ANALYSIS OF THE ARSENIC IN COMMONLY USED MEDICINAL PLANTS

The demand for herbal products as food supplements, food additive and traditional medicine for health care is increasing globally. There are several reports of adverse effects of these herbal preparations due to the presence of high level of heavy metals such as Lead, Cadmium, Arsenic, Mercury, Chromium, Nickel, Copper etc and this problem has become a matter of concern. The present study was done to determine the presence of Arsenic in some of the selected medicinal plants namely Hemidesmus indicus (L.) R.Br. (Sariba), Cyperus rotundus L. (Musta), Glycyrrhiza glabra L. (Yashtimadhu), Rubia cordifolia L. (Manjishta), Eclipta alba Hassk (Bhringaraj), Hedychium spicatum Ham.ex Smith (Karchura), Emblica officinalis Gaertn. (Amalaki) and Acacia concinna (Willd.) DC. (Shikakai), which were procured from local market of Chennai, Tirupati and Hyderabad. The samples were digested by wet digestion method and analysed by UV-Vis Spectrophotometer. The results were compared with permissible limits recommended by WHO. Mean levels were evaluated with respect to their procurement. It was observed that the analyzed plant species contained safe levels of the heavy metals concentration excepting a very few samples. There was a considerable variation of heavy metal concentration for the examined medicinal plant species. This is due to the difference in physiological properties of plant uptake

Study of Molecular Interactions in Binary Mixtures of Diethyl Carbonate + Benzene Derivatives at Different Temperatures

Investigation on the molecular interactions between binary mixtures containing diethyl carbonate in combination with nitrobenzene, chlorobenzene and aniline is presented. Ultrasonic velocity and density values were determined for the individual components as well as binary mixtures of the above benzene derivatives with diethyl carbonate at temperatures (293.15, 298.15, 303.15, 308.15, 313.15, 318.15 and 323.15) K over the entire composition range. Further, adiabatic compressibility and acoustic impedance values were calculated using the experimental results. In addition to these parameters, the excess parameters like excess adiabatic compressibility, excess acoustic impedance and deviation in ultrasonic velocity were also obtained. Based on all these results, molecular interactions among the selected components were discussed

Potential of Wild relatives in Sorghum Improvement through Molecular Approaches

Wild relatives of crops play a key role in the development of high performing cultivars. Of the 22 species comprising the highly variable genus, Sorghum, only one, S. bicolor, is commercially cultivated for food, feed, and bioenergy production. Profitable utilization of wild species however, demands an interdisciplinary, multi-pronged approach to increase the probability of achieving the desired genetic improvement. In the past, plant breeders selected breeding material based on morphological characteristics that were readily observable and co-inherited with the desired traits. However, a combination of morphological and molecular analyses on large samples and smaller samples, respectively, would maximize both information and usefulness. Molecular diversity data can potentially bridge conservation and use when employed as a tool for mining germplasm collections for genomic regions associated with adaptive or agronomically-important traits (i.e., genes that have been important in adaptation to local environments or are associated with phenotypes selected by farmers or breeders. For sorghum, which is constrained by over 40 diseases and 150 insect pests, host plant resistance offers an effective, economical and environment friendly method of pest/pathogen control since it does not involve any additional investments by the resource poor farmers..

Incidence of blast in exotic fingermillet germplasm grown in post-entry quarantine isolation area

The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) has been functioning as a nodal organization for introduction and exchange of plant genetic resources of varied agri-horticultural crops for research purposes. The exchange of germplasm has exposed the world to greater risk of introducing exotic pests. Thus, it is mandatory that all the imported germplasmshould be subjected to post-entry quarantine growing to check for the occurrence of exotic disease incidence (Plant Quarantine Order, 2003). The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) imports crop germplasm from different countries for their crop improvement programmes. During 2012, a total of 727 accessions of fingermilletgermplasmwas imported from Nepal (265), Uganda (437) and Tanzania (25). All the accessions from Nepal and Uganda were the cultivated species of Eleusinecorocana, while accessions from Tanzania consisted of wild finger millet species too, viz., E. indica (16 accns) and E. intermedia (4 accns)..

Proceedings and recommendations of the National Webinar on Implementation of Access to Plant Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing

A National Webinar on “Implementation of Access to Plant Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing (ABS)” was held on August 27, 2020. The meeting was co-organized by UN Environment Implemented GEF Project, Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Delhi Office, India and the Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources (ISPGR) and was attended by 200 stakeholders from academia, policy, management, farmers and private sector. This document provides briefly the deliberations held during the webinar and the major recommendations which emerged

Research Article

published quarterly. The aim of IJPBS is to publish. peer reviewed research and review articles rapidly without delay in the developing field of pharmaceutical and biological science

Extreme Value Charts and Analysis of Means (ANOM) Based on the Log Logistic Distribution

A probability model of a quality characteristic is assumed to follow a log logistic distribution. This article proposes variable control charts, termed extreme value charts, based on the extreme values of each subgroup. The control chart constants depend on the probability model of the extreme order statistics and the size of each subgroup. The analysis of means (ANOM) technique for a skewed population is applied with respect to log logistic distribution. Results are illustrated using examples based on real data