Prospective evaluation of the diagnostic potential of LipL32 based latex agglutination test for Bovine leptospirosis

@#The Livestock Sector of India plays an important role in livelihood security and socioeconomic development of rural households. Leptospirosis is an important zoonotic disease responsible for septicaemia, interstitial nephritis, jaundice, abortion, reproductive problem in most of the animal species. Reproductive disturbances in bovine population is most often restricted to investigation of brucellosis, however apart from brucellosis, there are many undiagnosed diseases like leptospirosis that takes a toll in the reproductive anomalies of cattle and buffalo. Hence, the present study was elucidated to screen the seroprevalence of Leptospira in cattle and buffalo in various hamlets of North India using a user friendly screening test i.e. LipL32 latex agglutination test. The overall seropositivity was found to be 26.01% (230/884) in case of bovine in this study and the LipL32 LAT showed a profound sensitivity and specificity with level of 94.97% and 99.53% respectively.

A report on pharmacognostical evaluation of four Adiantum species, Pteridophyta, for their authentication and quality control

Genus Adiantum L., Pteridaceae, is an important fern used in traditional systems of medicine. Different species of Adiantum are known as avenca in Brazil; hansraj/hanmspadi in India; maiden hair fern in English. The present study aims to develop the quality control parameters of four similar looking Adiantum species viz. A. capillus-veneris L., A. lunulatum Burm. f., A. peruvianum Klotzsch, and A. venustum D. Don. Standard methods for macro-microscopic evaluation, physico-chemical parameters and HPTLC were used for authentication and identification. The salient distinctive characters under the microscope are the presence of slightly wavy elongated epidermal cells in A. capillus-veneris; epidermal cells strongly wavy in A. lunulatum; star shaped epidermal cells and mixed spores of regular and irregular shaped in A. peruvianum; stomata on both the surfaces of pinnule, absence of spinulus spores only in A. venustum. In addition, rachis anatomy showed different cellular and stellar characteristics as identifying characters of aforesaid four Adiantum species. Physico-chemical parameters and HPTLC finger print profiles along with stigmasterol and lupeol play significant role for the quality evaluation of raw drugs. The above finding will serve the purpose of quality control and assurance for the future studies.