Inventory and ethnomedicinal plants used by rural people of Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu, India

The present study is aimed at documenting the phytodiversity and indigenous knowledge of the tribal people in the regions of Eastern Ghats. Sivanmalai, the pride of Eastern Ghats, the gem of Tamil Nadu, otherwise known as Sivachalam, Sivathri is a diversity rich region. Documentation of the richness and distribution of species diversity are helpful in developing a better plans for management and conservation of tropical forest. A total of 107 plant species were collected, which includes 46 medicinal species belonging to 41 genus of 24 families. Some of the plants are used to cure various ailments viz, Cancer, Leprosy, etc., and the frequently used medicinal plants includes Acacia leucopholea (Roxb.) Willd., Andrographis echioides Nees, etc., the predominant mode of medicinal preparation used in the study area is grinding the plant part into paste. The global clamour for highly potential medicinal plants creates opportunities for the local and rural people to export medicinal species of the Eastern Ghats. The conclusion  of the study invocate the importance of trans- disciplinary researches which helps in the conservation of phytodiversity and the invaluable traditional knowledge.Â

A Pilot Study on Argument Simplification in Stance-Based Opinions

Prior work has investigated the problem mining arguments from online reviews by classifying opinions based on the stance expressed explicitly or implicitly. An implicit opinion has the stance left unexpressed linguistically while an explicit opinion has the stance expressed explicitly. In this paper, we propose a bipartite graph-based approach to relate a given set of explicit opinions as simplified arguments for a given set of implicit opinions using three different features (a) sentence similarity, (b) sentiment and (c) target. Experiments are carried out on a manually annotated set of explicit-implicit opinions and show that unsupervised sentence representations can be used to accurately match arguments with their corresponding simplified versions

A comparative study on chitosan nanoparticle synthesis methodologies for application in aquaculture through toxicity studies

Abstract Chitosan nanoparticles (CSNPs) have been recently used for various applications in aquaculture, especially as drug carriers. The aim of this study was to synthesise and investigate a superlative method of CSNP synthesis for application in aquaculture through aquaculture‐based toxicology screening methods. Two different methods were analysed: the first a direct ionic gelation method (A) and the other involving a low‐molecular‐weight chitosan microparticle intermediate method (B). Dynamic light scattering characterisation revealed that the CSNP particle sizes were 192.7 ± 11.8 and 22.9 nm from methods A and B, respectively. The LC50 values for brine shrimp toxicity were found to be 1.51 and 0.02 ppt in 24 h for methods A and B, respectively. Acute toxicity studies in Litopenaeus vannamei rendered LC50 values of 3235.94 and 2884.03 ppt in 24 h for methods A and B, respectively. Zebrafish toxicity studies revealed mortality rates of 21.67% and 55% at 20 mg/L concentration for methods A and B, respectively, with an increased expression of intracellular reactive oxygen species in method B. From these findings, it can be concluded that a comparatively reduced toxicity of CSNPs derived from ionic gelation method makes it more appropriate for application in aquaculture

In silico validation of the indigenous knowledge of the herbal medicines among tribal communities in Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuary, India

The ethno-botanical documentation among ethnic people in Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuary, Tamil Nadu, India has been investigated for the first time. A total of 61 medicinal plants having new combination uses were reported with adjuvant in the treatment of dermatological, Genitourinary and gastrointestinal ailments. This study could help in the recovery and conservation of traditional medicine system among educated generation. The present study was aimed to: (1) documentation of the traditional knowledge (2) quantitative analysis using Use value (UV), Informant consensus factor (ICF), Index of agreement on remedies (IAR), Relative frequency citation (RFC) and Cultural Importance index (CII) (3) validation of ethno-botanical data using in silico biological activity and toxicity prediction studies. Semi-structured direct interviews were conducted to acquire information from the study area tribes. Total of 89 tribes including both gender among various communities were interviewed and their ethno-botanical knowledge was documented. The data were assessed using ethno-botanical indices methods to estimate the consistency of usage herbal knowledge in various ailments. A total of 61 species were recorded for treatment of categorized ailments. The collected medicinal information from ethnic groups shows remarkable new usage of medicinal plants to particular ailments. Our comparative in silico studies also supported the traditional medicine results with correspondence to their bioactive. Traditional knowledge of ethnic people also linked to their culture and history. This study also infers the usage of traditional plant based medicine. Further research related to the bioactivities of reported plants should be encouraged to explore the importance in pharmaceutical industry. Keywords: Ailments, Documentation, In silico, Quantitative indices, Traditional knowledg

Enzyme kinetic modelling and analytical solution of nonlinear rate equation in the transformation of D-methionine into L-methionine in batch reactor using the new homotopy perturbation method

A mathematical model of biotransformation of D-methionine into L-methionine in the cascade of the enzymes such as, D-amino acid oxidase (D-AAO), L-phenylalanine dehydrogenase (L-PheDH) and formate dehydrogenase (FDH) is discussed. The model is based on a system of coupled nonlinear reaction equations under non steady-state conditions for biochemical reactions occurring in the batch reactor that describes the substrate and product concentration within the catalyst. Simple analytical expressions for the concentration of substrate and product have been derived for all values of reaction parameters using the new homotopy perturbation method (NHPM). Enzyme reaction rate in terms of concentration and kinetic parameters are also reported. The analytical results are also compared with experimental and numerical ones and a good agreement is obtained. The graphical procedure for estimating the kinetic parameters is also reported