SUMMARY.Fragile-X-linked mental retardation usually results from ampli®cation of the CGG repeat in the 5 ¢ untranslated region of the FMR1 gene. To assess the extent of variation of the CGG repeat in the population from the eastern region of India we studied 98 mentally retarded individuals living in and around Calcutta and identi®ed 21 distinct alleles ranging in size from 8 to 44 CGG repeats. A repeat size of 28 was the most frequent; this value is different from the most frequent repeat size found in other studies, indicating a racial or ethnic variation. Patients with the clinical features of the syndrome have been found to carry expanded CGG repeats. Thus, it can be inferred that the expansion of CGG repeats may be a frequent cause of the syndrome in our population.

Aqueous extract of combination of stems of Tinospora cordifolia, fruits of Emblica officinalis and rhizomes of Cyperus rotundus has been used as traditional herbal drug in Indian medicine system for treatment of fever, body ache, joint pain and inflammation. The collected botanicals were subject to physiochemical, pharmacognostical & phytochemical screening before animal experiments. After acute toxicity studies, anti-inflammatory effect was assessed using carrageen induced paw oedema test and antipyretic effect using yeast induced pyrexia method. Tail immersion, hot plate and writhings test were used for determining the analgesic properties. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of polyphenolic flavonoids, tannin and saponins. Significant anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic properties were noticed in dose dependant manner after aqueous extract administration especially at 600 mg/kg dose. These test drug activities were sustained and comparable to the standard drugs while exhibiting no acute toxicity. Aqueous extract of test drug possesses significantly high antiinflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic properties without any acute toxicity possibly due to presence of flavonoids.

The analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory effects of methanol extract of botanical medicine prepared by taking equal amounts of dried stems of Tinospora cordifolia Willd, fruits of Emblica officinalis Gaertn and rhizomes of Cyperus rotundus Linn were evaluated using standard methods. These botanicals have been traditionally used in Indian system of medicine for treatment of fever, joint pain, body ache and muscular pain in the form of single or combined drug therapy. After acute toxicity studies, anti-inflammatory effect was assessed using carrageen induced paw oedema test and antipyretic effect using yeast induced pyrexia method. Tail immersion, hot plate and writhings test were used for determining the analgesic properties. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of polyphenolic flavonoids, tannin and saponins. Significant anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic properties were noticed in dose dependant manner after methanolic extract administration, especially at 500 mg/kg dose. These test drug activities were sustained and comparable to the standard drugs while exhibiting no acute toxicity. The findings indicate that the methanolic extract possesses significantly high anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and analgesic properties without any acute toxicity possibly due to the presence of flavonoids.