PHYTOCHEMISTRY AND ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY OF THE SEA GRASS CYMODOCEACEA FAMILY– A REVIEW

Cymodoceaceae is a family of flowering plants, sometimes known as the manatee-grass family,†the family Cymodoceaceae includes only marine species. The angiosperm phylogeny II system, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, of 1998), does recognize Cymodoceaceae and places it in the order Alismatales, in the clade monocots. They are marine hydrophytes that grow and complete their life cycle in a submerged condition, in a saline environment. Like terrestrial plant they obtain their energy from light through photosynthesis thus, they grow only in clear and shallow water, and at the suitable condition, they form beds or meadows. The family includes five genera, totalling 16 species of marine plants occurring in tropical seas and oceans (so-called seagrasses). Cymodoceaceae consist of five genera such as Amphibolis, Cymodocea, Halodule, Syringodium, and Thalassodendron. In this genera Cymodocea rotundata Ehrenb. and Hempr. Ex Asch. Cymodocea serrulata, (R.Br.) Asch. and Magnus, Halodule pinifolia (Miki) Hartog, Halodule uninervis (Forssk.) Asch and Syringodium isoetifolium (Asch.) are the species mostly adopted in Indian coastal region. These seagrass species have unique nature and wide application to the environment including human being. In this article botanical aspects, phytochemistry and ethnopharmacology of these five seagrass species belong to Cymodoceaceae family will be discussed

Evaluation of the oral hypoglycemic activity of methanolic extract of Garcinia indica seeds in streptozotocin induced diabetic Albino rats

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a multifactorial metabolic disorder with several microvascular and macrovascular complications. Several plants have been used as dietary adjuvants to conventional drug therapy. Garcinia indica exhibits significant hypolipidemic and hypoglycemic activity. This study was conducted to evaluate the hypoglycemic effects of methanolic extract of seeds of Garcinia indica on blood glucose levels in Streptozotocin induced diabetic albino rats.Methods: Five groups of wistar albino rats (n=6) weighing 150-200g of either sex aged 3-4 months were obtained for the study. After overnight fasting, streptozotocin (50mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally to induce diabetes. Five groups are: Group-1: Non diabetic control group, Group-2: diabetic control, Group-3: diabetic standard, Group-4: test group, Group-5: half of test + half of standard. Fasting blood sugar was estimated on 1, 3, 7, 14 and 28th day by capillary blood glucose method. The data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis.Results: In this study, following Streptozotocin administration the blood glucose levels increased in all groups on day 0. In group 2, blood glucose level gradually increased to 445.6±1.75mg/dl over a period of 4 weeks. Following glibenclamide administration in Group 3 - there was a gradual reduction in blood glucose levels: 269.8mg/dl - day 7 to 101.8mg/dl - week 4. Group 4 - persistent and significant (p<0.05) fall in blood glucose levels reaching upto 107mg/dl at the end of 4 weeks. Group 5 - 330mg/dl on day 1 which significantly (p<0.05) reduced to 101mg/dl on day 28. There was improvement in weight in group 4 and group 5 diabetic rats.Conclusions: The extract alone and in combination with glibenclamide showed significant hypoglycemic activity in comparison to diabetic control group

Surface markers of lymphoblasts in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

58 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) were studied for the effect of initial clinical and laboratory features and surface markers of lymphoblasts on the prognosis. 18.9% of them had T cell leukaemia while 3.4% had B-cell leukaemia. Six pre-treatment features were related to T-cell ALL, i.e. - age over 6 years, boys, presence of mediastinal enlargement, haemoglobin over 8g/dl, markedly elevated leucocyte count and CNS involvement. 90% of T-Cell ALL survived for less than 6 months. Both the cases of B-cell leukaemia died within 8 weeks. Identification of T and B cell leukaemia warrants more aggressive treatment for these patients to achieve remission and survive longer

Phytochemical screening and in vitro antioxidant activity of the seagrass Cymodocea serrulata

1216-1221The seagrass Cymodocea serrulata was collected from Ramanathapuram coastal region and its antioxidant potential was determined. The ethanol extract showed the highest phenolic content of 284.94 mg/ml gallic acid equivalence and the ethyl acetate extract showed the highest flavonoids content of 40.18 mg/ml quercetin equivalence. The tannin content was higher at 264.71 mg/ml tannic acid equivalence in aqueous extract. The ethanol extract exhibited the highest 2,2 diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2¢-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) radical scavenging activity with IC50 values of 44.47 µg and 2.5 µg, respectively. The ferric reducing ability and nitric oxide scavenging activity were efficient in both ethanol and aqueous extracts. The superoxide scavenging activity was high in hexane extract. The comparative antioxidant study of the subsequent extract of C. serrulata showed that the ethanol extract possesses the highest free radical scavenging property compared to other extracts. This may be due to the presence of high phenolic compounds. The study brings out the medicinal value of C. serrulata which can be used as a nutraceutical compound in various food and pharmaceutical industries

Impact of Mobility models on Mobile Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) is an emerging technology, finds variety of applications in military, movement tracking, industries and medical fields. WSN are self configurable, self healing networks. In mobile sensor network, (MSN) nodes are free to move with wireless links without infrastructure. In this paper, we have studied the impact of various mobility models with AODV and DSDV routing protocols and have compared the throughput of the models. Parameters such as loss ratio, hop counts, velocity of the nodes are analyzed by varying the node density using various mobility models and routing protocols

Women and Informal Employment: An Analysis of Socio-Economic and Health Conditions of Women Home-Based Workers in Chennai, India

This study seeks to analyse the socio-economic and health status of women workers in the informal sector in Chennai, India. Informal employment consists of various kinds of micro-enterprises offering commodities and services and home-based work. Of all these different types of work in the informal sector, home-based work is associated with women because of its nature and characteristic features. Home-based work is piecework for remuneration that is completed in the premises of the worker’s choice rather than the workplace of the employer. Women homeworkers face many issues such as long hours of work, low wages, meagre rates per piece, lack of social security and lack of union or organizational support. More importantly, their conditions of work and health are deplorable. The present study has followed the descriptive research method to carry out the survey. The data for this study has been collected directly using the field survey method. A formally structured questionnaire was prepared and circulated among the target sample for this purpose. The questions were formulated using the variables taken from the literature review and research gap. A stratified random sampling method was adopted for the survey. The sample size was justified on the calculation of secondary data and by applying the appropriate formula to collect data from 150 sample respondents in the study area. As the study focuses on female home-based workers, a direct survey was conducted among women workers. The data collected relates to the socio-economic and work conditions of women workers. The findings reveal that 59.2 percent of the home-based women workers are in the age group 25 to 35 years, and the average wage is low at Rs.164.7 per day, based on a fixed piece rate. Further analysis of the data shows that 35.5 percent of the respondents earn Rs.100 per day, which is significantly below the minimum wage. Therefore, the findings reveal that female home-based workers are subject to multiple forms of exploitation such as low wages, delayed and irregular payments and sporadic work. In conclusion, the researcher states that despite these problems, home-based work is the most suitable avenue for poverty alleviation and employment generation among urban women. However, low wages, lack of micro-capital for entrepreneurial ventures and non-payment of dues on time are serious issues that these workers face

Isolation and identification of azo dye degrading microbes using 16s r RNA sequencing

The aim of the present study was to isolate and identify azo dye degrading microbes using 16s r RNA sequencing. For this, ten effluent and fifty soil samples were collected from textile industry from a discharge panel of textile industries near Peenya and Magadi road Industrial area, Bengaluru, and dying industries near Kerur, Bagalkot, Karnataka, India. The pH, temperature, BOD, COD, Odor, Total dissolved solid (TDS), Total suspended solids (TSS), Chemical oxygen demand (COD), Biological oxygen demand (BOD), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), and Total Hardness values were very high when compared with the values given by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Pure cultures were screened on the basis of colony morphology. Three different types of unique cultures were selected and named as isolates S1, S2 and S3. Outof 6 dyes viz. Corafast blue, Corafast red, Red 3BN, Solophenyl Brown, RemazoleRG , Rubin M2B used, isolate S1 showed degradation on the maximum number of dyes Red 3BN, Corafast blue, Corafast red, in comparison to other isolates (isolates S2 and S3). Thus, isolate S1 was used for the further studies. For this study Red 3BN dye was chosen. The isolated bacterium was gram positive Bacilli. In the biochemical characterization, the isolate was partially confirmed as Bacillus sp. Further, the selected isolate was identified by sequencing the 16S rRNA sequencing. The bacterial isolate was identified as Bacillus species exhibiting 99% similarity, the phylogenic relationship of 16S ribosomal RNA gene, partial sequence of the isolated strain and species related to Bacillus species in the gene bank database. Thus, this organism may be used significantly in effluent treatment such as textile, paper, ink and other industries

GENETIC INVOLVEMENT OF INTERLEUKIN 4 FOR ASTHMA AND IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL PHYTOCHEMICAL SCAFFOLD THROUGH MOLECULAR DOCKING STUDIES

Objective: Interleukin 4, an important cytokine, has the major role in the immunomodulatory responses associated with asthma. The present study focused on the involvement of single nucleotide polymorphism variation (SNP) of interleukin 4 (IL4) in the development of disease, asthma and designing small molecules for the inhibition of IL4 through in silico strategy.Methods: Identification of disease causing SNP will be a wise approach towards the phenotype specific treatment. A human origin deleterious no synonymous SNP of IL4 were found out in the chromosome region 5q31-q33 (rs199929962) (T/C). Proteins of the corresponding nucleotide variation were identified and were subjected to characterization studies for selecting the most appropriate one for further mutational analysis and molecular docking studies.Results: Influence of microbes on SNP variation of IL4 gene leading to asthma was found to be insignificant by metagenomic studies. Gene responsive drugs were identified through environmental factor analysis. The drug candidates including corticosteroids were subjected to protein interaction studies by in silico means. The pharmacophoric feature derived from drug receptor interaction was utilized for virtual screening on a dataset of anti-inflammatory phytomolecules. The scaffolds of ellagic acid and quercetin were identified as potential nonsteroidal entities which can shield the asthmatic activities.Conclusion: Developing small molecules using these scaffolds taking interleukin 4 as a target will be an adequate solution for steroid resistant asthma

NMR Insights into Folding and Self-Association of Plasmodium falciparum P2

The eukaryotic 60S-ribosomal stalk is composed of acidic ribosomal proteins (P1 and P2) and neutral protein P0, which are thought to be associated as a pentameric structure, [2P1, 2P2, P0]. Plasmodium falciparum P2 (PfP2) appears to play additional non-ribosomal functions associated with its tendency for homo-oligomerization. Recombinant bacterially expressed PfP2 protein also undergoes self-association, as shown by SDS-PAGE analysis and light scattering studies. Secondary structure prediction algorithms predict the native PfP2 protein to be largely helical and this is corroborated by circular dichroism investigation. The 1H-15N HSQC spectrum of native P2 showed only 43 cross peaks compared to the expected 138. The observed peaks were found to belong to the C-terminal region, suggesting that this segment is flexible and solvent exposed. In 9 M urea denaturing conditions the chain exhibited mostly non-native β structural propensity. 15N Relaxation data for the denatured state indicated substantial variation in ms-µs time scale motion along the chain. Average area buried upon folding (AABUF) calculations on the monomer enabled identification of hydrophobic patches along the sequence. Interestingly, the segments of slower motion in the denatured state coincided with these hydrophobic patches, suggesting that in the denatured state the monomeric chain undergoes transient hydrophobic collapse. The implications of these results for the folding mechanism and self-association of PfP2 are discussed