-known non-deterministic polynomial (NP) hard combinatorial optimisation problem to find the minimum cost during assignment of jobs to agents so that each job is assigned exactly once and agents are not overloaded. In this research, we look at the GAP from a bi-objective point of view to accommodate some real world situations. The application of BGAP for a typical practical supply chain problem of allocating a set of retailers to multiple distributors possessing different capacities with two specific performance objectives such as travel distance and travel time is considered. We propose a simulated annealing for an intensive search to find the Pareto optimal solutions to solve BGAP in a shorter period of time. Extensive computational experiments are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. Trials on benchmark data-sets and on a large number of test-problems have yielded encouraging results.bi-objective generalised assignment problem; BGAP; simulated annealing; genetic algorithms; GAs; bi-objective allocation; distribution logistics; supply chain management; SCM; Pareto optimal solutions.