Wendlandia glabrata DC. (Family: Rubiaceae), locally known as “Bon Kafashi” in Bangladesh, is widely used as functional food in Indian subcontinent, where its tender shoots are believed to control blood sugar and reduce obesity. However, this plant has not been substantially studied in Bangladesh, and therefore it was selected for phyto-pharmacological investigations. The plant’s methanolic extract, along with its Kupchan fractions, were assessed for in-vitro antioxidant, cytotoxic, thrombolytic and membrane stabilizing and in vivo analgesic, antidiarrheal and hypoglycemic properties. Four compounds, namely ursolic acid (1), β-sitosterol (2) stigmasterol (3) and lauric acid (4) were isolated and characterized from the n-hexane fractions by employing gel permeation chromatography and preparative TLC and NMR spectroscopy. All these compounds are first time reported from this species. The total phenolic content of the extract and its fractions was found in a range of 23.98±0.65 to 80.74±2.08 mg of GAE/gm of extractives. In DPPH assay, DCM fraction exhibited the highest antioxidant efficacy with an IC50 value of 14.29 µg/ml, in comparison to standard BHT (IC50=13.56 µg/ml). The DCM solubles also showed the strongest cytotoxic activity (LC50 = 0.77 μg/mL) which was comparable to standard vincristine sulphate (LC50 = 0.58 μg/mL). Different solvent fractions exhibited thrombolytic activity ranging from 24.84% to 38.32%. Out of all, the methanolic extract showed considerable membrane stabilizing properties in hemolysis mediated by hypotonic solution and heat. The methanol extract showed weak analgesic activity as evident by acetic acid-induced writhing test. In castor oil-mediated diarrhea, the extract did not show potential antidiarrheal efficacy. The extract exhibited significant effect in the hypoglycemic test at 400 mg/kg, which decrease blood glucose levels by 24.82% (p < 0.01) and 27.35% (p < 0.05) during the 2nd and 3rd hour of study, respectively. Based on the findings, W. glabrata may be a viable source of potentially active secondary metabolites. Additional research should be undertaken for utilizing this plant in drug discovery and development. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 29(2): 298-309, 2026 (July)
The development of various probiotic pharmaceutical dosage forms is gaining considerable attention owing to the emerging recognition of probiotics. Probiotics, live microorganisms which confer a health benefit on the host, when administered in adequate amounts, have emerged as important ingredients in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical formulations. Successful formulation of probiotic dosage forms depends largely on selecting well-characterized and physiologically compatible microbial strains. The common sources are fermented foods, the human gastrointestinal tract, dairy products, plants, and other natural habitats. However, translating these natural isolates into stable and effective formulations still poses overwhelming challenges. The major concerns are strain-specific functionality, safety assessment, large-scale cultivation, and viability of the cells while processing, formulation, and storage. Moreover, environmental factors such as heat, moisture, and oxygen that cause deterioration in probiotics make their formulation into solid and liquid dosage forms complicated. Future directions emphasize sustainable sourcing, advanced protection systems based on microencapsulation and nanotechnology, and the search for novel probiotic sources. The present review covers the sources of probiotics, discusses the limitations in developing the dosage forms, and outlines some prospective strategies to overcome these future challenges for improved therapeutic efficacy and commercial success. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 29(2): 310-323, 2026 (July)
The study was undertaken to formulate and analyze repaglinide loaded liposomes to obtain a sustained release dosage form over an extended period of time. All the formulations were prepared by thin film hydration method one of the suitable methods for preparing liposomes. Different formulations were designed to observe the effect of lecithin, cholesterol, nigella oil, stearylamine, Tween 80, Span 80, and sodium lauryl sulfate on percent of drug entrapment efficiency, cumulative drug release, permeation through the membrane, stability, and uniformed vesicular structure, respectively. Microscopic observation was performed to confirm the presence of liposomal vesicles, in vitro dissolution study and ex vivo permeability studies were carried out according to USP-II paddle method in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) for a period of 8 hours. Additionally, comparison between the formulated liposomes was performed to ensure sustained release characteristics of liposomal formulations. Stability study was executed by storing formulations under different environmental conditions for a period of 30 days. Visual observation under optical microscope displayed the presence of unilamellar liposomal vesicles formed by thin film hydration method. The percent drug entrapment efficiency of conventional liposomes was found to be highest for the formulation F-10 (73 .26%) with a ratio of 1:0.44 (phosphatidylcholine: cholesterol). Addition of tween 80 and span 80 to the formulations, stabilized liposomes which exhibited higher entrapment efficiencies for formulations F-24 (81.43%), F-29 (78.98%) and F-34 (89.67%) compared to non-ionic surfactants free liposomes. The drug release of repaglinide from conventional liposomes was found to be 96.23% at the 8th hour. For non-ionic surfactants incorporated liposomes, 84.52% drug release obtained for the formulation F-34 at the 8th hour from which it can be predicted that non-ionic surfactants incorporated liposomes can prolong drug release for more than 10 hours. The best data fitted with the highest correlation coefficient for liposomes was obtained for zero order kinetic models and the drug release was mostly by super class II diffusion transport for most of the formulations. Results from the stability study showed that the drug leakage from the vesicles was least when non-ionic surfactant was incorporated into the formulations and among the three storage conditions, all the liposomal formulations were found to be most stable at refrigeration temperature (2-8°C). Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 29(2): 161-171, 2026 (July)
This study comprehensively investigated Boerhavia repens (Family: Nyctaginaceae) to assess its biological potentials. Hexane (BRH), chloroform (BRC), ethyl acetate (BRE) and aqueous (BRA) fractions were obtained by fractionating the crude methanolic extract (BRX) using the modified Kupchan method. Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic properties were investigated in vitro, while analgesic, anti-diarrheal and CNS depressive effects were evaluated in vivo using mouse models. BRE demonstrated significant antioxidant activity (IC50 = 1.38 μg/ml), outperforming standard BHT (1.75 μg/ml) in free radical scavenging assay and yielded total phenolic content (4.29 mg GAE/g extract), in contrast to gallic acid. Compared to standard acetylsalicylic acid (88.67% and 89.91%), BRH showed notable anti-inflammatory effects (79.64% and 61.27% inhibition) in hemolysis induced by temperature and hypotonic solution. On Vero cells, no fractions showed any signs of cytotoxicity. BRX-400 (400 mg/kg) had significant dose-dependent analgesia with a pain inhibition of 63.75% contrasting to that of standard diclofenac (66.49%) in acetic acid-induced writhing test. In the formalin test, BRX-400 exhibited greater analgesic efficacy in the chronic phase (70.41%) than in the acute phase (50.58%), while diclofenac produced 83.70% and 94.91% inhibition, respectively. Similar to diclofenac (55.67-89.0%), BRX-400 retained sustained analgesia (51.67-82.0%) in the hot plate test and showed comparable outcomes in the tail immersion test (26.18-58.86% vs 22.40-52.21%, respectively). The fractions showed no discernible antidiarrheal effect. Strong, dose-dependent CNS depression was demonstrated by the extracts; in thiopentalinduced sleep and hole-cross tests, BRX-400 presented 254.98% and 45.83–84.99% effect, respectively, comparable to standard diazepam (265.92% and 20.83-79.72%). All data were statistically significant (p<0.05). Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 29(1): 81-92, 2026 (January)
Chalcones are conjugated 1,3-unsaturated ketones that have a variety of pharmacological properties, such as antidiabetic, antioxidant and anticancer actions. Current study showed that, a chalcone, (E)-1,3-diphenylprop-2-en-1-one (1) was synthesized by reacting benzaldehyde with acetophenone. This compound was subsequently added with hydrazine hydrate and hydrazine hydrate in the attendance of acetic acid to yield two pyrazole derivatives, namely 3,5-diphenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazole (2) and 1-(3,5-diphenyl-4,5-dihydropyrazol-1-yl) ethanone (3). The synthesized compounds were characterized using FTIR and 1H NMR spectroscopy. Compounds 1 to 3 demonstrated significant cytotoxic activity against the HeLa cell line. Additionally, they exhibited notable antioxidant properties. In silico studies were performed to evaluate the drug-likeness, pharmacokinetic profiles and molecular docking interconnections with the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). These computational analyses provided insights into the potentiality of the compounds for drug-receptor binding and their pharmacokinetic behaviors. This work reports, for the first time, the comparative biological and computational studies conducted here. However, further detailed investigations are required to fully understand their mechanisms of action. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 29(1): 27-39, 2026 (January)
