Phytochemical and bioactive compounds identification of Ocimum tenuiflorum leaves of methanol extract and its fraction with an anti-diabetic potential

Phytochemical screening assay on crude extracts of Ocimum tenuiflorum L. leaves and methanol fractions was performed in this study. Phytochemical qualitative assay on aqueous crude extract and aqueous fraction did not show any steroid and terpenoid. However, ethanol and butanol fractions also did not show steroid in the screening test. The result of HPLC identification of active crude extracts and active fractions showed the possible bioactive compounds in this plant extracts, which may control diabetes. These findings showed that the active crude extract (methanol) and its active fractions (ethyl acetate, and butanol) showed the presence of polyphenolic active constituents such as 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic acid, caffeic acid, diosmetin, luteolin, kaempferol, rosmarinic acid, apigenin, and genistein that control the blood glucose in diabetic rats. Furthermore, isolation of the active components may pave the way for the development of new agents for the treatment of diabetes and its complications.     

Natural lipid-lowering agents and their effects: an update

Hyperlipidemia is one of the main contributing factors in the development of cardiovascular diseases. The hunt for effective antihyperlipidemic drugs is still on with an intention of finding potent agents with meager adverse effects. For the past several decades, medicinal plants have been evaluated for lipid-lowering effects apart from synthetic approaches to develop newer antihyperlipidemic agents. This article highlights the work carried out on potential antihyperlipidemic agents from plant sources from 2006 till 2012 that were archived in Google Scholar and Science Direct database. Seventy-nine articles were included in the review after manual content curation. The review summarizes the investigations on medicinal plants, compounds and herbal formulations using various hyperlipidemic animal models or in humans, the research findings and possibility of chemotaxonomic occurrence of secondary metabolites responsible for the antihyperlipidemic activities within certain plant families.     

Prevalence and Distribution of Arcobacter spp. in Raw Milk and Retail Raw Beef

A total of 106 beef samples which consisted of local (n = 59) and imported (n = 47) beef and 180 milk samples from cows (n = 86) and goats (n = 94) were collected from Selangor, Malaysia. Overall, 30.2% (32 of 106) of beef samples were found positive for Arcobacter species. Imported beef was significantly more contaminated (46.80%) than local beef (16.9%). Arcobacter butzleri was the species isolated most frequently from imported (81.8%) and local (60%) beef, followed by Arcobacter cryaerophilus in local (33.3%) and imported (18.2%) beef samples. Only one local beef sample (10%) yielded Arcobacter skirrowii. Arcobacter species were detected from cow's milk (5.8%), with A. butzleri as the dominant species (60%), followed by A. cryaerophilus (40%), whereas none of the goat's milk samples were found positive for Arcobacter. This is the first report of the detection of Arcobacter in milk and beef in Malaysia.     

Lactation failure in crossbred Sahiwal Friesian cattle

Milk producers in Malaysia make extensive use of crossbred Sahiwal Friesian dairy cattle. These animals have, however, been found susceptible to lactation failure. A survey of cows in an experimental herd of F1 Sahiwal Friesian animals indicated that, in 30% of animals, milk yield decreased to negligible levels within the first 8 weeks post partum. Lactation failure was associated with a progressive increase in the amount of residual milk left in the udder after normal milking. By week 3 of lactation, residual milk volume was significantly greater than that in animals that, based on previous lactation history were not susceptible to lactation failure, and accounted for up to 30% of milk available at the morning milking. The cellular consequences of residual milk accumulation were evident in the activities of acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthetase and galactosyltransferase, key enzyme markers of cellular differentiation, which decreased in glands undergoing lactation failure and were lower than values measured in tissue of control cows. Mammary cell number, estimated by tissue DNA content, was also reduced in animals undergoing lactation failure. These indices of mammary development indicate that lactation failure is the result of premature involution in susceptible animals. Premature involution is a predictable consequence of progressive milk stasis in failing lactation, and attributable to an increase in autocrine feedback by inhibitory milk constituents. The progressive increase in residual milk is, on the other hand, unlikely to be attributable to impaired mammary development. Measurements of milk storage during milk accumulation showed no differences between control and lactation failure cows in the distribution of milk between alveolar and cisternal storage compartments. We conclude that lactation failure in Sahiwal Friesian cows is due to a failure of milk removal, and probably the result of an impaired milk ejection reflex rather than to the glands' milk storage characteristics.     

Classification of mental tasks using stockwell transform

In recent years, various physiological signal based rehabilitation systems have been developed for the physically disabled in which electroencephalographic (EEG) signal is one among them. The efficiency of such a system depends upon the signal processing and classification algorithms. In order to develop an EEG based rehabilitation or assistive system, it is necessary to develop an effective EEG signal processing algorithm. This paper proposes Stockwell transform (ST) based analysis of EEG dynamics during different mental tasks. EEG signals from Keirn and Aunon database were used in this study. Three classifiers were employed such as k-means nearest neighborhood (kNN), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and support vector machine (SVM) to test the strength of the proposed features. Ten-fold cross validation method was used to demonstrate the consistency of the classification results. Using the proposed method, an average accuracy ranging between 84.72% and 98.95% was achieved for multi-class problems (five mental tasks).