Human Urine Aids the Growth of Fish Food Organism
A research team from West Bengal has discovered that human urine could be an excellent liquid waste aid in the mass production of fish food organism called Moina micrura, a type of zooplankton. The team studied the nutrient potentials of human urine and then compared its efficacy with other waste products like cow urine, human-cow mixed urine, vermin-compost, cow dung, poultry droppings and mixed wastes (vermin-cow-poultry) for the mass culture of M. micrura in 24 outdoor tanks.
The team found that the newly born M. micrura held in the treatment with human urine started reproduction at least 4 days earlier than other solid wastes. Total number of M. micrura counted in the culture tank, related with offspring production per life span, was maximum in case of human urine treatment, followed by human–cow mixed urine, cow urine, vermin-compost, poultry droppings, mixed wastes (vermin–cow–poultry), cow dung and control treatments.
The relationship between the total offspring production per female per life span and the nitrogen content of water in different treatments implied that human urine can be used for the mass production of zooplankton Moina micrura required for larval and post larval rearing of commercial fishes, write the researchers in a recent issue of Ecological Engineering.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
A Potential Remedy for Malignant Malaria
A research team from Kolkata has discovered a complex organic compound that inhibits the activity of an enzyme that is essential for the survival and growth of Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite that causes malignant malaria in humans. According to the research team, the compound called hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTAB) disrupted the activity of the enzyme called choline kinase, an enzyme which plays vital role in the biosynthesis of the most essential phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine in P. falciparum.
HDTAB inhibited P. falciparum choline kinase (PfCK) in a dose-dependent manner and offered very potent antimalarial activity in lab studies against P. falciparum. Furthermore, the antimalarial activity of HDTAB paralleled the decrease in phosphatidylcholine content, which was found to correlate with the decreased phosphocholine generation. These results suggest that inhibition of choline kinase by HDTAB leads to decreased phosphocholine, which in turn causes a decrease in phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis, resulting in death of the parasite.
Moreover, HDTAB exhibited profound antimalarial activity in vivo against the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii (N-67 strain). Interestingly, parasites at the trophozoite and schizont stages were found to be particularly sensitive to HDTAB, write the researchers in a recent issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Malaria is still a burning problem in India and other developing countries and second biggest killer after tuberculosis. Till November 2006, nearly 1.04 million Indians were afflicted with malaria. Of all the malaria cases, .46 million cases were P. falciparum cases. Some of the states like MP, Orissa, A.P., West Bengal, Gujarat, North Eastern States, Bihar and Maharashtra are highly endemic for P. falciparum and these states contribute around 97 per cent of the total P. falciparum cases in the country.
Since the 1990s, malaria returned with vengeance. The new obstacles have been resistance in P. falciparum to chloroquine and other anti-malarial drugs and human resistance to chemical control of vectors. Malaria control has become a complex enterprise.
Malaria also causes huge economic loss in a country like India. India has spent up to 25 per cent of its health budget on malaria control from 1977-1997. In 1997, India also started a five-year program for malaria control aimed to target 100 districts where 80 per cent of all P. falciparum cases occur.
A research team from Kolkata has discovered a complex organic compound that inhibits the activity of an enzyme that is essential for the survival and growth of Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite that causes malignant malaria in humans. According to the research team, the compound called hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTAB) disrupted the activity of the enzyme called choline kinase, an enzyme which plays vital role in the biosynthesis of the most essential phospholipid, phosphatidylcholine in P. falciparum.
HDTAB inhibited P. falciparum choline kinase (PfCK) in a dose-dependent manner and offered very potent antimalarial activity in lab studies against P. falciparum. Furthermore, the antimalarial activity of HDTAB paralleled the decrease in phosphatidylcholine content, which was found to correlate with the decreased phosphocholine generation. These results suggest that inhibition of choline kinase by HDTAB leads to decreased phosphocholine, which in turn causes a decrease in phosphatidylcholine biosynthesis, resulting in death of the parasite.
Moreover, HDTAB exhibited profound antimalarial activity in vivo against the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii (N-67 strain). Interestingly, parasites at the trophozoite and schizont stages were found to be particularly sensitive to HDTAB, write the researchers in a recent issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Malaria is still a burning problem in India and other developing countries and second biggest killer after tuberculosis. Till November 2006, nearly 1.04 million Indians were afflicted with malaria. Of all the malaria cases, .46 million cases were P. falciparum cases. Some of the states like MP, Orissa, A.P., West Bengal, Gujarat, North Eastern States, Bihar and Maharashtra are highly endemic for P. falciparum and these states contribute around 97 per cent of the total P. falciparum cases in the country.
Since the 1990s, malaria returned with vengeance. The new obstacles have been resistance in P. falciparum to chloroquine and other anti-malarial drugs and human resistance to chemical control of vectors. Malaria control has become a complex enterprise.
Malaria also causes huge economic loss in a country like India. India has spent up to 25 per cent of its health budget on malaria control from 1977-1997. In 1997, India also started a five-year program for malaria control aimed to target 100 districts where 80 per cent of all P. falciparum cases occur.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Herbal Cure for Amoebiasis
Indian camphorweed, that grows in lowlands and swamps, may hold the key to a cure for amoebiasis, a disease caused by the parasite Entamoeba histolytica that mostly hits the poor. A team of researchers from Jadavpur University and Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, both in Kolkata, have isolated a compound from the root of this plant that stops the growth of the parasite.
Among the seven compounds isolated from the root extract of the shrub (Pluchea indica) is r/j/3.
“This pure compound, chemically a thiophene derivative, was most effective in checking the proliferation of the parasites,” says lead researcher Tapan Kumar Chatterjee.
This could be a potent anti-amoebic drug, he says. The findings of the study will be published in a forthcoming issue of Phytomedicine.
The researchers took a virulent strain (hm1) of E histolytica and cultured trophozoites, the stage in which the parasite resides in the intestine and causes symptoms of amoebiasis. Then they exposed the trophozoites to varying doses of the pure compound.
r/j/3 showed optimum result at a dose of 0.00005 gm per ml. Two hours after administration, it caused granulation in the trophozoites. In four hours, the trophozoites were completely broken down. r/j/3 acted slower than synthetic drugs like metronidazole. “But being a plant product, it is safe and non-toxic. Metronidazole is very toxic and parasites are sometimes resistant to it,” Chatterjee says.
The above article was originally published in Down To Earth, a science and environment fortnightly published from New Delhi and written by this blogger.
Indian camphorweed, that grows in lowlands and swamps, may hold the key to a cure for amoebiasis, a disease caused by the parasite Entamoeba histolytica that mostly hits the poor. A team of researchers from Jadavpur University and Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, both in Kolkata, have isolated a compound from the root of this plant that stops the growth of the parasite.
Among the seven compounds isolated from the root extract of the shrub (Pluchea indica) is r/j/3.
“This pure compound, chemically a thiophene derivative, was most effective in checking the proliferation of the parasites,” says lead researcher Tapan Kumar Chatterjee.
This could be a potent anti-amoebic drug, he says. The findings of the study will be published in a forthcoming issue of Phytomedicine.
The researchers took a virulent strain (hm1) of E histolytica and cultured trophozoites, the stage in which the parasite resides in the intestine and causes symptoms of amoebiasis. Then they exposed the trophozoites to varying doses of the pure compound.
r/j/3 showed optimum result at a dose of 0.00005 gm per ml. Two hours after administration, it caused granulation in the trophozoites. In four hours, the trophozoites were completely broken down. r/j/3 acted slower than synthetic drugs like metronidazole. “But being a plant product, it is safe and non-toxic. Metronidazole is very toxic and parasites are sometimes resistant to it,” Chatterjee says.
The above article was originally published in Down To Earth, a science and environment fortnightly published from New Delhi and written by this blogger.
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