Chaiduar College, established in 1967, is one of the oldest undergraduate, coeducational college situated in Gohpur of Chaiduar region, Assam. This college is affiliated with the Gauhati University. The college was subsequently placed under deficit grants-in-aids by Government of Assam in 1977. Science Stream was started in 1987 and was placed under deficit grants-in-aids in 1998. The college has introduced Commence Stream in the year 2012. Vocational courses are introduced in 2015. There are three distance learning centres in the College under the University IGNOU, KKHSOU and IDOL (University of Mumbai), GU. An advanced level Bio Tech Hub is also there in the College..
N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), the structurally simplest nitrosamine, is a potent carcinogen. Since nitrosamines are found in a broad range of substances, including our water and food, it is important to look for ways to nullify their harmful effects. In this regard, supplementing our diet with plant materials rich bioactive compounds can be useful. Therefore, this study aimed to study the protective effects of the combined extract of selected plants against the carcinogenic impact of NDMA treatment on mice. Metabolites present in the methanolic extracts of the selected plants were screened. After checking the toxicity of the combined methanolic extract (CME), mice were segregated into four groups, namely control; NDMA-treated; NDMA + CME (200 mg/kg body weight) treated; and NDMA + CME (400 mg/kg body weight) treated. The weight of mice was checked at regular intervals. After the experimental period, the mice were sacrificed which was followed by collection of blood and observation and weighing of the internal organs. The lung, kidney, and liver were fixed in 10% formalin for histopathological examination. Phytochemical screening showed good amounts of important metabolites. The change in body weight of the NDMA-treated group was most distinct from the control group's body weight change. The relative organ weight for liver of different experimental groups significantly differed. NDMA induced hepatocarcinogenesis, renal toxicity, and histopathological injury in the lung. In the case of NDMA + CME-treated mice, normalised histological architecture was observed. This study indicated that the phytoactive components of CME counteracted the toxic effects of NDMA.
Ethnopharmacological relevance: Persicaria hydropiper is a medicinal herb that also holds significant culinary value in Southeast Asia. Among the Mishing tribe of Assam, the roots of this plant are traditionally used for female contraception. Aim of the study: The present study aimed to evaluate the potential toxicological effects of the methanolic root extract of P. hydropiper, which was administered to female mice to prevent conception. Materials and Methods: The assessment included acute toxicity tests, behavioural studies, biochemical analyses (SGOT and SGPT levels), histological examinations of the liver and kidney and genotoxicity tests using micronucleus assays. Results: No notable signs of acute or behavioural toxicity were observed in extract-treated mice. In fact, treated groups exhibited central nervous system stimulating and anxiolytic effects at a dose of 1000 mg/kg body weight. A significant increase in locomotor activity was recorded on Day 1, Day 5, Day 6 and in ovariectomized (OVX) mice (81.7±0.40, 80.8±0.72, 82.0±0.26 and 80.3±0.15 cases/5 min, respectively), along with higher head-dip counts on Day 1, Day 4, Day 5 and Day 6 (34.5±0.43, 35.1±0.28, 35.0±0.26 and 33.6±1.45, respectively). Histological sections of liver and kidney tissues revealed nearly normal structures. Genotoxicity evaluations showed no significant variation in micronucleus frequency. However, a marked increase in SGOT was detected in ovariectomized females (123.65±2.86 IU/l), while SGPT levels rose in the Day 1, 2, 3 and 6 treated groups (52.52±1.81, 52.01±1.95, 54.84±2.00 and 49.37±1.78, respectively), suggesting mild hepatotoxic effects. Conclusion: Studies on the toxicological aspects of any traditional medicine are necessary for the proper formulation of a drug. Most of the parameters selected for toxicity detection showed no significant alteration between the control and treated mice groups. Only mild hepatotoxicity was observed in the extract-treated group of female albino mice. Moreover, some improvements in terms of exploratory behaviour could be observed in the treated groups. Thus, the extract may be considered low or non-toxic at this present dose. Further studies are necessary to investigate toxicological impacts on other tissues and to identify the potentially toxic compounds within the extract, which could aid in the development of antifertility agents derived from this plant.
The exploration of medicinal plants for therapeutic application has been a long standing practice owing to their rich repository of bioactive compounds. This study aimed to analyze the chemical constituents along with anti-oxidant and anti-microbial potential evaluation of 70
Quantum mechanical study on the interaction between carcinogens and DNA nucleobase is an exciting and significant aspect of cancer research. Common aromatic carcinogens like; (3-napthylamine, alpha-benzopyrone, phthalazine, quinoline, alpha-naphthol and (3-naphthol; comfortably interact with DNA nucleobases (i.e., A, T, G, C, AT and GC) and it happens due to the effective pi-pi stacking interactions. In general, such type of interaction occurs through intercalation mechanism which takes place via pi-stacking and results in very strong interaction with DNA nucleobases. In our case, all the carcinogen-DNA base pair stacked models have been investigated using density functional theory (DFT) method; as it theoretically helps to predict the proper molecular interaction and selectivity of carcinogens with DNA base pairs. Herein, computational calculations have been carried out to analyse the carcinogenicity of some common polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH); and the study reveals that (3-naphthylamine (BNA) is highly GC-specific than that of other aromatic carcinogens. Hence, BNA shows higher carcinogenic or toxic effect on the DNA nucleobase than other selected carcinogens. On the other hand, carcinogens like quinoline (QUN) and phthalazine (PHZ) results in the least carcinogenic effect on AT and GC base pairs of DNA nucleobases.
