Evaluation of the Pharmaceutical Quality of Different Brands of Ranitidine Tablets Manufactured in Bangladesh: A Pharmaceutical and Public Health Prospective.

Drug counterfeiting and production of substandard drug is a global problem. Substandard or counterfeit drugs are threat for the effective treatment of diseases and highly worsen the quality of life of patients. This study was aimed to assess the pharmaceutical quality of ranitidine hydrochloride tablets manufactured in Bangladesh. Tablets were collected from different parts of Bangladesh and quality parameters were evaluated according to the United States Pharmacopoeia and the British Pharmacopoeial methods. The potency of tablets was measured spectrophotometrically. Weight variation and disintegration time were performed according to pharmaceutical monographs. Among 43 brands tested, 8 failed to comply with the USP specification (active ingredient: 90±10%) due to containing of less amount of ranitidine of which 6 brands were spurious and 2 were substandard in nature. Two brands did not comply with the specification for weight variation of tablets whereas all brands passed disintegration time test. The findings clearly demonstrate the production of substandard ranitidine tablets in Bangladesh. The drug control authority of Bangladesh should take effective steps to prevent the production of substandard drugs to secure public health.

Toxicological Investigation of Ethanolic Extract of Epipremnum aureum in Rodents.

The present study was aimed to explore the acute and sub chronic toxicity studies with orally administered ethanolic leave extract of Epipremnum aureum. For the acute toxicity study, the animals were divided into four groups and each group receives a dose of (50, 500, 2000) mg/kg except control group which receives only 1% CMC. They were observed for 14days for signs of toxicity. In case of sub chronic toxicity, the Sprague dawley rats were fed with ethanol extract (100, 600, and 1000) mg/kg per day for 28 days. The parameters measured include organ weight, biochemical test, haematological test and histopathological observations. Acute oral administration of Epipremnum aureum did not show any mortality, CNS and ANS toxicities. Similarly in subchronic toxicity studies, Epipremnum aureum did not show any visible signs of toxicity. There were also no significant differences between the control and extract treated groups in terms of their organ weight, haematological and biochemical parameters. Histopathological examination did not reveal any remarkable and treatment related changes. A no-observed adverse-effect level for extract is 2000 mg/kg for rats under the conditions of this study. Hence, the extracts could be considered safe at the doses administered since they did not provoke toxic effect on the key organs examined and also did not alter any biochemical and haematological parameters.