Alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase enzyme inhibition and antioxidant potential of 3-oxolupenal and katononic acid isolated from Nuxia oppositifolia

Nuxia oppositifolia is traditionally used in diabetes treatment in many Arabian countries; however, scientific evidence is lacking. Hence, the present study explored the antidiabetic and antioxidant activities of the plant extracts and their purified compounds. The methanolic crude extract of N. oppositifolia was partitioned using a two-solvent system. The n-hexane fraction was purified by silica gel column chromatography to yield several compounds including katononic acid and 3-oxolupenal. Antidiabetic activities were assessed by α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzyme inhibition. Antioxidant capacities were examined by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) scavenging assays. Further, the interaction between enzymes (α-amylase and α-glucosidase) and ligands (3-oxolupenal and katononic acid) was followed by fluorescence quenching and molecular docking studies. 3-oxolupenal and katononic acid showed IC50 values of 46.2 µg/mL (101.6 µM) and 52.4 µg/mL (119.3 µM), respectively against the amylase inhibition. 3-oxolupenal (62.3 µg/mL or 141.9 µM) exhibited more potent inhibition against α-glucosidases compared to katononic acid (88.6 µg/mL or 194.8 µM). In terms of antioxidant activity, the relatively polar crude extract and n-butanol fraction showed the greatest DPPH and ABTS scavenging activity. However, the antioxidant activities of the purified compounds were in the low to moderate range. Molecular docking studies confirmed that 3-oxolupenal and katononic acid interacted strongly with the active site residues of both α-amylase and α-glucosidase. Fluorescence quenching results also suggest that 3-oxolupenal and katononic acid have a good affinity towards both α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzymes. This study provides preliminary data for the plant’s use in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus

Synthesis of cephradine metal complexes and its anti-bacterial evaluation

Cephradine belongs to the first generation cephalosporin having a broad range of anti-bacterial activities. In the present work, Cephradine wasreacted with different metal salts. These metal salts were Iron, Copper, Cobalt and Nickel salts. All the complexes of Cephradine metals were synthesized at room temperature using a mechanical vibrator. The reactions yielded the coordinated complexes within 5-10 min with improved product yield. The synthesized complexes were analyzed for their antibacterial power using disc diffused assay. All the Cephradine complexes showed powerful antibacterial activity. The Co, Cu, Ni and Sn complexes showed good antibacterial activities 18.5 mm by Cu complexes against S. typhi, 17 mm against B. subtillus 16.5 mm against S. aureus, 16 mm against S. coccus. Similarly Sn complexes exhibited 17 mm zone of inhibition against S. coccus and 15.5 mm against B. subtillus. Cobalt and Ni complexes also shed significant inhibition activities against bacterial pathogenic bacterial strains. The study is of particular importance and new, using mechanical vibrator for the first time. The product yield is also comparatively good with short reaction time

Comparison of def index with Nyvad′s new caries diagnostic criteria among three to six years old children in a school at Bangalore city

Background: Dental caries is a multifactorial disease with varying clinical picture and its diagnostic criteria is complicated, when initial lesion is considered. Hence, there is a need for an index which measures cavitated, non-cavitated, and initial lesion in dental caries. So, the purpose of this study was to compare the of def index with Nyvad′s new diagnostic criteria. Materials and Methods: A total of 249 school children in the age group of three to six years were selected for the study from Sajjan Rao School at Bangalore city. Children teeth were cleaned and dried with cotton rolls and chip blower. The dental caries examinations were conducted under standardized conditions using plane mouth mirrors and explorers with the help of artificial illumination. The diagnostic criteria used were deft and d, e, and f component of Nyvad′s new caries diagnostic criteria. Mann Whitney ′U′ test was used to compare the two indexes at five percent significant level. Results: The mean value for deft was 2.48 and the mean for d, e, and f component of Nyvad′s new caries diagnostic criteria was 3.18 which shows statistically significant difference with P value of <0.05. Conclusion: The result obtained by Nyvad′s new caries diagnostic criteria produces values much higher than those with def caries index system. Hence, Nyvad′s new caries diagnostic criteria can be used to diagnose dental caries at the initial stages, which in turn will reflect exact prevalence of caries

Radiative Flow of Third Grade Non-Newtonian Fluid From A Horizontal Circular Cylinder

Abstract In this article, we study the nonlinear steady thermal convection of an incompressible third-grade non-Newtonian fluid from a horizontal circular cylinder. The transformed conservation equations are solved numerically subject to physically appropriate boundary conditions using a second-order accurate implicit finite-differences Keller Box technique. The influence of a number of emerging non-dimensional parameters, namely the third-grade fluid parameter (ϕ), the material fluid parameters (ϵ1, ϵ2), Prandtl number (Pr), Biot number (y), thermal radiation (F) and dimensionless tangential coordinate (ξ) on velocity and temperature evolution in the boundary layer regime are examined in detail. Furthermore, the effects of these parameters on surface heat transfer rate and local skin friction are also investigated. Validation with earlier Newtonian studies is presented and excellent correlation is achieved. It is found that the velocity, skin friction and Nusselt number (heat transfer rate) reduce with increasing third grade fluid parameter (ϕ), whereas the temperature is enhanced. Increasing material fluid parameter (ϵ1) reduces the velocity and heat transfer rate but enhances the temperature and skin friction. The study is relevant to chemical materials processing applications and low density polymer materials processing.</jats:p

Simulation of Natural Convection Heat Transfer in a 2-D Trapezoidal Enclosure

Natural convection within trapezoidal enclosures finds significant practical applications. The natural convection flows play a prominent role in the transport of energy in energyrelated applications, in case of proper design of enclosures to achieve higher heat transfer rates. In the present study, a two-dimensional cavity with adiabatic right side wall is studied. The left side vertical wall is maintained at the constant hot temperature and the top slat wall is maintained at cold temperature. The dimensionless governing partial differential equations for vorticity-stream function are solved using the finite difference method with incremental time steps. The parametric study involves a wide range of Rayleigh number, Ra, 103 ≤ Ra ≤ 105 and Prandtl number (Pr = 0.025, 0.71 and 10). The fluid flow within the enclosure is formed with different shapes for different Pr values. The flow rate is increased by enhancing the Rayleigh number (Ra = 104 ). The numerical results are validated with previous results. The governing parameters in the present article, namely Rayleigh number and Prandtl number on flow patterns, isotherms as well as local Nusselt number are reported. </jats:p

Phytochemical profiling, antioxidant and anticancer activities of Gastrocotyle hispida growing in Saudi Arabia

The present study aimed at isolation the phytocompounds from the aerial parts of Gastrocotyle hispida and to evaluate its antioxidant and anticancer potential using in vitro assay. Gastrocotyle hispida is belonging to the family Boraginaceae used as a refreshing drink like tea. The decoction of the leaves is diuretic and is used in the treatment of rheumatism. Phytochemical study of a methanol extract yielded five known compounds viz: βsitosterol (GH-1), β-sitosterol 3-glucoside (GH-2), 1-O-β-glucopyranosyl-1,4-dihydroxy-2-prenylbenzene (GH3), 6-Hydroxy-2,2-dimethyl-3-chrom (GH-4) and rosmarinic acid (GH-5). Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were calculated for the extract and fractions, the methanolic extract contained the highest content of total flavonoids (178 mg/g, expressed as quercetin equivalents) and total polyphenol (98.4 mg/g, expressed as gallic acid equivalent). Compounds were isolated by using column chromatography. In vitro, antioxidant activity of the extract and isolated compounds was investigated by DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays. The four different cell lines HepG2 (Liver), HEK-293 (Kidney) MCF-7 (Breast) and MDA-MB 231 (Breast) were used against the compounds. The isolated compounds showed dose-dependent free radical scavenging property in all tested models with the IC50 values of 10.2 μg/mL rosmarinic acid (GH-5), 52.1 μg/mL β-sitosterol (GH-1) and 85 μg/mL for β-sitosterol 3-glucoside (GH-2). The β-sitosterol (GH-1) showed significant activity against HepG2 and HEK 293 cell lines. Rosmarinic acid (GH-5) possesses potent anticancer activity against breast cancer cells (MCF7) with the IC50 value of 4.2 μg/mL. It can be concluded that Gastrocotyle hispida has potential antioxidant, anticancer activities and further used as an anticancer agent