Effect of Environmental Pollution on Heavy Metals Content of Withania Somnifera

Heavy metals were investigated in the medicinal plant Withania somnifera as well as of the soil it was grown in using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The plant samples were collected from three different locations of N.W.F.P, Pakistan. The plant parts including roots, stem, leaves and fruits were found to have the quantity of heavy metals corresponding to their content in the soil. The purpose of the study is to create awareness among people about the proper use and collection of medicinal plants containing high levels of heavy metals and their adverse health affects.     

Spectrophotometric determination of metronidazole in pharmaceutical pure and dosage forms using p-benzoquinone

A simple and accurate spectrophotometric method for the determination of metronidazole in pure and pharmaceutical dosage forms has been developed. The proposed method is based on the reduction of the nitro group to amino group of the drug. This can be achieved by heating a mixture of an alcoholic solution of metronidazole, zinc powder and dilute hydrochloric acid in a water bath at 90 ± 5 °C for 15 min. The cold and clear filtrate reacts with p-benzoquinone to develop a purple color, which absorbs maximally at 526 nm. The calibration graph is linear over the concentration range of 15–190 μg ml^?1 with a molar absorptivity of 1.09 × 10³ l mol^?1 cm^?1. The proposed method is applied to commercially available pharmaceutical dosage forms and the results are statistically compared with those obtained by the reference method.     

Thermoluminescence of contaminating minerals for the detection of radiation treatment of dried fruits

Several types of dry fruits (pistachio nut, dried apricot, almond and raisins) have been investigated for detection of their radiation treatment by gamma rays or electron beam using thermoluminescence (TL) measurements. These samples were irradiated to 1.0–3.0 kGy (gamma rays) or 0.75–3.9 kGy (10 MeV electron beam). Thermoluminescence glow curves for the contaminating minerals separated from the dry fruits were recorded between the temperature range of 50°C and 500°C. In all the cases, the intensity of TL signal for the irradiated dry fruits was 1–3 orders of magnitudes higher than the TL intensity of the corresponding unirradiated control samples allowing clear distinction between the irradiated and unirradiated samples. These results were normalized by re-irradiating the mineral grains with a gamma-ray dose of 1.0 kGy, and a second glow curve was recorded. The ratio of intensity of the first glow curve (TL₁) to that after the normalization dose (TL₂), i.e. (TL₁/TL₂) was determined and compared with the recommended threshold values. These parameters, together with comparison of the shape of the first glow curve, gave unequivocal results about the radiation treatment of the dry fruit samples.     

Spectrophotometric Determination of Ondansetron Hydrochloride in Pharmaceutical Bulk and Dosage Forms

A rapid, simple and accurate spectrophotometric method is developed for the determination of ondansetron hydrochloride in pure and tablet formulations. The method depends on the charge‐transfer complexation between ondansetron base as n‐electron donor with chloranil as π‐acceptor to give a colored complex, which absorbs maximally at 470 nm. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration ranges 70–980 μg mL^?1 with molar absorptivity of 4.47 × 10² L mole^?1 cm^?1. The proposed method is precise, accurate and specific for the quantitative determination of drug in bulk and tablet formulations.     

Rheology of polymer blends: non-linear model for viscoelastic emulsions undergoing high deformation flows

Non-linear rheology of a mixture of two viscoelastic immiscible liquids undergoing high deformation flow was considered. Using Grmela's formalism (Grmela 1986, 1989, 1993a, b) and the coarse grained picture given by Onuki (1987) and Doi and Ohta (1991), we have derived a set of highly non-linear time-dependent transport equations that take into account a direct coupling between the rheology and morphology. Breakup, coalescence, and the high deformation of the interface were considered. Models of Doi and Ohta (1991), Lee and Park (1994), and Grmela et al. (1998) are recovered as special cases. The parameters of?the model were given a physical meaning in both shear and elongational flows and the predictions of the model were ¶compared to the predictions of the previous models on the basis of experimental results obtained on two model?blends PDM/PB polydimethylsiloxane/poly(1-butene) and PP/PS polypropylene/polystyrene blends.     

Synthesis,characterization and antibacterial studies of some new tellurated azo compounds

A series of tellurated azo compounds [i.e. (4-HOC₆H₄N=N-Ar)TeBr₃ and (4-HOC₆H₄N=N-Ar)₂TeBr₂, where Ar=5-BrC₆H₃, 5-CH₃C₆H₃ and 5-NO₂C₆H₃] were prepared by the reaction of the corresponding 2-(4-hydroxyphenylazo)aryl mercury chloride with tellurium tetrabromide in 1:1 and 2:1?mole ratio, respectively in dry dioxane as a solvent. The reduction of (4-HOC₆H₄N=N-Ar)TeBr₃ by hydrazine hydrate gave the corresponding ditelluride (i.e., (4-HOC₆H₄N=N-Ar)₂Te₂). Treatment of (4-HOC₆H₄N=N-Ar)₂TeBr₂ with hydrazine hydrate afforded the corresponding tellurides, (4-HOC₆H₄N=N-Ar)₂Te), in good yields. The structures of all newly synthesized compounds were assigned on the basis of their elemental and spectroscopic data. The antibacterial activity of tellurated azo compounds along with mercurated azo compounds was tested with agar diffusion method against the bacteria strains Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The antibacterial activities of tellurated azo compounds were in some cases equal or better than those of the reference drug. The mercurated azo compounds were found to be the more antibacterial activity of than those of tellurated azo compounds.     

Electron transport in thin metal films having ionized impurities and unequal surface specularity parameters

Summary In this paper analytical expressions for the electrical conductivity and thermoelectric power of thin metal films have been calculated for films containing ionized impuritiesand having unequal surface specularity parameters. The effects of alteration in the energy dependence of the electron relaxation time as well as unequal probabilities of scattering from the two surfaces are thus completely taken into account.     

Preparation of inverted medium and processing in the inverted medium

The processing of weak optical signals in spatial-spectral holographic (SSH) materials coherently inverted with optical frequency chirped pulses were investigated. Simulations and experimental studies in Tm³⁺:YAG were conducted to characterize the parameters of the frequency chirped laser pulse used to invert the SSH material in order to obtain high photon echo efficiency for SSH lidar processing. Collinear and angled beam geometries and single shot and accumulated processes were investigated. Echo efficiencies as high as 450% were measured, significantly higher than the typical stimulated photon echo efficiency of 10%.