Drugs and bioactive molecules screening tests

The present investigation was carried out to determine the possible bioactive components of tuber of Ruellia tuberosa L. (Acanthaceae) using GC-MS analysis. Twenty five compounds were identified. The prevailing compounds in the ethanol extract of tuber of R. tuberosa were Lupeol (68.14%), Stigmasterol (8.89%), á-Sitosterol (3.99%), Sucrose (2.24%), Cholest-5-ene, 3-bromo-, (3á- (2.24%), Octadecane, 2-methyl- (2.10%), Nonadecane, 2-methyl- (1.93%), Eicosane, 2-methyl- (1.79%) Heptacosane (1.43%) and Heptacosane (1.29%).

Abstract

Doping in elite-sport is a topical issue that polarizes public opinion. This dissertation outlines crucial, fundamental questions that go unasked in general discourse about doping in elite-sport and that through being answered will allow the debate to be had at more meaningful level. 

This interdisciplinary dissertation draws widely on: scientific journal entries, textbooks, multimedia and official documents in subjects of biochemistry, biology, psychology and ethics.

A comprehensive, balanced, inter-disciplinary approach to the research that was used to form this dissertation allows for a multifactorial coverage of the issues addressed and means that, at the very least, the conclusions made have some equity.

This​ dissertation examines include: what doping is and who decides, the (not so) valiant institutional structures through which doping detection is currently undertaken, and what the current prevalence of doping is likely to be.  It aims to answer two questions: (i) is the playing field levelled by the current paradigm of doping prohibition? and (ii) in this human world, there are many examples of ideals that only fitfully work in reality, but is this an argument for not making the effort to put ideals into practice?

Through this research it can be concluded that doping is far more pervasive that WADA's statistics would suggest, doping detection methods are unfit for purpose, it is questionable whether the true motives for those who organise testing are more political than egalitarian and there are great genetic dissimilarities between elite-athletes (who are, as a group, already genetically superior to the rest of the population in terms of athletic potential).

All of these conclusions highlight that elite-sport has never and probably will never be an even playing field.  Looking forward, there are far-reaching moral and political implications for organised testing.

The General Safety Test is an animal test for the detection of extraneous toxic contaminants and one which is sometimes undertaken for biological products intended for administration to humans. In the European Pharmacopoeia, the test is referred to as the ‘Abnormal Toxicity Test’; whereas in the United States Pharmacopeia, the test is the ‘General Safety Test’. Aside from some relatively minor differences relating to the size of the animals used, the numbers required, and with the interpretation of animals that appear ‘distressed’, the two compendial tests are essentially the same.

Medicinal plant Bixa orellana L. has been traditionally used in several regions of the world to treat a number of ailment including internal inflammation, gastric ulcer and stomach discomfort. The aim of this study was to determine the in vitro antibacterial activity of Bixa orellana L. against some pathogenic bacterial strains and compare with some standard antibiotics. Methanolic leaf extracts of Bixa orellana L. were analyzed for their antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria including Gram positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis, Sarcinalutea) and Gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Shigella dysenteriae, Klebsiella pneumonia, Proteus vulgaris) by disc diffusion assay. The zone of inhibition produced by methanolic extracts of Bixa orellana L comparing with standard antibiotics discs showed moderately significant antibacterial activity against almost all of the tested bacterial strains except Salmonella typhi which gave promising clear zone (14mm). The methnolic extract showed significantly remarkable results at minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 5 mg/ml against two Gram positive bacteria, B. subtilis, S. lutea and one Gram negative bacteria S. dysenteriae while four other Gram negative bacteria e.g., E. coli, S. typhi, K. pneumonia and P. vulgaris with their MIC value of 10 mg/mL. The study suggests that Bixa orellana L. could be a potential antibacterial agent in future.

Introduction
As a response to the anti-malarial drug resistance situation, the
World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that treatment
policies for falciparum malaria  in all countries experiencing
resistance to monotherapies should be combination therapies,
preferably those containing an arteminisin derivative (ACT-artemisinin-based combination therapy).
Methodology
A retrospective quantitative study was designed to examine case
records of patients treated for malaria in a tertiary health hospital
in Jos, Northern part of Nigeria between August and December
2012. Questionaires were also distributed to doctors working
within the hospital environment. Data on demographic, clinical
features of disease, diagnostic procedures and drug administration
were collected from the patients' records.
Results
Case record files of 130 patients were selected, 80.7% of the
patients were prescribed antimalarial drugs. 55.2% of patients
admitted for malaria were males, 44.8% were between 21-50 years
of age. Fever (35.2%) was the most common presenting symptom,
71.4% of the patients had diagnostic blood slides. Antimalarial
drugs were prescribed for malaria and malaria associated with
other disease conditions, artemisinin and lumefantrine was the
most prescribed antimalarial agent. 44.0% of these drugs were
prescribed by trade names, 29.0% were administered orally. The
most antimalarial drug prescribed for prevention of malaria in
pregnant women was sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, all the
practitioners followed current WHO guidelines  , half of the
clinicians would prescribe parenteral antimalarial drugs for severe
and cerebral malaria, laboratory and clinical assessment were used
for malaria diagnosis, 71.4% of the physicians adhered to hospital
guidelines.
Conclusion
This study indicates the implementation of artemisinin
combination therapy in a public health facility; however the
success of this new treatment policy would depend on patient
adherence to recommendations and provision of ACTs at
subsidized costs in Nigeria.

Five new alkaloids have been isolated from the lipophilic extract of the Antarctic tunicate Synoicum sp. Deep-sea specimens of Synoicum sp. were collected during a 2011 cruise of the R/V Nathanial B. Palmer to the southern Scotia Arc, Antarctica. Crude extracts from the invertebrates obtained during the cruise were screened in a zebrafish-based phenotypic assay. The Synoicum sp. extract induced embryonic dysmorphology characterized by axis truncation, leading to the isolation of aminopyrimidine substituted indolone (1–4) and indole (5–12) alkaloids. While the primary bioactivity tracked with previously reported meridianins A–G (5–11), further investigation resulted in the isolation and characterization of australindolones A–D (1–4) and the previously unreported meridianin H (12).

The use and commercial applications of biosurfactants in the petroleum industries have been raised during the past decades. Marine bacteria and their efficiency in crude oil recovery has been less studied than terrestrial strain, hence this present study. A novel marine bacterium Bacillus simplex having promising biosurfactant production was isolated from a petroleum hydrocarbon-contaminated coastal sea sediment samples of Nagapattinam fishing harbor, Tamil Nadu, India. This strain showed most economical biosurfactant production with an agro-industrial waste substrate, sunflower oil cake at 54th h time incubation along with the cultural conditions of 20 ppt salinity, 35 °C temperature, and pH 7. The produced biosurfactant was purified, which was accounted at 908 ± 7 mg/L on dry weight basis. The biosurfactant was identified as lipopeptide with a molecular mass of 1111.1 Da which was deduced using TLC, biochemical estimation methods, FT-IR, NMR, and MALDI-TOF MS analysis. Furthermore, this purified lipopeptide surfactant showed consistent and enhanced crude oil recovering efficiency under different salinity conditions (0–30%). Based on the above facts, the isolated novel marine bacterium proved its cheaper production of novel biosurfactant and its promising oil recovering efficiency even at hypersaline conditions. Further, this is the first report of a biosurfactant from the bacterium Bacillus simplex.

The main objective of this research was to elevate the better combination of known herbal drugs (Curcuma longa, Coriander sativum and Occimum sativum) for better anti-ulcer activity. Herbal extracts prepared from shade dried rhizomes, leaves using alcohol and water as solvents by soxhlet extraction, further all the extracts were subjected to preliminary phytochemical analysis. It was found out that, the extracts consists of alkaloids, glycosides, carbohydrates, steroids, proteins, amino acids, tannins, fixed oils and volatile oils. The anti-ulcer activity of polyherbral extracts was estimated in Albino rats weighing 150-200gms using pylorus ligation method. Biochemical parameters like ulcer index, total and free acidity, acid volume and pH were estimated in alcoholic and aqueous extracts. The alcoholic extract at a concentration of 400mg/kg produced more effect on ulcer induced models when compared with standard drug cimetidine (10mg/kg) with respect to other concentrations alcoholic extract significantly raised pH of gastric content, lowered the free and total acidity and ulcer index compared with control group. The results our conclusion was, the alcoholic extract exhibited more significant activity than aqueous activity.

and negatively charged micro vesicles render a preparation with procoagulant and proinflammatory activity. a reduced posttransfusion 24-hour recovery in vivo, and a poorer outcome of patients transfused with aged RBC preparations has also been described. To examine the redox condition of packed RBC, intracellular low and high molecular weight sulfhydryls were evaluated. Besides low molecular weight thiol oxidation, important changes on the oxidation and oligomerization states of peroxiredoxin 2 (Prx2) were observed by diagonal electrophoresis and western blot. Prx2 is a typical 2 Cys peroxiredoxin and the most abundant antioxidant enzyme in RBC. the predominant reduced monomeric form of Prx2 present at day 0 was substituted by high molecular weight oligomers in samples stored for 42 days under blood bank conditions. This oxidative status can be responsible for disrupting the cellular membrane. in fact, free thiobarbituric acid reactive substances appeared in the extracellular milieu accompanied by an increase in extracorpuscular hemoglobin. the possibility that these changes induced by ageing under the storage conditions of the blood bank could be responsible for triggering the activation of macrophages and the subsequent production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species by these cells is being explored.