Posted by admin on Feb 26, 2015 in |
A budding interest in Nanopharmaceuticals had generated a number of advancements throughout recent years with a focus on engineering novel applications. Nanophytomedicines are prepared from active phytoconstituents or standardized extracts. The world market for nanomedicine is estimated to reach $130.9 billion by the fiscal year 2016. Liposome nanoparticle (NP) with entrapped doxorubicin was reported by researchers to be 300 times more effective because of better pharmacokinetic ability in treatment of Kaposi sarcoma. Nanotized herbal drug containing active principles of seawort, cassia twig and liquorice root was found to be effective in pulmonary, liver, bone and skin cancer. Nanotechnology also offers the ability to detect diseases at much earlier stages, such as finding hidden or overt metastatic colonies often seen in patients diagnosed with breast, lung, colon, prostate, and ovarian cancer. However, the safety and long-term effects of nanoformulations must not be overlooked. This review will provide a brief discussion of the major nanopharmaceutical formulations as well as the impact of nanotechnology on herbal drugs in...
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Posted by admin on Feb 26, 2015 in |
Over the past few decades the nasal route has gained widespread interest as a promising and an alternative route to oral and parenteral drug delivery. The nasal mucosa being highly vascularized and permeable provides a rapid onset of therapeutic action. It is a convenient, compliant and needleless mode of drug delivery suitable for the treatment of both acute and chronic diseases. In addition, nasal drug delivery circumvents the issues of poor and slow absorption, first pass hepatic metabolism, blood brain barrier. Intranasal administration can be used to deliver small polar molecules, hormones, vaccines, proteins and peptides. Despite the several potential advantages the nasal route has certain limitations. The present review outlines the various merits and demerits of intranasal administration, the relevant anatomy and physiology of the nasal cavity. The present article gives a detailed description of the factors affecting drug absorption and the different strategies that can be used to improve the drug...
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Posted by admin on Feb 26, 2015 in |
Apoptosis, a well choreographed gene-directed cellular destruction, plays an important role in a variety of biological events, including morphogenesis, homeostatic maintenance of various tissues and removal of harmful cells while dysregulated apoptosis has been implicated in a variety of disease such as cancer, systemic and organ specific autoimmune disease and neurodegenerative disorders. Apoptosis is initiated by extracellular or intracellular signals in which complex machinery is activated to start a cascade of events ultimately leading to the degradation of nuclear DNA and dismantling of the cell. Cellular disruption results from the activation of a family of cysteine proteases known as caspases. Caspases are synthesized as inactive proenzymes, which upon activation cleave various substrates in the cytoplasm or nucleus leading to changes in morphological and cell death. The goal of this review is to provide a general overview of basic knowledge on the process of apoptosis including morphology, characterization, assays, anti apoptotic genes, mechanisms and relevance to...
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Posted by admin on Jan 30, 2015 in |
Medicinal herbs used in modern medicine are occupying a very significant place as raw materials for important drugs. India officially recognizes over 3000 plants for their medicinal value. It is generally estimated that over 6000 plants in India are used in traditional, folk and herbal medicine. Traditionally Ixora is found to be useful for many ailments like hepatic disorder, cancer, microbial infection, antioxidant, pain, inflammation, etc. and has been documented for various medicinal properties. The genus Ixora has been reported to possess different classes of compounds mainly triterpenoids (lupeol, urosilic acid, oleanolic acid betunolic acid, amyrins, etc.), aromatic acrid oils, tannins, saponins, carbohydrate, fatty acids, flavanoids (rutin, formononetin, β-sitosterol, quercetin and kaempferol) and sterols. Out of many species of Ixora much research was done on I. coccinea and some part of the work on I. chinensis, I. javanica, I. finlaysoniana, I. parviflora and I. macrothyrsa. The main aim is to provide a comprehensive review on the phytochemical and pharmacological aspects of various species of Ixora. In the present review,...
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Posted by admin on Jan 30, 2015 in |
Antioxidants have become a vital part of our lives today. Antioxidants help neutralize or destroy “Reactive Oxygen Species” (ROS) or free radicals before they can damage cells. This paper focuses on types of damaging free radicals generated in metabolic processes and also gives an insight of mechanistic aspect of various in-vitro methods for evaluation of antioxidant capacity of plant metabolites and dietary supplements. The various HAT based, ET based assays and cellular antioxidant capacity assay (CAA) are discussed here. The oxidation induced by Reactive oxygen species (ROS) may result in cell membrane disintegration, membrane protein damage and DNA mutations which play an important role in aging and can further initiate or propagate the development of many diseases, such as arteriosclerosis, cancer, diabetes mellitus, liver injury, inflammation, skin damages, coronary heart diseases and...
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