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The present study was designed to identify antidiabetic and antioxidant constituents from ethanol bark extract of a medicinally important mangrove plant Xylocarpus granatum J. Koenig, using in vitro bioactivity-guided fractionation. The repeated fractionation of X. granatum ethanol bark extract (XGEB) by silica gel column chromatography yielded a compound with strong antidiabetic and antioxidant potential. The bioactive compounds likely to be present in the XGEB fraction were identified by FT-IR, 1 H & 13 C NMR and MS analysis and determined as a limonoid derivative Xyloccensin-I, by comparing spectral data with the literature reports. The isolated compound demonstrated excellent in vitro antidiabetic potential IC 50 values of 0.25 and 0.16 mg/ml, respectively for α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition study. The antioxidant potential assayed by DPPH, ABTS, superoxide and hydrogen peroxide scavenging studies exhibited that the isolated compound could scavenge these free radicals with IC 50 values of 0.041, 0.039, 0.096 and 0.235 mg/ml, respectively. Further, in silico study was performed to find the antidiabetic activity of Xyloccensin-I by docking it against α-glucosidase enzyme. The study demonstrated that Xyloccensin-I have satisfactory interactions and binding energies when docked into target which further confirms the possible mode of antidiabetic action of the isolated compound. The bioactivity assays further asserts the antidiabetic and antioxidant efficacy of the isolated compound which strongly suggests that Xyloccensin-I holds promise in the pharmaceutical industry. The results from this study provide new mechanistic evidence justifying, at least in part, the traditional use of X. granatum extract for antidiabetic and antioxidants activities.

The prevalence and outbreaks of anthrax are interlinked with the animal-environment-human context, which signifies the need for collaborative, trans-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approaches for the prevention and control of anthrax. In India, there are hardly any shreds of evidence on the role of various stakeholders’ on anthrax prevention and control. Therefore, this study addressed the experiences of various stakeholders on anthrax prevention and control strategies in Odisha, India. A qualitative explorative study was carried out using 42 in-depth-interviews among the stakeholders from health, veterinary and general administrative departments from the block, district, and state level. Two major themes emerged: (1) Epidemiological investigation of anthrax in Odisha, India, and (2) Biological and social prevention strategies for anthrax in Odisha, India. The study emphasizes setting up the surveillance system as per standard guideline, and strengthening the diagnostic facility at a regional medical college laboratory to avoid delay. Moreover, it emphasizes step-up inter-sectoral co-ordination, collaboration and sensitization among health, veterinary, forestry, education, nutrition and tribal welfare departments at all levels in order to reduce the prevalence and control the outbreaks of anthrax in Odisha state. It also recommends raising community literacy, in particular on safe carcass disposal, changing behavior on dead-livestock consumption, and compliance with livestock vaccinations.

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Aegle marmelos fruit, leaf and bark, are traditionally used for treatment of diabetes, liver toxicity, fungal infection, microbial infection, inflammation and pyrexia. In the present study, an attempt has been made to ferment the A. marmelos fruit juice and evaluate its nutritional and antioxidant potential as well as its sensory attributes. The nutritional potential of the fermented fruit juice showed an increased level of titratable acidity and lactic acid content of 1.7 g tartaric acid/L and 7.2 mg/L respectively. The 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2 0 -azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) and Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) scavenging activity of the fermented fruit juice was found out to be 81.10, 34.44 and 33.33 % respectively at 15 ll/mL concentration. Principal component analysis (PCA) reduced five sensory attributes (aroma, color, flavor, taste and aftertaste) to three independent components, which accounted for a 79.265 % variance (PC1, 31.278 %; PC2, 27.288 %; PC3, 20.699 %). It is concluded that the fermented fruit juice is rich in antioxidants and can be potentially used as a medicinal drink with higher nutritional potential.

A simple reverse phase HPLC method was developed for the simultaneous estimation of Amlodipine and Olmesartan in bulk and tablet form. Chromatography was performed by isocratic reverse phase separation on a stainless steel column 4.6 x 150mm, symmetry column packed with octa decyl silane bonded to porous silica (C18) with particle size 5 micron with mobile phase containing TEA Buffer of pH 3.0 and Acetonitrile in proportion of 25:75 respectively. The flow rate was 1.0 ml/ min and effluent was monitored at 258 nm. The retention times were 2.39 min and 3.33 min respectively. The standard curve was linear over a working range of 05–35 µg/ml for both Amlodipine and Olmesartan and gave an average correlation coefficient of 0.999, and 0.999 for Amlodipine and Olmesartan respectively. The limit of quantitation (LOQ) of this method was 2µg/ml for Amlodipine and Olmesartan. The absolute recovery was 100% for Amlodipine and 100.3 for Olmesartan. Degradation products produced as a result of stress studies did not interfere with the detection of Amlodipine and Olmesartan and the assay can thus be considered stability-indicating.

The present research work covenants the preparation, characterisation and optimisation of mucoadhesive microcapsules containing paclitaxel through ionic gelation method using 32 statistical factorial designs. The effect of mixing proportion of primary polymer sodium alginate to copolymer (X1) and speed of magnetic stirrer (X2) on the microcapsules size (Y1), efficiency of paclitaxel encapsulation (Y2), and percentage yield (Y3) was optimised. The morphology of microcapsules was characterised and evaluated by in vitro and in vivo tests to study the swelling characteristics, mucoadhesion and drug release characteristics, followed by MTT assay on human HT-29 colon cancer cell lines. The size of prepared microcapsules was within the range of 361 ± 4.50 to 931 ± 22.41; encapsulation efficiency (%) was within the range of 42.72 ± 0.43 to 98.12 ± 0.43 %. The in vitro paclitaxel released over 24 hours were in a range of 82.15 ± 3.43 % to 96.75 ± 2.41 %. The controlled release pattern of paclitaxel was observed from the in vitro drug release study of microcapsules. The prepared microcapsules that showed better mucoadhesion were in the range of 73.66 ± 1.42 to 97.85 ± 1.08 % for a period of 6 h. The in vivo pharmacokinetic study conducted in rats resulted in high Tmax, the area under the curve and mean residence time for microcapsules as compared to that of the marketed formulation. It could be concluded that the microcapsules containing povidone polymer showed superior results.