Evaluation of peripheral and central analgesic activity of ethanolic extract of Clerodendrum infortunatum Linn. in experimental animals

Background: Clerodendrum infortunatum Linn. (Verbenaceae) is an important and widely used medicinal plant. Though variously used in Ayurveda, Unani, and Homeopathy system of medicine in the case of ailments such as diarrhoea, skin disorders, venereal and scrofulous complaints, wounds, post-natal complications, as anti-helminthic, and external applications on tumors, the plant needs thorough investigation for its specific medicinal activity. This study evaluates both the central and peripheral analgesic effect of the ethanolic extract of the leaves of C. infortunatum Linn. (EECI) in the experimental animals.Methods: Acute toxicity test was done following the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines. EECI (100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, and 400 mg/kg body weight [b.w.] p.o) was evaluated for central analgesic activity by the tail flick method and peripheral analgesic activity by the acetic acid (0.7%) induced writhing test, respectively. Using aspirin (300 mg/kg b.w. and 100 mg/kg b.w.) as the standard drug.Results: EECI significantly decreased the number of writhing in writhing test at all the doses (p<0.01) and increased the reaction time in tail-flick method (p<0.01) at all the doses. EECI in the dosage of 400 mg/kg b.w. produced effects which was comparable with that of the standard drug aspirin (p<0.001) in writhing test (p<0.001) and tail flick method (p<0.001).Conclusion: The study showed significant central and peripheral analgesic activity of EECI which may be attributed to the inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis, phospholipase A2, and tumor necrosis factor alpha. C. infortunatum Linn. as a commercial source of analgesic drug should be subjected to further research

Peripheral and central analgesic activity evaluation of ethanolic extract of Vitex Negundo flowers in experimental animals

Background: Vitex negundo Linn (Family: Verbenaceae), locally known as ‘Nirgundi’ an important medicinal plant is a woody, aromatic shrub growing to a small tree. It commonly bears tri- or penta-foliate leaves on quadrangular branches, which give rise to bluish-purple coloured flowers in branched tomentose cymes. It has been claimed to possess analgesic activity apart from many medicinal properties. The aim of the present study was to evaluate both the peripheral and central analgesic activity of ethanolic extract of Vitex negundo flowers (EEVNF) in experimental animals.Methods: Acute toxicity test was done following the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development guidelines. EEVNF (100mg/kg, 200mg/kg, and 400 mg/kg body weight [b.w.] p.o) was evaluated for peripheral analgesic activity by the acetic acid (0.7%) induced writhing test and central analgesic activity by the tail flick method respectively using aspirin (100mg/kg b.w. and 300mg/kg b.w.) as the standard drug.Results: EEVNF significantly decreased the number of writhing in writhing test at all the doses (p<0.001) and increased the reaction time in tail-flick method (p<0.001) at all the doses when compared to control. EEVNF in the dosage of 400mg/kg b.w. produced analgesic effects which was comparable with that of the standard drug aspirin at dose 100mg/kg b.w in writhing test and produced greater analgesic activity than that of standard drug aspirin at dose 300mg/kg b.w in tail flick method.Conclusions: EEVNF has significant peripheral and central analgesic activity

Evaluation of anticonvulsant activity of ethanolic extract of Momordica tuberosa leaves in experimental animals

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the anticonvulsant activity of ethanolic extract of Momordica tuberosa leaves (EEMTL) in a maximal electric shock induced seizure (MES) model in experimental animals.Methods: A total of 30 albino rats of either sex weighing 150-200 g were randomly divided into five groups of six animals each. Group I received normal saline (0.5 ml), Group II received phenytoin sodium (25 mg/kg body weight) intraperitoneal, Group III, IV, V received different doses (100, 200, 400 mg/kg, respectively) of M. tuberosa leaves extract orally. Convulsions were produced in all groups by giving maximal electric shock of 150 mA for 0.2 sec after 1 hr of giving test and standard drugs. Tonic-clonic seizures were produced after giving an electric shock. Recovery time was noted. The period of tonus, clonus, and stupor were measured and compared between the control, standard and test.Results: In MES model, EEMTLsignificantly (p<0.0001) decreased the duration of tonic-clonic seizures and recovery time.Conclusion: M. tuberosa leaveswere shown anticonvulsant property in MES animal models

Evaluation of anti-inflammatory activity of ethanolic extract of Cananga odorata Lam in experimental animals

Background: The current study evaluates the anti-inflammatory activity of ethanolic extract of Cananga odorata Lam (EECO) in experimental animals.Methods: Acute toxicity test was done following OECD guidelines. Carrageenan induced paw edema method in Wistar Albino rats were used in this study. Aspirin in the dose of 300 mg/kg was used as the standard drug and three doses of EECO (100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg b.w. p.o) were used as the test drug. The results were measured at 1st hr, 3rd hr and 5th hr after carrageenan injection.Results: EECO in the doses of 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg showed highly significant anti-inflammatory activity (p<0.001) (p<0.001) (p<0.001) at 3rd hr and (p<0.001) (p<0.001) (p<0.001) 5th hr, respectively. In doses of 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, and 400 mg/kg of EECO showed the percentage of inhibition of 62.9% which is more than the standard drug aspirin, which showed 60.14% inhibition.Conclusion: EECO has significant anti-inflammatory activity

A Cubic-regularized Policy Newton Algorithm for Reinforcement Learning

We consider the problem of control in the setting of reinforcement learning (RL), where model information is not available. Policy gradient algorithms are a popular solution approach for this problem and are usually shown to converge to a stationary point of the value function. In this paper, we propose two policy Newton algorithms that incorporate cubic regularization. Both algorithms employ the likelihood ratio method to form estimates of the gradient and Hessian of the value function using sample trajectories. The first algorithm requires an exact solution of the cubic regularized problem in each iteration, while the second algorithm employs an efficient gradient descent-based approximation to the cubic regularized problem. We establish convergence of our proposed algorithms to a second-order stationary point (SOSP) of the value function, which results in the avoidance of traps in the form of saddle points. In particular, the sample complexity of our algorithms to find an $\epsilon$-SOSP is $O(\epsilon^{-3.5})$, which is an improvement over the state-of-the-art sample complexity of $O(\epsilon^{-4.5})$

Evaluation of antihyperglycemic and hypolipidemic activity of ethanolic extract of Clerodendrum infortunatum Linn. in experimental animals

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most common non-communicable disease of the modern world. The study of plants having antihyperglycemic and hypolipidemic activities may give a new approach in the treatment of DM. The study was intended to evaluate the antihyperglycemic and hypolipidemic activity of ethanolic extract of Clerodendrum infortunatum Linn. (EECL) in alloxan-induced diabetic albino rats.Methods: Diabetes was induced in albino rats by administration of alloxan monohydrate (160 mg/kg, intraperitoneal). Rats were divided into six groups of six animals each. First group served as non-diabetic control, second group as diabetic control, third group as standard and was treated with 0.1 mg/kg/day of glibenclamide. Group 4, 5, and 6 received 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight of EECL. Blood samples were analyzed for blood glucose on day 1, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28 and lipid profile on day 28.Results: The EECL showed a significant reduction (p<0.001) in blood glucose level and serum lipid profile levels with 400 mg/kg body weight in alloxan induced diabetic rats as compared with control.Conclusion: It is concluded that EECL is effective in controlling blood glucose levels and in improving lipid profile in diabetic rats

Evaluation of changes in rat fatigability and biochemical parameters after oral and intra-peritoneal administration of adenosine tri phosphate: an experimental study

Background: Adenosine tri phosphate (ATP) is an important intracellular energy source and has many extracellular functions meadiacating through purine receptors. Currently ATP is available in the market as oral dietary supplement. However there are inconclusive studies regarding its efficacy through oral route. Hence this study was carried out to evaluate efficacy of oral and intraperitoneal administration of ATP in experimental rats by comparing swim exhaust time and associated biochemical changes.Methods: 18 Swiss albino rats of either gender were grouped randomly into three groups, consisting of group -1 control group which receive distilled water (5ml/kg body weight) whereas group 2 and 3 received oral and intraperitoneal ATP (60mg/kg body weight) for 8 days. On 8th day all rats all rats were evaluated for extent of physical fatigue by using exhaustive swimming test time required to attain immobility status is noted. Under aseptic precautions blood samples were drawn from rat tail vein and biochemical parameters like uric acid, triglycerides, total cholesterol, random blood sugar and c-reactive protein levels were measured.Results: There was a significant (p<0.05) increase in serum uric acid, blood sugar and urea in Group 2and3 compared control group 1. There was no statistically significant increase in physical strength in group 2 and 3 as compared to group 1.Conclusions: Oral and intraperitoneal administration of ATP may lead to hyperglycaemia, hyperuricemia and dyslipidaemia without significant increase in muscle strength

Unusual Manifestation of Extrapulmonary Tuberculosis

Though commonly encountered, extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB) can sometimes present with variable clinical picture intricating the diagnosis (Avasthi et al., 2010). The nonspecific symptoms include pyrexia of unknown origin, hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, meningitis, and, rarely, variety of hematological abnormalities, namely, anemia, pancytopenia, and leukemoid reaction (Avasthi et al., 2010). When it presents with bone marrow (BM) involvement, prognosis is usually poor (Avasthi et al., 2010, Qasim et al., 2003, and Singh et al., 2001). We, hereby, report a case of extra-pulmonary TB with a six-month history of fever associated with dizziness, fatigability, and cough. During the hospital stay, the patient showed a spectrum of interesting hematological findings, including severe pancytopenia on peripheral smear, necrotizing caseating granulomas consistent with TB on bone marrow examination. The patient showed a good clinical as well as hematological response to antituberculosis treatment. This paper highlights the significance of a hematological picture in the final confirmation of TB, which may otherwise be passed off as nutritional or other unrelated causes

class_sz I: Overview

class_sz is a versatile and robust code in C and Python that can compute theoretical predictions for a wide range of observables relevant to cross-survey science in the Stage IV era. The code is public at https://github.com/CLASS-SZ/class_sz along with a series of tutorial notebooks (https://github.com/CLASS-SZ/notebooks). It will be presented in full detail in paper II. Here we give a brief overview of key features and usage.Comment: to appear in Proc. of the mm Universe 2023 conference, Grenoble (France), June 2023, published by F. Mayet et al. (Eds), EPJ Web of conferences, EDP Science