Effect of storage of fresh turmeric rhizomes on oleoresin and curcumin contents

The turmeric varieties Suvarna (PCT·B), Suguna (PCT·13) and Sudarshana (PCT·14), were harvested and stored for a period of nine months. Samples were analysed forcurcumin and oleoresin at monthly intervals. Curcumin and oleoresin levels were not affected by sotrage. The marginal increase in these constitutents after sprouting is only relative as the nutrients like carbohydrates ge t progressively depleted with the progress of sprouting and growth of the sprout. The distribution of curcumin in mother rhizomes and fingers are also discussed. &nbsp

In vitro proliferation of nutmeg aril (mace) by tissue culture

Mace from Myristica fragrans Routt. is one of the most expensive of spices. Mace tissue could be successfully multiplied on Me Cown's Woody Plant Medium (WPM) supplemented with 0.5 mgl-1 of IBA. The multiplied tissue retained both the colour and flavour components even after 2 months of culture indicating that their biosynthesis is continuing in culture. Gas chromatographic analysis of the mace oil extracted from the cultured tissue was similar to that of original mace in its qualitative profile. &nbsp

I1SR Prabha and IISR Prathibha - two new high yielding and high quality turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) varieties

IISR Prabha (Acc. 360) and IISR Prathibha (Acc. 361), developed at the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut and recommended for release by the All India Coordinated Research Project on Spices are two valued added turmeric (Curcuma Zanga) varieties, developed for the first time through open pollinated progeny selection. These varieties surpassed most of the existing varieties including Alleppey in terms of curcumin content and oleoresin percentage. Maturing in 205 days under rainfed conditions, IISR Prabha has an average yield of 37.47 t/ha (fresh) with a dry recovery of 19.5 per cent, curcumin 6.52 per cent, oleoresin 15.0 per cent and essential oil 6.5 per cent. IISR Prathibha matures in about 225 days under rainfed conditions and has an average yield of 39.12 tlha (fresh) with a dry recovery of 18.9 per cent, curcumin 6.2 per cent, oleoresin 16.2 per cent and essential oil 6.2 per cent. &nbsp

Tuberculosis Contact Screening and Isoniazid Preventive Therapy in a South Indian District: Operational Issues for Programmatic Consideration

BACKGROUND: Under India's Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), all household contacts of sputum smear positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) patients are screened for TB. In the absence of active TB disease, household contacts aged <6 years are eligible for Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) (5 milligrams/kilogram body weight/day) for 6 months. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the number of household contacts aged <6 years, of sputum smear positive PTB patients registered for treatment under RNTCP from April to June'2008 in Krishna District, to assess the extent to which they are screened for TB disease and in its absence initiated on IPT. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted. Households of all smear positive PTB cases (n = 848) registered for treatment from April to June'2008 were included. Data on the number of household contacts aged <6 years, the extent to which they were screened for TB disease, and the status of initiation of IPT, was collected. RESULTS: Households of 825 (97%) patients were visited, and 172 household contacts aged <6 years were identified. Of them, 116 (67%) were evaluated for TB disease; none were found to be TB diseased and 97 (84%) contacts were initiated on IPT and 19 (16%) contacts were not initiated on IPT due to shortage of INH tablets in peripheral health centers. The reasons for non-evaluation of the remaining eligible children (n = 56, 33%) include no home visit by the health staff in 25 contacts, home visit done but not evaluated in 31 contacts. House-hold contacts in rural areas were less likely to be evaluated and initiated on IPT [risk ratio 6.65 (95% CI; 3.06-14.42)]. CONCLUSION: Contact screening and IPT implementation under routine programmatic conditions is sub-optimal. There is an urgent need to sensitize all concerned programme staff on its importance and establishment of mechanisms for rigorous monitoring

'IISR Thevam', 'IISR Malabar Excel' and 'IISR Girimunda'- three new black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) clones

Based on 7 years' performance at Valparai (Tamil Nadu) (3000 ft MSL), and 2 years' performance at Peruvannamuzhi (Kerala) and quality evaluation, three black pepper lines namely, Call. 1041, HP-813 and HP-I05 were superior and proposed for release as 'IISR Thevam', 'IISR Malabar Excel' and 'IISR Girimunda', respectively. These lines were superior to at least one of the controls for more than one character at one or both the locations. Trials laid out at farmers' fields in four northern districts of Kerala also indicated the superiority of these lines. Call. 1041 besides out-yielding control, exhibited a high degree of field tolerance to foot rot disease, whereas HP-813 had oleoresin content as high as 12%. &nbsp

One-year clinical outcome of patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation: Insights from KERALA-AF registry.

BackgroundWe report patient characteristics, treatment pattern and one-year clinical outcome of nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) from Kerala, India. This cohort forms part of Kerala Atrial Fibrillation (KERALA-AF) registry which is an ongoing large prospective study.MethodsKERALA-AF registry collected data of adults with previously or newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation (AF) during April 2016 to April 2017. A total of 3421 patients were recruited from 53 hospitals across Kerala state. We analysed one-year follow-up outcome of 2507 patients with NVAF.ResultsMean age at recruitment was 67.2 years (range 18-98) and 54.8% were males. Main co-morbidities were hypertension (61.2%), hyperlipidaemia (46.2%) and diabetes mellitus (37.2%). Major co-existing diseases were chronic kidney disease (42.1%), coronary artery disease (41.6%), and chronic heart failure (26.4%). Mean CHA2DS2-VASc score was 3.18 (SD ± 1.7) and HAS-BLED score, 1.84 (SD ± 1.3). At baseline, use of oral anticoagulants (OAC) was 38.6% and antiplatelets 32.7%. On one-month follow-up use of OAC increased to 65.8% and antiplatelets to 48.3%. One-year all-cause mortality was 16.48 and hospitalization 20.65 per 100 person years. The main causes of death were cardiovascular (75.0%), stroke (13.1%) and others (11.9%). The major causes of hospitalizations were acute coronary syndrome (35.0%), followed by arrhythmia (29.5%) and heart failure (8.4%).ConclusionsDespite high risk profile of patients in this registry, use of OAC was suboptimal, whereas antiplatelets were used in nearly half of patients. A relatively high rate of annual mortality and hospitalization was observed in patients with NVAF in Kerala AF Registry

Height, selected genetic markers and prostate cancer risk:Results from the PRACTICAL consortium

Background: Evidence on height and prostate cancer risk is mixed, however, recent studies with large data sets support a possible role for its association with the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. Methods: We analysed data from the PRACTICAL consortium consisting of 6207 prostate cancer cases and 6016 controls and a subset of high grade cases (2480 cases). We explored height, polymorphisms in genes related to growth processes as main effects and their possible interactions. Results: The results suggest that height is associated with high-grade prostate cancer risk. Men with height 4180cm are at a 22% increased risk as compared to men with height o173cm (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.01–1.48). Genetic variants in the growth pathway gene showed an association with prostate cancer risk. The aggregate scores of the selected variants identified a significantly increased risk of overall prostate cancer and high-grade prostate cancer by 13% and 15%, respectively, in the highest score group as compared to lowest score group. Conclusions: There was no evidence of gene-environment interaction between height and the selected candidate SNPs. Our findings suggest a role of height in high-grade prostate cancer. The effect of genetic variants in the genes related to growth is seen in all cases and high-grade prostate cancer. There is no interaction between these two exposures.</p

Germline variation at 8q24 and prostate cancer risk in men of European ancestry

Chromosome 8q24 is a susceptibility locus for multiple cancers, including prostate cancer. Here we combine genetic data across the 8q24 susceptibility region from 71,535 prostate cancer cases and 52,935 controls of European ancestry to define the overall contribution of germline variation at 8q24 to prostate cancer risk. We identify 12 independent risk signals for prostate cancer (p < 4.28 × 10−15), including three risk variants that have yet to be reported. From a polygenic risk score (PRS) model, derived to assess the cumulative effect of risk variants at 8q24, men in the top 1% of the PRS have a 4-fold (95%CI = 3.62–4.40) greater risk compared to the population average. These 12 variants account for ~25% of what can be currently explained of the familial risk of prostate cancer by known genetic risk factors. These findings highlight the overwhelming contribution of germline variation at 8q24 on prostate cancer risk which has implications for population risk stratification

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio