Although lentil is among the most prominent grain legumes globally, its economic position strengthened significantly when it became important in international trade about two decades ago. This, coupled with the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), focused attention on the crop as its world mandate, served as a stimulus for enhanced research in the area of genetics, breeding and biotechnology. This chapter deals with the genetics of characters showing discrete, identifiable and contrasting phenotypes. The inheritance of morphological traits (growth habit, red foliage, light green foliage, leaflet shape, size and number, tendril formation, plant pubescence, plant height, globe mutant, stem fasciation, stipule size, flowering time, flower colour, number of flowers per peduncle, pod size, pod dehiscence, seed coat colour, tannin in seed coat, seed coat spotting, seed size, hardseededness, cotyledon colour), protein content, abiotic stresses (frost injury, drought tolerance, soil factors), disease resistance, and alloenzyme variation. Cytogenetics studies on lentil are discussed.

Punica granatum (Family: Punicaceae) is a widely consumed fruit in Bangladesh locally known as Anar or Bedana. Traditionally the plant is used to treat diarrhoea, dysentery, hemorrhage, tuberculosis and chronic periodontitis. The present study was undertaken in order to justify and authenticate the traditional use of rind of P. granatum fruit in diarrhoea. Methanolic extract of the rind of the fruit was tested in castor oil- and magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhoea in mice at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight. The results of the present study revealed significant antidiarrhoeal activity (p<0.001) in both animal models. The extract inhibited 31.25% defaecation at the dose of 200 mg/kg and 53.75% at the dose of 400 mg/kg in castor oil-induced diarrhoea while standard drug loperamide inhibited 71.25% defaecation. In magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhoea the inhibition of defaecation was 45.71 and 57.14% at the doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg respectively while loperamide inhibited 64.29% defaecation. The antidiarrhoeal effect of the extract was concentration dependent in both castor oil-induced diarrhoea and magnesium sulfate-induced diarrhoea. Phytochemical screening of the extract revealed the presence of flavonoids and alkaloids that may play key role in its antidiarrhoeal activity. The results of the present study validate the folkloric use of the rind of P. granatum in the treatment of diarrhoea.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/icpj.v2i5.14437 International Current Pharmaceutical Journal, April 2013, 2(5): 101-104

In this study, three different self emulsifying drug delivery systems of rifampicin (SEDD-R) were made using oleic acid and different surfactants such as Tween 80, Chremophor RH 40 and Chremophor EL designated as RN-TW, RN-CRH and RN-CEL. These self-emulsifying systems were converted to rifampicin nanoemulsion by adding water under sonication. The resulting particle sizes were found to be 192. Antibacterial effect of the preparations was evaluated against S. epidermidis and S. aureus isolated from acne and showed effective results.

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