Metabolism mediated interaction of α-asarone and Acorus calamus with CYP3A4 and CYP2D6

The present study was aimed to investigate the possible interaction of the standardized extract of Acorus calamus (AC) with Cytochrome P450 enzyme, quantitative determination of the α-asarone in the AC rhizome was performed by RP-HPLC method. In vitro interaction of the plant extract was evaluated by CYP450-carbon monoxide complex (CYP450-CO) assay. Effect on individual isoforms such as CYP3A4 and CYP2D6 isozymes were analyzed through fluorescence product formation and respective IC₅₀ values were determined. CYP450-CO assay showed moderate interaction potential. Extract showed higher IC₅₀ values (46.84 ± 1.83-32.99 ± 2.21 μg/ml) comparing to the standard inhibitors and lower IC₅₀ value than α-asarone (65.16 ± 2.37-42.15 ± 2.45 μg/ml).     

Studies on structural integrity of polyester-cotton friction spun yarn by cycling extension test

Yarns and fabrics are subjected to a low level of stresses or strains of repetitive nature in processing and actual use which leads to breakage, permanent deformation, bagging and loss of useful life of the product. The ability of the spun yarns and fabrics to withstand such stresses depends upon their structural integrity. A structurally rigid yarn (i.e. yarns in which fibres are tightly bound) would behave more like an elastic solid and consume more energy during deformation as the constituent fibres have to be deformed. Once the strain is released, the recovered energy will also be more. On the other hand if the structural integrity of the same yarn is poor, fibres would easily slip during deformation and would consume much less energy. The recoverable energy also will be much less. The present investigation reports on the structural integrity of friction spun yarns in terms of energy loss or decay by employing cyclic extension test. It has been observed that friction spun yarns in which the core is immediately wrapped by long and strong polyester fibre layer make the structure strongest as polyester is expected to form tight wrappings. The decay in deformation energies during extension cycling depends upon sheath structure i.e. its composition and location of constituent fibres in sheath layers. With increase in core fibre %, the decay has been found to increase. However, the decay values discriminate more between core% differences than between sheath fibre layer arrangements.     

Tubifex production using agro-industrial wastes and raw cattle dung

ABSTRACT

Tubifex (Tubifex tubifex) was cultured in captivity using three different wastes: rice mill sludge (RMS), dairy sludge (DS), and raw cattle dung (RCD). Three experiments were conducted: 10, 20, and 30 days. A total of 100 g of tubifex at 62.5 g m^?2 was inoculated in 1.6 m² fiberglass-reinforced plastic tanks. Comparing all production parameters, RMS > DS > RCD. Growth rate (g m^?2 d^?1) did not differ among durations. RMS- and DS-fed tubifex contained higher protein and fat than RCD-fed tubifex. Efficiency on production of g tubifex per kg of waste material was highest at 10 days, declining with time for all waste materials. This experiment suggests that RMS and DS are effective wastes for tubifex culture, with total production increasing with no reduction in growth rate through 30 days, but with efficiency declining after 10 days.     

Involvement of Bacillus licheniformis and Micrococcus kristinae During Ripening of Salt Fermented Indian Shad (Tenualosa ilisha)

ABSTRACT

“Lona ilish” is a salt fermented fish product prepared exclusively from fatty Indian shad (Tenualosa ilisha). Despite the presence of salt and metals coming from the container used for fermentation, rancidity is not observed as long as the products are kept immersed in the fermenting brine. To understand the technical principles of this indigenous preservation method, the traditional preparation was followed along with analyses of chemical and microbiological changes. The biochemical and microbiological changes were followed at 15 day intervals during the fermentation period of 150 days. From the 45th day of fermentation onwards, the microbial flora in the product was composed of only two species, tentatively identified as Bacillus licheniformis and Micrococcus kristinae. Because Bacillus licheniformis showed some atypical biochemical reactions, it was tentatively identified as Bacillus licheniformis var. III. These two bacterial species either singly or collectively were involved in the fermentation process.     

A neural network model for prediction of strength loss in threads during high speed industrial sewing

In this paper artificial neural network (ANN) model has been designed to predict the strength loss in threads during high speed industrial sewing. Four different types of threads (Mercerized cotton, polyester staple spun, polyester-cotton core spun and polyester-polyester core spun) were taken for the study. The other input parameters include thread linear density, fabric area density, number of fabric layers, stitch density and needle size. In order to reduce the dependency of the results on a specific partition of the data into training and testing sets, a four-way cross validation tests were performed, i.e. total data was divided into training and testing set in four different ways. The predicted tenacity loss was correlated to the experimental tenacity loss and correlation coefficient between the actual and predicted tenacity loss obtained. It was observed that the neural network system is able to predict the tenacity loss of threads after sewing with good correlation and less average error. The relative contribution of each parameter to the overall prediction of the tenacity loss was studied by carrying out the sensitivity analysis of the test data set. The results of sensitivity analysis show that thread type is the most important input parameter followed by thread linear density, number of fabric layers, fabric area density, needle size and the stitch density.     

Phytochemical screening, cytotoxicity and antibacterial activities of two Bangladeshi medicinal plants

The objectives of the present study were to investigate phytochemical screening and to assay cytotoxicity and antibacterial activities of ethanolic extracts of leaves of two medicinal plants, Aglaonema hookerianum Schott (Family: Araceae) and Lannea grandis Engl. (Family: Anacardiaceae) available in Bangladesh. The brine shrimp lethality bioassay showed that the ethanolic extracts of Aglaonema hookerianum and Lannea grandis possessed cytotoxic activities with LC50 5.25 (microg mL(-1)) and 5.75 (microg mL(-1)) and LC90 10.47 (microg mL(-1)) and 9.55 (microg mL(-1)), respectively. Two extracts obtained from leaves were examined for their antibacterial activities against some gram positive bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium and Staphylococcus aureus, also gram negative strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Shigella dysenteriae, Salmonella typhi, Salmonella paratyphi and Vibrio cholerae. Agar disc diffusion method was applied to observe the antibacterial efficacy of the extracts. Results indicated that both plant extracts (500 microg disc(-1)) displayed antibacterial activity against all of the tested microorganisms. These results were also compared with the zones of inhibition produced by commercially available standard antibiotic, Amoxicillin at concentration of 10 microg disc(-1). Observed antibacterial properties of the ethanolic extract of Aglaonema hookerianum Schott and Lannea grandis Engl. showed that both plants might be useful sources for the development of new potent antibacterial agents.     

Identification of sperm motility markers in bovine transition protein genes

Transition proteins (TNPs) are essential in chromatin condensation during spermiogenesis, and hence, they are the candidate genes for identifying sperm motility markers. Coding and in silico predicted promoter regions of these genes were investigated in crossbred and purebred cattle, and also, their mRNA quantification was done to explore its use as a diagnostic tool of infertility. PCR‐SSCP analysis revealed two band patterns in fragment III of TNP1 and fragment II of TNP2 gene. Sequence analysis revealed a deletion of “G” nucleotide in 3′UTR region of TNP1 and C>T SNP in intronic region of TNP2 gene. Least square analysis of variance did not reveal any significant influence of nucleotide deletion on any sperm motility parameters in both crossbred and purebred cattle. However, C>T SNP had a significant effect on initial progressive motility (p < 0.05) in purebred cattle and post‐thaw motility in overall cattle population. RT‐qPCR analysis did not reveal any significant variation in TNP1 and TNP2 gene expression among poorly motile and good quality spermatozoa of Vrindavani bulls.