ANTIHYPERGLYCEMIC AND ANTINOCICEPTIVE ACTIVITY EVALUATION OF ‘KHOYER’ PREPARED FROM BOILING THE WOOD OF ACACIA CATECHU IN WATER

‘Khoyer’ is prepared by boiling the wood of Acacia catechu in water and then evaporating the resultant brew. The resultant hard material is powdered and chewed with betel leaves and lime with or without tobacco by a large number of the people of Bangladesh as an addictive psycho-stimulating and euphoria-inducing formulation. There are folk medicinal claims that khoyer helps in the relief of pain and is also useful to diabetic patients to maintain normal sugar levels. Thus far no scientific studies have evaluated the antihyperglycemic and antinociceptive effects of khoyer. The present study was carried out to evaluate the possible glucose tolerance efficacy of methanolic extracts of khoyer using glucose-induced hyperglycemic mice, and antinociceptive effects with acetic acid-induced gastric pain models in mice. In antihyperglycemic activity tests, the extract at different doses was administered one hour prior to glucose administration and blood glucose level was measured after two hours of glucose administration (p.o.) using glucose oxidase method. The statistical data indicated the significant oral hypoglycemic activity on glucose-loaded mice at all doses of the extracts tested. Maximum anti-hyperglycemic activity was shown at 400 mg extract per kg body weight, which was slightly less than that of a standard drug, glibenclamide (10 mg/kg body weight). In antinociceptive activity tests, the extract also demonstrated a dose-dependent significant reduction in the number of writhings induced in mice through intraperitoneal administration of acetic acid. Maximum antinociceptive activity was observed at a dose of 400 mg extract per kg body weight, which was greater than that of a standard antinociceptive drug, aspirin, when administered at a dose of 400 mg per kg body weight. The results validate the folk medicinal use of the plant for reduction of blood sugar in diabetic patients as well as the folk medicinal use for alleviation of pain

Histogram alternation based digital image compression using base-2 coding

The intention of data compression is to promote the storage and delivery of big images with excellent compression ratio and least distortion. Moreover, the number of internet user is growing day by day speedily. Therefore, the transfer of data is being another significant concern. The storage and the use of an uncompressed picture are very costly and time-consuming. There are many techniques such as Arithmetic coding, Run-length coding, Huffman coding, Shannon-Fano coding used to compress an image. Compression of a picture using the state-of-the-art techniques has a high impact. However, The compression ratio and transfer speed do not satisfy the current demand. This article proposes a new histogram alternation based lossy image compression using Base-2 coding. It increases the probabilities of an image by doing a little bit of change to its pixels level which helps to reduce code-word. This algorithm uses less storage space and works at high-speed to encode and decode an image. Average code length, compression ratio, mean square error and pick signal to noise ratio are used to estimate this method. The proposed method demonstrates better performance than the state-of-the-art techniques. © 2018 IEEE

Neovaginoplasty using sigmoid colon flap technique

Background and objectives: Vaginoplasty is a procedure for the reconstruction of vaginal canal. Various surgical techniques have been described for vaginal reconstruction with variable success. The aim of this study was to assess the use of sigmoid colon in vaginal reconstruction of patients with disorders of sex development. Methods: Eleven patients were included in this study from January 2009 to December 2016. All patients underwent karyotyping, pelvi-abdominal ultrasonography, endocrine and psychiatric assessment. Sigmoid neo-vaginoplasty was the procedure chosen for all the cases. Surgical and functional outcomes were assessed post-operatively over a period of 6 month to 6 years. Results: The preoperative diagnosis included 9 cases of aplasia of the Mullerian ducts or Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH), 1 androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) and 1 pseudohermaphrodite case. The mean age of the study population was 22.5 years (range 15-30 yrs). No intra-operative or early postoperative complications occurred. The mean vaginal length achieved was 13.0 cm (range 10.5 – 15 cm). Long term follow-up showed introital stenosis in 2 cases (17%) which resolved well to vaginal dilatation. One patient had pelvic abscess and treated by surgery. Sexual satisfaction was achieved in 10 cases, as 1 case was unmarried. Conclusion: For patients with disorders of sex development of various etiologies, sigmoid vaginoplasty is the preferred technique for vaginal reconstruction. It is a safe technique and provides the patient with a cosmetic neovagina of adequate caliber with satisfactory functional outcome. IMC J Med Sci 2018; 12(1): 27-3

Assessment of the Pharmacological Activities of Ardisia solanacea Roxb: An Ethnomedicinal Plant used in Bangladesh

Objective: This study aims to uncover the anti-diarrheal, antioxidant, thrombolytic, and anthelmintic activities of methanol extract of A. solanacea (ASME) and its soluble n-hexane fraction in methanol (ASNH).Materials and Methods: The phytochemical assessment of this plant was performed by using the standard method. The anti-diarrheal property was screened by castor oil induced diarrhea in Swiss albino mice and plant extract was administered into mice by oral gavage. The antioxidant property was being investigated by two different in vitro methods such as ferric reducing effect assay and superoxide scavenging activity assay. The thrombolytic activity was evaluated by in vitro clot lysis procedure, and the anthelmintic study was carried out on earthworm Pheretima posthuma.Results: In castor-oil induced diarrhea, ASME and ASNH induced a significant decrease (**

Dengue epidemiology and pathogenesis: Images of the future viewed through a mirror of the past

Taylor-Robinson, AW ORCiD: 0000-0001-7342-8348Every year, millions of individuals throughout the world are seriously affected by dengue virus. The unavailability of a vaccine and of anti-viral drugs has made this mosquito-borne disease a serious health concern. Not only does dengue cause fatalities but it also has a profoundly negative economic impact. In recent decades, extensive research has been performed on epidemiology, vector biology, life cycle, pathogenesis, vaccine development and prevention. Although dengue research is still not at a stage to suggest definite hopes of a cure, encouraging significant advances have provided remarkable progress in the fight against infection. Recent developments indicate that both anti-viral drug and vaccine research should be pursued, in parallel with vector control programs

Supplemental Material - Hydrophobic and oleophilic 3D weft-knitted spacer fabrics coated by silica aerogels with five different concentrations

Supplemental Material for Hydrophobic and oleophilic 3D weft-knitted spacer fabrics coated by silica aerogels with five different concentrations by Syed Rashedul Islam, Mohammed Kayes Patoary, Hewan Dawit Estifanos, Ishaq Lugoloobi, Alrayah HD Yousif, Jinhua Jiang and Huiqi Shao in Journal of Industrial Textiles</p

Chemical, Pharmacological and Computerized Molecular Analysis of Stem&rsquo;s Extracts of Bauhinia scandens L. Provide Insights into the Management of Diarrheal and Microbial Infections

Bauhinia scandens L. (Family: Fabaceae) is commonly used to treat cholera, diarrhea, asthma, and diabetes disorder in integrative medicine. This study aimed to screen the presence of phytochemicals (preliminary and UPLC-QTOF&ndash;M.S. analysis) and to examine the pharmacological activities of Bauhinia scandens L. stems (MEBS) stem extracts. Besides, in silico study was also implemented to elucidate the binding affinity and drug capability of the selected phytochemicals. In vivo anti diarrheal activity was investigated in mice models. In vitro, antibacterial and antifungal properties of MEBS against several pathogenic strains were evaluated using the disc diffusion method. In addition, in silico study has been employed using Discovery studio 2020, UCFS Chimera, PyRx autodock vina, and online tools. In the anti-diarrheal investigation, MEBS showed a significant dose-dependent inhibition rate in all three methods. The antibacterial and antifungal screening showed a remarkable zone of inhibition, of the diameter 14&ndash;26 mm and 12&ndash;28 mm, by MEBS. The present study revealed that MEBS has remarkable anti-diarrheal potential and is highly effective in wide-spectrum bacterial and fungal strains. Moreover, the in silico study validated the results of biological screenings. To conclude, MEBS is presumed to be a good source in treating diarrhea, bacterial and fungal infections

DOI: 10.3329/bmrcb.v35i1.3658 Ethnobotanical, phytochemical and toxicological studies of Xanthium strumarium L

The present study describes the ethnobotanical, phytochemical, and toxicological evaluations of Xanthium strumarium L. growing in Bangladesh. In toxicity evaluation on rats, the methanol extract of seedlings showed mortality, while both seedling and mature plant extracts raised the serum alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase values and produced significant abnormalities in the histopathology of liver and kidney of rats. On the other hand, the aqueous soluble fraction of methanol extract of mature plant (LC50 = 0.352 µg/mL) and methanol crude extract of seedlings (LC50 = 0.656 µg/mL) demonstrated significant toxicity in the brine shrimp lethality bioassay. A total of four compounds were purified and characterized as stigmasterol (1), 11-hydroxy-11-carboxy-4-oxo-1(5),2(Z)-xanthadien-12,8-olide (2), daucosterol (3) and lasidiol-10-anisate (4). The present study suggests that X. strumarium is toxic to animal