The removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solution using the seeds of the plant species Strychnos potatorum was studied. The plant is popularly known as Nirmali tree, grown all over India. The dried Nirmali seeds were powdered and used as adsorbent. The SEM‐EDX and FT‐IR spectrum of the adsorbent revealed that the powder is fibrous in nature and contains functional groups such as —OH and —COOH. The zeta potential measurements indicated negative surface charge beyond the pH of 1.50. Batch type experiments were conducted to study the influence of pH and initial Cr(VI) concentration on the removal of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions. Maximum removal of Cr(VI) was observed at pH 1.0. The adsorption equilibrium was attained within a sort contact time of 4 min and the maximum uptake of Cr(VI) was found to be 59 mg g−1. The influence of anions such as Cl−, NO3−, and SO42− on Cr(VI) removal was investigated and found that the removal was slightly affected in the presence of NO3− and SO42−. The rate of removal of Cr(VI) was found to obey pseudo second order rate equation. The high free energy value of adsorption (ΔG = −137 kJ mol−1) indicated that the adsorption of Cr(VI) on Nirmali seed powder was mainly attributed due to chemical and electrostatic interaction. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 35–41, 2013.

Drug repurposing refers to finding new indications for existing drugs. The paradigm shift from traditional drug discovery to drug repurposing is driven by the fact that new drug pipelines are getting dried up because of mounting Research & Development (R&D) costs, long timeline for new drug development, low success rate for new molecular entities, regulatory hurdles coupled with revenue loss from patent expiry and competition from generics. Anaemic drug pipelines along with increasing demand for newer effective, cheaper, safer drugs and unmet medical needs call for new strategies of drug discovery and, drug repurposing seems to be a promising avenue for such endeavours. Drug repurposing strategies have progressed over years from simple serendipitous observations to more complex computational methods in parallel with our ever-growing knowledge on drugs, diseases, protein targets and signalling pathways but still the knowledge is far from complete. Repurposed drugs too have to face many obstacles, although lesser than new drugs, before being successful.

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Background: Diabetes is one of the common metabolic disorder that occurs due to poor secretion of insulin. It is more common among aged people in India. The incidence of diabetes is increasing every day and this indicates the increasing need for the treatment for diabetes. Objective: The objective of the present study is to screen the effects of selected substituted dihydroxyflavone for its in vitro antidiabetic effect by finding the potential to inhibit the enzymes α-Glucosidase. Materials and Methods: The dihydroxy flavones used in the present study includes 2',3'-dihydroxy flavone and 2', 4' dihydroxy flavones. They were synthesized using standard procedures. In vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory activity was evaluated by Li et al., 2004. The different concentration of the flavonoid (0.1, 0.3, 1, 3,10, 30, 100, 300, 1000 (μM/ml) were used and the experiment was done for triplicate sample. The standard antidiabetic drug used in the study was Acarbose. The inhibitory activity was calculated and tabulated. Results: The selected Dihydroxy flavones 2',3'-dihydroxy flavone and 2', 4' dihydroxy flavones showed significant invitro anti diabetic activity when compared with standard drug acarbose. The IC50 value of 2',3'-dihydroxy flavones and 2', 4' dihydroxy flavones was found to be 0.47μM/ml, 46.37 μM/ml respectively.