EVALUATION OF WOUND HEALING ACTIVITY OF ACACIA AURICULIFORMIS A. CUNN. STEM BARK

Objective: To evaluate in vivo wound healing activity of ointment containing ethanol and aqueous bark extracts of Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. (Family: Mimosaceae).Methods: The presence of phytochemicals like carbohydrates, phenols, flavonoids, tannins and saponins was determined by preliminary phytochemical screening. Wound healing effect of ointment containing 5% w/w ethanol and aqueous stem bark extracts was determined by using excision and incision wound models in Swiss albino mice. Hydroxyproline content determination and histopathological studies of treated groups were carried out.Results: The results showed that both formulations possess significant wound healing activity, which was evidenced by decreased period of epithelialization, increased rate of wound contraction, tensile strength, hydroxyproline content, granulation tissue and collagen fibre formation in all treated animals. The activity may be due to presence of phenols, tannins, and flavonoids.Conclusion: The ointment containing ethanol extract showed better wound healing activity than the ointment containing aqueous extract.Keywords: Acacia auriculiformis, excision wound model, hydroxyproline, incision wound model, tensile strength, wound contractio

THE EFFECT OF NOISE POLLUTION ON HEARING IN MARBLE FACTORY WORKERS OF AJMER, RAJASTHAN: A CASE STUDY

Introduction: The noise pollution is defined as the unwanted sound which is released into the environment. Noise induced hearing loss in an increasingly prevalent disorder that result from exposure to high intensity sound, especially over a long period of time. Materials & Methods: The present study has been conducted in the Department of Physiology and E.N.T. in a group of 60 subjects with 30 marble factory workers and 30 normal individuals. Results: Audiometric values were consistently lower in Normal than in marble factory workers. The differences were statistically significant among both sexes and that too for the parameters of Right and Left ear. Discussion and conclusion: In this study mild hearing loss was 20%, moderate hearing loss was 16.67%, moderately severe hearing loss was 36.67% and severe hearing loss 26.66%.This study also concludes that the presence of impact noise is more Hz to hearing irrespective of the duration of exposure but in workers exposed to continuous noise, the duration of exposure had a more prominent effect on the hearing loss. KEYWORDS: NIHL (Noise induced hearing loss); Pure tone audiometric testing

THE EFFECT OF NOISE POLLUTION ON HEARING IN MARBLE FACTORY WORKERS OF AJMER, RAJASTHAN: A CASE STUDY

Introduction: The noise pollution is defined as the unwanted sound which is released into the environment. Noise induced hearing loss in an increasingly prevalent disorder that result from exposure to high intensity sound, especially over a long period of time. Materials & Methods: The present study has been conducted in the Department of Physiology and E.N.T. in a group of 60 subjects with 30 marble factory workers and 30 normal individuals. Results: Audiometric values were consistently lower in Normal than in marble factory workers. The differences were statistically significant among both sexes and that too for the parameters of Right and Left ear. Discussion and conclusion: In this study mild hearing loss was 20%, moderate hearing loss was 16.67%, moderately severe hearing loss was 36.67% and severe hearing loss 26.66%.This study also concludes that the presence of impact noise is more Hz to hearing irrespective of the duration of exposure but in workers exposed to continuous noise, the duration of exposure had a more prominent effect on the hearing loss. KEYWORDS: NIHL (Noise induced hearing loss); Pure tone audiometric testing

Biological Significance of Spicy Essential Oils

Spices are used as food additives since ancient times, as flavouring agents but also as natural food preservatives. Spice essential oils are complex mixtures of volatile substances, ordinarily terpenes, sesquiterpenes and oxygenated derivatives. They have been largely employed for their properties already observed in nature i.e., for their antibacterial, antifungal and insecticidal properties. At present, approximately 3000 essential oils are known, 300 of which are commercially important especially for pharmaceutical, agronomic, food, sainitary, cosmetic and perfume industries. It is important to develop a better understanding of their mode of action for new applications in human health, agriculture and environment. Some of them constitute effective alternatives or complements to synthetic compounds of chemical industry

Pharmacognostical standardization and preliminary phytochemical explorations on Salvia hispanica L. seeds

Salvia hispanica L. famous as ‘chia’ is an annual herbaceous plant belonging to family Labiatae, is a richest source of alpha linolenic fatty acid.  A detailed examination on chia seeds was performed. The microscopic investigationsshowed the presence of lignified fibres, epidermis cells, aleurone grains, fatty oil globules and lignified sclerides etc. Physicochemical assessment of chia seeds revealed foreign organic matter (0.76%), loss on drying (8.09%), pH (4.39), moisture content (8.96%), swelling index (8.36), foaming index (<100), total ash (7.09%), water soluble ash (1.09%), acid insoluble ash (0.48%), sulphated ash (0.94%),relative density (0.892), refractive index (1.462), acid value (1.862), saponification value (194.29), peroxide value (4.680), acetyl value (169.28) and iodine value (74.62). Elemental analysis was performed using atomic absorption spectroscopy various heavy metals (As, Hg, Pb, Cd) and other elements (Cu, Zn, Fe and Mg) all were within limits. Chia seeds crude material as well as its extract showed no microbial contamination. High performance thin layer chromatographyfingerprinting profile of chia seeds fixed oil showed the presence of alpha linolenic acid. Work on standardization assumes imperative consequence. However,wide-ranging literature survey on this plant revealed that, more research work is required to update the standardization parameters. Therefore, findings of this study will facilitate quality control and presence of the various phytoconstituents in plant seed. Keywords: Salvia hispanica, Standardization, Pharmacognostical, Physicochemical, HPTLC fingerprints

Mutant p53 establishes targetable tumor dependency by promoting unscheduled replication

Gain-of-function (GOF) p53 mutations are observed frequently in most intractable human cancers and establish dependency for tumor maintenance and progression. While some of the genes induced by GOF p53 have been implicated in more rapid cell proliferation compared with p53-null cancer cells, the mechanism for dependency of tumor growth on mutant p53 is unknown. This report reveals a therapeutically targetable mechanism for GOF p53 dependency. We have shown that GOF p53 increases DNA replication origin firing, stabilizes replication forks, and promotes micronuclei formation, thus facilitating the proliferation of cells with genomic abnormalities. In contrast, absence or depletion of GOF p53 leads to decreased origin firing and a higher frequency of fork collapse in isogenic cells, explaining their poorer proliferation rate. Following genome-wide analyses utilizing ChIP-Seq and RNA-Seq, GOF p53–induced origin firing, micronuclei formation, and fork protection were traced to the ability of GOF p53 to transactivate cyclin A and CHK1. Highlighting the therapeutic potential of CHK1’s role in GOF p53 dependency, experiments in cell culture and mouse xenografts demonstrated that inhibition of CHK1 selectively blocked proliferation of cells and tumors expressing GOF p53. Our data suggest the possibility that checkpoint inhibitors could efficiently and selectively target cancers expressing GOF p53 alleles

Factors associated with smokeless tobacco use among pregnant women in rural areas of the Southern Terai, Nepal

Background: Tobacco use among women during pregnancy leading to poor maternal and child health outcomes has been well documented. However, factors influencing use of smokeless tobacco in Nepal has not yet been well established. This study aims at exploring the factors related to smokeless tobacco use among pregnant women in rural southern Terai of Nepal. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was performed at 52 wards within 6 Village Development Committee in Dhanusha district of Nepal. A total of 426 expectant mothers in their second trimester were selected using a multistage cluster sampling method. Descriptive and regression analyses were done to explore the factors that influence smokeless tobacco use. Results: In a total of 426 pregnant mothers, one in five used tobacco in any form. Among the users, 13.4% used smokeless tobacco. Pregnant mothers who were smoking tobacco (AOR 6.01; 95% CI (1.88-19.23), having alcohol consumption (AOR 3.86; 95% CI (1.23-12.08), stressed (AOR 5.04; 95% CI (1.81-14.03), non-vegetarian (AOR 3.31;(1.84-13.03), not attending regular mothers’ group meetings (AOR 4.63; (1.41-15.19), and not-exposed to mass media (AOR 5.02; (1.89-13.33) were significantly associated with smokeless tobacco use. Similarly, mothers of age group 20-34 years, dalit, aadibasi and janajati, hill origin, no education and primary education were more likely to use smokeless tobacco than their counterparts. Conclusions: Factors such as smoking tobacco, alcohol consumption, stress, and poor education were found to be significantly associated with smokeless tobacco use among pregnant women in southern Terai of Nepal. This requires an immediate attention develop an effective strategy to prevent and control smokeless tobacco use among pregnant women in southern Terai of Nepal

Marker Assisted Screening of Nepalese rice for bacterial leaf blight (BLB) resistance

Bacterial Leaf Blight (BLB) is the most important yield limiting factor in Nepalese rice. BLB resistance rice varieties are highly demanding in the country. Breeding efforts for developing disease resistant depends on availability and use of resistant gene donors. Nepalese rice landraces could be the source of resistant gene. Therefore, ninety six Nepalese rice accessions were screened using eight Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers and one Sequence Tagged Sites (STS) marker for presence and absence of BLB resistance gene. We have detected BLB resistance gene Xa-10 on five accessions, Xa-13 on six accessions, Xa-7 on 23 accessions, Xa-3 and Xa-4 on 52 accessions, Xa-5 on 25 accessions, Xa-8 on 30 rice accessions. No any rice accessions tested have Xa-21. Similarly, 17 rice accessions showed three and more than three BLB resistance genes. Presence of Xa-13 on susceptible check variety CNTRL-85033 confirmed that this resistant gene is not working in Nepalese rice field. Therefore, Nepal need to pyramide the BLB resistant genes for durable resistance.Nepal Journal of Biotechnology. Dec. 2015 Vol. 3, No. 1: 35-3

Deciphering growth abilities of fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi under variable temperature, pH and nitrogen

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi (Fop) is an important disease and major obstacle to pea production, causing huge losses to growers. The focus of this study was on isolation followed by morphological, molecular characterization and analyzing the growth of the casual agent under variable temperature, pH and Nitrogen levels. The morphological features of radial growth, sporulation, pigmentation and mycelial characterization were examined and the variability of all isolates was presented. Molecular characterization of the fungus by ITS rDNA sequencing revealed that all 13 isolates belong to Fusarium oxysporum species. Six isolates were tested for temperature, pH and nitrogen dosage optimization studies. Seven different temperatures, viz., 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33°C and pH values, having 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 pH, as well as nitrogen dosage levels of 0 g, 3 g, 5 g, 7 g, 9 g, 11 g, and 13 g were tested against all six isolates, respectively. The results showed that all isolates exhibited the highest growth at a temperature of 25°C and the optimal temperature range for growth of Fusarium oxysporum was 23–27°C. All isolates showed the highest growth at pH5. Change in the nitrogen doses of the base ended in formation of thick, dense, fluffy mycelium of the casual agent. Six isolates were used for combination studies with seven different levels of temperatures, pH levels and nitrogen dosages. The density plots revealed the variations in the growth of the isolates with changes in temperature, pH and nitrogen levels, which can lead to mutations or genetic changes in the pathogens that could potentially introduce new threats to pea cultivation