In vivo screening of essential oils of Skimmia laureola leaves for antinociceptive and antipyretic activity

Objective:To study the screening of essential oils of Skimmia laureola leaves(SLO)for acute toxicity,antinociceptive,antipyretic and anticonvulsant activities in various animal models.Methods:SLO were extracted using modified Clevenger type apparatus.Acute toxicity test was used in mice to observe its safety level.Antinociceptive activity of SLO was evaluated in acetic acid induced writhing and hot plate tests.Yeast induced hyperthermic mice and pentylenetetrazole induced convulsive mice were used for the assessment of its antipyretic and anticonvulsant profile respectively.Results:Substantial safety was observed for SLO in acute toxicity test.SLO showed a high significant activity in acetic acid induced writhing test in a dose dependent manner with maximum pain attenuation of 68.48%at 200 mg/kg i.p.However,it did not produce any relief in thermal induced pain at test doses.When challenged against pyrexia evoked by yeast,SLO manifested marked amelioration in hyperthermic mice,dose dependently.Maximum anti-hyperthermic activity(75%)was observed at 200 mg/kg i.p.after 4 h of drug administration.Nevertheless,SLO had no effect on seizures control and mortality caused by pentylenetetrazole.Conclusions:In vivo studies of SLO showed prominent antinociceptive and antipyretic activities with ample safety profile and thus provided pharmacological base for the traditional uses of the plant in various painful conditions and pyrexia.Additional detail studies are required to ascertain its clinical application.

Synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles from leaf of Litchi chinensis and its biological activities

Objective: To synthesize and isolate silver and gold nanoparticles from Litchi chinensis leaf methanolic extract, and to evaluate its comparative biological activities including muscles relaxant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antidiarrheal. Methods: The gold and silver nanoparticles were synthesized by dissolving methanolic extract in gold chloride and silver nitrate solution separately which were confirmed by colour change and UV-Vis spectroscopy, and pellets were collected through centrifugation. Biological activities of the extract were conducted on BALB/c mice through various standard methods and the data were subjected to One-way ANOVA. Results: The colorless gold chloride solution changed to purple soon after the addition of plant extract, demonstrating that the reaction took place and gold ions were reduced to gold nanoparticles, while colorless silver nitrate solution changed to light and dark brown that was indicative of silver nanoparticles. The muscles relaxant activity showed that silver nanoparticles were more effective than gold nanoparticles and methanolic extract in traction test. The analgesic activity showed that silver and gold nanoparticles showed highest percentage decrease in acetic acid induced writhing at the doses of 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg b.w. The highest anti-inflammatory activity was produced by gold nanoparticles followed by silver nanoparticles, while low activity was observed in methanolic leaf extract. Only the crude methanolic extract showed significant antidiarrheal activity as compared to the standard drug atropine sulphate, while antidiarrheal activities of gold and silver nanoparticles were non-significant. Conclusions: The present work concludes that isolated silver and gold nanoparticles from leaf methanolic extract shows strong muscles relaxant, analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities while crude methanolic extract possesses good antidiarrheal activity.

Data Visualization Analysis Based on Explainable Artificial Intelligence:A Survey

With the rapid development of computer hardware and big data processing technology,the bottleneck of intelligent analysis of massive data has changed from“how to deal with massive data quickly”to“how to mine valuable information quickly and effectively from massive data”.Visualization and visualization analysis based on human visual perception characteristics,combined with data analysis and human-computer interaction and other technologies,use visual charts to deconstruct the knowledge and rules contained in complex data.This technology runs through the whole life cycle of data science,known as the last kilometer in the field of big data intelligence,and has achieved remarkable results in many big data application analysis scenarios.Traditional visualization analysis is extremely dependent on the user’s frequent active participation in the whole life cycle of visualization analysis,including data preparation,data conversion,visualization mapping,visual rendering,user interaction,visual analysis and other stages,which require high professional skills of users and low intelligence of the system.Therefore,the traditional visualization analysis mode and systems have the challenges of high threshold of visualization analysis,high cost of data preparation,high latency of interaction response,and low efficiency of interaction mode.Therefore,this paper introduces the application,challenges in visualization based on explainable AI.

Assessment of Toxoplasma gondii Contamination in Cat Feces

A study in district Buner,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,aimed to determine the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in cat feces.243 fecal samples were collected and examined for intestinal parasites at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan.Of these,58 samples(23.86%)were positive for T.gondii oocysts.Samples were collected over five months from November 2016 to March 2017,with varying prevalence rates:20% in November,25.7% in December,22.5% in January,25.9% in February,and 21.9% in March.This was the first study of its kind conducted in district Buner.

Study on Combining Ability for Yield and Yield Contributing Characters of Short Statured Maize Inbred Lines at over Locations

Twenty short-statured maize inbred lines were collected from CIMMYT India and Mexico through the Plant Breeding Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Gazipur. The experiment was conducted from November 2020 to April 2021 in three different agroecological regions such as BARI, Gazipur, RARS Barisal and RARS Rangpur. Seven inbred lines were selected on the basis of genetic diversity and per se performance and they were crossed separately in a 7 × 7 half diallel fashion, producing 21F1 hybrids in 2019 which were evaluated at three locations. However, variances due to GCA were much higher in magnitude than SCA for all the characters indicating preponderance of additive gene effects on the inheritance of these characters. Two parents viz., P3 (CML33) and P4 (CML41) were good general combiners and two crosses viz., P4 × P5 (CML41 × CML31) and P5 × P7 (CML31 × CML124) expressed significant positive SCA effects coupled with significant positive heterosis for grain yield and for most of the yield contributing characters over the two commercial check varieties BHM 9 and NK40. Four crosses: P1 × P5 (CML116 × CML31), P1 × P6 (CML116 × CML32), P2 × P6 (CML72 × CML32) and P3 × P4 (CML33 × CML41), exhibited significant and negative SCA effects for both plant and ear height which were desirable for short stature. Genotypes x location interaction was also significant for maximum characters, suggesting that genotypes interacted significantly in different environments.

Ethnobotanical studies of plants of Charkotli Hills, Batkhela District, Malakand, Pakistan

A survey was conducted with the aim to document the indigenous information of Charkotli Hills,Batkhela District,Malakand,Pakistan.The area has rich vegetation and a high potential for ethnobotanical utiliza-tion.Information was collected on various traditional uses of 100 plants distributed over 49 families,of which 43 families were of dicot,2 of monocot,2 of pteridophyta,and 1 of gymnosperms.Most plants have more than one local use.Sixty-six plants were found to be medicinal species,21 fruit and edible seed species,11 furniture species,18 fodder or forage species,12 vegetable species,12 fuel species,11 thatching and building species,5 hedge or fencing species,5 timber wood species,5 poisonous plants,3 species used in ketchup,2 fixed oil yielding species,2 miswak species,2 species for making sticks for cattle and defense purposes,2 species cultivated for ornamental purposes,2 species used as mehindi by girls,1 irritant species,1 species for the making of Salai(a little stick for applying‘surma’to the eyes),1 species for tanning,1 species used as refresher in milk pots,1 species giving gum used as chewing gum,and 1 species used as insect repellent.The area is under heavy pressure of deforestation and overgrazing,which have reduced the regeneration of woody plants.Proper ecological manage-ment is required to protect the wildlife and ethnobotanical resources for the coming generations.