Does Green Tea (Camellia sinensis) Powder Extract Contain Fluoride?

Background: Green tea being a rich source of fluoride, may provide anti-caries benefits when incorporated in toothpaste formulation. Aim: To estimate the concentration of fluoride in dry green tea extract. Methods: Prior to the estimation of fluoride in the sample, the dry green tea extract powder was tested for its physical characteristics, analytical characteristics, active ingredients and contaminants. Microbial assay was done for quantifying E. Coli, yeast and Salmonella. Fluoride estimation was done by IS 3025 P 60 method. Results: Fluoride was not detected in the dry powder extract of green tea dry extract powder. Conclusion: Green tea powder extract incorporated in herbal toothpastes cannot be read as a natural substitute of fluoride in toothpaste.

Plant Mediated Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles and Evaluation of Its Anti - microbial and Anti - oxidant Activities

Abstract-In this research paper we have reported the single pot synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) for the first time by utilisation of leaves extract of Himalayan medicinal plant Artemisia roxburghiana. The principle of green chemistry was utilised at maximum possible level to make the synthesis not only environmentally compatible but also cost effective. The obtained nanoparticles are of good shape and size as confirmed by the instrumental techniques such as Powder XRD, HR-TEM, HR-SEM and FT-IR. The average size of the synthesized nanoparticles was between 26 to 35 nm. These nanoparticles then screened for the anti - microbial assay in which it has shown positive activity against E. coli, A. Tereus and C. falcatum. The second application of the synthesized nanoparticles is estimation of anti - oxidant activity against the DPPH. The IC value of the nanoparticles is formed to be 50 53 in EtoH while that of the standard, ascorbic acid was 26 in the same solvent. Keywords:Art emisia roxburghiana, Asteraceae, ZnONPs, Antimicrobial activity and Antioxidant activity

Toxicity Testing by the Microbial Assay for Risk Assessment (MARA) in Relation to Trace Elements Content in King Bolete (Boletus edulis) Collected in Several Sites of Poland

Boletus edulis (King bolete) is one of the most consumed wild mushrooms on a global scale, but this is particularly the case in Poland. Several studies have reported that mushrooms accumulate many potentially toxic elements (PTEs) such as Hg, Pb, and Cd, which may lead to adverse effects. Therefore, in this preliminary study, an assessment of the potential of a microbial assay for risk assessment (MARA) for ecotoxicological testing of both dried samples of fruiting bodies of King bolete collected from several sites of Poland and water extracts of mushrooms being tested were analyzed. An evaluation of MARA response in Boletus edulis extracts was performed to identify their toxicity and then, using the same samples, instrumental determination of 10 elements (Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) was performed. In general, the MARA responses indicated that the samples were only slightly toxic or nontoxic. Similarly, most of the PTEs were not detected in all dried samples of the fruiting bodies of King bolete. However, the analysis of digested samples (total content) proved that the elements’ content in water extracts was markedly lower than in dried fruit bodies. It implies that the MARA test corresponded better to the elements that are well extracted in water. Therefore, the MARA system can be applied for toxic identification if the targeted toxin is highly extracted in water. Further and more detailed research is still needed to develop reliable approach in order to evaluate the ecotoxicity in food-related bio-based raw materials using the MARA assay.

Microbial Assay of the Waterborne Pathogen on Supplied Drinking Water in Gopalganj Area, Bangladesh and its Future Effect

Around 60% of water constitute the human body if about 2% of the body’s water content drop anyone dehydration must have a remarkable effect. Studies show that the loss of body water can break many aspects of brain function. About Eight 8-ounce (237-mL) glasses of water always consult by the physician for a sound person. But unfortunately, If this drinking water becomes impure it affects to develop the various vital dysfunction in our body. Infrequent bowel actions and trouble passing footrest, brain associate dysfunction along with familiar waterborne infections such as looseness, polio, diarrhoea and meningitis are the common conditions that arise for the water-borne pathogen in water. Gopalganj is a town in Gopalgonj District belonging to the Dhaka Division of Bangladesh. According to the census(cf) of 2011-03-15, 53778 individuals are living here from the divergent profession. For geographical reasons the most of the area specially Gopalganj town along with Gobra, Ghonapra, Tungipara where most government institutions are located the groundwater is not suitable for drinking as Iron and Arsenic are the supremacy amount. That’s why this is the common scenery of these areas to use drinking water jar for the purpose of safe water. For this reason here have already found about 10-15 drinking water jar supplier company. In this research, we performed the microbiological assay to observe the presence or absence of water-born pathogen on these drinking water containing the water jar along with the morphological characteristics of these pathogens. In point of fact, we found that there is 3 to 6 type of microbes are present in this water. Among these pathogens, there are the supremacy of gram-positive bacteria than gram-negative bacteria along with some moulds co-exist on these microbiomes.

Effects of dietary fibre level on rumen pH, total microbial count and methanogenic archaea in Bonsmara and Nguni steers

A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the level of dietary fibre on rumen pH, total microbial count and methanogenic archaeacount of Bonsmara (225 ± 10.0 kg live weight) and Nguni (215 ± 10.0 kg live weight) steers. Nine steers per breed were used, aged 8 to 9 months. A 3 x 2 factorial experiment was executed with treatments allocated in a completely randomized design. The treatments were diets which included 64.3% neutral detergent fibre (NDF) for diet 1, 40.4% NDF for diet 2, and 29.9% NDF for diet 3. Steers were fed for 90 days and housed in individual pens. Rumen fluid was collected from steers using a stomach tube. Rumen fluid samples were taken immediately to the laboratory for microbial assay. Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). The various levels of dietary fibre did not affect rumen pH and methanogenic archaea count. However, a low-fibre diet yielded high rumen total microbial count for Bonsmara steers and low rumen total microbial count for Nguni steers. Therefore, a low-fibre diet can be applied as a viable strategy to enhance rumen total microbial count in exotic beef breeds and crossbred cattle such as Bonsmara. Nguni steers fed a high NDF diet had higher rumen total microbial count than Nguni steers fed a low-fibre diet. Therefore, a high NDF diet can be used efficiently by feeding it to indigenous breeds and purebred cattle such as Nguni.

Doppler imaging detects bacterial infection of living tissue

Living 3D in vitro tissue cultures, grown from immortalized cell lines, act as living sentinels as pathogenic bacteria invade the tissue. The infection is reported through changes in the intracellular dynamics of the sentinel cells caused by the disruption of normal cellular function by the infecting bacteria. Here, the Doppler imaging of infected sentinels shows the dynamic characteristics of infections. Invasive Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis and Listeria monocytogenes penetrate through multicellular tumor spheroids, while non-invasive strains of Escherichia coli and Listeria innocua remain isolated outside the cells, generating different Doppler signatures. Phase distributions caused by intracellular transport display Lévy statistics, introducing a Lévy-alpha spectroscopy of bacterial invasion. Antibiotic treatment of infected spheroids, monitored through time-dependent Doppler shifts, can distinguish drug-resistant relative to non-resistant strains. This use of intracellular Doppler spectroscopy of living tissue sentinels opens a new class of microbial assay with potential importance for studying the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

Ecotoxicity of Pore Water in Meadow Soils Affected by Historical Spills of Arsenic-Rich Tailings

This study was carried out in Złoty Stok, a historical centre of gold and arsenic mining. Two kinds of soil material, containing 5020 and 8000 mg/kg As, represented a floodplain meadow flooded in the past by tailings spills and a dry meadow developed on the plateau built of pure tailings, respectively. The effects of soil treatment with a cattle manure and mineral fertilizers were examined in an incubation experiment. Soil pore water was collected after 2, 7, 21, 90, and 270 days, using MacroRhizon samplers and analyzed on As concentrations and toxicity, and assessed in three bioassays: Microtox, the Microbial Assay for Risk Assessment (MARA), and Phytotox, with Sinapis alba as a test plant. In all samples, As concentrations were above 4.5 mg/L. Fertilization with manure caused an intensive release of As, and its concentration in pore water of floodplain soil reached 81.8 mg/L. Mineral fertilization caused a release of As only from the pure tailings soil. The results of bioassays, particularly of Phytotox and MARA, correlated well with As concentrations, while Microtox indices depended additionally on other factors. Very high toxicity was associated with As > 20 mg/L. Despite an effect of “aging”, pore water As remained at the level of several mg/L, causing a potential environmental risk.

FORMULATION AND EVALUATION OF TOPICAL HERBAL GEL FOR TREATMENT OF ACNE

The objective of the study was to develop a topical herbal gel for the treatment of mild acne vulgaris. Aqueous extracts Withania somnifera formulated using different gelling agent like carbopol-934, Xanthan gum, & HPMC K100 M. Nine formulations of the gel were prepared by varying the proportions of polymer and evaluated for their physicochemical properties like appearance, pH, spreadability, viscosity, assay, and microbial assay. FTIR studies reveals that there was no interaction between the Withania somnifera and selected polymers Carbopol 934, Xanthan gum and HPMC K 100 M. In vitro drug diffusion studies showed percentage CDR of 100.16 % at the end of 3 hours. The microbial assay of all the formulations demonstrated better inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus epidermidis compared to the marketed clindamycin phosphate gel. The stability study carried out of the selected gel F2 at room temperature and 40 ± 2 °C / 75 ± 5 % RH was found to be stable for a period of 45 days in terms of drug content, physical appearance and pH etc. Based on these results, Formulation F2 containing 1.5 % carbopol-934 was selected as best formulation. Key words: Herbal gel, Withania somnifera, In vitro diffusion, Zone of inhibition.