No abstract

Context: Diabetes mellitus is a condition, which is characterized by persistent hyperglycemia, abnormal functioning of insulin and difficulty in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Antidiabetic medicines of herbal origin are widely consumed in Pakistan. Therefore, there was a need to generate data on antidiabetic herbal formulations manufactured and marketed in Pakistan. Aims: To develop a list of Pakistani manufactured antidiabetic herbal products and the most common herbal ingredients found in them. Methods: Antidiabetic herbal formulations were collected from the renowned herbal stores of Karachi, Pakistan, and their ingredients were checked. The most common herbal ingredients found in them were determined, and the possible constituents responsible for the antidiabetic action of these herbs were discovered. Results: A total of 15 herbal antidiabetic products were collected from the herbal stores. The most common herbs found in them include Syzygium cumini, Gymnemma sylvestre, Aloe vera, Nigella sativa, Acacia nilotica, Commiphora myrrha, Portulaca oleracea, Punica granatum, Rhus coriaria, Coriandrum sativum, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Bambusa bambos, Holarrhena antidysenterica, Swertia changii, Curcuma longa and Rumex vesicarius. The constituents responsible for antidiabetic activity include alkaloids, polysaccharides, glycosides, secoiridoid, phenolic acids, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins and volatile oil. Conclusions: The herbs incorporated in these formulations have proven antidiabetic effects; therefore, these formulations can produce significant results in the management of diabetes. More research on each of these formulations is needed to confirm the potency of all these herbal products.

Women's empowerment has remained a key concern for the development of society. The information in the current study has been extracted from the doctoral thesis of the corresponding researcher. The study argues that in the 20th century, developing countries were observed to bring various policies and programs to empower women. However, in this study, the researcher has tried to capture a few of the prominent policies and programs brought in Pakistan to empower women since its independence. Concurrently, this study aims to evaluate those policies and programs in the key domains of women's empowerment with the lens of social justice. It is mainly done with a desk review of various published resources and the support of key informant interviews with politicians, human rights activists, and bureaucrats. Findings of the study suggest, having various policies and programs for women empowerment, the situation of women is not improved in Pakistan, and there are significant rifts in policy implementation that need proper consideration to meet the requirements of social justice.

The study proposes to investigate the antecedents of social entrepreneurship intention (SEI) among the students of private universities of Pakistan. A conceptual model is developed from the literature, and the hypotheses are formulated for testing. This is a quantitative study of the nature. We collected the cross-sectional data from private university students by employing quota sampling. In total, 400 questionnaires were distributed. In return, 244 usable samples were received back and valid 61% of response rate. By employing the structural equation modeling, the outcomes of a study show a positive and significant influence of emotional intelligent (EI) creativity and moral obligation (MO) on SEI among the private universities’ students of Pakistan. The conclusion of an investigation would help in knowing the role of creativity, EI and MO in developing the SEI. The university authorities and policymakers may develop their ideas to divert the mind of the students towards SEI in order to reduce the burden of unemployment. Finally, it would contribute to the literature of entrepreneurship and psychology, particularly for developing contexts.

In vitro tuberization is becoming a swift approach to expedite seed tuber production and multiplication for various purposes such as germplasm conservation as well as exchange, experimentation in basic research, in vitro selection of desirable agronomic traits and disease free tuber production. Therefore, this study was designed for optimizing in vitro tuberization system using different photomixotrophic conditions in tissue culture regime. For this purpose, sucrose, BAP and kinetin were used at different levels and combinations for evaluating their effects on proficient and expedite in vitro tuberization system in selected local potato cultivars, PRI-Red. The results showed that tuberization medium, TM5 (100 g/l sucrose; 4.75 mg/l kinetin but deprived of BAP) proved to be best in terms of maximum number of microtubers per explant achieved. Subsequently, morphological, anatomical, physiological and biochemical characteristics of these in vitro grown microtubers were studied for evaluating the effects of photomixotrophic conditions on the said characteristics of microtubers.