Bacteriological Evaluation of Drinking Water of Rajshahi City, Bangladesh

Access to pathogen free safe drinking water is one of the major challenges of the 21st century for most of the people of world. According to WHO guidelines, 100 ml sample of safe drinking must be free of total coliform, fecal coliform and E. coli. Hence, this study was designed for bacteriological evaluation of drinking water collected from different restaurant in Rajshahi city, Bangladesh. Among 10 samples, no detectable E. coli was found in 5 water samples (100 ml each) while 8-50 detectable E. coli in 100 ml water sample was found in the remaining 5 samples which exceeded the BDS and WHO standard of drinking water. Four randomly selected isolates (B1, B2, B3 and R) which were isolated from different water samples were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. It was found  that the 16S rRNA sequence of isolate B1, B2 and B3 had 98% similarity to that of Enterobacter asburiae, Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter sp respectively. Similarly, 16S rRNA sequence of isolate R had 99% similarity to that of Klebsiella pneumonia. Results of biochemical analysis revealed that all four isolates were negative to Catalase, KOH and Oxidase test while variations were found for other tests. Similarly, all four isolates were able to ferment all tested carbohydrates except cellulose. The optimum pH and temperature for the growth of the all isolates was pH 7.0 and 37ºC. It was found that all the isolates were sensitive to majority of the antibiotics used

Stamford Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences In Vitro Nitric Oxide Scavenging Activity of Ethanol Leaf Extracts of Four Bangladeshi Medicinal Plants

The ethanol leaf extracts of four medicinal plants named Hibiscus mutabilis, Leucas aspera, Ixora coccinea and Polyalthia longifolia were examined for their possible regulatory effect on nitric oxide (NO) levels using sodium nitroprusside as a NO donor in vitro. Most of the extracts tested demonstrated direct scavenging of NO and exhibited significant activity and the potency of scavenging activity was in the following order: Leucas aspera> Ixora coccinea> Hibiscus mutabilis> Polyalthia longifolia. All the evaluated extracts exhibited a dose-dependent NO scavenging activity. The ethanolic leaf extract of Leucas aspera showed the greatest NO scavenging effect of 80.50 % at 320 µg/ml with IC50 value of 94.15 µg/ml as compared to the positive control ascorbic acid where 74.56 % scavenging was observed at similar concentration with IC50 value of 62.48 µg/mL. The maximum NO scavenging of Ixora coccinea, Hibiscus mutabilis and Polyalthia longifolia were 79.65 %, 78.60 % and 70.67 % with IC50 values of 43.72 µg/ml, 147.64 µg/ml and 167.08 µg/ml respectively. The present results suggest that these plants might be potent and novel therapeutic agents for scavenging of NO and the regulation of pathological conditions caused by excessive generation of NO and its oxidation product

In-vitro free radical scavenging activity of Ixora coccinea L

Antioxidant activity of the methanol extract of Ixora coccinea L. was determined by DPPH free radical scavenging assay, reducing power and total antioxidant capacity using phosphomolybdenum method. Preliminary phytochemical screening revealed that the extract of the flower of I. coccinea possesses flavonoids, steroids and tannin materials. The extract showed significant activities in all antioxidant assays compared to the standard antioxidant in a dose dependent manner and remarkable activities to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) may be attributed to the high amount of hydrophilic phenolics. In DPPH radical scavenging assay the IC50 value of the extract was found to be 100.53 μg/mL while ascorbic acid had the IC50 value 58.92 μg/mL. Moreover, I. coccinea extract showed strong reducing power and total antioxidant capacity

Anti-diarrhoeal and CNS Depressant Activity of Methanolic Extract of Saccharum spontaneum Linn.

Preliminary phytochemical screening of the methanolic extract of the whole plant of Saccharum spontaneum Linn. (Family- Gramineae) revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, reducing sugar, tannins and saponins. The antidiarrhoeal activity of the extract (200 and 400 mg/kg) was assessed on experimental animal and a dose dependent decrease in the total number of faecal dropping was obsereved in castor oil induced diarrhoea in mice. The plant extract was also assessed for effect on the central nervous system (CNS) using a number of neuropharmacological experimental models in mice. The extract produced a dosedependent reduction of the onset and duration of pentobarbitone-induced hypnosis, reduction of locomotor and exploratory activities in the open field and hole cross tests. These results suggest that the extract possesses antidiarrhoeal and CNS depressant activity

Stamford Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences In-vitro Antioxidant and Cytotoxicity Studies of Annona squamosa Linn.

n-Hexane, chloroform and methanol soluble extracts of the leaves of Annona squamosa were screened for their possible antioxidant activitiy by DPPH free radical scavenging and cytotoxicity by brine shrimp lethality bioassay. In DPPH radical scavenging assay, methanol soluble extract was found to be the most potent with an IC50 value of 103.5 µg/ml. The amount of total phenolics was also found to the highest in the methanol soluble extract (283.16 ± 8.90 mg/g), followed by chloroform soluble extract (216.90 ± 4.48 mg/g). Here BHT and ascorbic acid were used as standards with IC50 values 8.2 µg/ml and 25 µg/ml respectively. In the brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the most significant cytotoxicity was observed with chloroform soluble extract with an LC50 of 4.16 µg/ml where vincristine sulphate was used as standard (LC50 0.29 µg/ml)

Stamford Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Evaluation of analgesic and neuropharmacological properties of the aerial part of Tinospora cordifolia

Tinospora cordifolia Miers. is used in the Ayurvedic system of medicine for the treatment of jaundice, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, and is also used as memory enhancer. But still there is no report of analgesic and neuropharmacological activities of the plant. For this reason, the present study was designed to evaluate analgesic and neuropharmacological activities of methanol extract of the aerial parts of Tinospora cordifolia. Analgesic activity of the crude extract at the dose of 200 and 400 mg/kg b.w. was evaluated for its central and peripheral pharmacological actions using hotplate and tail flick tests and acetic acid-induced writhing test respectively in mice. The extract produced a significant (p < 0.05-0.001) increase in pain threshold in hotplate and tail flick tests in a dose dependent manner. In acetic acid-induced writhing test the extract at both doses produced significant (p < 0.001) inhibition of writhing reaction but maximum inhibition (65.01%) of writhing was found at 400 mg/kg dose compared to the reference drug Diclofenac-Na at the dose of 10 mg/kg b.w. (77.07%). Neuropharmacological activity of the extract was also evaluated using rodent behabioural models; hole cross to evaluate motor activity, open field to evaluate exploratory behaviour and thiopental sodium-induced sleeping time to evaluate sedative potential of the extract. The extract significantly (p < 0.05-0.001) decreased motor activity and exploratory behavior of mice in hole cross and open field test respectively. The extract also produced rapid onset and maximized the duration of sleeping time whe