Articles

6 December 2012

NATURALLY OCCURRING MYCOTOXINS – AFLATOXIN

About Authors:
Sahu Deepak*
Ass. Professor, Geetanjali Institute of Pharmacy,
Dabok, Udaipur [Rajasthan] – 313022
deepak.sahu.bhl@gmail.com
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Abstract:
A toxin produced by mold that can damage the liver and may lead to liver cancer. Aflatoxins cause cancer in some animals. The fungi that produce aflatoxin grow on crops such as peanuts (especially) and wheat, corn, beans and rice. Aflatoxin is a problem particularly in undeveloped and developing countries.
Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring mycotoxin produced by two types of mold: Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aspergillus flavus is common and widespread in nature and is most often found when certain grains are grown under stressful conditions such as drought. The mold occurs in soil, decaying vegetation, hay, and grains undergoing microbiological deterioration and invades all types of organic substrates whenever and wherever the conditions are favorable for its growth. Favorable conditions include high moisture content and high temperature. At least 13 different types of aflatoxin are produced in nature with aflatoxin B1 considered as the most toxic. While the presence of Aspergillus flavus does not always indicate harmful levels of aflatoxin it does mean that the potential for aflatoxin production is present.^1,2,3
22 November 2012

JAPANESE PATENT CLASSIFICATION: AN AUXILIARY TOOL IN PATENT ANALYTICS

About Authors:
Arun Kumar
Department of Intellectual Property Management,
Nectar Lifesciences Limited, Punjab, India
feedback2arun@gmail.com
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Abstract
With advancements in technology, new inventions are emerging day-by-day, resulting in more number of patent filings all over the globe. The analysis of existing patents to analyze novelty or patentability of upcoming inventions and to check the non-infringing process of the patented technology, there is need to analyze patents of targeted domain technology. The analysis of patents is done not only to analyze novelty or infringement but also to explore the undiscovered innovative knowledge covered in patents. Patent searching using keywords, sometimes, gives very broad results. The analysis of thousands of patents becomes difficult for patent analyst. The methodology used with IPC (International Patent Classification) codes helps to reduce the result of patent search and helps patent analyst in targeted search. But in case of Japanese patent search, IPC alone unable to give targeted results. Then it becomes important to understand the concept of JPC (Japanese Patent Classification) codes and their use to make the Japanese patent search easy. The Japanese Patent Classification includes File Index, Facets and F-term. In this article, Japanese Patent Classification codes are explained in details with their consequences, applications, constructions and search methodology using them.
21 November 2012

ANTIDEPRESSANT ACTIVITY OF POLYHERBAL EXTRACT ON RODENTS

About Authors:
A.Tamil Selvan*, R.Suresh¹, D.Benito Johnson², R.Suresh Kumar³, R.Venkatanarayanan⁴, L.Sivakumar⁵
Department of Pharmacology
Teegala Ram Reddy College of Pharmacy, Meerpet, Hyderabad – 97
1-4RVS College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sulur, Coimbatore- 641402
⁵SKM Siddha and Ayurvedha Company (India) Limited, Erode - 638104.
*tamilselvanpharmacologist@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
In this study, polyherbal extract of Cycas circinalis, Nardostachys jatamansi and Artemisia absinthium ethanolic fraction was explored for its antidepressant property using Forced swim test (FST) and Tail suspension test (TST). Many of its individual constituents have been used for central nervous system (CNS) activities but no systematic work was carried on this combination. In this study its effect on depression was explored in rats. For this purpose the plants part were extracted by successive solvent extraction by Soxhylation. Ethanolic extract was chosen for the pharmacological evaluation, based upon the phytochemical and instrumental analysis. The ethanolic extract was subjected to FT-IR analysis for finding the possible number and nature of function groups present in it. Also the extract was analysed by HPLC for the number possible phytocompounds/phytoconstituents present, which may directly or indirectly involve in the brain neurochemical activity. Acute and Subacute toxicity study revealed the dose upto 2000mg/kg the extract had not toxic symptoms and no mortality. The therapeutic dose was found to be 200mg/kg and there was no toxic damage to liver and kidney observed in subacute toxicity study. The ethanolic extract of the polyherbal combination exhibited significant (P<0.001) antidepressant activity as indicated by its ability to decrease swim stress and tail suspension induced immobility time in rats as compared with that standard Fluoxetine. As well as restoring biogenic amines to normal level that was altered by the swim stress and tail suspension test in whole rat brain assay by HPTLC method. The result indicates this polyherbal combination can be a potential candidate for .managing depression. However further studies are required to confirm the exact therapeutic efficacy.
2 November 2012

BREAST CANCER: AN OVERVIEW

About Authors:
Amardeep Sharma
Rathi Orthopaedic & research centre,
Ahmedabad, India
amardeep.sharma54@gmail.com
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ABSTRACT:-
The knowledge of breast cancer development and progression has grown in recent years and relatively development of novel therapeutic strategies, but for cancer mortalities in women breast cancer stands at 2^nd position as cause.
In U.S. Approximately 39970 women & 450 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed from the disease in 2011.^[1] Breast cancer is a hormone dependent disease.^[3] Breast cancer occurs when breast epithelial cells grows in abnormal way. HER2/neu, ER, PR, BRCA1, BRCA2 are the well known influencing factors responsible for breast cancer initiation. The major issues that limit the currently available breast cancer treatment are high cost, poor availability and resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. To overcome this problem researchers are working on several novel approaches i.e. “Novel drug targets & Novel target therapies”.
Since from past few years, mammogram is playing a huge role for decreasing incidence rate in developed countries. Breast cancer is adversely affecting the “quality of life” of patients and its impact has been increasing on the Social capital, population structure and economic growth. Need for novel anti breast cancer agent and novel early diagnosis technique is necessary to combat one of the most serious crises facing Human development.
22 October 2012

SOLUBILITY ENHANCEMENT OF POORLY WATER SOLUBLE DRUG CELECOXIB

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About Authors:
Mr. Pranab Prakash Panigrahi^1*, Mr. Ajit Kumar Acharya²
¹B.Pharm, ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND HEALTH SCIENCES, BERHAMPUR
²Asst.Professor, ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND HEALTH SCIENCES, BERHAMPUR
*pranab.panigrahi@rediffmail.com

INTRODUCTION
Poorly water-soluble drugs often require high doses in order to reach therapeutic plasma concentrations after oral administration. Improvement in the extent and rate of dissolution is highly desirable for such compounds, as this can lead to an increased and more re-producible oral bioavailability and subsequently to clinically relevant dose reduction and more reliable therapy. More than 40% of newly discovered drugs have little or no water solubility presents a serious challenge to the successful development and commercialization of new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry. Now a days, pharmaceutical technology provides many approaches to enhance the dissolution rate of poorly soluble drugs. Physical modifications often aim to increase the surface area, solubility and/or wet ability of the powder particles and are therefore focused on particle size reduction or generation of amorphous states [Hancock, 1997 & Grau, 2000]. Several methods have been employed to improve the solubility of poorly water soluble drugs. A solid dispersion technique has been used by various researchers who have reported encouraging results with different drugs. The first drug whose rate and extent of absorption was significantly enhanced using the solid dispersion technique was sulfathiazole by Sekiguchi and Obi (Sekiguchi, 1961)¹.
12 October 2012

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF SUSTAINED RELEASE GUAR GUM MATRIX TABLETS OF METFORMIN HYDROCHLORIDE

About Authors:
Shaik .Shabbeer*, V.Sruthi, P.Usha, K.Mahesh
Department of Pharmaceutical sciences, Swami Ramananda Tirtha Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh, India-508001
*shkshabbeer@yahoo.com
2 October 2012

A Detailed Review on Novel Mucoadhesive System

About Authors:
Singh Deep Hussan*, Roychowdhury Santanu
Sri Sai college of pharmacy, badhani,
pathankot
*hussannijjar@gmail.com

Abstract:
Mucoadhesion is the prevalent interest in the design of drug delivery systems. Mucoadhesion can be defined as the state in which two materials, at least one of which is biological (mucosa) in nature, are held together for a prolonged time period by means of interfacial forces. This mucoadhesive system offers many advantages as it allows for reduction in daily administrations and daily drug dosage and is suitable for the treatment of irritation, pain, and discomfort associated with gingivitis, sore throats, laryngopharyngitis, cold, and periodontal surgery. Moreover, it adheres well to the gum and is very simple to apply, which means that patient compliance is improved. Mucoadhesive drug delivery system are designed to enable prolonged residence time of the dosage form at the site of application or absorption and facilitate an intimate contact of the dosage form with the underline absorption surface. The present review describes mucoadhesion, mucoadhesive polymers and their classification, stages, mechanism and theories of mucoadhesion and factors affecting them along with its evaluation. However, the research on mucoadhesives, is still in its early stage and further advances need to be made for the successful translation of the concept into practical application in controlled drug delivery.
20 September 2012

CHRONOPHARMACOKINETICS: THE CIRCADIAN RHYTHM OF DRUGS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

About Authors:
N Allamneni*, CH Ajay Babu, AVS Madhulatha, C Anusha, P Sowjanya, BV Komali, M Kalyani, Syed M
*Department of Pharmaceutical Technology,
Narasaraopeta Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Narasaraopeta, Guntur, India.
*yaswanthallamneni@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Chronopharmacokinetics involves the study of temporal changes in drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion with respect to time of administration. Drug Absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination are influenced by many different physiological functions of the body, which may vary, with time of day. Thus, the pharmacokinetic parameters characterizing these different steps, conventionally considered to be constant in time, depend on the moment of drug administration. Chronokinetic studies have been reported for many drugs in an attempt to explain chronopharmacodynamic phenomena and demonstrate that the time of administration is a possible factor of variation in the kinetics of a drug. However, the time of day has to be regarded as an additional variable influencing the kinetics of a drug since many drugs are affected by time of administration and the activity or rest period of the human or animal.
13 September 2012

EFFECT OF THIODIAZURON ON MULTIPLE SHOOT INDUCTION OF DIPLOID COTTON (G. ARBOREUM CV.PA255)

About Authors:
Nitin Deorao Rewatkar
Department of Biotechnology, Kamla Nehru College,
Sakkardara Square, Nagpur
nitinrewatkar@gmail.com

Abstract
The effect of TDZ on regeneration studies of cotton G.arboreum cv PA255 was performed for in-vitro culture studies, healthy and disease free seeds, after surface sterilization were inoculated on seed germination media. Seeds germination efficiency was observed to be 73.38%. Shoot tips and cotynode explants aseptically isolated from in Vitro germinated seedlings of 7 and 14 days old were inoculated on MS basal salt supplemented with 30 gm/L glucose, 10 mg/L thiamine, 100 mg/L Inositol with four different concentration of TDZ. The proliferation of 7 and 14 days old shoot tip was found to 100% in media combination with 0.08 TDZ and 0.02 TDZ respectively. Cotynode explants of 7 days old was 100% responded in 0.02 TDZ and 0.08 TDZ, 14 days old cotynode shows highest 85% explants responded in 0.02 TDZ media combination but multiple shoots observed higher in 0.05 TDZ medium.TDZ induces callus formation and inhibit root formation, TDZ shows good responsein very small concentration otherwise increase concentration more than 1 mg/l it shows toxic effect on explants and completely dried. Browning and subsequent death of the cultured explants are major problems in TDZ supplemented media. Calculate the amount of phenol excreted from shoot tip and cotynode during in vitro regeneration of cotton cv. PA255. In the media combination 0.1mg /L TDZ evaluate highest phenol secreted, shoot tip secrete average 0.014mg and cotynode secrete 0.022mg phenol by per explants.
30 August 2012

A GENERAL OVERVIEW ON: STRESS AND ADAPTOGENS

About Author:
Sachin Kaushik
P.G. Department of Pharmacology,
B.L.D.E.A.’s college of Pharmacy,
Bijapur- 586103, Karnataka,India.
sachin_2004_kaushik@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
In this general overview, we discussed about stress, types of stress, mechanism and its management. According to the report of WHO, approximately 450 million people suffer from mental or behavioral disorders like stress. This amounts to 12.3% of the global burden of disease and predicted to rise up to 15% by 2020. Therefore there is a need of an effective management to control stress and stress induced disorders.