Biswapati Mukherjee

Advanced studies on the hypoglycemic effect of Caesalpinia bonducella F. in type 1 and 2 diabetes in Long Evans rats

Caesalpinia bonducella, widely distributed throughout the coastal region of India and used ethnically by the tribal people of India for controlling blood sugar was earlier reported by us to possess hypoglycemic activity in animal model. This prompted us to undertake a detail study with the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of the seeds of this plant in both type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus in Long Evans rats. Significant blood sugar lowering effect (P < 0.05) of C. bonducella was observed in type 2 diabetic model. Special emphasis was given on the mechanistic study by gut absorption of glucose and liver glycogen.

Ecological monitoring for ascertaining the bio-safety of liver lipids from some Indian marine puffer fishes

Ecological investigations were carried out on Indian marine puffers, Chelonodon patoca, Sphaeroides oblongus, Lagocephalus lunaris and Lagocephalus inermis, the four major species available in the coastal waters of the Bay of Bengal, India. The seasonal intraspecific and interspecific abundance and average daily landings were noted. The high hepatosomatic index and low lipid ratio of muscle to liver indicated accumulation of lipid in the liver. The lipid content was at its maximum during the monsoon (July–October) in all the species as was observed from the study of the seasonal variation of liver lipids. The puffers are mainly bottom feeders and the molluscs Umbonium vesterium and Donax incarnatus are the major prey group, constituting 56.0–87.5% of their food content. The liver and ovary had the maximum toxicity in monsoon during their spawning season. The liver oils so far tested from these fishes had no toxicity and the study reveals that the ecologic information will be helpful in monitoring the quality for the safe isolation of polyunsaturated fatty acid —entiched oil from these non-conventional sources.

Structure elucidation of two new bisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids and NMR assignments of the alkaloids from the fruits of Tiliacora racemosa

Besides three known biphenyldibenzodioxinbisbenzylisoquinoline alkaloids, two novel alkaloids of the same group have been isolated from the fruits of Tiliacora racemosa. The structures of these new compounds designated tiliaimine and nordinklacorine were established on the basis of 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, including COSY, TOCSY, ROESY, HMBC and HSQC experiments. Preliminary antibacterial activity studies on the known compounds (tiliarine, 2′‐nortiliacorinine, 2′‐nortiliacorine) from the fruits of the plant showed strong activity against three bacterial strains viz. Escherichia coli strain VT3 (Verotoxigenic E.coli), Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 and Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6623 but were inactive against the strains Vibrio cholerae O1 (NB2) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 15442. Copyright