Cinnamon: A Multifaceted Medicinal Plant

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum, and Cinnamon cassia), the eternal tree of tropical medicine, belongs to the Lauraceae family. Cinnamon is one of the most important spices used daily by people all over the world. Cinnamon primarily contains vital oils and other derivatives, such as cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid, and cinnamate. In addition to being an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, anticancer, lipid-lowering, and cardiovascular-disease-lowering compound, cinnamon has also been reported to have activities against neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. This review illustrates the pharmacological prospective of cinnamon and its use in daily life

Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on medical education in India and its scope on distance learning

The year 2020 was frightened with fight against unprecedented Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic situations which impacted extreme changes in everyone’s lives. Particularly healthcare system was not ready to tackle public health emergency on immediate declaration of COVID-19 outbreak by World Health Organization (WHO), later the lockdown situations have helped a lot to tackle the situations worldwide. Coming to the medical education in India, there are 272 government medical colleges with teaching hospitals and 260 private medical colleges including deemed universities in India, a good asset to India. Total of 76,928 of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students were getting admitted in to the colleges every year with an average intake of 150- 250 students per college and per year. The COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened distance & e-Learning worldwide. Distance & e-Learning is defined as application of computer technology to deliver training, including technology-supported learning either online, offline, or both (Shivangi, D. 2020). This technology has also helped a lot to the medical education across the world including India

Identification of Escherichia spp. strains in street-vended beverages and associated preparation surfaces using 16S rRNA analysis

Street-vended beverages are commonly prepared by mechanical extraction of the pulp, usually unpasteurised and requires multiple handling steps. Foodborne pathogens transmitted via skin of street vendors or via faecal-oral route may contaminate the preparation surfaces and beverages. The aim of this study is to identify Escherichia spp. strains of street-vended beverages and their associated preparation surfaces using 16s rRNA analysis. The hygienic practice of vendors was represented by Staphylococcus spp. analysis and Staphylococcus aureus is not detected in beverages and associated preparation surfaces. A total of 80 samples (18 beverages, 15 swab samples and 47 direct film samples) were collected followed by enumeration of microbial load. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) amplification and 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) sequencing were carried out. Results of 16S rRNA sequence analysis indicated that three gramnegative isolates were identified as Escherichia coli RM9387 (Accession no. CP009104.1), Escherichia coli c164 (Accession no. JQ781646.1) and Escherichia fergusonii E10 (Accession no. KJ626264.1) with similarity value of 99% respectively

Cinnamon: A Multifaceted Medicinal Plant

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum, and Cinnamon cassia), the eternal tree of tropical medicine, belongs to the Lauraceae family. Cinnamon is one of the most important spices used daily by people all over the world. Cinnamon primarily contains vital oils and other derivatives, such as cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid, and cinnamate. In addition to being an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, anticancer, lipid-lowering, and cardiovascular-disease-lowering compound, cinnamon has also been reported to have activities against neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. This review illustrates the pharmacological prospective of cinnamon and its use in daily life

An Iodine Treatments Effect on Cell Proliferation Rates of Breast Cancer Cell Lines; In Vitro Study

BACKGROUND: Iodine can reduce breast tumor progression by mediates an antiproliferative effect. AIM: This study aimed to investigate the effect of iodine (I2), Lugol (I3K), and the combination of both on cell proliferation of three different types of breast cancer cell lines. METHODS: The samples were MCF7, SKBR3, and MDA-MB 213 cell lines. Cell proliferation rate was measured using colorimetric and clonogenic assays. RESULTS: The cell proliferation rate of MDA-MB 231 cells was reduced significantly by treatment I2, I3K, and combination of both with p = 0.046, p = 0.00, and p = 0.00, respectively. In MCF7 cells, I2 reduced the cell proliferation of 54–94% and I3K reduced the proliferation of 74–94%. The effectiveness of I3K treatments in slowing cell proliferation rate was dose-dependent. In SKBR3 cells, I2reduced proliferation cell up to 85% and I3K 4%-94% depending on the dose. Clonogenic assay results showed a discontinue of the cell proliferation by all doses of I2 and I3K (10 μM and 20 μM). CONCLUSION: Breast cancer cell lines, representing subtypes of luminal A, HER2+, and triple-negative, show an excellent response to iodine treatments and I3K response shows in a dose-dependent manner. Further studies are needed to investigate the effective in vivo doses

Eco-friendly magnetic Solid-Phase extraction and deep eutectic solvent for the separation and detection of parabens from the environmental water and urine samples

This work reports an eco-friendly, cheap, and sensitive magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) and deep eutectic solvent (DES) for the isolation and detection of parabens from water and urine. The parabens were determined by liquid chromatography equipped with an ultraviolet detector (HPLC-UV). The magnetic-activated carbon (MAC) was synthesized from coffee waste was used as an adsorbent. DL-menthol and acetic acid-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) were synthesized and applied as a less toxic solvent in the paraben’s desorption. The ideal conditions which increase the efficiencies are 10 mg of adsorbent amount, adsorption time 8 min, DL-menthol and acetic acid-based DES used as eluent, eluent volume 200 µL, desorption time 3 min. The parabens exhibited superior linearity between the 0.3 ~ 1000 ng mL− 1. The regression coefficient (R2) values among 0.9962 ~ 0.9990. The developed MSPE-DES- HPLC-UV exhibited excellent sensitivity. The detection limit (LOD) ranged from 0.1 ~ 0.3 ng mL-1 and the quantification limit (LOQ) between 0.3 ~ 0.5 ng mL− 1. The precision of the method expressed as RSDs was over the range of 3.49 ~ 9.15%, correspondingly. This technique was employed for the analysis of the real sample (swimming pool, river, and urine samples). The attained recoveries are 82.60 ~ 114.40% with RSD ≤ 9.67% for water samples, 81.80 ~ 118.20% with RSD ≤ 9.28% for urine samples. All the method validation results are in the acceptable range. This method claims its practical solicitation in the analytical sector in the near future

Rhinacanthus nasutus

The present study was conducted to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of Rhinacanthus nasutus (R. nasutus) on mitochondrial and cytosolic enzymes in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. The rats were divided into five groups with 6 rats in each group. The methanolic extract of R. nasutus was orally administered at a dose of 200 mg/kg/day, and glibenclamide was administered at a dose of 50 mg/kg/day. All animals were treated for 30 days and were sacrificed. The activities of both intra- and extramitochondrial enzymes including glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were measured in the livers of the animals. The levels of G6PDH, SDH, and GDH were significantly reduced in the diabetic rats but were significantly increased after 30 days of R. nasutus treatment. The increased LDH level in diabetic rats exhibited a significant reduction after treatment with R. nasutus. These results indicate that the administration of R. nasutus altered the activities of oxidative enzymes in a positive manner, indicating that R. nasutus improves mitochondrial energy production. Our data suggest that R. nasutus should be further explored for its role in the treatment of diabetes mellitus

Synthesis and bioactivity of phosphorylated derivatives of stavudine

Novel phosphorylated derivatives of stavudine were synthesized by the reaction of bis(2-chloroethyl)phosphoramidic dichloride/4-nitrophenyl phosphorodichloridate with various cyclic amines and amino acid esters in the presence of triethylamine in dry tetrahydrofuran through the corresponding monochloride intermediates 2a-l. Further reaction of the intermediates 2a-l with stavudine in tetrahydrofuran and pyridine in the presence of triethylamine formed the title compounds 4a-l. Their structures were characterized by IR,   1H-, 13C-, 31P-NMR and mass spectral data analyses. They exhibited good antibacterial and antioxidant activities. Their bioactivity was greatly influenced by the different groups present at the phosphorus

Effect of high and low frequency exercise therapy in patients after coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Background Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is one of the major surgeries requiring long-term stay in hospital. This generally leads to the detrimental effects of bed-rest, including dependency in self-care, transfer, and locomotion. Our aim was to compare the effect of high-frequency and low-frequency exercise therapy in patients who had undergone CABG. Methods Patients who had undergone CABG were recruited from PSG Medical College and Hospital, Coimbatore, India, between Jan 1 and March 31, 2006. Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and modified Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) were used to assess functional outcome. In a quasi-experimental design, patients received either high-frequency exercise therapy (exercise three times a day for 10 days, group 1), or low-frequency exercise therapy (once a day for 10 days, group 2). Data were analysed with paired t tests. Findings 30 patients were recruited (15 in each group). Mean FIM was 75 (SD 1·77) in group 1 and 64 (1·65) in group 2. There was a significant difference between the pretest and post-test FIM values in group 1 patients (49·07 [2·43] vs 124·07 [1·75], p<0·0001) but not in group 2 patients. The RPE in group 1 and group 2 was 6·3 (0·62) and 4·2 (0·7), respectively. Interpretation Patients given high-frequency exercise thearpy had a significant improvement in their physical activity, but low-frequency exercise did not lead to significantly improved changes. In conclusion, the high-frequency exercise therapy improves the functional ability of patients with CABG. Funding None

A critical review on computer vision and artificial intelligence in food industry

Emerging technologies such as computer vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are estimated to leverage the accessibility of big data for active training and yielding operational real time smart machines and predictable models. This phenomenon of applying vision and learning methods for the improvement of food industry is termed as computer vision and AI driven food industry. This review contributes to provide an insight into state-of-the-art AI and computer vision technologies that can assist farmers in agriculture and food processing. This paper investigates various scenarios and use cases of machine learning, machine vision and deep learning in global perspective with the lens of sustainability. It explains the increasing demand towards the AgTech industry using computer vision and AI which might be a path towards sustainable food production to feed the future. Also, this review tosses some implications regarding challenges and recommendations in inclusion of technologies in real time farming, substantial global policies and investments. Finally, the paper discusses the possibility of using Fourth Industrial Revolution [4.0 IR] technologies such as deep learning and computer vision robotics as a key for sustainable food production