Phytochemical screening and biological activities of Bromus pectinatus Thunb.

The present research study investigates the phytochemical and pharmacological importance of Bromus pectinatus. Qualitative phytochemical analysis of this plant was carried out to use standard method for the presence of various bioactive constituents. Results showed the ethanolic extract contain natural product such as steroids, alkaloids, tannins, coumarin, saponins, flavonoids and phenols. These compounds play a key role to reducing various disease and microbial inhibition. The ethanolic extract also showed the antimicrobial and antifugal activity against different pathogenic bacterial strains e.g Escherichia coli, Micrococus leutus, Protus vulgarus, and Kelebsela pneumona and three fungal strains Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus flavous, Aspergillus niger. The antioxidant assay was performed as % inhibition of DPPH (1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl) free radicals. The plant extract has more antioxidant activity as compared to ascorbic acid. The maximum concentration (800µg/ml) is the most effective of all. The plant extract showed the high cytotoxicity activity against Brine shrimp. Moreover, the plant extract exhibited allelopathic effect on different growth parameters of wheat plant mostly at higher concentration. These results indicate that the BPEE have a potential broad-spectrum antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antioxidant and phytotoxic activity due to the presence of bioactive compounds.

CAN ULTRASOUND ABDOMEN HELP IN EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF DIABETES MELLITUS? AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a common disease. Similarly, ultrasound findings of fatty change and renal crystals are commonly seen on ultrasound. In the personal observation of the main author over the past so many years it was noticed that Diabetes Mellitus, Fatty liver and renal crystals all sit well together. This study tries to establish a relationship between diabetes mellitus renal echogenic foci and fatty liver. This study is first of its kind, as nobody has ever before investigated an association between the renal echogenic foci and fatty liver in relation to diabetes mellitus. METHODS: This cross-sectional, observational study was conducted at Radiology Department Combined Military Hospital, Kohat From 2nd June 2013 to 30th May 2014. Three hundred patients were collected on the basis of having fatty liver and renal echogenic foci on ultrasound and three hundred more patients were collected who had no fatty liver or renal echogenic foci on ultrasound. Their labs were done for diabetes mellitus. RESULTS: The patients having renal echogenic foci together with fatty liver had 83% positive rate of being diabetics, while patients with no fatty liver and no echogenic foci on ultrasonography had only 0.6% Positive rate of being diabetics. CONCLUSION: Our results provided the first demonstration of an association between renal echogenic foci together with fatty liver with the diabetes mellitus. Thus ultrasound examination of abdomen can be helpful in its early diagnosis if we make a protocol of doing fasting and random blood sugars in all those patients who have positive renal echogenic foci and fatty liver on their ultrasound examination.

The effects of suspension particle size on the performance of air-jet, ultrasonic and vibrating-mesh nebulisers.

Using latex microspheres as model suspensions, the influence of suspension particle size (1, 4.5 and 10 µm) on the properties of aerosols produced using Pari LC Sprint (air-jet), Polygreen (ultrasonic), Aeroneb Pro (actively vibrating-mesh) and Omron MicroAir NE-U22 (passively vibrating-mesh) nebulisers was investigated. The performance of the Pari nebuliser was independent of latex spheres particle size. For both Polygreen and Aeroneb Pro nebulizers, total aerosol output increased when the size of latex spheres increased, with highest fine particle fraction (FPF) values being recorded. However, following nebulisation of 1 or 4.5 µm suspensions with the Polygreen device, no particles were detected in the aerosols deposited in a two-stage impinger, suggesting that the aerosols generated from this device consisted mainly of the continuous phase while the dispersed microspheres were excluded and remained in the nebuliser. The Omron nebuliser efficiently nebulised the 1 µm latex spheres, with high output rate and no particle aggregation. However, this device functioned inefficiently when delivering 4.5 or 10 µm suspensions, which was attributed to the mild vibrations of its mesh and/or the blockage of the mesh apertures by the microspheres. The Aeroneb Pro fragmented latex spheres into smaller particles, but uncontrolled aggregation occurred upon nebulisation. This study has shown that the design of the nebuliser influenced the aerosol properties using latex spheres as model suspensions. Moreover, for the recently marketed mesh nebulisers, the performance of the Aeroneb Pro device was less dependent on particle size of the suspension compared with the Omron MicroAir nebuliser.