Gupta

This study aimed to evaluate the phytochemical profile and antimicrobial potential of extracts derived from Curcuma caesia rhizomes and Nardostachys jatamansi roots. A total of 250 g of Curcuma caesia and 80 g of Nardostachys jatamansi were subjected to solvent extraction. The yields of Curcuma caesia extracts were 2.22% in petroleum ether and 7.15% in ethanol. Phytochemical screening of the ethanolic extracts confirmed the presence of several bioactive constituents, including alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, phenolics, saponins, glycosides, and proteins. The total phenolic content was measured at 171 mg/g for Curcuma caesia and 393 mg/g for Nardostachys jatamansi, expressed in gallic acid equivalents. Similarly, the total flavonoid content was 175 mg/g and 410 mg/g, respectively, in terms of rutin equivalents. A polyherbal gel was formulated using these extracts, with the G3 combination formulation showing superior performance in antimicrobial activity tests, as evidenced by a larger zone of inhibition. Furthermore, dermal safety assessment revealed no skin irritation, indicating its suitability for topical application. Overall, the findings support the potential of this herbal gel as a safe and effective natural antimicrobial agent.

The present study focuses on the development and evaluation of sustained release matrix tablets of Repaglinide, a short-acting antidiabetic drug, using processed Aloe vera mucilage as a natural release-modifying agent. The primary objective was to extend the drug release profile, reduce dosing frequency, and improve patient compliance. Aloe vera mucilage was extracted, processed, and characterized for its physicochemical properties, including swelling index, viscosity, and compatibility with the drug through FTIR and DSC studies. Matrix tablets were formulated using the wet granulation method with varying concentrations of Aloe vera mucilage and evaluated for pre-compression and post-compression parameters such as hardness, friability, weight variation, drug content, and in vitro drug release. The release data were analyzed using various kinetic models to determine the mechanism of drug release. Among the formulations, the batch containing a higher concentration of Aloe vera mucilage demonstrated a sustained release of Repaglinide over 12 hours, following a non-Fickian diffusion mechanism. Comparative analysis with synthetic polymers revealed that Aloe vera mucilage exhibited comparable or superior release-controlling potential, supporting its use as an effective natural excipient. The study concludes that processed Aloe vera mucilage can be successfully employed as a cost-effective, biocompatible, and efficient release modifier in the formulation of sustained release matrix tablets of Repaglinide.

This study aimed to evaluate site-specific changes in the methylation of the nephro-protective gene p21 (CDKN1a) after exposure to nephrotoxicants using a targeted bisulfite sequencing approach. A targeted gene bisulfite sequencing (TGBS) method was developed using the Illumina MiSeq platform and Bismark bisulfite mapper. Human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cells and freshly isolated human proximal tubular cells (hPT) were analyzed, and 5-aza-2’-deoxycytidine (5-Aza), a DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, served as a positive control. Methylation differences between human and rat p21 were also investigated. TGBS analysis identified a methylation-sensitive site in the p21 promoter region, sis-inducible element-1 (SIE-1), which regulates p21 expression via transcription factor binding. Treatment with 5-Aza altered methylation at this site, whereas nephrotoxicants cisplatin and bromate (BrO3?) did not, despite increasing p21 protein expression. No SIE-1 site was detected in normal rat kidney cells (NRK), indicating species-specific differences. Cisplatin and BrO3? exposure did not decrease promoter methylation in either HEK293 or NRK cells. These findings reveal species-specific differences in basal p21 promoter methylation and indicate that nephrotoxicant-induced changes in p21 expression are independent of promoter DNA methylation. The study also demonstrates the utility of TGBS for rapid analysis of locus-specific DNA methylation.

The present study investigates the phytochemical profile of the bark of Parkinsonia aculeata and Rotula aquatica, two medicinal plants known for their traditional therapeutic applications. The bark samples were subjected to extraction using alcohol and water, followed by qualitative phytochemical screening to detect the presence of secondary metabolites. The extracts were evaluated for constituents such as alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, tannins, carbohydrates, and saponins. The results confirmed the rich presence of flavonoids and phenolic compounds in both plants, supporting their ethnomedicinal relevance. These findings contribute to the standardization and quality control of these plants in herbal drug formulations.

Artificial intelligence (AI) focuses on creating intelligent models that help us envision knowledge, solve problems, and make decisions. AI is active these days, it plays an important role in various areas of pharmaceutical science, such as drug development and formulation of drug administration. For drug discovery and drug discovery research, such as development, poly-pharmacology, and hospital pharmacy, development of various artificial neural networks (ANNs) such as delivery formulations and Deep Neural networks (DNN) or recurrent neural networks (RNN) are used. Artificial intelligence (AI) focuses on creating intelligent models that help us envision knowledge, solve problems, and make decisions. AI is active these days, it plays an important role in various areas of pharmaceutical science, such as drug development and formulation of drug administration. For drug discovery and drug discovery research, such as development, poly-pharmacology, and hospital pharmacy. Development of various artificial neural networks (ANNs) such as delivery formulations and Deep Neural networks (DNN) or recurrent neural networks (RNN) are used.

Alike many allopathic lipophilic drug molecules, these natural phyto-constituents are potent, lipophilic, but pose problems like poor aqueous solubility, slower drug release profile, and, reduced bioavailability leading to inferior therapeutic efficacy. This creates scope as well as a challenge for researchers to overcome the above-mentioned problems while developing a formulation for poorly aqueous soluble phytoconstituents. Herbosome is one of the efficient techniques to improve these problems. Herbosome /Phytosome is nothing but the combination of liposome with phytoconstituents forming H-bond anchored amphiphilic drug-phospholipids complexes. Quercetin i.e. 2-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-5,7-dihydroxy-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one is a polyphenolic flavonoid with potent and diverse biological effects like anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, and anti-mutagenic. However, like many other potent drugs, its usage is limited due to its poor aqueous solubility. To overcome this problem, an ameliorated complex of phospholipids loaded with quercetin was developed to improve its aqueous solubility for better absorption. Thus quercetin encapsulated in herbosomes/phytosomes was assessed for the phospholipid complex formation, appearance, surface, and porosity evaluation using different physicochemical tests like FT­IR, DSC, XRPD, 1H-NMR, SEM, and solubility studies. Apart from this anti-oxidant activity of quercetin was evaluated in vitro. The surface characteristics of herbosomes appeared to be flocculent and permeable with a coarse surface in SEM studies whereas FTIR, DSC, 1H-NMR, and XRPD data, confirmed the formation of the phospholipids complex. There were 12 folds improvement in aqueous solubility of per se quercetin and quercetin encapsulated in herbosome (i.e. from 3.44 µg/ml to 36.81 µg/ ml). On the other hand, the results of in vitro anti­oxidant activity of phytosomic quercetin showed no significant statistical difference compared to per se quercetin thus indicating no adverse effects of complexation on quercetin’s availability for anti­oxidant activity. Further, we prepared tard-gelatin capsules containing phytosomic quercetin and evaluated them for drug release, drug content, and solubility studies like dissolution, disintegration, drug content, and stability studies. The results for the evaluation of the kinetics of drug release were in line with the Korsmeyer Peppas model. The drug stability studies did not affect the drug's organoleptic properties, disintegration time, drug content, and in-vitro drug release of the formulation.

Black pepper, also designated as ‘King of spices’ a characteristic familiar global spice related to the Piperaceae family and generally used in culinary and medicinal preparations. Its pungency is due to piperine, volatile elements and essential oil. Piperine is an amide alkaloid, effective bioactive present in piper species of black and long peppers; and reveals several potential therapeutic actions to intervene different disease conditions whereas functional group responses at active site liable to act as a xenobiotic bio-enhancer and an effective CNS stimulant. However, piperine is slightly soluble in water, limiting its pharmacological activities and biomedical services. It is solid crystalline nature, mild basic, initially tasteless while, a burning after taste. Therefore, this bioactive natural substance should be considered in the arenas of rational drug design and development of formulations. Recent developments in drug delivery system have to overcome its limitations, including poor bioavailability and blood–brain barrier permeability.  Chaperons like phytosomes are encouraging tools to alter oral absorption of piperine. The study highlights the prepared and correctly recognized piperine-phospholipid complex (PPC) in terms of FT-IR (Fourier Transform Infra-red spectroscopy), DSC (differential scanning calorimetry), XRPD (X-ray powder diffractometry), and SEM (scanning electron microscopy). The PPC was found to be fine and loose, airy, light, rough surface with improved water solubility and bioavailability.

Mouth dissolving tablet disintegrates and dissolves rapidly in the saliva, within a few seconds without the need of drinking water or chewing. A mouth dissolving tablet usually dissolves in the oral cavity within 15 seconds to 3 minutes. Almotriptan malate is an anti migraine drug with bitter taste and shows hepatic metabolism.  In the present work, Mouth dissolving tablets of almotriptan malate were prepared by direct compression method using sodium starch glycolate and croscarmellose sodium as superdisintegrant with a view to enhance patient compliance and to avoid gastric dysmotility which is common with migraine drugs and for fast action of drug. The prepared batches of tablets were evaluated for hardness, friability, drug content uniformity, wetting time, water-absorption ratio and in-vitro dispersion time. Short-term stability studies on the promising formulation indicated that there are no significant changes in drug content and disintegration time.

A new type of coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; SARS-CoV-2) that has began in Wuhan, China in late 2019 has grasped the whole world. Since then, there are approximately 2.59 million deaths has been caused by Covid-19. After numerous attempts and hard work from healthcare system, this deadly virus is in control by using vaccines like Covaxin and Covishield. But new problems are emerging even after the  discovery of vaccines. Patients have been experiencing various health problems after recovering from Covid-19. This review article discussed about different sequalae and syndromes that are emerging in patients after postcovid recovery.

Free radicals are atoms or molecules that have one or more unpaired electrons on its outer orbital, highly reactive, and could damage cell inside human body. Antioxidants are the substances which inhibit oxidation, which have the ability to remove the potentially damaging oxidizing agents in a living organism. Many phytochemicals present in the plants are able to reduce or prevent the oxidative damage to the human cells which can cause even cancer in humans. It is highly vital to know about the antioxidant activities of each plant and the phytocompounds responsible for that. In this study, the DPPH free radical scavenging activity of the extracts of Pomegranate and Citrus (Lemon) is analyzed. And we found Citrus peel extract 2, 2-Diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) assay activity better on comparing Pomegranate peel extract.