Manjunath DH

Humans are being substantially benefitting from the use of honeybees. Honeybees are natural foragers; they travel long distances in search for water, nectar, propolis and pollen. Researchers aim to use these factors for the welfare of mankind, taking advantage of the behavioral characteristics of honeybees to use them as a basis for developing natural biosensors. Through the use of a honeybee sensor system, one can train thousands of bees to seek many kind of odor. This finally results in a very simple to use but powerful real biosensor, potentially much more efficient than any electronic sensor. This review briefly outlines the sniffer technology of honeybees for deploying them as highly sensitive, accurate and cost effective biosensors. This sniffer bee technology can be employed in various fields, such as theatres of war, identification of explosives, various chemicals, flowers/plants, food contamination, biomarkers in medicinal field, etc.

Medicinal plants are widely applied by mankind since prehistoric times as foods and medicines in their daily lives till to date. In Malaysia, herbs are commonly used by local practitioners as medicines for health enhancement and folk remedy. Although scientific data for Malaysian herbs are relatively limited, extensive studies have been actively carrying out by researchers nowadays. The deep interest in the study of herbal medicinal plants is mainly due to the limitation of drugs in the treatment of chronic diseases, as well as the inherent negative effects of the drugs. With the availability of advanced analytical equipment and sophisticated data mining software, the beneficial effects of some of the herbal medicinal plants can be explained up to the molecular level. Mostly, phytochemicals from the group of flavonoids have been reported as the major contributor to the biological activities. It is believed that the significant biological activities exhibited by the herbal materials are due to the presence of flavonoids acting as antioxidants. The unique structural characteristics of flavonoids have promoted them as good radical scavengers, reducing agents, hydrogen donors, singlet oxygen quenchers and/or metal chelators. Nevertheless, further study up to the clinical trial is necessary for safe consumption of medicinal herbs in the long run. The dosage of application based on the toxicity study is of great

A simple, sensitive and rugged reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed and validated for the determination of rivaroxaban in pure, pharmaceutical formulations and in spiked human plasma sample. The separation of rivaroxaban and internal standard was achieved on XDB C18 (150 x 4.6) mm column. Mobile phase employed for the study is the mixture of water and acetonitrile in gradient programme. A flow rate of 1 ml/min was found optimum for the study. Linearity of the proposed method was found to be in the range of 0.05 µg/ml to 20 µg/ml with r 2 =0.9999. The limit of detection and limit of quantification of the proposed method are found to be 0.015 µg/ml and 0.046 µg/ml, respectively. Intra-day and inter-day assay relative standard deviations were determined and found to be less than 2.0 %. The method has been applied successfully for the determination of rivaroxaban in its pharmaceutical formulations and in spiked human plasma samples.

Malaria, a major burden of disease caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium, is widely spread in tropical
and subtropical regions. Here, we have successfully developed a diagnostic technique for malaria. The
proposed method is based on the interaction among the Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH),
which is a biomarker for malaria, and pL1 aptamer against Plasmodium vivax lactate dehydrogenase
(PvLDH) and Plasmodium falciparum lactate dehydrogenase (PfLDH). In addition, the cationic polymers,
poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH), aggregate
gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that should be possible to observe the change in color from red to blue, which
depends on the concentration of pLDH. Using this aptasensor, pLDH proteins were successfully detected
with low detection limits. Moreover, the specificity test proved that the aptasenor is very specific in targeting
proteins over other interfering proteins. In addition, the pLDH from infected blood samples of the
two main species of malaria were also detected. The limits of detection for P. vivax were determined as 80
parasites/ll for PDDA and 74 parasites/ll for PAH. The aptasenor has great advantages that can simply
and rapidly diagnose malaria. Thus, the developed aptasensor for detection of pLDH can offer an effective
and sensitive diagnosis of malaria.

Honey is a natural product produced by bees
and has been used for thousands of years as a medicinal
agent and dietary supplement. It is known to cure a wide
variety of ailments and can be used as a potent anti-inflammatory
and wound healing agent. These vital bioactivities
of honey are far less well known than its antibacterial, antioxidant,
and any other biological activities. Many clinical
trials have been reported and revealed that, when honey is
applied to wound, there is a decrease in inflammation and
will have a soothing effect. There is much evidence for
the anti-inflammatory and wound healing effects of honey
in terms of publications in modern medical and scientific
journals. The exact mechanism of anti-inflammatory activity
and wound healing property of honey has yet to be demonstrated.
Possibly there are several mechanisms of action.
There are also some reports where honey exerts negligible
side effects. The article focuses on the components of
honey involved in its anti-inflammatory effect, possible
mechanism of action, properties of honey responsible for
its wound healing activity, and its adverse effects. Overall
the review presents the evidence and explanation for the
anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties of honey.

Abstract A simple and sensitive spectrophotometric method for the determination of four catecholamines viz., adrenaline bitartarate (ABT), methyldopa (MDP), dopamine hydrochloride (DPH), and levodopa (LDP), in both pure form and in pharmaceutical ...

A direct, extraction-free spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of acebutolol hydrochloride (ABH) in pharmaceutical preparations. The method is based on ion-pair complex formation between the drug and two acidic dyes (sulphonaphthalein) namely bromocresol green (BCG) and bromothymol blue (BTB). Conformity to Beer's law enabled the assay of the drug in the range of 0.5-13.8 µg mL-1 with BCG and 1.8-15.9 µg mL-1 with BTB. Compared with a reference method, the results obtained were of equal accuracy and precision. In addition, these methods were also found to be specific for the analysis of acebutolol hydrochloride in the presence of excipients, which are co-formulated in the drug.

Abstract A simple reverse‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) in pharmaceutical formulations and human plasma samples has been developed and validated. Piroxicam (PRX) was used ...

The binding of trazodone hydrochloride (TZH) to human serum albumin (HSA) was investigated by spectroscopic techniques. Various binding parameters have been evaluated. Negative enthalpy and positive entropy values indicated that both hydrogen ...

The binding characteristics of human serum albumin (HSA) with N-alkyl phenothiazines derivatives (NAP) viz., levomepromazine monomaleate (LMM) and propericiazine (PPC) have been studied by employing fluorescence, absorption, circular dichroism and FT-IR techniques. The Stern-Volmer quenching constant, K(SV) values were found to decrease with increase in temperature thereby indicating the presence of static quenching mechanism in the interactions of NAP with HSA. The number of binding sites, n and the binding constant, K were noticed to be, respectively, 1.11 and (5.188+/-0.034)x10(4) M(-1) for LMM and 1.06 and (4.436+/-0.066)x10(4) M(-1) for PPC at 298 K. The negative value of enthalpy change and positive value of entropy change in the present study indicated that the hydrophobic forces played a major role in the binding of NAP to HSA. The circular dichroism and FT-IR spectral data revealed the conformational changes in the structure of protein upon its interaction with NAP. The binding distances and the energy transfer efficiency between NAP and protein were determined based on Förster's theory of energy transfer. The decreased binding constants of HAS-LMM and HAS-PPC systems in presence of common ions indicated the availability of higher concentration of free drug in plasma.

In this paper, the binding characteristics of human serum albumin (HSA) with phenothiazine derivatives (PDS) viz., thioridazine hydrochloride (TDH) and triflupromazine hydrochloride (TFP) have been studied by employing different spectroscopic techniques. The Stern– ...