Bung: A traditional practice of potato cultivation in eastern hills of Nepal

Eastern hill region is one of the high potato producing areas of potato in Nepal. There are many traditional potato production systems existing in the region. Among them, 'Bung' and 'Lhose' are very popular systems. There are some under-proven views of naming to this unique cultivation practice. Field observations, key informants' interview, and group discussion were carried out at three sites of Okhaldhunga and Solukhumbu districts in July 2019 to explore the basic information on the bung system. The results of this investigation revealed that the century-old practice utilized marginal sloppy lands of mountains for cultivation of potatoes. Farmers left land fallow for 4-5 years to grow weeds and herbs. Thereafter, they slashed them with a thin layer of soil, stacked them over winter, burned and mixed with the soil making a raised pit. They planted 15-25 potato seed tubers into these pits depending upon the pit size. No additional fertilizer is added to these pits. No intercultural operations are carried out until harvesting. It was explained that the yield of potato from the bung was significantly higher   15-20 kg)  than that of general local practice called lhose system (5-7 kg) from the area equivalent to Bung . Some interventions such as high yielding varieties, easy-to-handle equipment for bung preparation and introduction of fast-growing non-hazardous weeds, etc. were the demands of the farmers to increase profit from the bung system

Charged Vaidya-Tikekar model for super compact star

In this work, we explore a class of compact charged spheres that have been tested against experimental and observational constraints with some known compact stars candidates. The study is performed by considering the self-gravitating, charged, isotropic fluids which is more pliability in solving the Einstein-Maxwell equations. In order to determine the interior geometry, we utilize the Vaidya-Tikekar geometry for the metric potential with Riessner-Nordstrom metric as an exterior solution. In this models, we determine constants after selecting some particular values of M and R, for the compact objects SAX J1808.4-3658, Her X-1 and 4U 1538-52. The most striking consequence is that hydrostatic equilibrium is maintained for different forces, and the situation is clarified by using the generalized Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equation. In addition to this, we also present the energy conditions, speeds of sound and compactness of stars that are very much compatible to that for a physically acceptable stellar model. Arising solutions are also compared with graphical representations that provide strong evidences for more realistic and viable models, both at theoretical and astrophysical scale.Comment: 13 Pages, 5 Figures and 4 Table

Preparation and evaluation of herbal cream

A herbal fairness cream was formulated using herbal extracts which have potential antioxidant activity. Creams were basically formulated using the hydro alcoholic extracts of Glycyrrhiza glabra (root and Stolons),Camellia sinensis (leaf), Pleurotus osttreatus (mushroom plant). The prepared formulation were subjected to different evaluation like spreadability, pH, appearance, viscosity, drug content, irritability and antioxidant properties. The prepared formulation was found stable and effective. Among the several combination Liquorice & Green Tea based preparation shows better results. From the results it was concluded that it is possible to develop creams containing herbal extracts having potent antioxidant and fairness property and can be used as the provision of a barrier to protect skin.  &nbsp

Individualized dosing of oral propranolol for treatment of infantile hemangioma: a prospective study

Introduction: infantile hemangioma is the most common benign tumor in infancy. Currently, oral propranolol is the treatment of choice for infantile hemangioma, but there is no consensus when it comes to its recommended dosage for this condition. Hence this study was conducted to find out the appropriate dosage of oral propranolol for treatment of infantile hemangioma. Methods: a prospective study was conducted on 25 patients with infantile hemangioma, who were treated with gradually increasing dose of propranolol starting from a lower dose of 1mg/kg/day. Results: 17/22(76%) patients showed regression of the tumor at the dose of 1- 1.5 mg/kg/d. 5/22(24%) patients were unresponsive to the treatment with the lower dose and they did not respond even with the gradually escalated dose of 3-4 mg/kg/day. Conclusion: propranolol in a lower dose of 1-1.5 mg/kg/day is safe and efficacious in the treatment of infantile hemangioma and the lesions which do not show initial response to the lower dose are unlikely to respond to the higher dose of 3-4 mg/kg/day

ANTI-OXIDANT POTENTIAL OF BAEL {AEGLE MARMELOS (L) CORR} FRUIT IN EXPERIMENTAL GASTRIC ULCERATED RAT

The present investigation of unripe fruit of A. marmelos was done to the study their antioxidant and free radical scavenger activity in experimental gastric ulcerated animals. The rats were given EtOH extract of herbal drug Aegle marmelos fruit extract (50 to 200 mg/kg) and control drug ranitidine (50 mg/kg) orally, twice daily for 5 days and on day 6 of experiment, 1 hour prior to subjecting the animal to stress or necrotizing concentration of respective irritants. Rats were then subjected to CRS in the absence and presence of cytoprotective irritant or herbal drugs. The fundic part of the stomach is homogenized (5%) in ice cold 0.9% saline with a Potter-Elvehjem glass homogenizer for 30 sec. the homogenate were centrifuged at 8,000 rpm for 10 min followed by centrifugation of the supernatant at 12000 rpm for 15 min in a sigma laboratory centrifuges 3K30 and the obtained mitochondrial fraction and further this fraction was used for the estimation of LPO product malondialdehyde. Further SOD and CAT was estimated.The study revealed that the 50% fruit extract dose dependently protected the oxidative stress and showed a tendency to decrease in volume acid-pepsin concentration and output. Reference drug rantidine a known cytoprotective agent has little effect on volume acid and pepsin concentration and acid output but showed a significant reduced in peptic output reduced LPO level and increase SOD and CAT level. The outcome indicate that the 50% ethanolic extract of A. marmelos fruit might have protected the rat tissues from ASP, PL, CRS and alcohol induced oxidative stress through anti-oxidant mechanism