Rapid screening and distribution of bioactive compounds in different parts of Berberis petiolaris using direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry

AbstractBerberis petiolaris Wall. ex G. Don, an unexplored medicinal plant belonging to the family Berberidaceae, is a large deciduous shrub found in Western Himalaya between 1800–3000m. Chemical profiling of fruit, leaf, root and stem was done by direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry followed by multivariate analysis for discrimination among the plant parts. The bioactive compounds, including magnoflorine, berberine, jatrorrhizine, thalifendine/berberrubine, demethyleneberberine, reticuline, 8-oxoberberine, N-methyltetrahydroberberine, tetrahydropalmatine, tetrahydroberberine and palmatine, were identified by their exact mass measurement and the corresponding molecular formula of each compound. A comparative study of distribution pattern for all these bioactive alkaloids showed qualitative and quantitative variations in different parts of B. petiolaris. Principal component analysis clearly discriminated each part of B. petiolaris plant

NRHM - the panacea for rural health in India: a critique

There has been news of the Central Government’s flag ship rural health care scheme - National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) being given an extension till 2015; albeit there is little talk of what we have learned from the experiences of NRHM till now so as to remove the bottle necks in its implementation. After seven years of implementation NRHM has failed to achieve its stated objectives. This calls for a scrutiny of this failure. This article analyzes fundamental conceptual dilemmas inherent to the Mission to draw lessons for future. The most important lesson that ought to be learnt is that ‘the health of the people is not a standalone phenomenon that can be improved through healthcare alone. It requires a comprehensive action plan encompassing food security, employment and poverty alleviation as wel

Exploration of the myth of diversification of Indian diets and the reality of rising calorie deprivation

There are understandable concerns over the state of nutrition of Indians, especially the poor in the wake of declining daily per capita dietary energy consumption. Notwithstanding these, a section of the academia and the governments of the day have tried to explain this as ‘voluntary diversification of diets’ by Indians in favor of high value foods by compromising cereal calories. Such explanations have directly fed into contentions that estimates of malnutrition in the country are a clear overestimate resulting from application of wrong standards. This paper examines the veracity of these claims by placing reliance on established laws of changes in food consumption with changes in material conditions of life to see if the observed changes in India’s case are in accordance with these laws and thereby supportive of the claims made by the government and a section of scholars in this regard. Our investigation shows these claims are myths that are tailored to suite the convenience of the powers that be while the falling dietary energy consumption in India remains a matter of serious concer

The State of Food Security Report 2012 and the Enigma of Achieving Millennium Development Goals

Globally quoted and unquestioningly accepted, the State of the Food Insecurity in the world report 2012, has made significant reduction in the numbers of hungry globally at 868 million. In case of India it has made significant upward revision of hunger prevalence in 1990-92 and significant downward revision for 2010 resulting in 34.9% estimated hunger decline. In the midst of claims of robust methodological revisions, its calculations and assumptions set a dangerous precedence for the policy-makers and planners of the reluctant country governments and worst for the hungry of the world. This paper discusses the SOFI 2012, critiques the declining hunger numbers in SOFI 2012 and produces alternate data sets including independent surveys of Government of India, to counter the reduction claims. It also makes a case for greater public dialogue and engagement in such reports, their methods, metrics and numbers

A desk review of health services system of different countries as a guide to action in Indian context

The health policy in the country seems to be in a limbo. The fate of the Draft National Health Policy, 2015 continues to be uncertain as it continues exist in draft stage as yet. Resultantly, there remains much confusion as to the path that the country shall adopt to achieve ‘Universal Health Care’ (UHC). Viewing this as an opportunity to inform policy making by drawing on the experience of countries that have already made noticeable progress towards achieving UHC, the author has conducted a desk review of the health services system of four such developing countries – Sri Lanka, Thailand, Brazil and Cuba, along with their socioeconomic coordinates and compared it with that of India. Appropriate lessons for India have been drawn from this comparison

Re-emphasizing food as basic medicine of public health to reclaim hunger in health discourse

Food is crucial to ensuring human well being. However, prevalence of widespread hunger and malnutrition in the world, especially in times when mankind has the capability to feed all the people in the world to enable them to have healthy and productive lives, obliges us to reiterate the public health importance of adequate food for ensuring human well-being. Health is perhaps the best marker of human well-being, and improved health inter-alia is reflected in longevity of human life – put simply, the ability of man to live. Talking of human health, the spectacular technological achievements of modern medical science tend to dwarf every other determinant of health in popular perception. This has tended to undermine the primary importance of food strategies in ensuring human well being. Beginning with McKewon’s thesis on the modern rise of population in England and Whales, we rely on other evidence available in literature to establish the primacy of food, over and above medical technologies, in ensuring health and thereby well being of human race. In order to further highlight the importance of ‘hunger’ in public debate, the paper examines the shift from ‘Hunger’ to more scientified terminology of ‘Nutrition’ as a strategy by the vested interests to invisibalise the larger question of ‘Hunger.’ Conclusions are accordingly drawn at the end

Reluctance of medical personnel to work in rural areas and the imperative to functionalize peripheral health services; are public private partnerships the answer: an evaluation of the proposal to give community health centers (chcs) on ppp mode in Uttrakhand State of India

Non-availability of doctors willing to serve in rural areas is a big roadblock in making the rural health services fully functional in the country to provide adequate primary and secondary level curative services to the people. Apart from many reasons like the lack of development and facilities in rural and remote areas, the main reason for the doctors’ unwillingness to serve in the rural areas seems to be the fact that medical profession has become captive of the elite sections of the society. This coupled with market oriented growth of health care in the country has led to the practice of medicine being viewed as a lucrative career option for the well- to- do sections of the society rather than as a means to fulfill the more laudable social objective of health care. The government of the state of Uttrakhand in India has taken initiative to give some of the best equipped Community Health Centers (CHCs) in the state on PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode in order to provide assured secondary level health care to the people in rural and remote areas of the state. This article makes a public health and economic analysis of this PPP venture which is currently being rolled out in the state. According to our analysis the PPP proposal does not address any of the fundamental reasons for government’s inability to functionalize its rural health facilities on its own. Rather it will lead to further decimating government’s ability to provide these services on its own in the long run. The proposal proactively seeks to drive a wedge between preventive and promotive care on one hand and curative services on the other which is not a wise public health strategy. The economic rationale of the proposal is also questionable and may render it unfeasible sooner than later