Preliminary phytochemical, microscopic analysis and metabolite profiling of Phoenix pusilla root

Palms are considered as familiar strangers. Various studies reported that the genus Phoenix was mostly cultivated,traditionally used plants as medicine, and also as an ornamental plant. In this present study, preliminary phytochemicalanalysis, the study of microscopical structures and the chemical constituents of Phoenix pusilla root was evaluated.Transverse Section of P. pusilla root was studied by sectioning the two different thickness roots and also powdermicroscopy was carried out. Non-polar, volatile constituents of crude ethanolic extract of root were analyzed byGC–MS. Primary and secondary metabolites quantification revealed that the carbohydrate content and total phenolicsconcentration were higher than the other metabolites. The physicochemical analysis showed the moisture content was3.78 ± 0.54, the ash content value was 2.46 ± 0.95, and the crude fiber content was higher than protein, fat content.Microscopy study showed the presence of unique tracheids. Metabolite profiling revealed the presence of 96 differentconstituents and more than 10 found to have biological importance. Pharmacognostic study is an important step ofresearch which reveals about shelf-life of the drug, adulterations, etc.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of adolescent school girls regarding prevention of iron deficiency anaemia

Background: Anaemia is very prevalent in adolescent girls, especially in developing countries like India. Treatment of anaemia based on the cause during adolescence decreases morbidity and mortality during early pregnancy. Despite weekly iron and folic acid supplementation programmes, the prevalence of anaemia among women and adolescent girls is still high. The objective of the study was to assess the proportion of anaemia and its determinants among adolescent school girls.Methods: An observational study was conducted in adolescent school girls of Chandragiri from January to March, 2018. Demographic data, knowledge and practices of personal hygiene were collected. Nutritional status was assessed by collecting anthropometric, body composition measurements, dietary habits and haemoglobin was estimated.Results: Of the 111 girls studied, 55.9% were found to be anaemic. Knowledge and practices of personal hygiene was lower in anaemic girls compared to non-anaemic girls. The extent of deficit of iron rich food consumption was low in both anaemic and non-anaemic girls.Conclusions: Prevalence of mild anaemia was high and iron rich foods intake was low in our study subjects. Assessment of burden of anaemia among adolescent girls is essential to address gaps in implementation of public health programs and effective intervention programs can be designed to reduce the burden of anaemia.

Clinical profile and follow-up of HIV infection in pediatric age group beyond 18 months up to 13 years at tertiary level hospital

Background: An increasing number of HIV infected children have been reported as spread of HIV in adults are showing increasing trend in India. We reported the clinical manifestation, laboratory parameters and follow up of these children. Aim: To study the clinical profile follow up of paediatric patients admitted with HIV in the age gruop18 months to 13 years for a period of 1 year. Materials and methods: This Prospective study was conducted at tertiary care centre at Gandhi Hospital in association with ART centre, Ganhi Hospital, Secunderabad over a period of one year (January 2013 - December 2013). Over 100 consecutive patients suspected and later confirmed by TRIDOT & HIV EIA COOMB were included in the study after obtaining written consent from guardian of the patients. A detailed history, thorough clinical examination and laboratory investigations were carried out. ART & ATT therapy were given according to guidelines and followed up. Results: Of the 100 cases, 55 were males and 45 were females. Immunization status of these children included 20%completely immunised, 52% partially immunized and unknown in 28. Clinical manifestation like, anemia was seen in 95 cases, 91 cases had PEM with 47.25% were in gr 4, PGL (38), fever (36), respiratory (28), diarrhoea (15). Less commonly seen were CNS and chronic Gummadivandanaushasree, Sreenivasaiah Bharathi, Jampalavenkateshwar Rao. Clinical profile and follow-up of HIV infection in pediatric age group beyond 18 months up to 13 years at tertiary level hospital. IAIM, 2016; 3(10): 125-138. Page 126 ottorhea. Most common opportunistic infections were tuberculosis (16) and candidiasis (16) with giardiasis (3) and herpes zoster (2). Of the 100 cases enrolled, 11 were lost to follow up and 3cases died. Mean weight gain after 6 months 1.6 SD and 2.8 SD at 12 months. On laboratory investigations 95 cases had Hb <2SD, 21 had mantoux positive (>5 mm), abnormal chest X-ray in 23 cases. Conclusion: Most children were in the age group of 1-5 years with mean age of presentation of 5.5 years. Mild bias towards male patients is noted. Perinatal mode is the only mode of transmission, no other modes noted. Most of the children presented to us in a partially immunized status and others’ status was not known. Common presentations - PEM, anemia, skin manifestations, nutritional deficiencies, prolonged fever, systemic manifestations – PGL; respiratory infections like pneumonia, TB; chronic diarrhoea. CNS manifestations were uncommon and renal problems, malignancies were not noted in our study. Amongst opportunistic infections, TB involving various organs and candidiasis were seen in maximum number of patients. Our study concluded that administration of nevirapine based ART regimes for HIV-1 infected children is feasible in resource limited settings. There was improvement in growth parameters with the use of this therapy and prevention of deterioration in immune status.

Study of serum magnesium levels and its correlation with febrile convulsions in children aged 6 months to 5 years of age

Background: Various studies have shown the correlation between Magnesium, Zinc and Copper levels in Serum and Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and occurrence of Febrile Convulsions. Hypomagnesaemia is characterized by hyper excitability of the central nervous system leading to convulsions. Hence the study is undertaken to find out the Serum Magnesium levels and its correlation with febrile convulsions. Aim: To Study the Serum levels of Magnesium in children: 6 months - 5 years of age with febrile convulsions and to establish the correlation between serum Magnesium levels and febrile convulsions. Materials and methods: This study was done in the Department of Pediatrics, Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad from July 2015 to July 2016. It was an Observational Prospective study. A total of 120 children 6 months to 5 years of age admitted with history of fever and convulsions diagnosed as febrile convulsions were included in the study. Serum Magnesium levels were measured using catalyst method by Synchron CXR systems. Informed Consent was taken from Parents of all the children. Detailed Clinical History was taken along with thorough Clinical examination. Complete Blood Counts, Serum Magnesium levels, Serum Electrolytes, Blood Glucose and Serum Calcium levels were done. CT scan brain was done wherever required Results: Out of 120 total cases: 104 (86.67%) were Typical Febrile Convulsions. 16 (13.33%) were Atypical Febrile convulsions. Hypomagnesemia was seen in 19 (16%) children. Out of these, 9 (47.36%) cases were Males and 10(52.64%) cases were Females. Out of 104 Typical Febrile convulsions: 17 cases were shown hypomagnesemia, 87 were shown Normal magnesium levels. Out Sreenivasaiah Bharathi, Kotte Chiranjeevi. Study of serum magnesium levels and its correlation with febrile convulsions in children aged 6 months to 5 years of age. IAIM, 2016; 3(11): 61-68. Page 62 of 16 Atypical Febrile convulsion cases: Only 2 cases were having hypomagnesemia and 14 were having Normal Magnesium. Conclusion: No association was found with Gender, Age, and Temperature of the patient and subtype of febrile convulsions. Statistically significant association was found with hypomagnesemia and ‘Typical Febrile convulsions’. No such association was found with Atypical Febrile convulsions. Therapeutic value of administration of Magnesium in children with febrile convulsions associated with hypomagnesemia to be established. This requires further interventional studies. Larger clinical studies are required to establish the association of hypomagnesemia and febrile convulsions. Further studies are suggested to determine the effect of Magnesium administration for the prevention of febrile convulsions.

In-vitro antibacterial activity of coral reef associated bacteria and optimization of bioactive metabolite production.

This study reports the antibacterial activity of coral reef associated bacteria against bacterial pathogens and optimization of metabolite production. Twelve morphologically different bacterial were isolated from stony coral reef collected from Rameshwaram coastal area, Tamil Nadu. Cell free supernatant of all the bacterial isolates were tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae by agar well diffusion method. Of the 12 isolates tested, seven isolates showed antibacterial activity again at least one of the test organisms with the zone of inhibition in the range of 9-14 mm. The antibacterial compounds were extracted from the cell free supernatant using ethyl acetate and tested for antibacterial activity. In diffusion method, crude extract from strain RC12 showed 11-17 mm inhibition against all the test pathogens and the same was selected for optimization studies. Effect of culture conditions and medium components such as different carbon, nitrogen, mineral, pH, temperature on antibacterial metabolite production was studied by adopting one-factor-at-a- time method. The metabolite production was influenced by lactose, ammonium sulphate, K2HPO4 while the optimal cultivation conditions were pH 7 and 37°C. The potent strain RC12 was identified as Pseudomonas sp based on their phenotypic and biochemical characteristics. The finding of the present study concludes that coral reef bacteria found to be the best source for bioactive metabolites with broad spectrum activity.

Exploitation of bacteria from forest ecosystem for antimicrobial compounds.

This study deals with bacterial prospecting from forest soil with special reference to antimicrobial substances. Total of 25 morphologically different bacterial colonies were isolated from soil samples collected from Anaimalai forest and Parambikulam tiger reserve forest, Western Ghats, India. About 12 (48%) out of 25 isolates showed antibacterial activity in which strain AF1 showed inhibitory activity against more number of test pathogens. Bioactive substance from strain AF1 was produced by adopting submerged fermentation and extracted using ethyl acetate and chloroform. In disc diffusion method, ethyl acetate extract showed good antibacterial activity (9-17 mm zone of inhibition). Active fraction present in the ethyl acetate extract was determined by thin layer chromatography based bioautography. Findings of this work supported that the forest ecosystems investigated in this study will be potential place for bacterial bioprospecting.

Studies on extended beta lactamase producing, biofilm forming clinical bacterial pathogens and its invitro inhibition by Actinobacterial extracts.

At present scenario, the extended spectrum beta lactamase (ESBL) producing bacterial pathogen causes various life threatening infections especially by the members of the family Enterobacteriaceae in hospital settings. In order to study the prevalence of ESBLs in Kanchipuram hospital, the bacterial strains were isolated from patients having Urinary tract infections (UTI), diabetic foot ulcer, pregnancy women’s, surgical wound infections, deep wounds, and genitourinary tract problems. Totally 40 bacterial isolates were recovered from 30 samples and the isolates were identified as Escherichia coli (45%), Pseudomonas sp, (25%) and Klebsiella sp (30%). The ESBL production was confirmed with third generation cephalosporins (cetixime, cephoxitin, ceftazidime, cetepime, ceftriaxone, ceftazidime/clavulanic acid) using the Kirby- bauer disc diffusion method and also by double disc diffusion method. The highest ESBL production was found among E. coli (42%), followed by Pseudomonas sp. (25%) and Klebsiella sp (20%). All the ESBL producer were tested for biofilm formation by tube method in which E.coli (43%) was found to be the good biofilm producer followed by the Klebsiella sp (31%) and Pseudomonas sp (25%). An attempt was also made to study the in-vitro inhibition of biofilm forming ESBL pathogens by actinobacterial extracts by disc diffusion method. Of the five actinobacterial extracts tested, extracts produced from the strain MA7 inhibited (8-12 mm zone of inhibition) all the biofilm forming ESBL pathogens. Further purification and characterisation of active compound from actinobacterial strain MA7 is in progress.

Response of Bt. cotton to post emergence herbicides in Vertisols of Krishna zone.

Cotton, a long duration crop coupled with heavy rains during the early vegetative stage inhibit manual and mechanical methods of weed control causing heavy yield loss . A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of different post emergence herbicides applied at 45 DAS viz; glufosinate ammonium 15% SL @ 300 g a.i ha-1, glufosinate ammonium 15% SL @ 375 g a.i ha-1, glufosinate ammonium 15% SL @ 450 g a.i ha-1, paraquat 24 SL @ 300 g a.i ha-1, glyphosate 4l SL @1025 g a.i ha-1 on productivity of Bt. cotton entry NCS 145 BG II against Cyprus rotundus, Commalina bengalensis, Corchorus acutangulus, Amaranthus viridis, Abutilon indicum, Phyllanthus niruri ,Celosia argentia, Parthenium sp etc from 2008 to 2010 in vertisols under rainfed conditions at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Lam, Guntur. The seed cotton yield increased significantly due to all the treatments to the magnitude of 66-75% as compared to weedy check. The highest seed cotton yield of 3094 kg ha-1 was recorded with glufosinate ammonium 15% SL @ 375g a.i ha-1 followed by hand weeding at 20, 40 and 60DAS (3062 kg ha-1) and glyphosate 41 SL @ 1025 g a.i ha-1 (2902 kg ha-1). The weed density and weed dry matter recorded were lowest with the application glufosinate ammonium 15% SL @ 375g a.i ha-1 and glufosinate ammonium 15% SL @ 450g a.i ha-1 when compared to other treatments.

Evaluation of field inoculation techniques for screening maize (zea mays) genotypes against banded leaf and sheath blight (rhizoctonia solani ) disease.

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season 2008 and 2009 at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, lam farm, Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad to develop a suitable non damaging method for inoculating Rhizoctonia. solani which causes banded leaf and sheath blight disease in maize. Results revealed that inoculation with paddy straw method is superior to other methods as well as reported techniques and can be adopted on a large scale for evaluating maize germplasm against banded leaf and sheath blight disease.

Deconvolution of the fluorescence spectra into its component Gaussians: a method to analyze the binding of coumarin to bovine serum albumin.

7-N,N-Diethylamino-4-methylcoumarin, (cou-1), a readily available laser dye binding to bovine serum albumin (BSA), at room temperature has been studied by steady state fluorescence spectroscopy. Existing methods of analysis of the binding to obtain the binding parameters are based on the change in fluorescence intensity at a particular wavelength. These methods are not convenient when there is a gradual shift in the emission maxima for increasing protein concentration. In this paper we present a method to obtain the binding constants of cou-1 to BSA using a Windows '95 based package to deconvolute the asymmetrical spectrum (fluorescence intensity versus wave number curve) into two Gaussians, each corresponding to the binding of the fluorophore to a particular site. This method is convenient to analyze the binding constant data and obtain the binding parameters of each binding site, and can also provide information about the microenvironment of each site, relating micropolarity and microviscosity.

Unilocular cystic sebaceous lymphadenoma of the parotid gland.

Unilocular Cystic Sebaceous Lymphadenoma of the parotid gland also described as benign lymphoepithelial parotid cyst with sebaceous differentiation is an unusual tumour which histogenetically resembles Warthin's tumour. We present two such cases reported in the department of Pathology, Kasturba Medical College with review of the literature on histogenesis.

A membrane-free plethysmograph for recording volume changes including microlitres.

A method of plethysmography which does not require an air/water tight chamber is described. The method is sensitive enough to record microlitre volumes/volume changes. Its application in two situations, viz. in experimental (artificial) edema and blood flow measurement in the human hand has been demonstrated.

Electrophysiological studies on human phrenic nerve & diaphragm.

To determine normal values for phrenic nerve stimulation, the phrenic nerve was stimulated transcutaneously in 22 healthy adolescent male volunteers. The phrenic latency, amplitude and duration of the evoked diaphragm action potential (EDAP) were noted. Maximum mouth inspiratory pressure (MMIP) and maximum ventilation volume (MVV) were also measured to evaluate the maximal strength of the diaphragm. No significant correlations were observed between EDAP and the parameters of diaphragm strength. The correlation coefficient between the amplitude-duration product of EDAP (integral EDAP) and MMIP was +0.15 and it was +0.29 between the integral EDAP and MVV.

Proliferating trichilemmal tumours.

Twelve cases of a peculiar, relatively uncommon, benign but locally invasive proliferating trichilemmal tumours are reported. The origin of these tumour appears to be outer root sheath of hair. In order to avoid an erroneous diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, an adequate knowledge of these tumours is necessary.

Effect of altered ventilations on human spinal and supra spinal reflexes.

The present study was aimed at evaluating the alterations in the human reflexes brought about by briefly altered ventilations. In 20 healthy young male volunteers, the H reflex and blink reflex were studied during normal ventilation, voluntary hypoventilation and voluntary hyperventilation. The latencies of these reflexes were compared. It was observed that the amount of altered ventilations used in the present study could not produce any significant change in these reflexes except in the case of the early response of the blink reflex.

Effects of central administration of insulin in normal and VMH (ventromedial hypothalamus) lesioned rats on food intake.

Central effects of insulin on 20 min. food intake were studied in rats. Insulin administration in the lateral ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) did not alter food intake in the intact or lesioned ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) rats. Whereas, after insulin injection in VMH there was a decrease in food intake. In VMH lesioned rats, subcutaneous injection of insulin increased food intake.

Squamous cell carcinoma developing in trophic ulcer in leprosy.

Two cases of leprosy patients having trophic ulcer over the heel, later developed squamous cell carcinoma are reported along with follow up.

The standardized distal motor latencies and the peak to peak amplitudes of evoked muscle action potentials in the extremities of humans.

The values of Standardized Distal Motor Latency (SDML) of Median, Ulnar and Common Peroneal nerves and the peak to peak amplitude of Evoked Muscle Action Potentials (EMAP) of the small muscles of the limbs were studied in 50 normal subjects. The SDML values showed significant sex difference, whereas no sex difference was observed in the amplitude of the EMAPs.