Articles

Karmarkar A. B.

The use of polymers in pharmaceutical, biomedical as well as engineering fields has solved many aspects of these fields. The polymers of differing arrangements are useful in various pharmaceutical formulations.

O.M.Aleem aleemomair

The objective of this review article
is to explore the use of cyclodextrins as pharmaceutical excipients for various
applications such as solubility, bioavailability and stability enhancement of
various drugs.

The article highlights the chemistry
of cyclodextrins and summarizes the issue of mechanism of drug release from
cyclodextrin complexes and its application in the different drug delivery systems
such as nasal, ophthalmic, transdermal and rectal drug delivery etc. The studies
on cyclodextrins have revealed that, cyclodextrins are versatile excipients
in different routes of drug administration because of increased aqueous solubility,
stability and bioavailability with reduction in drug irritation.

Introduction

Cyclodextrin, first

Patel Ravindra

Shridhar

Carbopol polymers are polymers of acrylic acid cross-linked with polyalkenyl ethers or divinyl glycol. They are produced from primary polymer particles of about 0.2 to 6 micron average diameter. The flocculated agglomerates cannot be broken down into the ultimate particle when produced.

Pramod S. Agrawal

Thin layer chromatography (TLC)
is very useful to chemists as an analytical technique to separate and identify
the compounds in a mixture. Only very small samples of the analyte are needed
much less than a milligram.

The technique is non-destructive, that is, the molecules in the mixtures are
separated physically without being chemically altered. Analytical
TLC is used in drug analysis, consumer product monitoring, environmental pollution
studies, forensics and many other applications.

Lipi Gupta

One of the important and
foremost aims of the pharmacy professional is to counsel the patient
appropriately at right time providing complete information about the proper
dose, dosing schedule and dosing regimen of the prescribed medication.
Pictograms play a vital role in the accomplishment of this task.

It has been
proved through various theories put forward by researchers that effective
utilization of pictograms bridges the communication gap between the patients
and the health care providers. Pictograms should be designed in such a way that
they are able to establish a good communication with the patient and at the
same time the relevant message should be conveyed in an effective manner to the
communicatee/user. Pictograms have proved themselves as effective tools for
educating the illiterate patients and thus can be helpful to prevent
incompatibilities because this matter is concerned with the health of human
beings. 

Shridhar J Pandya

Chitosan comes from chitin a natural biopolymer originating from crustacean shells.  Chitin is similar to cellulose in morphology; a bountiful natural polysaccharide that contains amino sugars. 

Partial deacetylation of chitin gives rise to chitosan, a linear polysaccharide with interspersed D-glucosamine, and acetyl-D-glucosamine units.  The preponderance and distribution of acetyl-D-glucosamine residues lead to differing physicochemical properties and biological responses. 

Swarnali Das

Contortrostatin (CN) (Mr 13,500 Da) is a novel
homodimeric disintegrin isolated from the venom of Agkistrodon contortrix
contortrix (Southern Copperhead) snake and displays two RGD motifs (one on each
chain), which modulate its interaction with integrins on tumor cells and
angiogenic vascular endothelial cells

⁴
.

Angiogenesis is a process
of  the development of new blood vessels,
which is exploited by a tumour to obtain a supply of nutrients and growth
factors, a disposal route for its wastes, and a route for cancerous cells to
spread.The copperhead protein acts by inhibiting the development of new blood
vessels to nourish the tumours and by putting tumour cells into a "suspended
state of animation",the dual action helped prevent the spread of cancer, a
process called metastasis³.

Jai Kumar Tripathi

Huntington's disease is a
rare inherited disorder involving the progressive loss of selected nerve cells
in the brain. This results in dementia of gradually increasing severity, and
eventually requires full nursing care. In over 90 per cent of cases, the
disease symptoms appear between the ages of 30 and 50. Although there is no
cure for the disease, early symptoms can be managed with drugs and other forms
of therapy to improve quality of life.

American physician George Huntington
documented the disorder in 1872. The name "chorea" comes from the
Greek word for "dance" and refers to the incessant quick, jerky,
involuntary movements that are characteristic of this condition.

Hrishikesh Vinayak Mokashi

Development
of Hospitals has a very long History that is attached to it. Hospitals have
been the epitome of the medical and the surgical knowledge of humans through
the entire history of our development. The knowledge of Medicine and Surgery
date back the beginning of Human civilization. The presence of Hospitals in
some form of the other has been recorded by our ancestors.

Medicine and Surgery
date back to the beginnings of our History because the diseases were very much
prevalent on Earth before the advent of Humans. Earlier medical treatment was
always identified with complex religious services and ceremonies. The priests
were also the physicians or people of medicine that were said to minister our
spirit, mind and body. These priests/doctors were a part of a highly respected
ruling class who definitely had a strong influence on the political machinery
of that state. The Temple/Hospitals became the meeting places as was found out
in the religious scriptures of Katyl huyuk in ancient Sumerian civilization.
Later the roles of Priest/Doctor and that of the temples as the house of the
sick and infirm and also as training schools for Doctors became closely
associated with the level of the political development of the civilization. The
sophistication in the Health care system also became an tool for the political
propaganda used to describe the superiority of the civilization as was seen in
ancient Greek empire. The pagan Greek temples of

Sparta
and Ragus served a political role by
clearly describing the superiority of the city states in Medicinal facilities
that it provided. This clearly lead to the destruction of these temples when
the Christian Emperor Constantine closed down the Aesculapia. The same trend of
political motivation was also seen in the rising and expansion of Islamic rule
in Middle-eastern Asia and also in
Europe
. The
use of Medicine and Hospitals as a tool for expanding political agenda was also
witnessed 20th century when
Cuba
manipulated its Health statistics which lead to an overwhelming political
success and to the formation of first Communist nation in
North
America.