Rice straw poses a significant challenge for rice-wheat cropping systems owing to its high silica content, often leading farmers to burn or remove it for seedbed preparation. However, these practices harm the environment. A study spanning the Rabi seasons of 2019–20 and 2020–21 aimed to address this issue, evaluating diverse rice straw management techniques. The investigation featured seven treatments, including the removal and incorporation of rice straw, to assess their impact on wheat yield and their economics. The experiment followed a randomized block design, ensuring each treatment appeared in every block, maintaining block uniformity. The treatments encompassed variations in recommended Nitrogen doses, straw incorporation, top dressing with nitrogen, and decomposer application. The wheat variety PBW-373 was utilized as the test crop, and various growth and yield attributes were analyzed. Treatment T6 consistently outperformed other approaches over both years. It entailed incorporating 5 t ha-1 of rice straw alongside 125% of recommended nitrogen, 60 kg ha-1 of phosphorus, and 40 kg ha-1 of potassium, with the application of additional top dressing nitrogen. T6 exhibited substantial improvements in wheat yield attributes, including plant height, dry matter accumulation, leaf characteristics, tiller count, spike length, grains per spike, and grain weights, and generated superior economic outcomes compared to alternative methods. Incorporating rice straw into the soil emerged as a promising strategy to enhance soil quality and productivity while addressing environmental concerns. This research underscores the potential of sustainable rice straw management, with maximum benefits demonstrated through the integrated application of Crop residues with a decomposer consortium and additional nitrogen fortification (at 125%). This approach provided a proof of concept to bolster the rice-wheat cropping system's viability and promote both agricultural and ecological benefits. This work offers a valuable roadmap for farmers to adopt ecologically sound practices while optimizing wheat production within the context of the intricate rice-wheat cropping system.
Metronidazole (MTZ) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic with numerous routes of administration, including topical. Topical application of MTZ gel or cream results in very low systemic absorption, resulting in the need for a sensitive extraction method to quantify plasma concentrations. Currently published methods are not suitable for analysis of plasma concentrations after topical application, as undetectable MTZ concentrations commonly occur. We validated a simple extraction method for MTZ recovery from plasma and quantified it using an LC-MS/MS analytical method. Methods: Plasma samples were spiked with MTZ (0.5 – 5 ng/mL) and internal standard (tinidazole, 2 ng/mL). MTZ was extracted by liquid-liquid extraction using ethyl acetate and acetonitrile mixture (4:1) as the extraction solvent. A quadrupole mass spectrometer interfaced with an Acquity H-Class HPLC was used to quantify MTZ concentrations in positive ion mode. A Kinetix C18 analytical column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm particle size) was used for separation. The plasma extraction method was validated for various parameters, including % recovery, precision, accuracy, and stability. Results: The extraction method demonstrated high MTZ recovery, ranging from 93.7 – 97.5%. The calibration curve prepared using MTZ samples extracted from plasma (0.5 – 5 ng/mL) had excellent linearity with R2 = 0.999. The extracted samples also showed higher autosampler and freeze-thaw stability over a 72-hr period. The mean intra- and inter-day accuracy and precision of the extraction assay ranged from 97 to 101.6%. and 2.7 – 4.8% RSD, respectively. The assay was highly efficient, with a limit of quantification (0.53 ± 0.04 ng/mL) lower than previously published methods (≥5 ng/mL). The extraction method was successfully validated using LC-MS/MS and can be used to extract and detect trace amounts of MTZ in plasma after topical application.
Optimizing a sustained-release drug delivery system for the treatment of cystic fibrosis is crucial for decreasing the dosing frequency and improving patients' compliance with the treatment regimen. In the current work, we developed an injectable PLGA microparticle formulation loaded with ivacaftor, a CFTR potentiator that increases the open probability of the CFTR anion channel, using a single emulsion solvent evaporation technique. We aimed to study the effect of different parameters on the characteristics of the prepared formulations to select an optimized microparticle formulation to be used in the in vivo pharmacokinetic study in mice. First, ivacaftor-loaded microparticles were prepared while varying the formulation parameters to study their effect on the formulations' size, morphology, drug loading, encapsulation efficiency, and in vitro release profiles. All the prepared microparticles showed smooth spherical surfaces with internal diameters of 1.91– 6.93 µm, drug loading (DL) of 3.91 – 10.3%, percent encapsulation efficiencies (%EE) of 26.6 – 100%, and an overall slow cumulative release profile. We selected one formulation that showed the best combined %DL and %EE values (8.25, and 90.7%, respectively), with an average particle size of 6.83 µm, and a slow bi-phasic in vitro release profile (up to 6 weeks) to study its in vivo pharmacokinetics in comparison to solubilized ivacaftor following their subcutaneous (SC) and intravenous (IV) administration to mice, respectively. The injected microparticle formulation showed steady plasma levels of ivacaftor over a period of 28 days, and a 6-fold increase in AUC 0 – t (71.6 µg/mL*h) compared to the intravenously injected soluble ivacaftor (12.3 µg/mL*h). Our results suggest that this novel ivacaftor-loaded microparticle formulation could potentially eliminate the need for the frequent daily administration of ivacaftor by people with cystic fibrosis which could improve their compliance and ensure successful treatment outcomes.
Abstract Among the number of underutilized fruits, wood apple (Feronia Limoia) is commonly known as poor man’s fruit in India. Utilization of wood apple is now expanding from poor man to common man due to its own medicinal and nutritional qualities. In spite of, native to India and great demand for medicinal purposes, the main problem in its increasing popularity of utilization is the lack of knowledge of processing technology. Processing technology of wood apple is, therefore, very important to popularize its utilization and to harvest its medicinal and nutritional values. Considering the above facts, wood apple was processed and two jelly samples (S1and S2), based on sweeteners i.e. sugar (artificial) and honey (natural), were developed. Developed samples were stored at refrigerated temperature for 90 days. The quality characteristics of jelly samples were evaluated at every 15th days of intervals in terms of total soluble solids (TSS), browning index, ascorbic acid, titratable acidity and pectin content. The sensory characteristics in terms of colour, flavour, taste and texture of jelly sample were also evaluated. The effects of storage, sweeteners and their interaction were found significant (p<0.05) on TSS, browning index and ascorbic acid. Except titratable acidity sweetener type has effected significantly (p<0.05) on all quality parameters. The pectin content of honey based wood apple jelly was found to be higher than sugar based jelly. This study is, therefore, very useful for processing and preservation of wood apple and can be basis to provide fundamental knowledge for commercial level design and production of wood apple products. Keywords: Wood apple processing; natural sweetener, jelly, nutritional, sensory, quality.
Storage studies of snack foods, developed from the three combinations of cereals (rice and wheat) flour, legume (gram) flour and vegetable (carrot) powder, were conducted in this research.These snack foods were packed in high density polyethylene (HDPE) and aluminum foil (AF) pouches and kept at ambient temperature (28±2°C) and relative humidity (65±2% RH).The shelf life of samples was analyzed on the basis of bio-chemical properties; moisture content (MC), free fatty acids (FFA), peroxide value (PV) and thiobarbutyric acid (TBA) at every 15 days of intervals along with sensorial characteristics for 90 days.The moisture content, FFA, PV and TBA were found to be increased linearly in both pouches during the storage.All parameters, except FFA (R 2 >0.62), were found to be correlated strongly (R 2 >0.88) with storage periods.The sample packed in AF pouches had superior quality than the samples packed in HDPE pouches.However, no consistent pattern was observed for sensorial characteristics.All samples were found acceptable after 90 days of storage.
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