Evaluación de la actividad diurética y laxante del extracto acuoso de hojas de Argemone mexicana en ratas

Objectives: Argemone mexicana have been widely studied for its several pharmacological benefits and has been used in traditional medicine to treat constipation like symptoms. The present study carried out to evaluate the extract for its diuretic and laxative potential. Method: The aqueous extract of Argemone mexicana prepared using percolation method and subjected to phytochemical analysis. Evaluation of diuretic and laxative activity was carried out using metabolic cage apparatus and flame photometer as per the standard method reported earlier. Frusemide (20 mg/kg) and sodium picosulate (5 mg/kg) were served as positive control for diuretic activity and laxative activity respectively. Result: The extract showed significant diuretic activity at 250 mg/kg dose when compared to standard frusemide. Even this extract also effective in increasing electrolyte concentration. Whereas the extract at 250 mg/kg showed significantly increasing in fecal output, and also significantly increased the weight of feces at 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg dose. Conclusion: The previous significant finding supports the traditional use of Argemone mexicana for its diuretic and laxative potential Objetivos: Argemone mexicana ha sido ampliamente estudiada por sus diversos beneficios farmacológicos y se ha utilizado en la medicina tradicional para tratar síntomas de estreñimiento. El presente estudio evaluó el extracto por su potencial diurético y laxante. Método: El extracto acuoso de Argemone mexicana se preparó utilizando el método de percolación y se sometió a análisis fitoquímico. La evaluación de la actividad diurética y laxante se llevó a cabo utilizando unas jaulas metabólicas y un fotómetro de llama según el método estándar descrito con anterioridad. Se administró frusemida (20 mg / kg) y picosulato de sodio (5 mg / kg) como control positivo de la actividad diurética y actividad laxante respectivamente. Resultado: El extracto mostró una actividad diurética significativa a una dosis de 250 mg / kg en comparación con la frusemida estándar. Incluso, este extracto también es efectivo para aumentar la concentración de electrolitos. Mientras que el extracto a 250 mg/kg mostró un aumento significativo en la producción fecal, y también aumentó significativamente el peso de las heces en ambas dosis. Conclusión: El hallazgo significativo anterior apoya el uso tradicional de Argemone mexicana por sus potencialidades diurética y laxante

Nationalist nativism and left-wing thought. The debate on socialism and communism in British India during the fi rst decades of the 20th century

En este artículo planteo que la historia de la política y el pensamiento de izquierda en la India contemporánea deben entenderse en relación con la constante dialéctica desarrollada entre los ideales que apuntalan el proyecto socialista en sus distintas facetas, así como con las inclinaciones nativistas del proyecto nacionalista anticolonial en la India Británica. Muestro que el pensamiento de izquierda desarrollado en India durante los años en los que la ola expansiva de la Revolución Soviética se expandía por el mundo se gestó en desventaja frente al proyecto político e ideológico encabezado por Gandhi, el cual promovía una aproximación nativista al nacionalismo y la política anticolonial

The many swords of Shivaji: searching for a weapon, finding a nation

Since at least the nineteenth century, the Maratha warrior-king Shivaji (r. 1674-80) has served as a central symbol in Indian politics. This article interrogates his legacy through the lens of his famous sword, the Bhavani Talvar. At least three swords have been identified as this weapon since the nineteenth century; by analysing each of these claims in turn, I consider how the discourse around Shivaji's sword(s) traces the evolving legacy of Shivaji himself. Interested less in the historical merits of these claims than in the socio-political work they perform, I seek to uncover why the last of these three, now in London, has become essentially synonymous with the Bhavani Talvar in the popular sphere. Ultimately, I attribute this preference to the object's political resonance: supposedly given to the Prince of Wales by a descendant of Shivaji in 1875, the object has been a rallying cry for Indian politicians of diverse ideological persuasions, who, in demanding its return, have sought to position themselves as the heirs to Shivaji and the healers of a nation still ailing from colonial wounds

The study of the Paippalāda recension of the Atharvaveda: The state of the art

This article provides a survey of recent scholarship on the Paippalādasaṃhitā (PS) of the Atharvaveda, and presents the main lines of research that are currently being pursued. In particular, it discusses: the different approaches to the text-critical work on the PS; the debate on the history of its transmission; the linguistic studies based on the text; the hypothesis that the PS is a manual for the king’s purohita; the ongoing research on the connection between the Paippalādins, the Vrātyas and the Pāśupatas; and recent scholarship on its ancillary literature

The study of the Paippalāda recension of the Atharvaveda: The state of the art

This article provides a survey of recent scholarship on the Paippalādasaṃhitā (PS) of the Atharvaveda, and presents the main lines of research that are currently being pursued. In particular, it discusses: the different approaches to the text-critical work on the PS; the debate on the history of its transmission; the linguistic studies based on the text; the hypothesis that the PS is a manual for the king’s purohita; the ongoing research on the connection between the Paippalādins, the Vrātyas and the Pāśupatas; and recent scholarship on its ancillary literature

Interobserver Discrepancies in Distance Measurements from Lumbar Spine CT Scans

Lumbar spine computed tomographic (CT) scans of 10 patients were examined independently at two levels by five experienced radiologists. At each level the minimum midline sagittal diameter was measured, and at each intervertebral space the left foramen was measured for its minimum diameter. Statistically significant differences were found between the measurements of different observers, differences that in a number of cases could have led to disagreement over whether or not stenosis was present. There were reasonably strong correlations between different observers' readings of midline sagittal diameters but generally not of foraminal diameters. Reasons for discrepancies between observers in spine CT measurements are reviewed briefly. Our clinicians have requested that when we interpret spinal computed tomographic (CT) scans, we state exactly how large the foramina are, rather than reporting that they are "ample," "moderately to severely narrowed," etc. In fact, various authors have attempted to make the use of spinal CT as objective as possible in the diagnosis or treatment of spinal stenosis [1-6], lateral recess stenosis Materials and Methods Ten consecutive CT scans from the top of L4 to S1 obtained at University Hospital were selected from patients without previous surgery or residual contrast material. All scans were obtained on a 2002 Elscint scanner at Boston University Hospital using the "A" filter-function , a scan speed of 17 sec, the absorber (a beam hardener) out, "standard" collimation , and "normal" sample density. As recommended by the manufacturer for all scanning situations, 140 kVp and 43 mAs were used. The translate-rotate mode was used with a 140 mm reconstruction circle. Images were zoomed by a factor of 1 .10. To obtain cuts approximately parallel to disks, typically a series of cuts was obtained from the top of L4 to the top of L5 and another from the top of L5 to the top of S1. No reformatting in other planes was performed in the 10 cases. Five radiologists then measured the following distances on each scan: minimum midline sagittal diameter (MSD) at L4, MSD at L5 , minimum width in the axial plane across the left L4-L5 foramen at a level where the root can be seen to traverse it (FD), and FD at L5-S1 . To avoid being influenced by the window settings at which the technologists transferred the images to the floppy disks, all radiolog ists began by viewing the studies at window widths and centers of zero, and throughout the study had the "keep window" button pressed so that they saw only the window settings they chose themselves. Apart from very specific instructions about what was to constitute MSD and FD for the purpose of the study , the radiologists were given no instructions on how to make measurements. Among other things, they were given no specific guidelines about window settings, whether to use black or white cursors, or how much attention to pay to the density reading

The Revival of Yoga in Contemporary India

The word yoga refers to a multi-faceted array of beliefs and practices. Yoga is twined with sāṃkhya as one of the six orthodox darshanas (worldviews) of Hindu philosophy, having been codified by around 400CE. A distinct body of texts known as the haṭhayoga corpus appears around the eleventh century and emphasizes physical practices most likely used by ascetic communities. The ultimate aim of yoga is described by various words (e.g., kaivalya, samādhi, mokṣa, etc.); it is often described as an experience of an individual soul’s uniting with the divine, and/or becoming liberated from the material world. These historical precedents have continuities with contemporary yoga practices and for many Indians today, yoga is understood as the essence of Indian spirituality. However, yoga took on new meanings in the late colonial period, becoming a mental, physical and ethical discipline to aid in the struggle for an independent Indian nation state; a scientific, evidence-based practice to improve health and wellbeing; and template for the evolution of an individual as well as humanity as a whole. At the same time yoga kept an association with liberation and the realization of the ultimate nature of reality. In the early twenty-first century, all these meanings are current in the Indian context, where yoga is continuing to experience a revival. Today in India, yoga is understood as a unique and valuable cultural resource which has the potential both to revitalize an individual’s health and the Indian nation-state, being an exemplar of the unique insights Indian traditions can give to the rest of the world. Despite a notable shift in what is understood by yoga in the modern period, yoga continues to be a multivalent and increasingly popular practice in contemporary India

Towards a methodology of applying the paribhāṣās in the KauśikaSūtra (I) (with special reference to 7.1)

University of BucharestThe KauśikaSūtra (KauśS) represents a complex work of the Śaunaka school, collected from various sources of Atharvavedic ritual literature. Bloomfield considered that the KauśS was compiled at a certain time from different materials with clearly individual characters and that the redactor(s) did not try or did not succeed in harmonising and unifying the text by removing the discrepancies. One of the effects which would follow from these inconsistent revisions would be that the general rules would be applied strictly to some passages and loosely or not at all to others. A systematic study regarding a methodology for applying metarules to the KauśS is wanting. The present work represents such an attempt, restricted to the elucidation of the paribhāṣā 7.1. Following an exhaustive analysis of all its potential uses, underlined by a new translation of the respective passages, it is noted that the metarule is quite consequently applied. One of the questions arising from this is whether Kauśika had in mind some of these metarules at the time of his composition and the later redactor(s) attempted to maintain a high degree of consistency in applying them to the newly introduced fragments. Secondarily, the paper addresses another issue, the use of the preverb pra in prāśnāti and prāśayati allegedly as a tool for disambiguation in the KauśS

The body language of caste : Marathi sexual modernity (1920-1950)

Late colonial Maharashtra witnessed a proliferation of sex literature that claimed to be scientific. Sexual-health journals and books on sexual science and eugenics, as well as marriage manuals insisting on sex reforms, were produced in Marathi in considerable numbers between 1920 and 1950. Why did sex reformism blossom in Maharashtra? What was reformed in the name of sex and science? What larger purpose did this writing serve in late colonial times? The present research work answers these questions while problematising the Marathi sexual modernity articulated through this literature. In critically assessing sex reforms, my argument highlights the rearrangement of an inextricable nexus between caste and sexuality that shaped late colonial Marathi expressions of modernity. The proliferation of scientific sexuality in this process, I argue, was an upper-caste resolution of the Brahminical crisis over dominating reformism in Maharashtra. To demonstrate this, my work situates sex literature in the context of Marathi caste politics. While explaining the Brahminical crisis and its resolution through analysing sexual discourses of brahmacharya (celibacy), marriage, and obscenity, this work unpacks the making of sex reforms as a journey to create a caste-sexual subject of Marathi modernity—the respectable upper-caste man

Towards Eco-Dharma: The Contribution of Gandhian Thought to Ecological Ethics in India

Ecological concern prompts poor and indigenous people of India to consider how a society can ensure both protection of nature and their rightful claim for a just and sustainable future. Previous discussions defended the environment while ignoring the struggles of the poor for sustenance and their religious traditions and ethical values. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi addressed similar socio-ecological concerns by adopting and adapting traditional religious and ethical notions to develop strategies for constructive, engaged resistance. The dissertation research and analysis verifies the continued relevance of the Gandhian understanding of dharma (ethics) in contemporary India as a basis for developing eco-dharma (eco-ethics) to link closely development, ecology, and religious values. The method of this study is interpretive, analytical, and critical. Françoise Houtart’s social analytical method is used to make visible and to suggest how to overcome social tensions from the perspective of marginalized and exploited peoples in India. The Indian government's development initiatives create a nexus between the eco-crisis and economic injustice, and communities’ responses. The Chipko movement seeks to protect the Himalayan forests from commercial logging. The Narmada Bachao Andolan strives to preserve the Narmada River and its forests and communities, where dam construction causes displacement. The use of Gandhian approaches by these movements provides a framework for integrating ecological concerns with people's struggles for survival. For Gandhi, dharma is a harmony of satya (truth), ahimsa (nonviolence), and sarvodaya (welfare of all). Eco-dharma is an integral, communitarian, and ecologically sensitive ethical paradigm. The study demonstrates that the Gandhian notion of dharma, implemented through nonviolent satyagraha (firmness in promoting truth), can direct community action that promotes responsible economic structures and the well-being of the biotic community and the environment. Eco-dharma calls for solidarity, constructive resistance, and ecologically and economically viable communities. The dissertation recommends that for a sustainable future, India must combine indigenous, appropriate, and small- or medium-scale industries as an alternative model of development in order to help reduce systemic poverty while enhancing ecological well-being