Objective1) To assess the adverse drug reactions (ADRs) of second-line anti-tubercular drugs used to treat Multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in central India on the basis of causality, severity and avoidability scales. 2) To investigate the relationship of MDR-TB (primary or secondary) and the presence of diabetes mellitus (DM) with mean smear conversion time. Material and Methods: A prospective, observational study was carried out on diagnosed multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients enrolled for DOTS-Plus regimen at TB and Chest Disease Department from January 2012 to December 2012 with a follow-up of nine months. Encountered ADRs were noted along with the time of sputum conversion.ResultsTotal 64 ADRs were reported in 55 patients out of total 110 patients (n=110). As per the Naranjo causality assessment of ADRs, seven patients had definite, 45 had probable, and 3 had possible causal relation with drugs of DOTS-Plus regimen. As per the Hartwig’s severity assessment scale, there were total 7 ADRs in Level 1, 6 in Level 2, 33 in Level 3 and 9 in Level 4. Hallas avoidability assessment scale divided the ADRs as 3 being definitely avoidable, 26 possibly avoidable, 23 not avoidable and three not evaluable. Mean sputum smear conversion time was significantly higher in patients with a secondary type than that of primary type of MDR TB and in patients with DM than those without DM.ConclusionADRs were common in patients of MDR-TB on DOTs-Plus drug regimen. It was due to lack of availability of safer and equally potent drugs in DOTs-Plus drug regimen compared to DOTS regimen in non-resistant TB. The frequency and severity of ADRs can be reduced by strict vigilance about known and unknown ADRs, monitoring their laboratory and clinical parameters and instituting appropriate measures.

Background: Evaluation of the pattern of fixed dose combinations (FDCs) prescribing amongst the practitioners in a tertiary care hospital in Central India. Methods: Nine hundred and ninety four prescriptions, containing 639 FDCs were scrutinized in the tertiary care hospital. After excluding the total and the interdepartmental repetitions, the numbers of FDCs were 278, which were considered for final analysis. Inclusion criteria were FDCs from the major out-patient department (OPD) of the tertiary care hospital from January 2011 to December 2011. FDCs from the wards, casualty, infectious disease unit, intensive cardiac care unit (ICCU), tuberculosis and chest and HIV unit were excluded from the study. FDCs were analysed for the different pattern of prescribing and rationalism. Results were expressed as percentages. Results: Out of 639 FDCs, the most commonly prescribed FDCs were B complex (12.20%), pantoprazole plus domperidone (9.55%) and amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid (7.35%). Seventy percent of the FDCs were prescribed to the age group of 21-60 years. The FDCs were maximum from the department of medicine (25.59%), followed by surgery (15.47%) and ENT 13.69%. Out of 278 FDCs, only 5.4% were rational, and rest of the FDCs were irrational. Ninety five percent of all FDCs were brand names. The physicians were unaware of the active pharmacological ingredients (APIs) of 20.86% FDCs. Ninety two percent FDCs were available as over the counter (OTCs). Forty eight percent FDCs were costing from Rs. 0-50. There were 2.87% FDCs whose price was above Rs. 500. Conclusions: Irrational FDCs are prescribed by all the departments. Physicians were ignorant about the essential drugs and FDCs. Patients didn’t have access to rational medicines. Therefore, physicians and regulators should be alerted in time. Regulatory actions or government laws should be made mandatory. Availability and access to 348 essential medicines for basic health care should be the priority of the government. Implementation of central drug standard control organisations (CDSCO) guidelines on industries for manufacture of FDCs must be made compulsory. [Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol 2013; 2(4.000): 452-457

Pomegranate seed oil (PSO) has many health benefits due to the presence of bioactive compounds. However, higher amount of unsaturated fatty acids makes it vulnerable to oxidative deterioration. The present study focuses on optimizing microencapsulation process for quality retention of PSO using Box–Behnken design of response surface methodology. The alginate concentration and oil loading significantly affected the encapsulation efficiency (EE) and loading capacity (LC). The size, shape, and strength of the microsphere were significantly affected by the alginate concentration, oil loading, and nozzle size. Oil loading (10%), nozzle diameter (350 µm), and alginate concentration (3.23%) were optimum process conditions with resultant EE (78.03%), LC (7.83%), equivalent diameter (30.05 µm), sphericity factor (0.039), and rupture force (30.20 N). The encapsulation could reduce the increase in peroxide value (PV) and acid value (AV) by 61.45% and 48.32%, respectively, and the decrease in iodine value (IV) by 46.06% over nonencapsulated PSO during storage. Novelty Impact Statement Despite presence of various bioactive compounds and health benefits pomegranate seed oil (PSO) is vulnerable to oxidative deterioration. An optimized solution using response surface methodology (RSM) with oil loading (10%), nozzle diameter (350 µm), and alginate concentration (3.23%) could achieve encapsulation efficiency (78.03%), loading capacity (7.83%), equivalent diameter (30.05 µm), sphericity factor (0.039), and rupture force (30.20 N). Encapsulation has significantly reduced the increase in peroxide value (61.45%) and acid value (48.32%) and decrease in iodine value (46.06%) over nonencapsulated PSO during storage and thus will be useful in food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic applications.

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Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important nutritious grains which have high moisture content during harvest. Moisture content of 24-25% (db) at the harvest has to be reduced below 14% (db) to prevent its deterioration during storage. Drying process is generally performed by forced convection by heating ambient air and blowing it over grains to be dried. The aim of heating the air at certain temperature is to reduce the relative humidity of the air, which has a positive effect on the drying potential. In this study, drying behaviour of thin layer of maize for different drying air temperatures (40, 50, 60 and 70°C) and different air flow rates (20, 30 and 40) studied. The result shows that drying temperature has significant influence on a drying rate. With the increase in drying temperature drying rate increased. The moisture ratio reduced sharply up to 25 minutes of drying time, after that it decreased with drying time but at slower rate. In the beginning of the drying process, moisture transfer took place at faster rate than later. The effect of air flow rate on moisture content was found to be negligible except at the phase of drying. The analysis also illustrated that the drying of maize grains occurred during the falling rate period and no constant rate period was observed in this study. The drying rate constant was found to increase with increas in air temperature and was maximum for a combination of 700C air temperature and 40 air flow rate.