Fazlul Karim Tipu

The most affordable type of tablet is the immediately compressible tablet, which uses microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), a popular pharmaceutical excipient, as a filler or binder. To make it compatible with different active drugs and excipients, we tried to change some physical properties of the MCC. In the current study, we used a chelating agent to pretreat the waste cotton before pulping, bleaching, and finally, hydrochloric acid degradation with a concentration of 2N at 100 °C temperature for 20 min to prepare MCC. The prepared MCC was treated with different concentrations of sodium hydroxide at room temperature or at −20 °C followed by precipitation with hydrochloric acid or ethanol with complete washing with distilled water till neutralization. Evaluation of the degree of polymerization (DP) and FT-IR spectrum confirm the identity of the microcrystalline cellulose. The DP was found to be 216. The bulk density of the unmodified MCC was 0.21 while that of modified MCC varied from 0.253 to 0.594. The modified MCC powder showed good flow properties compared to the unmodified MCC as evaluated by the Hausner index, Carr’s index and the angle of repose. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the MCC revealed that the rod shape has been changed to an oval shape due to treatment with sodium hydroxide at −20 °C. The X-ray crystallographic (XRD) analysis indicated that the unmodified MCC and standard MCC showed the crystallinity index (CrI) value of 86.82% and 87.63%, respectively, while the value ranges from 80.18% to 60.7% among the modified MCC powder. The differences in properties of the MCC might be due to the variation of rearrangement of the cellulose chain among the MCC particles due to treatment with different concentrations of a base at different temperatures and precipitation environments. This has enabled us to prepare MCC with different properties which might be compatible with different drugs.

Natural cellulose, a sustainable bioresource, is highly abundant in nature. Cellulosic materials, particularly those that explore and employ such materials for industrial use, have recently attracted significant global attention in the field of material science because of the unique properties of cellulose. The hydroxyl groups enable the formation of intra- and inter-molecular hydrogen bonding and the arrangement of cellulose chains in a highly ordered crystalline zone, with the remaining disordered structure referred to as an amorphous region. The crystalline areas of cellulose are well-known as cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). In the present study, we extracted CNCs from pure cellulose isolated from waste jute fibers by sulfuric acid hydrolysis, followed by characterization. Pure cellulose was isolated from jute fibers by treating with sodium hydroxide (20% w/w) and anthraquinone (0.5%) solution at 170 °C for 2 h, followed by bleaching with chlorine dioxide and hydrogen peroxide solution. CNCs were isolated from pure cellulose by treating with different concentrations (58% to 62%) of sulfuric acid at different time intervals (20 min to 45 min). The FTIR study of the CNCs reveals no peak at 1738 cm⁻¹, which confirms the absence of hemicellulose in the samples. The CNCs obtained after 45 min of acid hydrolysis are rod-shaped, having an average length of 800 ± 100 nm and width of 55 ± 10 nm, with a high crystallinity index (90%). Zeta potential significantly increased due to the attachment of SO₄²⁻ ions on the surface of CNC from −1.0 mV to about −30 mV, with the increment of the reaction time from 20 min to 45 min, which proved the higher stability of CNC suspension. Crystallinity increased from 80% to 90% when the reaction time was increased from 20 to 45 min, respectively, while a crystallite size from 2.705 to 4.56 nm was obtained with an increment of the acid concentration. Acid hydrolysis enhanced crystallinity but attenuated the temperature corresponding to major decomposition (Tmax) at 260 °C and the beginning of degradation (Ti) at 200 °C due to the attachment of SO₄²⁻ ions on the surface, which decreased the thermal stability of CNC. The second degradation at 360 °C indicated the stable crystal structure of CNC. The endothermic peak at 255 °C in the DTA study provided evidence of sulfated nanocrystal decomposition and the recrystallization of cellulose I to cellulose II, the most stable structure among the other four celluloses. The proposed easy-to-reproduce method can successfully and efficiently produce CNCs from waste jute fibers in a straightforward way.

This study was conducted to assess the antioxidant potential and thrombolytic activity of the methanolic extract of the Delonix regia leaves and its partitionates. The methanolic extract was partitioned into four fractions (pet ether, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and aqueous) according to polarity. These fractions were subjected to further investigation. The antioxidant potential was assessed by two methods one was by using the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent as oxidant and gallic acid as a standard; and another method was the DPPH assay. In Folin-Ciocalteu reagent using method, all fractions showed significant antioxidant potential and the ethyl acetate partitionate showed the highest antioxidant activity at 142.28 mg of GAE/gm of extractives among all. In the DPPH assay, the antioxidant potential was measured compared against BHT, all fractions showed better activity than the BHT and the highest IC₅₀ value was 51.06 μg/mL of dichloromethane partitionate. In thrombolytic activity, streptokinase was the positive control, and water was the negative control. The highest thrombolytic activity was found in petroleum ether partition and methanolic extract and the IC₅₀ value were 47% and 30.65%, respectively. Whereas the IC₅₀ value of streptokinase and water was 64.22% and 15.48% respectively. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 26(1): 73-78, 2023 (January)

Rourea minor is a species which belongs to the family Connaraceae. Rourea minor reported previously for antibiotic, antibacterial, hemostatic and wound-healing activities. In this study, we evaluated the antioxidant, thrombolytic and membrane stabilizing activities of the crude methanolic extract of the leaves of Rourea minor and its different organic soluble fractions. We measured the total phenolic contents and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging activity of the extracts to observe their antioxidant potential. The thrombolytic activity was determined by human blood clot lysis. Anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by human red blood cell (HRBC) membrane stabilization based on hypotonic solution- and heat-induced haemolysis. The total phenolic content ranged from 9.4 to 57.4 mg GAE/g of the dry extracts and IC50 values of the different extracts (Crude methanol, petroleum ether, ethyl acetate and aqueous) were between 20.38 and 269.34 μg/ml. All the extracts showed mild to moderate thrombolytic potential inhibiting the lysis of clot by 3.47% - 18.43%. The extracts also exhibited potential membrane stabilizing activity in both hypotonic solution- and heatinduced haemolysis indicating their anti-inflammatory activity. Thus, it can be concluded that the methanolic extract from the leaves of Rourea minor and its different fractions possess mild to moderate antioxidant, thrombolytic activities, and membrane stabilizing potential. Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 26(1): 51-55, 2023 (January)

Natural cellulose, a sustainable bioresource, is highly abundant in nature. Cellulosic materials, particularly those that explore and employ such materials for industrial use, have recently attracted significant global attention in the field of material science because of the special properties of cellulose. The hydroxyl groups enable the formation of intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonding as well as the arrangement of cellulose chains in a highly ordered crystalline zone, with the remaining disordered structure being referred to as an amorphous region. The crystalline areas of cellulose are well-known as cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). In the present study, we extracted CNCs from pure cellulose isolated from waste jute fibers by sulphuric acid hydrolysis followed by characterization. Pure cellulose was isolated from jute fibers by treating with sodium hydroxide (20% w/w) and anthraquinone (0.5%) solution at 170 ⁰C for 2 hours, followed by bleaching with chlorine dioxide and hydrogen peroxide solution. CNCs were isolated from pure cellulose by treating with different concentrations (58–62%) of sulphuric acid at different time intervals (20 min to 45 min). FTIR study of the CNCs reveals no peak at 1738 cm^− 1 which confirms the absence of hemicellulose in the samples. The CNCs obtained after 45 mins of acid hydrolysis are rod-shaped, having an average length of 800 ± 100 nm and width of 55 ± 10 nm with high crystallinity index (90%). Zeta potential greatly increased due to the attachment of SO₄²⁻ ion on the surface of CNC from − 1.0mV to about − 30mV with the increment of reaction time from 20 min to 45 min, which proved the higher stability of CNC suspension. Crystallinity increased from 80–90% when the reaction time was increased from 20 to 45 mins, respectively, while crystallite size from 2.705 to 4.56 nm was obtained with an increment of acid concentration. Acid hydrolysis enhanced crystallinity but attenuated the temperature corresponding to major decomposition (Tmax) at 260 ⁰C and beginning of degradation (Ti) at 200 ⁰C due to the attachment of SO₄²⁻ ion on the surface decreased the thermal stability of CNC. The second degradation at 360 ⁰C indicated the stable crystal structure of CNC. The endothermic peak at 255 ⁰C in the DTA study provided evidence of sulphated nanocrystal decomposition and the recrystallization of Cellulose Ⅰ to cellulose Ⅱ, the most stable structure among the other four cellulose.

Objective: This work aimed to validate a simple UV-Visible spectrophotometric method for estimating Cefixime trihydrate in bulk and to produce an accurate, precise, repeatable, and cost-effective method. Material and Methods: The pH 7.4 Phosphate buffer was utilized as the solvent throughout the experiment. The drug’s absorption maxima (max) were discovered to be at 288 nm. Beer’s law was found to be obeyed in the range of 10-45 μg/mL during the quantitative analysis of the substance at 288 nm. In the doses tested, the approach was found to be linear, with the line equation y = 0.035x – 0.002 and a correlation coefficient of 0.999. Results and Discussion: Cefixime Trihydrate recovery values varied from 99.656 percent to 101.825 percent. Six duplicates of the experiment had a relative standard deviation of less than 2%. The interday precision range was 0.52-1.02%, and the intraday precision range was 0.57-0.995 percent relative standard deviation (RSD percent). The detection and quantification limits were 0.914 and 3.142 μg/mL, respectively. The method’s robustness and ruggedness had a percent relative standard deviation of 0.532-0.827 percent. Conclusion: As a result, the proposed procedure was precise, accurate, and economical. This method could be used to determine the quantity of medicine in bulk.