A Directly Compressible Pregelatinised Sago Starch: A New Excipient in the Pharmaceutical Tablet Formulations.

An excipient intended for direct compression in pharmaceutical tableting must show important features of flowability and compactibility. This study investigated pregelatinised sago starch as an excipient for direct compression tablets. Pregelatinised sago starch was prepared and characterised. Its powder bulk properties and performance in the tablet formulations with paracetamol as a model drug were compared against two commercial, directly compressible excipients, namely Avicel® PH 101 and Spress® B820. The results showed that pregelatinisation did not affect the chemical structure of sago starch, but its degree of crystallinity reduced, and X-ray diffraction pattern changed from C-type to A-type. Powder bulk properties of pregelatinised sago starch and Spress® B820 were comparable, exhibiting better flowability but lower compactibility than Avicel® PH 101. In the formulation of paracetamol tablets, pregelatinised sago starch and Spress® B820 performed equally well, followed by Avicel® PH 101 as indicated in Formulations 3, 2 and 1, respectively.

Novel chitosan derivative based composite scaffolds with enhanced angiogenesis; potential candidates for healing chronic non-healing wounds.

The success of wound healing depends upon the proper growth of vascular system in time in the damaged tissues. Poor blood supply to wounded tissues or tissue engineered grafts leads to the failure of wound healing or rejection of grafts. In present paper, we report the synthesis of novel organosoluble and pro-angiogenic chitosan derivative (CSD) by the reaction of chitosan with 1,3-dimethylbarbituric acid and triethylorthoformate (TEOF). The synthesized material was characterized by FTIR and 13C-NMR to confirm the incorporated functional groups and new covalent connectivities. Biodegradability of the synthesized chitosan derivative was tested in the presence of lysozyme and was found to be comparable with CS. The cytotoxicity and apoptosis effect of new derivative was determined against gastric adenocarcinoma (AGS) cells and was found to be non-toxic. The CSD was found to be soluble in majority of organic solvents. It was blended with polycaprolactone (PCL) to form composite scaffolds. From an ex ovo CAM assay, it was noted that CSD stimulated the angiogenesis.

UV-Curable Urethane Acrylate Resin from Palm Fatty Acid Distillate.

Palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), is a by-product of the crude palm oil refining process. It comprises mainly of free fatty acids-around 45% palmitic and 33% oleic acids-as the major components. Ultra-violet (UV) curable urethane acrylate (UA) oligomers could be synthesized from PFAD, by the following procedure. A hydroxyl terminated macromer was first prepared by reacting PFAD with a mixture of isophthalic acid, phthalic anhydride, neopentagylcol (NPG), and pentaerythritol. The macromer was then reacted with 2-hydroxylethylacrylate (2HEA) and toluene diisocynate (TDI) to generate a resin, containing acrylate side chains for UV curable application. A series of UA resins were prepared by using 15, 25, 45, 55, and 70% of PFAD, respectively. The UA resin has Mw in the range of 3,200 to 27,000. They could be cured by UV irradiation at an intensity of 225 mW/cm². Glass transition temperature (Tg) of the cured film was measured by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and hardness of the film was determined by a pendulum hardness tester, according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)4366. The resins were used in a wood-coating application. All of the cured films showed good adhesion, hardness, and chemical resistance except for the one using the 70% PFAD, which did not cure properly.

Development of sustainable dye adsorption system using nutraceutical industrial fennel seed spent-studies using Congo red dye.

Fennel seed spent (FSS)-an inexpensive nutraceutical industrial spent has been used as an efficient biosorbent for the removal of Congo red (CR) from aqueous media. Results show that the conditions for maximum adsorption would be pH 2-4 and 30°C were ideal for maximum adsorption. Based on regression fitting of the data, it was determined that the Sips isotherm (R2 = 0.994, χ2 = 0.5) adequately described the mechanism of adsorption, suggesting that the adsorption occurs homogeneously with favorable interaction between layers with favorable interaction between layers. Thermodynamic analysis showed that the adsorption is favorable (negative values for ΔG°) and endothermic (ΔH° = 12-20 kJ mol-1) for initial dye concentrations of 25, 50, and 100 ppm. The low ΔH° value indicates that the adsorption is a physical process involving weak chemical interactions like hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions. The kinetics revealed that the adsorption process showed pseudo-second-order tendencies with the equal influence of intraparticle as well as film diffusion. The scanning electron microscopy images of FSS show a highly fibrous matrix with a hierarchical porous structure. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis of the spent confirmed the presence of cellulosic and lignocellulosic matter, giving it both hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties. The investigations indicate that FSS is a cost-effective and efficient biosorbent for the remediation of toxic CR dye.

pH Sensitive Hydrogels in Drug Delivery: Brief History, Properties, Swelling, and Release Mechanism, Material Selection and Applications.

Improving the safety efficacy ratio of existing drugs is a current challenge to be addressed rather than the development of novel drugs which involve much expense and time. The efficacy of drugs is affected by a number of factors such as their low aqueous solubility, unequal absorption along the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, risk of degradation in the acidic milieu of the stomach, low permeation of the drugs in the upper GI tract, systematic side effects, etc. This review aims to enlighten readers on the role of pH sensitive hydrogels in drug delivery, their mechanism of action, swelling, and drug release as a function of pH change along the GI tract. The basis for the selection of materials, their structural features, physical and chemical properties, the presence of ionic pendant groups, and the influence of their pKa and pKb values on the ionization, consequent swelling, and targeted drug release are also highlighted.

Erratum: pH Sensitive Hydrogels in Drug Delivery: Brief History, Properties, Swelling, and Release Mechanism, Material Selection and Applications. Polymers 2017, 9, 137.

The authors wish to make a change to their published paper [1]. [...].

The importance of timely detection and management in neonatal appendicitis.

The clinical presentation of cute appendicitis is rarely encountered in neonatology. When it does occur, it is thought to be due to prematurity or develops secondary to coexisting diseases. We present a case of appendicitis in a 10-day-old Middle-Eastern girl, who was born at term and who had no underlying conditions that are typically associated with neonatal appendicitis. This case highlights that certain causes and clinical signs are unreliable when coming to a working diagnosis of neonatal appendicitis, and that regardless of the cause, timely detection and management are necessary in achieving surgical success.

Structural and optical characterization of metal tungstates (MWO4; M=Ni, Ba, Bi) synthesized by a sucrose-templated method.

BACKGROUND: Metal tungstates have attracted much attention due to their interesting structural and photoluminescence properties. Depending on the size of the bivalent cation present, the metal tungstates will adopt structures with different phases. In this work, three different phases of metal tungstates MWO4 (M= Ba, Ni and Bi) were synthesized via the sucrose templated method. RESULTS: The powders of BaWO4 (tetragonal), NiWO4 (monoclinic) and Bi2WO6 (orthorhombic) formed after calcination temperatures of 750, 650 and 600°C for 4 h respectively are found to be crystalline and exist in their pure phase. Based on Scherrer estimation, their crystallite size are of nanosized. BET results showed NiWO4 has the highest surface area. BaWO4 exhibited less Raman vibrations than the NiWO4 because of the increased lattice symmetry but Bi2WO6 showed almost the same Raman vibrations as BaWO4. From the UV-vis spectra, the band gap transition of the metal tungstates are of the order of BaWO4 > Bi2WO6 > NiWO4. Broad blue-green emission peaks were detected in photoluminescence spectra and the results showed the great dependence on morphology, crystallinity and size of the metal tungstates. CONCLUSION: Three different phases of metal tungstates of BaWO4 (scheelite), NiWO4 (wolframite) and Bi2WO6 (perovskite layer) in their pure phase were successfully prepared by the simple and economical sucrose-templated method. The highest surface area is exhibited by NiWO4 while largest band gap is shown by BaWO4. These materials showed promising optical properties.

Accuracy of b-GGT fraction for the diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

BACKGROUND: Serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activity is a sensitive but non-specific marker of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Recently, four GGT fractions (big-, medium-, small-, free-GGT) were described in humans. AIM: We aimed to investigate whether a specific GGT fraction pattern is associated with NAFLD. METHODS: Gamma-glutamyltransferase fractions were determined in patients with NAFLD (n = 90), and compared with those in control subjects (n = 70), and chronic hepatitis C (CHC, n = 45) age and gender matched. RESULTS: Total GGT was elevated in NAFLD as compared to controls (median, 25°-75° percentile: 39.4, 20.0-82.0 U/L vs. 18.4, 13.2-24.9 U/L respectively, P < 0.001). All fractions were higher in NAFLD than in controls (P < 0.001). The b-GGT showed the highest diagnostic accuracy for NAFLD diagnosis [area under ROC curve (ROC-AUC): 0.85; cut-off 2.6 U/L, sensitivity 74%, specificity 81%]. Also subjects with CHC showed increased GGT (41.5, 21.9-84.5 U/L, P < 0.001 vs. controls, P = n.s. vs. NAFLD), as well as m-, s-, and f-GGT, while b-GGT did not show any significant increase (P = n.s. vs. HS, P < 0.001 vs. NAFLD). In subjects with CHC, s-GGT showed the best diagnostic value (ROC-AUC: 0.853; cut-off 14.1 U/L, sensitivity 73%, specificity 90%). Serum GGT did not show any value in the differential diagnosis between NAFLD and CHC (ROC-AUC 0.507, P = n.s.), while b-GGT/s-GGT ratio showed the highest diagnostic accuracy for distinguishing NAFLD and CHC (ROC-AUC: 0.93; cut-off value 0.16, sensitivity 82%, specificity 90%). CONCLUSIONS: b-GGT increases in NAFLD, but not in CHC. GGT fraction analysis might help in improving the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis of NAFLD and other liver dysfunctions.