Life Sciences

Andrographis paniculata Nees, a well-known plant of Indian and Chinese traditional system of medicines, commonly known as Kalmegh has drawn attention of researchers in recent times. Andrographolide, the principal bioactive phytoconstituent of the plant has shown credible anticancer, anti-inflammatory, angiogenic, antivenom, antidiabetic, antimalarial potentially in various investigations around the globe. This review contains brief discussion about active constituent and pharmacological activity of plant Andrographis paniculata.

Leaf oil of Psidium guajava L.obtained from Soxhlet extraction was tested for insecticidal effect and phytochemical screening against khapra beetle, Trogoderma granarium Everts (Coleoptera: Dermestidae). In the laboratory study, groundnut seeds treated with the oil significantly performed better than the control in terms of reduced population and emergence of T. granarium larvae and adults. Percentage mortality of T. granarium in groundnut seeds treated with the oil increased with rate of treatment.

Fungal infections such as Aspergillosis and Candidiasis have been given less priority in the diagnosis of respiratory disorders compared to other respiratory tract infections. The research is therefore aimed at screening for Aspergillus and Candida infections among patients with pulmonary symptoms that attend Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kano between April and October, 2011, in order to ascertain the endemicity of the infection and the risk factors and groups associated with the diseases.

Valeriana officinalis is used as a mild sedative but should be avoided during pregnancy due to scarce data available about potential effects on the offspring. This paper evaluates physical development and anxiety in female rats whose mothers were exposed to valerian during gestation. Twenty four pregnant rats were distributed into four groups (n=6) and treated orally from the 12th to 19th day of gestation: Control (1 ml of distilled water), and three valerian-treated groups with 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/Kg/day.

A simple method for the synthesis of a pyrasolyl-thiazole derivative containing a piperonal moiety was developed by microwave irradiation. The microwave synthesis route afforded better yields with shorter reaction time. Their chemical structure was confirmed by IR, 1H, 13 C, NMR, mass and elemental analysis. All the synthesized compounds were also screened for their potent antimicrobial activity.

This research was the learning tools development research for chemoentrepreneurship-based hydrocarbon and petroleum materials which was valid and effective in increasing the students’ soft skills and interest in entrepreneurship. Pretest-posttest control group design was used as the research design and was conducted outside of the classroom. N-gain test was used to analyze the data of students’ achievement, meanwhile the percentage technique was used to analyze the students’ soft skills and interest in entrepreneurship.

Even though India is the largest milk producer in the world, India should improve rural milk and milk products marketing infrastructure to attain sustainable economic empowerment of rural poor.In order to improve the marketing facilities for different milk products such as flavoured milk, a systematic study of constraints faced by farmers should be carefully analyzed. Hence this survey is planned to study constraints faced by the farmers in flavoured milk marketing. Cuddalore District of Tamil Nadu was randomly selected for the present study.