VOLUME 32, NO1, FEB 2010

Thermodynamic Properties of Amphiphilic Antidepressant Drug Citalopram HBr

Association characteristics of antidepressant drug Citalopram hydrobromide in water have been examined and its thermodynamic parameters have been calculated using tensiometery and conductometry.  The critical micelle concentration (cmc) was determined by surface tension measurement at 30°C and Surface activity was studied by measuring surface parameters i.e. surface pressure, ?, surface excess concentration, ?, area per molecule of drug and standard Gibbs free energy of adsorption, DG°ads. The electrical conductivity was measured as a function of concentration at various temperatures and cmc was calculated in the temperature range 20-50°C.  Thermodynamic parameters i.e. standard free energy of micellization, DG°m, standard enthalpy of micellization, DH°m and standard entropy of micellization, DS°m were calculated from cmc value using closed association model.read more

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MOHAMMAD SIDDIQ ,ABBAS KHAN ,MUHAMMAD USMAN ,

Production and Effective Utilization of Carbonized Sludge of Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant

Industrial wastewater sludge was successfully converted into a carbonized product of maximum environmental benefits. Carbonization was carried out to determine an optimum temperature conditions in order to get low temperature carbonization product of required characteristics. Stack gas emissions throughout the course of carbonization and fuel quality characteristics of the carbonized product were also monitored. Analyses of the carbonized product for its possible applications as farm land additive and as green fuel utilization were also conducted. Main objective of the study was to get comparative study of the carbonized sludge; a by-product of industrial wastewater treatment plant, with the sludge stabilized by other heat treatment techniques.read more

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JI HOON KIM ,TAHIR IMRAN QURESHI ,CHANG SOO LEE ,JUNG HOON CHOI ,YOUNG JU KIM ,

Effect of Drought and Abscisic Acid Application on the Osmotic Adjustment of Four Wheat Cultivars

The accumulation of osmolytes in leaf tissues and the abscisic acid-induced stomatal closure are well-recognized mechanisms associated with drought tolerance in crop plants. We determine the response in terms of osmotic potential and the contents of leaf proline, glycine betaine and soluble sugar at booting and grainfilling stages of four wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars to drought and exogenously applied abscisic acid (ABA) in a pot study. Leaf sample were collected 3, 6 and 9 days after drought induction and at 48 and 72 h of re-watering (recovery). Marked decreases in osmotic potential associated with the accumulation of proline, glycine betaine and soluble sugars occurred under conditions of drought stress. Accession 011320 was most sensitive to drought and showed the largest decrease in osmotic potential and least accumulation of proline, sugar and glycine betaine The inhibitory effects of drought stress were ameliorated by exogenous application of ABA. This ameliorating effect was more pronounced at the booting than at grainfilling stage particularly in the sensitive accession 011320. Upon rewatering the recovery from drought stress was found to be greater in case of abscisic acid application. The leaf praline content is seen to be a suitable indicator for selecting drought-tolerant genotypes.read more

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ASGHARI BANO ,SUMERA IQBAL ,

Effect of Grafting Ratio on Rheological and Mechanical Properties of High Density Polyethylene-graft-Maleic Anhydride/Polyamide 6 Blends

Graft copolymerization of high density polyethylene with a maleic anhydride was carried out using intermeshing co-rotating twin screw extruder in the presence of benzoyl peroxide (BPO).The HDPE/PA6 and HDPE-g-MAH/PA6 blends were prepared in a co-rotating twin screw extruder. The melt viscosity of the grafted HDPE was measured by a capillary rheometer. The grafted copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and scanning electron microcopy (SEM). The influence of the variation in temperature, benzoyl peroxide (BPO) and maleic anhydride (MAH) concentration and temperature on the grafting degree and on the melt viscosity were studied. The grafting degree increased appreciably up to about 0.4 phr, and then decreased continuously with an increasing BPO concentration. Furthermore, the results revealed that the tensile strength of the blends increases linearly with increasing polyamide 6 content. The results of scanning electron microcopy (SEM) and mechanical test showed that the blends have good interfacial adhesion and good stability of the phase structure, which is reflected in the mechanical properties.read more

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MANZOOR IQBAL ,LIU HIU ,MAHMOOD IQBAL ,CHENGZHI CHUAI ,MUHAMMAD AIJAZ ,

Investigation of Heavy Metals Content in Medicinal Plant, Eclipta alba L

Heavy metal such as Cr, Fe, Zn, Mn, Ni, Pb, Cu and Cd were investigated in a medicinally important plant, Eclipta alba L. as well as in the soil it was grown using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The plant samples were collected from their natural habitat at three different locations of Peshawar, Pakistan. The whole plant materials (roots, stems and leaves) were found to contain all heavy metals except Cd, which corresponds to their concentration in the soil it was grown. Among all the heavy metals, Fe was found to be at the highest level (8.95 to 27.7 mg/kg) followed by Mn (0.44 to 14.0 mg/kg) and Zn (1.04 to 4.50 mg/kg), while the rest of metals were at low concentration. The present study showed that E. alba L. is suitable for the control of environmental pollutants such as heavy metals, however, for medicinal purposes; it should be collected from those areas, which are not contaminated with heavy metals. The purpose of the current study was to standardize various indigenous medicinal plants for heavy metals contamination and to make awareness among the public regarding its safer use and collection areas, containing high level of heavy metals and their adverse health affects.read more

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IQBAL HUSSAIN ,HAMAYUN KHAN ,

Study of High-Performance Liquid Chromatogramphy Fingerprint for Traditional Chinese Medicine Yigongningxue Oral Liquid

A simple, reliable and accurate fingerprinting method has been developed for quality control of YiGongNingXue oral liquid. The separation was done by reverse phase chromatography using Zorbax eclipse XDB C18 column (250mm×4.6mm i.d. with 5.0μm particle size) and detection at 246nm. Methanol (5-95 % in 70 min)-buffer solution (water-phosphoric acid, pH 3.0, 95-0 % in 70 min) as mobile phase for linear gradient elution. The flow rate was 1.0 mL·min-1 and the column temperature was at 25?. The similarity of 20 batches of YGNX oral liquid was more than 90 %. Also 15 common peaks of chromatogram have been detected,ten of them were identified by comparing fingerprint chromatogram with reference substances. The HPLC fingerprint can be used to control the quality of YiGongNingXue oral liquid.read more

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CHAO FENG ,YA LING CAI ,JIN LAN RUAN ,

The Determination of Metal Accumulation in Firethorn (Pyracantha Coccinea M. Roemer) Leaves in Eskişehir (Turkey)

In this study, firethorn plant (Pyracantha coccinea M. Roemer), a prevalent shrub in Eskisehir (Turkey) city, was used to monitor the influence of metal pollution caused by traffic. Samples were collected in the fall and winter seasons from ten locations. The concentration of heavy metals (Cu, Cd, Cr, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn) was determined from plant leaves. Besides, metal contents were examined in the surface soil (0–30 cm) samples collected from each location. The heavy metals determined from leaves and soil was evaluated statistically against motorized vehicles number. A meaningful correlation between heavy metal concentrations in plant and soil samples and vehicles number was determined. In addition, the metal concentrations in firethorn leaves have been compared with the critical heavy metal values in the literature. The mean metal (Cd, Cr, Fe, Ni and Pb) concentrations were found higher than the limit values. According to the metal studied the highest Cu, Fe, Zn, Cd and Pb concentrations for firethorn leaves are found in the Ankara-Istanbul intercity highway (location 2) and the highest Cr and Ni levels are found in the main gate of Anadolu University, intercity highway (location 9). It was clearly found that human and other living organisms are under the risk of heavy metal pollution.read more

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ARZU CICEK ,

Anodizing of Aluminum with Improved Corrosion Properties

Anodizing of aluminum was studied in sulphuric/oxalic/boric acid electrolyte system. The corrosion resistance of the anodic oxide coating of aluminum was determined by potentiodynamic polarization test and scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to investigate the surface morphology before and after corrosion test. It was found that the oxide coating obtained by this method showed better corrosion resistance with no significant difference in surface morphology.read more

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PETER JOHN ,NAEEM GULZAR ,AZIZ UR REHMAN ,SHAHID TUFAIL SHEIKH ,ISLAM ULLAH KHAN ,

Adsorption Studies of Copper on a-Alumina

In this investigation, adsorption of Cu2+ on a-Alumina has been studied by means of batch-technique. Percentage adsorption was determined for a-Alumina-Copper solution system as a function of contact time, pH, adsorbate concentration and temperature. Adsorption data has been interpreted in terms of Freundlich and Langmuir equations. Thermodynamics parameters for the adsorption system have been determined at three different temperatures. The value of ΔHo=15.822KJ/mole and ΔGo=-1.0775KJ/mole at 288K suggest that the adsorption of copper on a-Alumina is endothermic and spontaneous process. The desorption studies especially with 1 % NaOH, 1% CaCl2and 1%HCl at given copper loadings on a-Alumina show that no significant percentage of the element is reversibly desorbed.read more

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UZMA ZAFAR ,SUMRA NAEEM ,GHULAM RASOOL ,NASEEM ZAHRA ,

Development and Validation of Reversed-Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method for Analysis of Cephradine in Human Plasma Samples

An HPLC method with high precision, accuracy and selectivity was developed and validated for the assessment of cephradine in human plasma samples. The extraction procedure was simple and accurate with single step followed by direct injection of sample into HPLC system. The extracted cephradine in spiked human plasma was separated and quantitated using reversed phase C18 column and UV detection wavelength of 254 nm. The optimized mobile phase of new composition of 0.05 M potassium dihydrogen phosphate (pH 3.4)-acetonitrile (88:12) was pumped at an optimum flow rate of 1 mL.min-1. The method resulted linearity in the concentration range 0.15-20 µg.mL-1. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.05 and 0.150 µg.mL-1, respectively. The accuracy of method was 98.68 %. This method can be applied for bioequivalence studies and therapeutic drug monitoring as well as for the routine analysis of cephradine.read more

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SATTAR BAKSH ,MAHMOOD AHMAD ,NAVEED AKHTER ,MUHAMMAD USMAN ,WAHEED ASGHAR ,ASADULLAH MADNI ,NAYAB KHALID ,