What is already known about this subject • The benefits of adverse drug reaction (ADR) monitoring are well‐known. • Poor awareness and nonavailability of a central co‐ordinating body resulted in lack of ADR monitoring in India. • The National Pharmacovigilance Programme was recently initiated, encouraging ADR monitoring in selected centres, including our centre. What this study adds • This is the first study of its kind at GHQH, Ootacamund that has provided insight into the burden of ADRs here. • The incidence and severity of ADRs documented in our study is lower than those reported in comparable populations in Western studies but more than those reported in India. Aims To ascertain the current burden of ADRs at a Government hospital in Ooty and to assess the severity of reported ADRs and the additional financial burden associated with ADRs. Methods A prospective, spontaneous reporting study was conducted over a period of 9 months of inpatient admissions to the medical wards, co‐ordinated by clinical pharmacists. The WHO definition of an ADR was adopted. The Naranjo algorithm scale was used for causality assessment. Confirmed ADRs were classified according to the Wills & Brown [7] method and assessed for severity and patient outcomes. The average cost incurred in treating the ADRs was calculated. Results Of the total of 187 adverse drug events (ADEs) reported, 164 reports from 121 patients were confirmed as ADRs, giving an overall incidence of 9.8%. This included 58 (3.4%) ADR related admissions and 63 (3.7%) ADRs occurring during the hospital stay. About two thirds of the reactions (102, 62.2%) were classified as probable. The majority of the reactions (88, 53.7%) were mild. Most patients (119, 72.6%) recovered from the incidence. The majority of the reactions were of type H (100, 61%) which indicates that they were not predictable and not potentially preventable. An average cost of 481 rupees (£6) was spent on each patient to manage ADRs. Conclusions The incidence and severity of ADRs documented in our study are lower than those reported in comparable populations in Western studies but more than those reported in India.

Cellulose is a natural biopolymer that is abundantly available in plant cell walls and is secreted in its pure forms by many bacteria. Due to their unique features cellulose materials are considered as efficient replacements for conventional polymers. Cellulose nanofibers (CNF) have attracted wide interest due to their nano size, ease of preparation, low cost, tuneable surface properties and enhanced mechanical properties. However, the efficiency of CNF depends on the extraction method employed from its source and their features vary from source to source. Hence, there is a need to understand the specificity of CNF extraction from its source in order to obtain highly efficient CNF with maximum potential. CNF has been extracted from plant sources using physical, chemical and enzymatic methods. Although plant derived CNF possess excellent features, the involvement of chemicals and complexity in extraction process limits their usage. Bacterial CNF overcome this limitation through its extracellular secretion which makes extraction easy. CNF is also extracted from various marine filamentous algae. The percentage of CNF obtained from algal sources is less compared to plants and bacterial sources. CNF finds wide variety of applications such as drug carriers, tissue regenerating scaffolds, water purifying Ms. Mridula Prakash Menon is presently working as a PhD Research Scholar in the Nanobiotechnology laboratory at PSG Institute of Advanced Studies, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. She has completed her Masters in Biotechnology and M.Phil. in Nanoscience and Technology at PSG Institute of Advanced Studies. Her research interests include synthesis of nanomaterials for biomedical and environmental applications, microbial biotechnology, water puri-cation, and bioremediation and drug delivery. 151 Commercially obtained Electrospinning Size; 4.6 AE 1.8 mm and 8.1 AE 2.2 mm, high uid permeability (8.9 Â 10 À12 m 2 ) 152 42754 | RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 42750-42773 This journal isFig. 1 SEM images of various types of CNF synthesized from cotton (a) natural electrospun CNF 56 (b) aligned CNF (scale bar 1 mm) 54 (c): CdS functionalized CNF 33 (d): CeO 2 functionalized CNF 56 (e): CNF prepared by acid hydrolysis 52 (adopted with permission).This journal is

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Naturally occurring phytochemicals with reported antibacterial activity were screened for their ability to inhibit the bacterial cell division protein Escherichia coli FtsZ. Among the representative compounds, coumarins inhibit the GTPase and polymerization activities of this protein effectively. Further screening with ten coumarin analogs we identified two promising candidates, scopoletin and daphnetin. The former is found to inhibit the GTPase activity of the protein in a noncompetitive manner. Docking of these coumarins with the modeled protein indicate that they bind to T7 loop, which is different from the GTP-binding site (active site), thereby supporting the experimental data. Lowest binding energy is obtained with scopoletin. 3D QSAR indicates the need for groups such as hydroxyl, diethyl, or dimethyl amino in the 7th carbon for enhanced activity. None of the coumarins exhibited cytotoxicity against NIH/3T3 and human embryonic kidney cell lines. The length of Bacillus subtilis increases in the presence of these compounds probably due to the lack of septum formation. Results of this study indicate the role of coumarins in halting the first step of bacterial cell division process.

Microbial biotemplates for synthesizing inorganic nanostructures of defined morphology and size.