Parveen Bansal

Algal lectins as promising biomolecules for biomedical research

Abstract Lectins are natural bioactive ubiquitous proteins or glycoproteins of non-immune response that bind reversibly to glycans of glycoproteins, glycolipids and polysaccharides possessing at least one non-catalytic domain causing agglutination. Some of them consist of several carbohydrate-binding domains which endow them with the properties of cell agglutination or precipitation of glycoconjugates. Lectins are rampant in nature from plants, animals and microorganisms. Among microorganisms, algae are the potent source of lectins with unique properties specifically from red algae. The demand of peculiar and neoteric biologically active substances has intensified the developments on isolation and biomedical applications of new algal lectins. Comprehensively, algal lectins are used in biomedical research for antiviral, antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor activities, etc. and in pharmaceutics for the fabrication of cost-effective protein expression systems and nutraceutics. In this review, an attempt has been made to collate the information on various biomedical applications of algal lectins.

Isolation and characterization of quinine from Polygonatum verticillatum: A new marker approach to identify substitution and adulteration

Polygonatum verticillatum (Mahameda) is an important ingredient of Ashtawarga and Ayurvedic formulations. Nowadays, it comes under the category of endangered plants due to large scale and indiscriminate collection of wild material. To overcome the scarcity, substitutes of Mahameda are also commonly used in market. These additives are different from the authentic plant by Ayurvedic and pharmacological theory of drug action, thereby resulting in substitution/adulteration. Substitution is a critical issue in isolation and quantification of the therapeutically active ingredients that can be used as markers in the identification of substitution/adulteration. Methanolic extract of the rhizomes of P. verticillatum was subjected to preliminary phytochemical screening for the detection of phytoconstituents, followed by column chromatography for isolation of the marker. The column was first eluted with pure hexane, and polarity of the solvent was gradually increased. A total of 1180 fractions were collected and pooled on the basis of thin-layer chromatography profile. The single compound was isolated and confirmed by chemical test, melting point, spectral analysis, and comparison with literature. Phytochemical screening of the extract shows the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, carbohydrates, terpenoids, and phenolics. A pure white crystalline powder was isolated by column chromatography which was characterized as (6-methoxyquinolin-4-yl-8-vinylquinuclidin-2-yl) methanol, i.e. Quinine. The isolated compound, Quinine, was identified as a novel compound in Mahameda as it has not been reported in the genus Polygonatum, till now. It can be used as a marker for the identification of substitution/adulteration and standardization of P. verticillatum.

Is There Any Scientific Basis of Hawan to be used in Epilepsy-Prevention/Cure?

Epilepsy is a neuropsychiatric disorder associated with religiosity and spirituality. Nasal drug delivery systems are the best for diseases related to brain. In older times RishiMuni, ancient scholars and physicians used to recommend Hawan for mental peace and well being. Gayatri Mantra also tells that sughandhim (aroma, fragrance) puushtivardhanam (gives rise to good health). Om triambkum yajamahe, sughandhim puushtivardhanam, urvarukmev vandhanaat, mrityu mokshay mamritaat! Hawan is a scientific experiment in which special herbs (Hawan Samagri) are offered in the fire of medicinal woods ignited in a specially designed fire pit called agnikuñda. Hawan seems to be designed by the ancient scholars to fight with the diseases of the brain. Our metadata analysis demonstrates that the components of Hawan are having a number of volatile oils that are specifically useful for epilepsy through one or the other mechanism of action. Due to high temperature of fire the vapors of these oils enter into the central nervous system through nasal route. The routine of performing Hawan might keep the threshold value of the therapeutic components in the body and help in preventing epilepsy. In the present manuscript authors have tried to highlight and integrate the modern and ancient concepts for treatment and prevention of epilepsy.

Ashtawarga plants – Suffering a triple standardization syndrome

Ayurveda is one of the oldest known holistic health care systems recommending diverse medicinal uses of plants for prevention and cure of diseases and illness. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the holistic system is gaining more popularity due to its easy availability, low cost, congeniality, better accessibility and higher safety than allopathic medicine. Demand of herbal drugs is increasing day-by-day because of increasing popularity of herbal drugs; however market fails to meet this supply due to numerous factors, one of the important factors being the extinction of these plants from local flora. About 560 herbal species of India have been included in the Red List of Threatened species. Hence to overcome problem of non-availability of endangered species, Department of AYUSH, Govt. of India has permitted the substitution of rare herbal drugs with available substitutes on the basis of Ayurvedic concepts. Due to this, herbal drug industry has started exploiting the situation and now Ayurvedic products are suffering from a serious problem of adulteration with addition of spoiled, inferior, spurious drugs that are inferior in therapeutic/chemical properties and used to enhance profits. Adulteration with other plants degrades the quality and credibility of Ayurvedic medicine. Ashtawarga plants being an important part of many Ayurvedic formulations are also available in a very limited amount and likely to be substituted by cheap adulterants. Keeping in view the above situation, a metadata analysis has been conducted to find out types of adulteration/substitutions malpractices going on for Ashtawarga plants.

Development of Economic Herbal Based Drug Substitute from Citrus paradisi (Grape fruit) for Existing Anti-anxiety Drug Modules

Persistent and unrelenting stress often leads to anxiety and unhealthy behavior. Benzodiazepines are used as a first line of treatment however difficulties with pharmacotherapy of anxiety disorders such as dependence and low response rate encourage researchers to find new approaches. A number of studies have been done on antianxiety activity of medicinal plants but major constraint is non suitability of the tested plant material for human use and non availability of plant materials in bulk at economical rates. This study entails to development of safe anti-anxiety economic drug of easy availability. In normal course aromatic oils from plant are being used however authors selected four varieties of plant Citrus paradisi available worldwide and tested the anti-anxiety activity of leaf extracts as leaf extracts can be made available at commercial scale. All the selected varieties have demonstrated a potential diazepam like effect in methanolic extracts at a dose of 100 mg/kg body weight using elevated plus maze model. The results strongly justify the use of Citrus paradisi leaf extracts for treatment of anxiety. Further studies are in progress to find out active component involved in the anti-anxiety effect.

Innate antioxidant activity of some traditional formulations

Herbal medicine is the oldest form of healthcare known to humanity. Recently, much attention is being directed toward the use of antioxidants. There are some very commonly used Ayurvedic preparations that might have inbuilt antioxidant activity, and their therapeutic potential can be partially attributable to its antioxidant activity. Hence, it was proposed to find out antioxidant activity of such common formulations. Estimation of innate antioxidant activity of some commonly used traditional formulations. In this study, five formulations were evaluated for antioxidant activity in comparison to gallic acid (standard) using the in vitro reducing power method and superoxide radical scavenging activity by dimethyl sulfoxide method followed by calculation of scavenging activity and inhibitory concentration 50% (IC 50 ). The result shows that Ayurvedic drug extracts possess good reducing power and antioxidant activity. Laxmivilas Ras shows higher reducing power ranging from 117 ± 0.021 to 0.176 ± 0.012 as compared to other extracts. The drug extracts were also found to be an efficient scavenger of superoxide radical. The IC 50 values for Laxmivilas Ras, Agnitundi Vati, Ajmodadi Churna, Tribhuvankirti Rasa, gallic acid (standard) and Sitopladi Churna, were found to be 50.07, 98.41, 105.13, 116.39, 176.80, and 200.17, respectively. From this study, it can be concluded that the above Ayurvedic formulations possess antioxidant property. However, work could be initiated on the isolation and identification of these antioxidant components.

Inferior rectus muscle ocular cysticercosis: A case report

Cysticercosis is a systemic parasitic disease caused by the larval form of cestode Taenia solium. It has a worldwide distribution and is potentially harmful with variable clinical manifestations. The most commonly involved sites include eye, brain, bladder wall, and heart. Ocular cysticercosis can be extraocular or intraocular and may present with varied clinical symptoms. We report the condition in a thirteen year old female child who presented with mild lower lid swelling and diplopia in upgaze, wherein cysticercus cellulosae cyst was found within the mass of the right inferior rectus muscle. It becomes important to report this case because of the relative rarity of the condition these days, unusual site of the cyst and the young age of the patient.

Method for Detection of miRNAs in Non-Model Organisms with Unreported Database

Non-model organisms are studied very frequently, as a simple accessible and convenient system to investigate the role of miRNAs in particular aspect of biology or disease. However, the unavailability of the annotated genome and hence miRNA database of these non-model organisms pose a major constraint for using them more efficiently. Here, we describe a new method to identify miRNAs in non-model organisms without complex sequencing strategies and using miRNAs from close relative organisms as proxy/reference sequences.

Development and validation of a stability-indicating RP-HPLC method for simultaneous determination of dapagliflozin and saxagliptin in fixed-dose combination

A simple and precise stability indicating method for the simultaneous estimation of dapagliflozin and saxagliptin in combined tablet dosage form was developed and validated using RP-HPLC. The chromatographic separation of the drugs was achieved with an Xterra C-18 analytical column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., particle size 3.5 μ) using buffer and acetonitrile (53 : 47 v/v) as the mobile phase. The buffer used in mobile phase contained 20 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate and its pH was adjusted to 5.5 ± 0.02 with orthophosphoric acid. The instrument was set at a flow rate of 1.2 mL min−1 at ambient temperature and the wavelength of the UV-visible detector was 230 nm. The method showed excellent linearity over a range of 2–14 μg mL−1 for all the drugs. The correlation coefficients for dapagliflozin and saxagliptin were noted to be 0.997 and 0.996, respectively. The mean recovery values were found to be 99.16% and 100.58%. The proposed method could be suitable for quantitative determination of these drugs in pharmaceutical preparations and also for quality control in bulk manufacturing. Stress testing, which covered acid, base, peroxide, photolytic and thermal degradation, was performed on each test to prove the specificity of the method and that the degradation was achieved. No interferences were observed from the stress degradation products. The F-test and t-test at 95% confidence level were applied to the data for statistical analysis.

Nutraceuticals in prevention of cataract – An evidence based approach

Cataract is a principal cause of blindness in the world and is characterized by clouding of eye’s natural lens. Surgery is the major therapeutic step taken to cure cataract; however, it is having its own limitations and complications such as iris prolapse, raised IOP, infection, cystoid macular edema and posterior capsular opacification (PCO). So world is looking toward more robust and natural ways to prevent cataract. One of the important factors that can play a role in prevention of any and many diseases is diet of the people. The inclusion of certain naturally occurring food and nutraceuticals is coming up as a best alternative for curing cataract because of their presumed safety, potential nutritional and therapeutic effects. Some nutraceuticals can act as an anticataract agent through some or the other molecular mechanism if consumed by normal population deliberately or inadvertently.