A STUDY ON THE ASSESSMENT OF SAFETY OF A POLYHERBAL FORMULATION IN ACUTE DIARRHOEA

Objective: To explore the safety profile of the proposed polyherbal formulation LQ 14 which is composed of various antimicrobial ingredients in rodents according to OECD (423) for acute oral toxicity study and OECD (407) for 28-days repeated dose toxicity study. Materials and methods: Acute toxicity studies and 28-days repeated dose toxicity were done on male Swiss slbino mice and Wistar albino rats. The animals were randomly divided into four groups of five animals each (n=20). In acute toxicity study, three doses of the extract (2.5-10 ml/kg body weights) were administered to 3 groups of the animals respectively. All animals were observed for 24 hours and general symptoms of toxicity and mortality were recorded. In 28-days repeated dose toxicity study, wistar male rats were grouped by randomized design and assigned to three groups of 6 animals each (n=18). Two doses of the extract (2.5, 5 ml/kg body weight) were administered daily to 2 groups. The last group was control in both and received 10, 5 ml/kg body weight of deionized water. Route of administration was oral in all the groups of animals. Results: No treatment related toxicity was found in both acute and repeated dose toxicity studies. Conclusion: The absence of biologically significant differences in the toxicological endpoints supports the safety of LQ14 in the treatment of diarrhea

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACY & LIFE SCIENCES Microencapsulation: Convenient mode of drug delivery in novel drug delivery system

Abstract Novel drug delivery systems have several advantages over conventional multi dose therapy. Much research effort in developing novel drug delivery system has been focused on controlled release and sustained release dosage forms. Now considerable efforts are being made to deliver the drug in such a manner so as to get optimum benefits. There are various approaches in delivering a therapeutic substance to the target site in a sustained controlled release fashion. One such approach is using microspheres as carriers for drugs. Microencapsulation is a process where by small discrete solid particles or small liquid droplets are surrounded and enclosed by an intact shell. Microencapsulation is used to modify and delayed drug release form pharmaceutical dosage forms. A well designed controlled drug delivery system can overcome some of the problems of conventional therapy and enhance the therapeutic efficacy of a particular drug. It is the reliable means to deliver the drug to the target site with specificity, if modified, and to maintain the desired concentration at the site of interest without untoward effects. Microspheres received much attention not only for prolonged release, but also for targeting of anticancer drugs to the tumour. The intent of the paper is to highlight the potential of microencapsulation technique as a vital technique in novel drug delivery

Development and Evaluation of a PCR Assay for Tracking the Emergence and Dissemination of Haitian Variant ctxB in Vibrio cholerae O1 Strains Isolated from Kolkata, India

A PCR-based assay was developed to discriminate the classical, El Tor, and Haitian types of ctxB alleles. Our retrospective study using this newly developed PCR showed that Haitian ctxB first appeared in Kolkata during April 2006, and 93.3% of strains isolated during 2011 carried the new allele. Dendrogram analysis showed a pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern of the new variant strains isolated recently that was distinct from the PFGE pattern of the strains carrying classical ctxB that closely matched the 2006 to 2007 variant strains

Discrimination of green tea using an Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) sensitive molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) based electrode

In this work, a simple approach of discriminating green tea samples has been proposed using an epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) sensitive molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) electrode modified with chemically synthesized nickel hydroxide (Ni(OH)2) nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction techniques (XRD) and the removal of the template molecule has been ascertained by UV-vis spectroscopy. A three electrode system has been employed to study the electrochemical characteristics of the electrode by means cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). Four different kinds of preprocessing techniques, namely – (i) Baseline subtraction, (ii) Autoscale, (iii) Relative scale 1 and (iv) Relative scale 2 were applied on the obtained data set and the best preprocessing technique was optimized. Further, principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were implemented on the preprocessed data set so as to observe the discrimination ability of the electrode on the basis of EGCG content in green tea. The separability index (SI) values for both PCA and LDA plots is calculated and it is observed that baseline subtraction provided the best result with a SI value of 8.72 and 16.01, respectively

Cefditoren pivoxil associated rash and arthralgia in a child

Cefditoren pivoxil is an oral antimicrobial used increasingly in pediatric bacterial infections. We report a case of rash and arthralgia following administration of cefditoren pivoxil for lower respiratory tract infection in a four-year-old female child. On discontinuation of the antibiotic, the child recovered full function of the knee joint within seven days. The causality of the event assessed as per the WHO-UMC system for standardized case causality assessment criteria can be considered as ‘probable’. Analyzed by the Naranjo's ADR probability scale, the score was 7, which also makes it a ‘probable’ event

Study on the Anatomical Variations of the Posterosuperior Bony Overhang of External Auditory Canal

To evaluate the extent of posterosuperior bony overhang required to be removed for proper exposure of the incudo-stapedial complex during stapes surgery. Whether an assessment can be made out about the extent of the posterosuperior bony overhang clinically or not. A prospective study. One hundred patients of Stapedial Otosclerosis were included in this study. The direction of the posterosuperior bony canal wall i.e. straight or sloping type was recorded in every patient. All the patients underwent stapedotomy operation under local anaesthesia. The amount of overhang of the posterosuperior bony canal wall required to be removed for adequate exposure of the incudo-stapedial complex during stapes surgery was recorded by using measured right-angled picks of different sizes in mm. The aim of this study is to find out the extent of posterosuperior bony overhang and to know whether the posterosuperior bony overhang is more in straight or sloping bony canal wall. Fifty-seven percent of our patients had a medially sloping posterosuperior bony canal wall and 43% had a straight canal wall, which was noted clinically before surgery. The extent of posterosuperior bony overhang was divided into 4 groups: Gr. A ≤2 mm, Gr. B 2–2.5 mm, Gr. C 2.5–3 mm, Gr. D ≥3 mm. There were 25 patients in Group A, 55 in Group B, 20 in Group C and none in Group D. So majority (i.e. 55%) patients belonged to Group B i.e. 2–2.5 mm. The posterosuperior bony overhang is more in those patients who had straight bony canal than those who had sloping bony canal. This may be clinically assessed and this observation is statistically significant (P < 0.001)

Abundance and biomass of assorted small indigenous fish species: Observations from rural fish markets of West Bengal, India

The small indigenous fish species (SIS) are harvested as ensemble of different fish species of varying size and shape. An appraisal of the abundance and biomass of fish species constituting such ensemble was carried out with samples collected from fish markets of West Bengal, India. The data revealed that at least 22 different fish species were present varying in numbers and species combinations. The abundance and biomass of the individual fish species was negatively correlated, indicating numerical dominance of small sized species. Logarithmic regression showed a good fit of the relative abundance (y) with the species richness (x) in the samples of SIS (y = 55.72ln(x) – 77.27; r2 = 0.940), while power regression was best fit for the relative biomass of individual fish (y) with the species richness (x) in the samples of SIS (y = 24.58x−1.54; R2 = 0.831). In overall both species specific and individual based biomass and abundance relationships were negatively correlated. In order to ascertain the harvest and marketability of the SIS in a judicious manner, monitoring of the fish assemblages in natural habitats is recommended