Emergent Life Sciences Research

1-10

Authors: Anongnart Wannapokin, Rameshprabu Ramaraj, Yuwalee Unpaprom

The fallen teak leaves (Tectona grandis), represents an interesting substrate for biogas production. The chemical composition of leaves showed the C, H, N, S, and O content of 48.88, 5.83, 0.55, 0.18, and 30.04 %, respectively. In addition, the leaves contain 2.83% moisture, 11.33 % ash, 83.44% volatile matter and 2.4% fixed carbon, through dry weight determination. The content of total solids (TS), volatile solids (VS) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the leaves was measured and the results average were 982,151.93 mg/kg, 819,412.60 mg/kg and 21,333.33 mg/L, respectively. The biogas composition of carbon dioxide (43.57 %) and methane (55.47%) were estimated. Total biogas yield was 1.074 m3/kg achieved through theoretical estimation; and total methane yield reached 0.5964 m3. Based on COD estimation, our study showed that the fallen teak leaves biomass is a potentially valuable fermentation substrate, and produce 7.467 L (0.007 m3) of methane gas. Consequently, the study results confirmed that fallen teak leaves are suitable substrate for biogas production.

18-31

Authors: Elen Fernanda Nodari, Gislaine Cristina Roma, Karim Christina Scopinho Furquim, Patricia Rosa de Oliveira, Gervasio Henrique Bechara, Maria Izabel Camargo-Mathias

Ticks are arthropods of great medical-veterinary importance, and several methods have been developed to control them. The synthetic acaricide permethrin is one of the most widely used substances to control this pest. The present study brings cytochemical and ultrastructural data on the alterations in the salivary gland cells of Rhipicephalus sanguineus sensu lato semi-engorged females subjected to 206, 1031, and 2062 ppm of permethrin, showing that this chemical acts on the glandular acini, affecting the morpho-physiology of their cells, making them irregular, causing intense cytoplasmic vacuolation, altering the mitochondria and causing the emergence of lysosomes, myelin figures and spherocrystals. In addition, the results demonstrated that the chemical affected the nuclei and nucleoli of the cells, causing alterations in size, disorganizing and fragmenting them. Such alterations were mainly observed when processes of apoptotic death occurred, and indicated the occurrence of precocious degeneration of the glandular tissue caused by the exposure to the product, even in lower concentrations than the ones recommended by the manufacturer. Under normal conditions, this process would only occur in the end of the engorgement period. Therefore, these findings confirmed and demonstrated that, even at low concentrations, this acaricide would be able to accelerate the process of glandular tissue degeneration through atypical cell death, where the cell death by apoptosis (fragmentation) and autophagy (vacuolation) occur simultaneously.

38-47

Authors: V. Togaru, R. K. Venisetty, V. Bakshi, R. K. Jadi

The purpose of this investigation is to develop extended release matrix tablets of propranolol hydrochloride (PPH), which were designed to improve the patient compliance and prolong the drug release after oral administration. Different viscosity grades of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) polymers such as HPMC K4 M, HPMC K15 M and HPMC K100 M were used. The prepared formulations were characterized and all formulations exhibited satisfactory physical parameters such as thickness (mm), weight variation (mg), friability (%) and hardness (kg/cm2). After evaluation of physical properties, the in vitro release study was performed in 0.1 N Hydrochloric Acid (HCl), pH 1.2 for 2 hours followed by release in phosphate buffer pH 6.8 up to 12 hours. The effects of polymer concentration and polymer blend concentration were studied. Among all the formulations, formulation F3 which contains 40% HPMC K4M followed zero order kinetics via, swelling, diffusion and erosion. This study gives the preliminary idea about the development of extended release drug delivery systems of PPH. The in-vitro drug release exponent of the peppas equation suggests the drug release mechanism was super case II transport mechanism. Based on compatibility studies such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FT-IR), there was no interaction between the drug and excipients.

57-62

Authors: Vasudhevan I., Rama Devi P., Asokan K.

The effect of optimum level of vitamin E (300 mg kg¹ diet) and various levels vitamin C (50, 100, 200 and 300 mg kg¹ diet) on growth, reproduction and leucocytes count were studied in blue gourami (Trichogaster trichopterus) for 120 days. Test fish fed with the optimum vitamin E + 200 mg vitamin C kg¹ diet enhanced the chosen feeding and growth parameters, reproduction and disease resisting leucocytes count (lymphocyte and monocyte) than those fed with other diets. The control fish spawned only once with less number of eggs spawn¹, while other groups spawned two times with more number of eggs spawn¹ during the experiment. The female blue gourami fed with the optimum vitamin E laid 450 eggs in two spawning and it significantly (P < 0.01) enhanced to 570 eggs in two spawning fish fed with the optimum vitamin E and 200 mg vitamin C kg¹ diet respectively. However, the fish treated with other combinations laid less number of eggs than the above combinations. Lymphocyte and monocyte counts revealed that the fish fed with combination of optimum vitamin E and vitamin C diet produced more or less equal effects. The experiment revealed that vitamin C and vitamin E are the growth and reproduction promoting factors respectively and they interact with one another when these two nutrients are available simultaneously.