ACUTE AND SUB-CHRONIC TOXICOLOGICAL STUDIES ON METHANOLIC STEM EXTRACT OF ACALYPHA INDICA LINN IN ALBINO WISTAR RATS

Objective: The present study was aimed to investigate safety evaluation studies of methanolic stem extract of A. indica (AIS-ME) through acute and sub-chronic toxicity studies in albino wistar rats.Methods: Acute toxicity test was carried out in albino wistar rats by single dosage administration of 500, 1000 and 1500mg/kg body weight of AIS-ME and observed for mortality and behavioural changes for a period of 24h. Sub-chronic toxicity studies were conducted by an oral administration of 100mg/kg body weight AIS-ME in albino wistar rats for a period of 30 consecutive days. Rats in sub-chronic toxicity studies were checked for body weight once in a week for 30 days and at the end of the experimental period, blood samples were collected for hematological and biochemical parameters. Organs (Liver and Kidney) were harvested and histological sections were made to examine for any organ damage after the treatment of AIS-ME.Results: Acute toxicity study resulted in no mortality and behavioural changes even at the post oral dosage of 1500mg/kg body weight of AIS-ME. Sub-chronic toxicity revealed no significant changes in body weight, hematological and biochemical parameters of treated groups in comparision with the control groups. Histological sections of treated groups resulted in similar architecture as that of nomal groups suggesting no morphological damages of the internal organs.Conclusion: This study concluded that AIS-ME is non toxic as per the results of acute and sub-chronic toxicity studies. Thus, it could be considered as a safe phytomedicine for oral administration in experimental rats.Â

Body Area Networks

Recent technological advances in integrated circuits, wireless networks, and physiological sensing have enabled miniature, lightweight, low power, intelligent monitoring devices to be integrated into a Body Area Network (BAN). This new type of technology hold much promise for future patient health monitoring. BANs promise inexpensive, unobtrusive, and unsupervised ambulatory monitoring during normal daily activities for long periods of time. However, in order for BANs to become ubiquitous and affordable, a number of challenging issues must be resolved, such as integration, standardisation, system design, customisation, security and privacy, and social issues. This paper presents an overview of many of these issues and indeed the background and rationale of body area networks

PHARMACOGNASTIC STUDY AND DEVELOPMENT OF QUALITY CONTROL PARAMETERS FOR FLOWERS OF AVARTAKI (CASSIA AURICULATA LINN)

Context: Avartaki (Cassia auriculata linn) flowers are used for various conditions of ailments in traditional systems of medicine since ancient times. Aims: This study is designed to lay down the various pharmacognostic and phytochemical standards which will be helpful to ensure the purity, safety, and efficacy of this medicinal plant. Materials and Methods: Various methods including macroscopic, microscopic, physicochemical and phytochemical methods were applied to determine the diagnostic features for the identification and standardization of intact and powdered drug of Avartaki (Cassia auriculata Linn) flowers. Results: The shape, color, odour and surface characteristics were determined for the intact drug and powdered materials of Avartaki (Cassia auriculata Linn) flowers. Light and electron microscope images of cross-section of stamen and powdered microscopy revealed useful diagnostic features. Phytochemical, physicochemical analysis of powdered drug proved useful to differentiate the powdered drug material. High performance thin layer chromatography analysis showed the presence of important phytoconstituents. Conclusion: Morphology as well as various pharmacognostic aspects of different parts of the plant were studied and have been described here along with phytochemical and physicochemical studies, which will help in authentication and quality control

Resveratrol, cancer and cancer stem cells: A review on past to future

Cancer remains to be an unresolved medical challenge despite of tremendous advancement in basic science research and clinical medicine. One of the major limitations is due to the side effects of chemotherapy which remains to be palliative without offering any permanent cure for cancer. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the subpopulation of cells in tumors that remain viable even after surgery, chemo- and radio-therapy that eventually responsible for tumor relapse. Hence, by eliminating non-stem cancer cells and cancer stem cells from the patient, permanent cure is expected. Phytochemicals have been under the intensive study to target these CSCs effectively and permanently as they do not cause any side effects. Resveratrol (RSV) is one such compound attaining lot of interest in recent days to target CSCs either alone or in combination. RSV has been used by several researchers to target cancer cells in a variety of disease models, however its CSC targeting abilities are under intensive study at present. This review is to summarize the effects of RSV under in vitro and in vivo conditions along with advantages and disadvantages of its uses against cancer cells and cancer stem cells. From the first reports on phytochemical applications against cancer and cancer stem cells in 1997 and 2002 respectively followed by later reports, up to date observations and developments are enlisted from PubMed in this comprehensive review. RSV is shown to be a potential compound having impact on altering the signal transduction pathways in cancer cells. However, the effects are variable under in vitro and in vivo conditions, and also with its use alone or in combination with other small molecules. Past research on RSV is emphasizing the importance of in vivo experimental models and clinical trials with different prospective combinations, is a hope for future promising treatment regimen

Studies on atmospheric gravity wave activity in the troposphere and lower stratosphere over a tropical station at Gadanki

MST radars are powerful tools to study the mesosphere, stratosphere and troposphere and have made considerable contributions to the studies of the dynamics of the upper, middle and lower atmosphere. Atmospheric gravity waves play a significant role in controlling middle and upper atmospheric dynamics. To date, frontal systems, convection, wind shear and topography have been thought to be the sources of gravity waves in the troposphere. All these studies pointed out that it is very essential to understand the generation, propagation and climatology of gravity waves. In this regard, several campaigns using Indian MST Radar observations have been carried out to explore the gravity wave activity over Gadanki in the troposphere and the lower stratosphere. The signatures of the gravity waves in the wind fields have been studied in four seasons viz., summer, monsoon, post-monsoon and winter. The large wind fluctuations were more prominent above 10 km during the summer and monsoon seasons. The wave periods are ranging from 10 min-175 min. The power spectral densities of gravity waves are found to be maximum in the stratospheric region. The vertical wavelength and the propagation direction of gravity waves were determined using hodograph analysis. The results show both down ward and upward propagating waves with a maximum vertical wave length of 3.3 km. The gravity wave associated momentum fluxes show that long period gravity waves carry more momentum flux than the short period waves and this is presented

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis Of Louver Fins With Different Configurations

Researches in heat transfer have been carried out over the previous several decades, leading to the development of the currently used heat transfer enhancement techniques. Louver fins are widely used in heat exchanger for automotive applications such as radiator, intercooler, condenser, heater core etc. This study presents numerical analysis of effect of various louver fin configurations on heat transfer rate. The three dimensional governing equations for fluid flow and heat transfer are solved using ANSYS Fluent 19.2., fin geometries are developed by using CATIA v5. Multiple fin geometry’s are included in this study for better understanding of the fin behavior