Rajiv Gupta

Heavy metals and living systems: An overview

Heavy metals are natural constituents of the earths crust, but indiscriminate human activities have drastically altered their geochemical cycles and biochemical balance. This results in accumulation of metals in plant parts having secondary metabolites, which is responsible for a particular pharmacological activity. Prolonged exposure to heavy metals such as cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc can cause deleterious health effects in humans. Molecular understanding of plant metal accumulation has numerous biotechnological implications also, the long term effects of which might not be yet known.

Bioavailability enhancers of herbal origin: An overview

Recently, the use of herbal medicines has been increased all over the world due to their therapeutic effects and fewer adverse effects as compared to the modern medicines. However, many herbal drugs and herbal extracts despite of their impressive in-vitro findings demonstrates less or negligible in-vivo activity due to their poor lipid solubility or improper molecular size, resulting in poor absorption and hence poor bioavailability. Nowadays with the advancement in the technology, novel drug delivery systems open the door towards the development of enhancing bioavailability of herbal drug delivery systems. For last one decade many novel carriers such as liposomes, microspheres, nanoparticles, transferosomes, ethosomes, lipid based systems etc. have been reported for successful modified delivery of various herbal drugs. Many herbal compounds including quercetin, genistein, naringin, sinomenine, piperine, glycyrrhizin and nitrile glycoside have demonstrated capability to enhance the bioavailability. The objective of this review is to summarize various available novel drug delivery technologies which have been developed for delivery of drugs (herbal), and to achieve better therapeutic response. An attempt has also been made to compile a profile on bioavailability enhancers of herbal origin with the mechanism of action (wherever reported) and studies on improvement in drug bioavailability, exhibited particularly by natural compounds.

Herbs–Are they Safe Enough? An Overview

Drugs based on herbs have become a common form of therapy as well as for prophylaxis because they are often perceived as being natural and therefore harmless. Today they are one of the hottest trends and most sought after in the field of nutrition or herbal therapeutics. As the use of complementary medicine grows, so does the knowledge that many compounds in common use not only have a significant effect on the body but may also interact with pharmaceuticals and also with other alternative products. Concurrent use of herbs with drugs may mimic, magnify, or oppose the effect of drugs leading to herb-drug interactions. Currently, there is very little information published on herb-herb or herb-drug interactions as compared to the use of herbs which is progressively growing across the world. Many reports of herb-drug interactions are sketchy and lack laboratory analysis of suspect preparations. Health-care practitioners should caution patients against mixing herbs and pharmaceutical drugs. The article reviews the recent literature on the adverse effects of herbal remedies including the most widely sold herbal medicinal products, like liquorice, garlic, ginger, green tea, and turmeric, etc., and reinforce the safety aspect of herbal products, which are considered to be relatively safe by common people.

Zinc: The Metal of Life

The importance of zinc was 1st reported for Aspergillus niger. It took over 75 y to realize that zinc is also an essential trace element for rats, and an additional 30 y went by before it was recognized that this was also true for humans. The adult body contains about 2 to 3 g of zinc. Zinc is found in organs, tissues, bones, fluids, and cells. It is essential for many physiological functions and plays a significant role in a number of enzyme actions in the living systems. Bioinformatics estimates report that 10% of the human proteome contains zinc-binding sites. Based on its role in such a plethora of cellular components, zinc has diverse biological functions from enzymatic catalysis to playing a crucial role in cellular neuronal systems. Thus, based on the various published studies and reports, it is pertinent to state that zinc is one of the most important essential trace metals in human nutrition and lifestyle. Its deficiency may severely affect the homeostasis of a biological system. This review compiles the role of zinc in prophylaxis/therapeutics and provides current information about its effect on living beings.

Problems associated with clinical trials of Ayurvedic medicines

Herbal drugs have been used since ancient times as medicines for the treatment of various diseases. Especially in countries like India many of herbal drugs and formulations are used in different practices of treatment like Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani. It is estimated that about 25% of all modern medicines are directly or indirectly derived from plants sources. The contribution of developing countries in global herbal business is very poor due to lack of quality control and standardization measures. There is lack of common standards and appropriate methods for evaluating Traditional Medicine to ensure the safety, efficacy and quality control. This indicates the importance and necessity to develop a standard operational procedure for the standardization of herbal drugs and formulations. Benchmarking the evaluation protocols including both quality control and quality assurance of herbal drugs would play a major role in providing highly reliable and effective herbals drugs and to attract international trade, thus generating revenue. The article highlights various problems being faced by developing countries and suggests a unique approach for the preparation of SOP/guidelines for the standardization of all herbal based formulations, also there is a need for systematic clinical trials of traditional plant based medicines to enhance global acceptance

Mimosa pudica L. (Laajvanti): An overview

Mimosa pudica L. (Mimosaceae) also referred to as touch me not, live and die, shame plant and humble plant is a prostrate or semi-erect subshrub of tropical America and Australia, also found in India heavily armed with recurved thorns and having sensitive soft grey green leaflets that fold and droop at night or when touched and cooled. These unique bending movements have earned it a status of ‘curiosity plant’. It appears to be a promising herbal candidate to undergo further exploration as evident from its pharmacological profile. It majorly possesses antibacterial, antivenom, antifertility, anticonvulsant, antidepressant, aphrodisiac, and various other pharmacological activities. The herb has been used traditionally for ages, in the treatment of urogenital disorders, piles, dysentery, sinus, and also applied on wounds. This work is an attempt to explore and compile the different pharmacognostic aspects of the action plant M. pudica reported till date.

Pistia stratiotes (Jalkumbhi)

Pistia stratiotes (Family: Araceae) is commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine. This review article is a compilation of all the updated information on its phytochemical and pharmacological activities, which were performed by different methods. Studies indicate that P. stratiotes possesses diuretic, antidiabetic, antidermatophytic, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties. These results are very encouraging and indicate that this plant should be studied more extensively to confirm the reproducibility of these results and also to reveal other potential therapeutic effects, along with some “leads” with possible isolation of active biomoieties and their mechanism of action.

Phytochemical investigation characterisation and anticonvulsant activity of Ricinus communis seeds in mice

The ethanol extract of the dried, powdered hull portion of Ricinus communis seeds indicated the presence of alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids, glycosides and phenolics, amongst others. Ricinine was isolated as an active constituent and characterised by various chemical and spectroscopic techniques. The anticonvulsant activity of the isolated compound was evaluated in mice using the maximal electroshock (MES) model. The isolated compound at a dose of 60u2009mgu2009kg−1 body weight, orally, significantly (pu2009<u20090.05) reduced the extensor tonus phase of convulsion by MES-induced seizures in albino mice when compared with the standard drug diazepam (30u2009mgu2009kg−1 body weight, orally). The results of this study support the folkloric use of the plant in epileptic remedies.

Detection and quantification of quercetin in roots, leaves and flowers of Clerodendrum infortunatum L.

Abstract Objective To detect and quantify the concentrations of Quercetin in the root, leaves and flower test sample of Clerodendrum infortunatum L. Method In the present study High Performance Thin Layer Chromatography has been developed for detection and quantification of Quercetin in Clerodendrum infortunatum L. Increasing serial dilutions of reference standard Quercetin (20 to 100 μg/ml) were scanned at 366 nm to detect and quantify the concentrations of Quercetin in the test sample. Result The estimated values obtained from the same were 0.05mg/g, 0.111mg/g and 0.199mg/g of Quercetin in powdered root, leaves and flower sample respectively. Conclusion The method provided a rapid and easy approach for detection and the quantitation of the bio-marker Quercetin. In the present study we established the HPTLC profile for the vegetative and reproductive parts of Clerodendrum infortunatum L. to detect and quantify the Quercetin.

Nootropic potential of Alternanthera sessilis and Clerodendrum infortunatum leaves on mice

Abstract Objective To ascertain the nootropic potential (memory enhancing effects) of the leaves of Alternanthera sessilis (Amaranthaceae) and Clerodendrum infortunatum (Verbenaceae) using rectangular maze and Y maze (interoceptive behavioral models) Methods Methanolic extracts of leaves Alternanthera sessilis and Clerodendrum infortunatum dosed at 100 and 200 mg/kg each were administered to adult Swiss albino Wistar mice and the effect on acquisition, retention and retrieval of spatial recognition memory was determined. Bacopa monniera extract was used as the standard drug while Scopolamine hydrobromide served as the amnestic agent. Results The higher doses of both the extracts exhibited a more promising nootropic potential. Maximal response was observed in the 200 mg/kg dose of Clerodendrum infortunatum methanolic extract, which closely approximated the results for the standard drug Brahmi. Both the higher doses elicited greater responses in both the models studied and were comparable to that achieved with the standard drug. Conclusions The methanolic extracts of Clerodendrum infortunatum afforded greater memory enhancing effects in comparison to Alternanthera sessilis extract, the higher dose evoking pronounced alteration behavior and better learning assessments.