1,721,053 research outputs found
Ferric reducing antioxidant power and free radical scavenging activity of Moringa oleifera: Relevance in oxidative stress
Full text linkMoringa oleifera of family Moringaceae, commonly known as Horseradish-tree or the Ben-oil tree is an exceptionally nutritious vegetable tree with a variety of medicinal uses, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The tree's bark, roots, fruit (pod), flowers, leaves, seeds and gum are used as an antiseptic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective and in treating rheumatism, venomous bites and other conditions. The immature green pods, called ‘drumsticks’ are probably the most valued and widely used part of the tree for water purification (e.g. desalination of ocean salt water). The leaves are highly nutritious, being a significant source of beta-carotene, vitamin C, protein, iron and potassium used in soups and sauces. The present study focuses on concentration-dependent ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), free radical scavenging (DPPH), total phenolics (TP), total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and reducing power (RP) of moringa leaf and fruit (pod) extract compared with standard antioxidant. A strong positive co-relation was observed between FRAP, DPPH, TP and RP activity. Comparatively, the antioxidant potential of fruit extract was more pronounced than the leaf extract and ethanolic extract showed better activity than aqueous. On the basis of our observations, we hypothesize that moringa fruit (pod) and leaves can be a potential source of natural antioxidants due to their marked antioxidant activity
Investigations on biological activity of Vetiveria zizanioides L. Nash, a palingenesis of some important findings in miracle grass
Full text linkVetiveria zizanioides L. Nash synonymously known as Chrysopogon zizanioides L. Roberty (Family: Poaceae/Graminae), widely cultivated in the tropical regions of the world, is a miraculous grass native to India first developed for soil and water conservation by the World Bank during mid 1980s. Popularly known as ‘KHUS’, it is the major source of the well-known oil of vetiver, which is used in medicine, cosmetics and in perfumery making agarbattis, soaps, soft drinks, pan masala. Being a major constituent of ‘Rasayana’ in Ayurveda, different parts of the vetiver plant have traditionally been used by the Indian tribes for treating various ailments, diseases and disorders including boils, burns, epilepsy, fever, scorpion sting, snakebite, sores in the mouth, headache, toothache, weakness, lumbago, sprain, rheumatism, urinary tract infection, malarial fever, acidity relief and as an anti-helmintic. It has also been used in traditional medicine of Asia and Africa, particularly ancient Tamil literature mentions the use of vetiver for medical purposes. The essential oil of vetiver has extensive applications in toiletries and cosmetics, possesses sedative property and has traditionally been used in aromatherapy for relieving stress, anxiety, nervous tension and insomnia. Root is also important in traditional medicine as a carminative, stimulant and diaphoretic. Besides these medicinal properties of the plant, the dried culms of the plant are used as brooms and to thatch roofs. Pulp of the plant is used to prepare straw boards and paper. In India, the roots have been used for making screens, mats, hand fans, and baskets. Formulations containing oil and/or extracts of vetiver have been reported to treat inflammatory bowel disease, urinary tract infection, and in making insect repellents. Research on various aspects of vetiver make it an excellent plant describing many characteristics including phytoremediation, water purification, leachate and effluent disposal, utilizing wastewater, removing nitrogen and phosphorus etc. It is one of the most promising aromatic plants known to possess antimicrobial, antioxidant and termicidal properties. However, the plant has not been studied exclusively for other pharmacological activities and there is a lack of scientific evidence to prove these effects. We are studying bioactivity of vetiver root as a part of our effort to discover plant-based biologically active molecules since last many years using molecular and cell target based assays. In our published reports, we showed potent antibacterial, drug-resistant modifying, hydroxyl radical scavenging, anticancer, antihepatotoxic and antioxidant activity in intact and spent root of vetiver. In view of our findings, the present paper recapitulates some important findings on the bioactivity of Vetiveria zizanioides L. Nash and a palingenesis has been made for this miracle grass
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Protective effect of (-) α-bisabolol on markers of oxidative stress in erythrocytes subjected to oxidative insult
Full text link(-)-α-bisabolol is a sesquiterpene alcohol found as a major component of essential oil of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L., Chamomilla recutita L., Matricaria chamomilla L.; Family Asteraceae). Chamomile, one of the most ancient and widely recognized herbs to mankind, has been used traditionally for centuries as an anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, carminative, mild astringent and healing medicine. It is also known to be very helpful as an external agent for encouraging the rapid healing of ulcers and burns without infection, as well as persistent skin problems such as eczema and psoriasis. Since clinical trials and human studies are limited, we have investigated the effect of (-)-α-bisabolol on markers of oxidative stress in human erythrocytes by incubating with hydrogen peroxide (2mM) and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (10 µM). Subjecting erythrocyte to oxidative stress caused a significant alteration in reduced glutathione GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration as well as superoxide dismutase and catalase activity compare to control. Presence of (-)-α-bisabolol as low as 0.1µM in incubation medium protected the erythrocytes from oxidative stress and helps to maintain the basal level of GSH and MDA. The activity of superoxide dismutase and catalase were also restored in a concentration-dependent manner (0.01-100µM). The effect was also compared with L-Ascorbic acid, quercetin and BHT. Our findings provide evidence for the protection of oxidative stress in erythrocytes by (-)-α-bisabolol that could be considered for further studies
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Attenuation of Hydroxyl Radical Formation by Extracted Constituent of Moringa oleifera Lam
No full textCancer chemopreventive action of α-(-)-bisabolol, a sesquiterpene alcohol involves inhibition of cathepsin D and ornithine decarboxylase via tramping nitric oxide
No full textTerpenoids, traditionally used for cosmetic and medicinal purposes, are currently being explored as cancer chemopreventive as well as chemotherapeutic agent in clinical trials. α-(-)-bisabolol, a naturally occurring monocyclic sesquiterpene alcohol is a major component of essential oil of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L., Chamomilla recutita L., Matricaria chamomilla; Family Asteraceae). As substantiated previously, α-(-)-bisabolol is known to have antimicrobial, anti-irritant, anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic properties. It also affects cell viability and growth of various human and murine cell lines by either inducing apoptosis or suppressing Akt activation or down regulating expression of some genes implicated in carcinogenesis. To elucidate the possible mechanism for its cancer chemopreventive action, herein we are reporting dose-dependent effect of α-(-)-bisabolol on ornithine decarboxylase (ODC, a key rate limiting enzyme in mammalian polyamine biosynthesis), cathepsin D (CATD, a lysosomal aspartyl protease) and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR, a protein of purine biosynthetic pathway) all of these proteins get over-expressed during cell transformation, proliferation and malignancy. Our results demonstrate greater activity of α-(-)-bisabolol by exhibiting potent inhibition of ODC (99% at a concentration of 100μM with an IC50 value of 0.01μM) and CATD (22% at 10μM). The molecule did not affect DHFR activity significantly. To establish the hypothesis whether inhibition of CATD and ODC involves tramping of nitric oxide (NO), we have also investigated the scavenging potential of α-(-)-bisabolol and the results were found to be promising with an IC50 of 0.1μM. Our findings suggest that α-(-)-bisabolol not only inhibits ODC and CATD activity through scavenging of NO radicals but also exerts anti-tumour promoting properties which may perhaps be due to channeling of arginine in the NO and polyamine biosynthesis pathways. These results provide a possibility of developing α-(-)-bisabolol as a viable cancer chemopreventive agent
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