HPTLC Method for Estimation of Ellagic Acid and Gallic Acid from Flowers of Woodfordia fruticosa Kurz.

Woodfordia fruticosa Kurz, belonging to family Lythraceae, commonly known as dhataki pushpa, is a plant of tropical and subtropical region with a long history of medicinal use. Wide range of chemical compounds including tannins, flavonoides, anthraquinones glycosides and polyphenols have been isolated from the plant. The extract from the flowers are used in folklore medicine for treatments of like wound healing, bowel complaint, rheumatism, hematuria. Litreture survey indicates that the flowers are rich in tannins, both gallo and ellagitannins. Hence, it was thought worthwhile to use Ellagic acid and Gallic acid as the marker compounds for the standardization of the flowers. With this background the present study was undertaken to standardize the flowers using Ellagic acid and Gallic acid as marker compounds. The HPTLC method used for the standardization was validated for the parameters like specificity, limits of detection and quantification, linearity, precision, accuracy and recovery. The total content of Ellagic acid and Gallic acid in the Methanolic extract was found to be 4.21%, 6.70% and the total content of Ellagic acid and Gallic acid in the Total aqueous extract was found to be 2.62%, 4.75%.

ON AIR INSUFFLATION FOR THE TREATMENT OF INTUSSUSCEPTION– AS REPORTED IN 1864

The first successful surgical operation for intussusception in an infant was reported in 1874.1 Prior to this date, infants with intussusception were occasionally treated by introducing air into the rectum by means of a tube attached to a common pair of bellows. In 1864 David Grieg2 of Dundee, Scotland published the first detailed report of the successful treatment by insuffiation of several infants with intussusception. This is how he described his first case. Case I.—M.S.G., a stout, healthy, female child, 6 months old, always enjoyed good health, never having had a day's sickness; never had any food except breast milk; never troubled with diarrhoea or bowel complaint. Was in her usual good health on Monday, 13th October 1862, up to 6 o'clock in the evening, when, without any obvious cause, she suddenly became fretful, kicking with her feet, bending the body backwards, and screaming. In about ten minutes she became very sick and vomited severely. The skin became cold and clammy, the countenance pale, and the lips livid.... She seemed to have great pain in the abdomen, which came on in paroxysms, and to increase in intensity until she vomited, when she would seem relieved a little, or at least so faint and sick as not to scream. When given the breast, she would take it readily; but as the sickness and vomiting, with a paroxysm of pain, immediately came on, she latterly refused it. Immediately when she was seized a spoonful of castor oil was given, and hot fomentations were applied to the abdomen.