Smallholder livestock production in India - Opportunities and challenges: Proceedings of an ICAR-ILRI international workshop, New Delhi, India, 31 January-1 February 2006

This workshop was conducted to assess the development prospects of India's livestock in the context of changing global economic environment and its impact on the rural poor, and to suggest politically feasible and practical strategies and approaches for pro-poor growth in livestock production. An additional aim of the workshop was to explore possibilities of enhanced research collaboration between the national agricultural research systems (NARS) and ILRI. In the inaugural session of the workshop, summaries of the following two papers were presented to apprise the participants of the emerging trends in the livestock sector nationally and internationally, and to set the tone for the subsequent discussions. The papers were: 1. Livestock sector in India: Opportunities and challenges for smallholders PS Birthal and VK Taneja) and 2. Lessons from a changing world: Implications for livestock research and development by ILRI. The India paper provides a comprehensive overview of the livestock sector and brings out explicitly the importance of livestock in improving the wellbeing of the rural poor. The ILRI paper provides a synoptic view of the changing global environment and draws lessons for India and other developing countries to transform livestock production to the benefit of the poor

Partial hydrogenation and winterisation of Indian soybean oil

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Design and synthesis of spiro derivatives of parthenin as novel anti-cancer agents

Several novel spiro derivatives of parthenin (1) have been synthesized by the dipolar cycloaddition using various dipoles viz; benzonitrile oxides, nitrones and azides with exocyclic double bond of C ring(a-methylene-g-butyrolactone). Majority of the compounds exhibited improved anti-cancer activity compared to the parthenin, when screened for their in vitro cytotoxicity against three human cancer cell lines viz., SW-620, DU-145 and PC-3. In vivo screening of select analog revealed improved anti-cancer activity with low mammalian toxicity as compared to parthenin. The results of the cytotoxicity pattern of these derivatives reveals the SAR of these sesquiterpinoid lactones and possible role of a,b-unsaturated ketone of parthenin in inhibiting NF-kB. A mechanistic correlation of anti-cancer activity along with in vivo and western blotting experiments has been described