Pharmacognostic and physicochemical standardization of homoeopathic drug: Rumex crispus L.

Background: Rumex crispus L., commonly called as "yellow dock" in English, "patience frisee" in French, and "Ampfer" in German, and ′aceda de culebra′ in Spanish is a well-known herb belonging to Polygonaceae. Roots of the herb are used as medicine in homoeopathy. Objective: The pharmacognostic and physicochemical studies on roots have been carried out to enable the use of correct species and standardize the raw material. Materials and Methods: Pharmacognostic studies on roots of authentic raw drug have been carried out; physicochemical parameters, namely, extractive value, ash values, formulation besides weight per mL, total solids, alcohol content along with high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) and ultraviolet studies for mother tincture have been worked out. Results: Roots are blackish-brown, wiry, rounded with irregular striations, tortuous; internally, it is softwood, light-yellow, and fracture fibrous. Phellem is 8-10 layered, discontinuous, and tanniniferous. Phellogen is two-layered and contains inulin crystals in few. Outer phelloderm is 12-16 layered often containing spherocrystals and associated with stone cells. Secondary phloem is up to 25 layered. Xylem is in the form of strips. The physicochemical properties and HPTLC values of the drug are standardized and presented. Conclusion: The powder microscopic features and organoleptic characters along with anatomical and physicochemical studies are diagnostic to establish standards for the drug

Mechanistic Insight of Sensing Hydrogen Phosphate in Aqueous Medium by Using Lanthanide(III)-Based Luminescent Probes

The development of synthetic lanthanide luminescent probes for selective sensing or binding anions in aqueous medium requires an understanding of how these anions interact with synthetic lanthanide probes. Synthetic lanthanide probes designed to differentiate anions in aqueous medium could underpin exciting new sensing tools for biomedical research and drug discovery. In this direction, we present three mononuclear lanthanide-based complexes, EuLCl3 (1), SmLCl3 (2), and TbLCl3 (3), incorporating a hexadentate aminomethylpiperidine-based nitrogen-rich heterocyclic ligand L for sensing anion and establishing mechanistic insight on their binding activities in aqueous medium. All these complexes are meticulously studied for their preferential selectivities towards different anions such as HPO42−, SO42−, CH3COO−, I−, Br−, Cl−, F−, NO3−, CO32−/HCO3−, and HSO4− at pH 7.4 in aqueous HEPES (2-[4-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperazin-1-yl]ethanesulfonic acid) buffer. Among the anions scanned, HPO42− showed an excellent luminescence change with all three complexes. Job’s plot and ESI-MS support the 1:2 association between the receptors and HPO42−. Systematic spectrophotometric titrations of 1–3 against HPO42− demonstrates that the emission intensities of 1 and 2 were enhanced slightly upon the addition of HPO42− in the range 0.01–1 equiv and 0.01–2 equiv., respectively. Among the three complexes, complex 3 showed a steady quenching of luminescence throughout the titration of hydrogen phosphate. The lower and higher detection limits of HPO42− by complexes 1 and 2 were determined as 0.1–4 mM and 0.4–3.2 mM, respectively, while complex 3 covered 0.2–100 μM. This concludes that all complexes demonstrated a high degree of sensitivity and selectivity towards HPO42−