The current investigation was conducted to maximise the production of the natural anticancer drug from the microbe isolated from the marine soil sample of the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal region of India. Yellow to red colour pigmented microbes separated by crowd plate method. Bacteria are producing strong colour product subjected to future study. The isolated strains were detected based on biochemical, morphological, and genetic characteristics. Pigment formation was found to be influenced strongly by conditions of the environment. The water-insoluble pigment extracted by acidified methanol and showed maximum absorbance at 535nm. A statistical screening procedure was adopted to select the optimum condition to produce the pigment. The carbon, nitrogen, medium pH, growth condition temperature and revolution of agitation were screened using the response surface methodology statistical model. The near optimum conditions for the production medium were affected by the concentration of peanut, L-proline, percentage inoculum pH and incubation time. When these conditions were employed yield increased as two-fold as the concentration of prodigiosin 789 mg/l.

Thyroglossal duct remnants can harbour malignant changes in them and can present as thyroglossal cysts which are picked up incidentally in postoperative histopathology. Management of these thyroglossal duct carcinomas has always been a controversy to decide on the need to perform a total thyroidectomy in these patients and the adjuvant treatment that's required. We present a case of a 48-year-old female patient of thyroglossal duct cyst carcinoma who had to be taken for total thyroidectomy and radio iodine ablation during treatment of the lesion. Careful treatment planning aids are necessary in the management of such lesions. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Branchial pouch cysts clinically mimic deep neck space infection and misdiagnosis leads to surgical drainage which can complicate into a persistently draining sinus or fistula. We present a unique case of infected third branchial pouch cyst in an infant who presented with acute stridor and our experience in its management.

Background and ObjectivesThis study investigates the role of manuka honey in the healing of postoperative mastoid cavity. Subjects and Method This was a single centre prospective study on 40 consecutive patients of chronic otitis media undergoing canal wall down mastoidectomy. Manuka honey soaked in gel foam was kept in the mastoid cavity for the study group and antibiotic soaked gel foam was kept for the control group. Culture swabs from mastoid granulations were sent at various times from both groups. The healing of the mastoid cavity was assessed in the follow up period. Results Preoperatively 15 out of 20 patients (75%) had a positive aural swab culture in the study group while 11 out of 20 (55%) in the control group had a positive aural swab culture. The most common organism isolated was Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus mirabilis. One month after mastoidectomy only 4 patients (20%) had sterile culture and 16 patients (80%) had grown organisms; in the control group, 7 patients (35%) had sterile culture and 13 patients (65%) had growth on culture. The mean merchant scores for the study group and the control were 2.61 (2-5) and 2.05 (1-4), respectively. At 3 months 13 patients (65%) with sterile culture and 7 patients (35%) had growth on culture; in the control group, 16 patients (80%) had sterile culture and 4 had shown persistent growth on culture (p=0.28). All positive cultures were aerobic in both groups. The mean merchant scores for the study group and the control were 1.03 (0-4) and 0.7 (0-3), respectively (p=0.09). Conclusion Healing of mastoid cavity was almost similar in both groups (p>0.05). Manuka honey exhibited antibacterial activity against Pseudomonas, Proteus, Klebsiella, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. combination with antibiotics. Int J Bacteriol 2014;2014:795281. 13) Youngs R. The histopathology of mastoidectomy cavities, with particular reference to persistent disease leading to chronic otorrhoea. Clin Otolaryngol Allied Sci 1992;17(6):505-10. 14) Sutton DV, Derkay CS, Darrow DH, Strasnick B. Resistant bacteria in middle ear fluid at the time of tympanotomy tube surgery. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 2000;109(1):24-9. 15) Sojka M, Valachova I, Bucekova M, Majtan J. Antibiofilm efficacy of honey and bee-derived defensin-1 on multispecies wound biofilm. J Med Microbiol 2016;65(4):337-44.