Antibiotic Prescriptions Pattern in Paediatric In-Patient Department Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Guwahati.

The objective of the study was to determine the antibiotic prescriptions pattern and to analyze the rationale use of antibiotic in Paediatric in-patient department of Gauhati Medical College & Hospital, Guwahati (GMCH), Assam. An observational and prospective study was carried out for 1 month duration between April to May 2011. The details of the patients were being recorded in a specific format and results were analyzed by descriptive statistic and expressed as mean ±SD. Out of 200 patients, 132 prescriptions received antibiotics, where 77 were male child and 55 were female child. The mean age of the patients was 4.13 ± 3.75 years. The number of antibiotics per prescription was 1.41 ± 0.67. The duration of antibiotic therapy was 6.05 ± 3.45 days and length of hospitalization was 8.91±5.35. In our study, 71% of paediatric patients were on single antibiotic and most of the paediatric patients were receiving parental preparation. Maximum Antibiotic prescriptions were found in the age group of 5-12 years. Cephalosporins (41.5%) were the most commonly prescribed antibiotic group. The most commonly found antibiotics combination in our study were Amoxycillin and Clavulanic acid & Cefotaxime and Sulbactum. The antibiotic prescription should be done in accordance with WHO guidelines and rational strategies should be implemented in order to control antibiotic use mainly focus on patient population especially in children and infants.

Protease from Sporosarcina sp. RRLJ 1.

Protease was isolated from Sporosarcina RRLJ1 which was collected from acid tea (Camellia sinensis) plantations. It showed potential for production of the enzyme for commercial purposes. The study revealed that optimum pH for growth of the organism was 6.5-7 and supplement of casein (1%) in the medium was required for production of protease. Enzyme production and enzyme activity was maximum in 72 hr old broth culture. Maximum activity of the enzyme was found at pH 6.5.

Plant beneficial effect of two strains of Proteus vulgaris isolated from tea plantations.

Two strains of Proteus isolated from tea plantation soil were tested for their ability to colonise the roots of gram (Cicer arietinum), bean (Phaseolus radiatus) and mung (Phaseolus mungo) using a gnotobiotic system. Seeds bacterized with the two strains grew faster and showed significant increase in root and shoot enlargement of the plants tested. The bioactive fractions obtained from the culture filtrates and separated through HPLC showed that the plant growth promoting fractions were not always fungicidal and that the insecticidal fraction which was found only in RRLJ 16 was not plant growth promoting. These results suggest that the plant growth promotion effect of the plant beneficial bacteria may not always be due to disease suppression.

Fungicidal and insect controlling properties of Proteus strain RRLJ 16, isolated from tea, Camellia sinensis (L) O Kuntze, plantations.

A strain of Proteus RRLJ 16, isolated from acid (pH 4.5-5.5) iron rich tea (Camellia sinensis) plantation soil, produced siderophores with single absorption peak at 370 nm when cultured in iron free medium. Extracted crude fraction of siderophores and live cultures showed in vitro antibiosis against five species of pathogenic fungi. When the strain was cultured in a normal bacteriological medium without iron stress, it produced an insect repellent compound. The culture filtrate sprayed (dilution of 1:100 in water) on tea plants infected with pink mites or green flies, the insect populations disappeared from the plants. Termite galleries sprayed similarly showed no termite activity after 24 hr of spraying. No reinfestation by insects was observed on treated plants for more than one year.