In the indigenous system of medicine in India, the plant Sesbania grandiflora is claimed to be useful for various ailments, and one such use is for the treatment of renal calculi. The major purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of S. grandiflora in the treatment of renal calculi. The leaf juice of S. grandiflora was evaluated for median lethal dose, gross behavioral changes, antiurolithiatic and antioxidant activities. The antiurolithiatic activity was evaluated by a calculi-producing diet model, using gentamicin (subcutaneously) and 5% ammonium oxalate in rat feed to induce calcium oxalate-type stones. The parameters monitored in the present study are calcium and oxalate deposition in the kidney, kidney weights, urinary excretion of calcium and oxalate. The in vivo antioxidant parameters lipid peroxidation, glutathione reductase and catalase were monitored. The plant juice was also evaluated for scavenging of nitric oxide and 2-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl free radicals. The leaf juice of S. grandiflora was safe orally and exhibited no gross behavioral changes except for an increase in urination. The leaf juice of S. grandiflora showed significant antiurolithiatic activity against calcium oxalate-type stones and also exhibited antioxidant properties. The results obtained in this study provide evidence for the efficacy of the leaf juice of S. grandiflora as antiurolithiatic agent.

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A simple, sensitive, precise, accurate and robust high performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for simultaneous estimation of saxagliptin (SAXA) and dapagliflozin (DAPA) in pharmaceutical formulation. Design of experiments (DoE) was applied for multivariate optimization of the experimental conditions of RP-HPLC method. Risk assessment was performed to identify the critical method parameters. Three independent factors; mobile phase composition, flow rate and column temperature were used to design mathematical models. Central composite design (CCD) was used to study the response surface methodology and to study in depth the effects of these independent factors. Desirability function was used to simultaneously optimize the retention time and resolution of SAXA and DAPA. The optimized and predicted data from contour diagram consisted of acetonitrile and ortho phosphoric acid (0.1%) in the ratio of 50:50 respectively, at a flow rate of 0.98 ml/min and column temperature 31.4 °C. Using these optimum conditions baseline separation of both drugs with good resolution and run time of less than 6 min were achieved. The optimized assay conditions were validated according to ICH guidelines. Hence, the results clearly showed that Quality by design approach could be successfully applied to optimize RP-HPLC method for simultaneous estimation of SAXA and DAPA.

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Over 200 million people are exposed to arsenic worldwide in their daily lives. Arsenic is a toxic ubiquitous metalloid distributed in the ground water. From the last few decades it is obtaining considerable attention for its severe neurotoxic properties. In this study the neuroprotective efficacy of devil's claw (DCW), a potent antioxidant has been investigated against arsenic induced neurotoxicity in female rats. Neurotoxicity was established by oral administration of 13 mg/kg sodium arsenite. The animals were divided into five groups (n ¼ 6) including normal control, disease/arsenic control, standard treatment (Apocynin, 10 mg/kg), DCW treatment I (DCW, 200 mg/kg) and DCW treatment II (DCW, 400 mg/kg). Exploratory, anxiety and motor coordination related behavior of the animals was assessed using hole-board, forced swimming, beam walk and elevated plus maze tests. Findings revealed that DCW treatment ameliorated anxiety and motor in-coordination in the rats compared to the arsenic control group. In addition, arsenic induced a significant oxidative stress in arsenic only treated group, whereas coadministration with DCW the oxidative stress was reduced prominently. Arsenic control group produced gliosis and nuclear pyknosis of the brain cells which were prominently suppressed with the treatment of DCW for 21 days. The activity of DCW was in correlation with the concentration of harpagoside in the serum estimated by the HPLC method, supports that harpagoside was the active constituent responsible for neuroprotective effect. Further findings are required to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in neuroprotective effect of harpagoside and DCW.