ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF A PROTEASE INHIBITOR ISOLATED FROM THE RHIZOME OF CURCUMA AMADA

  Objective: Protease inhibitors (PIs) are effective antimicrobial agents, and this study was aimed to study the antibacterial efficacy of a PI isolated from the rhizome of Curcuma amada.Methods: A proteinaceous protease inhibitor was isolated from the rhizome of C. amada and purified by Sephadex G-50 gel permeation chromatography. The purified inhibitor was denoted as Curcuma amada protease inhibitor (CAPI). The antibacterial effect of CAPI against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC), and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) of CAPI was studied in vitro, and the membrane disruption activity of CAPI was also analyzed.Results: CAPI was effective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, with slightly higher concentrations required for Gram-negative bacteria. The MIC ranged from 75 to 100 μg/ml and the MBC ranged from 100 to 125 μg/ml of CAPI. The study of membrane disruption by CAPI revealed the release of cell contents, namely, reducing sugars and proteins from the bacterial cell.Conclusion: A PI was effectively isolated from the rhizome of C. amada, and the isolated inhibitor proved to be a promising antibacterial agent

Efficacy of Interpleural Analgesia in reducing Postoperative Pain and Parenteral Analgesic requirement in Patients undergoing Upper Abdominal Surgery

INTRODUCTION: Surgery produces both visceral and somatic pain. This results in the release of nociceptive substances such as prostaglandins, histamine, serotonin, bradykinnin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, substance P and generation of noxious stimuli that are transduced by nociceptors and transmitted by A delta and C nerve fibres to the neuraxis. Pain is the most important factor responsible for ineffective ventilation, ineffective cough, and impaired ability to sigh and breathe deeply, in patients after upper abdominal surgery. This may contribute to pulmonary atelectasis leading to ventilation/perfusion abnormalities and hypoxemia, as well as infection, after surgery. Many of these adverse effects can be eliminated or reduced by adequate post operative pain relief. Several methods have been advocated to reduce postoperative pain. The administration of local anesthetics into the pleural space is a technique of providing analgesia of rapid onset and long duration. This analgesia is accomplished without causing the respiratory depression or sedation associated with the use of opioids. This study is chosen to investigate the efficacy of interpleural analgesia in treating postoperative pain. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study intends to prospectively analyze the efficacy of interpleural analgesia in reducing post operative pain and parenteral analgesic requirement in patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: After approval from local ethics committee and written informed consent 36 patients undergoing elective upper abdominal surgeries like open cholecystectomy, nephrectomy , pyelolithotomy and pyeloplasty at Government General Hospital, Chennai were enrolled in the study. The inclusion criteria were age 19 to 65 years ASA physical status 1 & 2 with no contraindications for the technique and drugs. These include pleural injury, pleural adhesion, fibrosis or effusion, COPD, local infection, bleeding diathesis and allergy to study drugs. The linear visual analog scales (VAS) were explained to the patients prior to the study. Patients were premedicated with Inj glycopyrrolate 0.2mg and Inj fentanyl 100 micrograms IV just before induction. Patients were induced with Inj propofol 2mg /Kg, Inj Suxamethonium 100mg IV and intubated one minute later with appropriate size endotracheal tube orally. The anaesthesia was maintained with nitrous oxide – oxygen mixture 3:2, muscle relaxant Inj Vecuronium and volatile agents. When the surgery was over the patients were randomly assigned to two trearment groups of 18 patients in each. 1. Pleural analgesia (bupivacaine) combined with Parenteral analgesics (Pentazocine). 2. Parenteral analgesics alone. (Pentazocine). Statistical Analysis: Student t test was used to compare the pentazocine requirement and VAS scores between the pleural and control groups. Data was analyzed with SPSS software. Data are presented as means ± SD. The P values were provided to indicate statistical significance. P < 0.05 was considered as significant. RESULTS: One patient was excluded from the study due to aspiration of blood in the pleural catheter. Demographic data were similar in both the groups (Table 1). Mean age was 40.7yrs ± 11.30 (21 to 56 yrs) in pleural group and 44.6 yrs ± 11.9 (18 to 65 yrs) in control group. No episodes of hypotension or bradycardia were noted. Neither pneumothorax nor CNS (central nervous system) toxic reactions (tremor, perioral numbness, muscle twitches, metallic taste, tinnitus, convulsions) were noted. The catheter insertion using loss of resistance technique described above was easy to identify the pleural space and effective. CONCLUSION: It is concluded from this study that intermittent interpleural analgesia with bupivacaine was more effective than intermittent parenteral administration of pentazocine alone, in reducing the severity of pain after upper abdominal surgery up to 48 hours postoperatively and can be recommended for sufficient pain control

Livelihood analysis using wealth ranking tool of PRA

The present study was undertaken in Maroorpatti village in Namakkal district of Tamilnadu. From the results o/the livelihood analysis conducted/or the three different categories a/wealth ranking, it may be pointed out that with respect to the size of land holdings the rich farmer had double the size a/the medium and as such large as 10 times that the poor farmer. The rich farmer had an incomparably large number o/cattle with respect to his counterparts. While the rich farmer received monthly income from livestock, the medium farmer, who was thus classified solely by his agricultural land holdings, always expected his agricultural field to boost his monthly income. Furthermore, from the expenditure pal1ern observed, the rich farmer's were inclined to save nearly 35% of their monthly income, while the poor farmers were always in need of 25% loan to meet their monthly needs. As a consequence, the crises analysis indicated that the poor farmer as well as the medium farmer usually takes a loan of 40% towards meeting any calamities faced in their agricultural and livestock sectors

Studies on Parental Synchronization in Flowering for Hybrid Seed Production in Onion (Allium cepa L.)

An experiment was conducted at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore, in Rabi season during 2001-2002 and 2002-2003 to study the flowering of Cytoplasmic Male Sterile Lines CMS (A) and pollinator lines (C) of onion cv. Arka Lalima for working out effective synchrony in hybrid seed production. Results indicated that days to 100% flowering and days to complete flowering in a plant varied significantly in the parental lines and C line was found to be earlier than A line by 12 days and 25 days, respectively. The duration of flowering in a plant was also less in C line (23 days) than in A line (29 days). Due to lack of floral synchrony between parental lines, pollen availability becomes a limiting factor in hybrid seed production in cv. Arka Lalima. Delay in planting of C lines by a week after planting A lines resulted in synchronised flowering of parental lines at peak flowering stage. This also resulted in higher fruit set (80%) and hybrid seed yield (15g/plant) as against planting of A and C lines simultaneously (29.54% and 0.38g, respectively)

Surface membrane changes in lepromatous macrophages affecting the adherence of Mycobacterium leprae

Macrophages from lepromatous leprosy patients showed poor adherence toMycobacterium leprae. The phagocytic activity of the macrophages was not correlated to the influence on the adherence ability. Based on the phagocytic behaviour of macrophages from normal individuals and from lepromatous leprosy, patients as well as the action of neuraminidase in reversing the extent of adherence, it is suggested that macrophages from lepromatous leprosy patients differ from those from normal individuals in regard to their surface properties. There was no relationship between the degree of adherence and the concentration of Fc receptors of the macrophages. It was also shown that an extract of lysed macrophages from lepromatous leprosy patient was able to reduce the adherence ofMycobacterium leprae to normal macrophages. This study shows that adherence is a good indicator of the surface property of macrophages which in turn could play an important role in the cell mediated immunity of the patient. The observations suggest altered macrophage membrane structure in the long term-treated, otherwise normal, lepromatous leprosy patients

P R A methods for studying the impact of technology adoption in crop and poultry enterprises in a rural village

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods have of late been highly successful in bridging the gap between development functionaries and target groups for whom the development straties and efforts have been focused at. PRA describes a growing family of approaches and methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and to act. (Chambers, 1994)

Electromechanical effect in cholesteric liquid crystals with fixed boundary conditions

We describe a number of experiments to demonstrate the electromechanical effect in cholesteric liquid crystals. The Lehmann rotation phenomenon of drops with stress free boundary conditions is the most convincing effect produced by this coupling. In samples with fixed boundary conditions, the cross coupling produces a distortion of the profile of the azimuthal angles of the director. We have used a conoscopic technique to demonstrate this distortion in thick samples containing negative dielectric anisotropy materials. A strong linear electrooptic effect of electromechanical origin is produced in materials with a weak positive dielectric anisotropy. We provide an evidence that a twisted nematic cell without any chiral molecules also exhibits the electromechanical effect, due to the macroscopic chirality of the medium in such a cell

Genetic diversity study in tropical carrot (Daucus carota L.)

Genetic diversity study was conducted at ICAR- Indian institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru during 2018-19. In this study, 80 accessions were evaluated for 16 yield and yield attributing traits. The Mahalanobis’ D2 analysis grouped these accessions into seven clusters. Cluster I was the largest with 69 genotypes followed by cluster III comprising six genotypes while, the clusters II, IV, V, VI and VII contained one genotype each. Among the traits studied, yield contributed maximum (38.04 %) towards diversity, followed by root weight (26.58%), root color (9.18%) and plant height (6.7%). As far as root weight (g) [d1], leaf weight (g), root weight (g), number of leaves, TSS(°Brix), leaf weight (g), root diameter (mm), core diameter (mm), and root cracking are concerned, they contributed 3.45, 2.09, 1.77, 1.71, 1.55, 1.52, 1.46, 1.33, 1.01 and 0.82 percent respectively. Diversity analysis has given an indication about the genetic variation among the carrot accessions which will prove useful in selection of diverse parents in crop improvement programme