National Chemical Laboratory Research Articles

Interview: insights from a career developing and applying magnetic nanoparticles.

T Sen is a Reader in Nanomaterials Chemistry at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). He trained as a chemist, achieving his BSc Hons in Chemistry, MSc in Physical Chemistry and PhD in Materials Chemistry from the National Chemical Laboratory (Pune, India). Alongside his academic posting, he is an editorial board member for several journals including Nanomedicine. His work at UCLan is multidisciplinary, drawing from chemistry, material science, biology and medicine to work with industry and academic partners to address challenges in health and environmental sciences. The research group currently has three projects: magneto-optical nanocomposites for liver cancer therapeutics; the separation and identification of viral RNAs using magnetic nanoparticles in the context of coronavirus and developing multifunctional nanocomposites for the detection and separation of wastewater toxicity and treatment.

Formulation and Evaluation of Microemulsion of Curcumin in Thymol-Menthol Carrier System

Aim: To formulate and evaluate the Micro emulsion of curcumin in thymol-menthol carrier system.
 Study Design: Curcumin dissolves in mixture of thymol & menthol to reasonable extent.100 mg of curcumin in 1 g of thymol and 0.6 g of menthol mixture was finalized as product mixture. The solution of curcumin in eutectic mixture being oily liquid, it gave the idea for development for the micro emulsion
 Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmaceutics and Department of Pharmacognosy, STES’s Smt. Kashibai Navale College of Pharmacy, Kondhwa (BK), National Chemical Laboratory, Pune between June 2016 and May 2017.
 Methodology: Micro emulsion system with eutectic mixture of thymol and menthol was chosen as oil phase and carrier for curcumin, tween 80 as surfactant and ethanol as co-surfactant. Ternary phase diagrams were constructed to obtain the optimum concentration range of oil phase, surfactant and co-surfactant. The micro emulsion of 100 mg curcumin containing 4.95 % oil phase, 33.39 % surfactant, 11.13% co-surfactant, 50:50% of water was optimum. Micro emulsion of curcumin was prepared by water titration method and evaluated for globule size, drug content, pH, viscosity, conductivity and In vitro drug release study. The ex-vivo permeation study for micro emulsion of curcumin was carried out on excised mice skin using Franz Diffusion apparatus. The cytotoxicity study for thymol, menthol was performed on healthy L929 murine fibroblast cell line. Anticancer activity of thymol-menthol eutectic mixture alone and with curcumin was performed on HeLa cell lines.
 Results: The preformulation studies did clearly indicate good compatibility of drug with thymol menthol carrier system. The cytotoxicity study was done on thymol – menthol(TM) as a preformulation aspect to ascertain the toxicity of these two excipients to be tried. It was found that TM was not cytotoxic in 120ug/mL concentration and thus was safe to be used in concentration below 120ug/mL. Batch B1 was optimised. The average globule size of micro emulsion was found to be 131.54 nm, zeta potential was found to be -0.57 mV. The drug content in micro emulsion batch B1 was determined and found to be 74.6%.Permeability study across mice skin ex-vivo model showed 52.38% permeability compared with curcumin alone which was 22.41%. So permeability of curcumin is enhanced substantially with micro emulsion made in thymol and menthol, owing to fact that thymol and menthol act as good permeation enhancers. The In vitro drug release study of micro emulsion was compared with curcumin alone. About 48.75% of curcumin was released from micro emulsion showed increase in release rate.
 Conclusion: Eutectic mixture of thymol and menthol showed promising results as penetration and solubility enhancer for curcumin. Solubility of curcumin was improved so as its rate of permeation which was used to develop formulation of micro emulsion with proven anticancer activity. The solubility of curcumin formulated with combination of eutectic mixture was increased up to 50 %.

IT IS NOW OR NEVER; FOR ENHANCED RESEARCH COLLABORATION, NAY, PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN INDUSTRY AND INSTITUTES/ACADEMIA

Pens have gone dry and words have run out, highlighting the need for Industry-Academia collaboration. However, it is indeed deeply dismaying that very little progress has been made in “building the bridges” we have been advocating and promoting over the last few decades, when the necessity and urgency of innovative research leading to IP/Patent protection and technology licensing is recognised as a priority. Except for couple of pockets of excellence, there have been very few “box office” hits to write about. One example to quote is the Venture Centre at the NCL (National Chemical Laboratory, Pune) headed by Dr. V. Premnath. A few exceptional achievements in a relatively short time by this innovation/start up incubation centre are worth taking note of.

Catalyst: Uranium Extraction from Seawater, a Paradigm Shift in Resource Recovery

Shilpi Kushwaha received her PhD (2012) from the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU), Vadodara, and then worked as a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PDF) at Arizona State University and as a Young Scientist (DST-YS) at the National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune. She is an assistant professor at the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) and a scientist at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSIR-CSMCRI). Her current research is focused on materials (i.e., small molecules, polymers, self-assemblies, and nanomaterials) for molecular recognition, pollutant scavenging, and recovery. Ketan Patel received his PhD (2013) from MSU and later worked as a PDF at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and as a DST-YS at CSIR-NCL, Pune. He is currently an assistant professor at AcSIR and a senior scientist at CSIR-CSMCRI. His ongoing research focuses on organic and inorganic polymeric and hybrid materials for catalysis and separation.

A Scientometrics Analysis of Publications of IICT and NCL during 2000-2018

The objective of this article is to analyse and compare the scientometric parameters of journal publications of 2 top Indian chemical research institutes - Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and National Chemical Laboratory (NCL). We have compared the number of journal publications and citations for these 2 institutions. The bibliometric parameters including number of articles, number of citations received, average impact factor, international collaborations, and authorship pattern have been used to carry out the analysis of the research contributions made by the scientists of both institutes. The data set was collected from the Web of Science (WoS) database for the period of 19 years (2000-2018). The data reveals that IICT published 10,152 articles in 998 journals with 1,50,023 citations and NCL published 8361 articles in 1049 journals with 1,41,754 citations. Most of the papers are published in peer-reviewed international journals having high impact factor. The average number of citations received per paper is 14.77 for IICT and 16.95 for NCL.

Scientometric profile of plant sciences research in Maharashtra state

A scientometric analysis is conducted to study the historical and current status of Plant Science research in Maharashtra State during 1989-2018. It is observed that a rapid growth is seen in the field of plant science research in last two decades in Maharashtra State. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) India, National Chemical Laboratory, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Savitribai Phule Pune University were the top institutions in research in Plant Science. Most papers were published in Indian Journals with low impact factors. The article highlights different patterns of evaluation of Plant Science Research in Maharashtra State such as- year wise growth trend of documents, prolific authors and their rankings, highly cited publications, highly productive journals and international collaboration in Plant Science.

Optimization of IBA for Efficient Survival of Micropropagated Garcinia indica Choisy Shoots Using in-vitro and ex-vitro Rooting Techniques

Aims: The study focuses on optimization of concentration and time of rooting hormone exposure of IBA (Indole-3-Butyric Acid) for efficient survival of tissue culture raised Garcinia indica Choisy plantlets for in-vitro and ex-vitro rooting techniques.
 Study Design: The subcultured microshoots of Garcinia indica were subjected to in-vitro and ex-vitro rooting trials by treating them with IBA of varying concentration and time, to standardize these particular parameters required by this auxin to induce rooting.
 Place and Duration of Study: Rooting trials were carried out in Plant tissue culture-Biochemical Sciences Division of CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory, Pune 411008 between June 2018 and April 2019.
 Methodology: Regularly subcultured five to six years old shoots from female trees of Garcinia indica were used for the study. Various concentrations of IBA in correlation with time were used for in-vitro and ex-vitro root induction. The rooted plantlets were then transferred to polyhouse for acclimatization and will further be planted in open field locations in June 2019.
 Results: Induction of rooting was observed within thirty days of treatment with IBA. It was observed that 500ppm of IBA gave 30% rooting for in-vitro rooting trials whereas 2000ppm of IBA induced 80% rooting for shoots given ex-vitro rooting treatments. An interesting phenomenon that was observed for 70% of the shoots which failed to induce rooting by in-vitro treatment was that they survived with 100% rooting success under ex-vitro rooting conditions. The hardened plantlets were successfully acclimatized in the polyhouse with survival rate of 90% and were further transferred to polythene bags with rooting mixtures of sand: farmyard manure: coco peat (1:1:2). These plantlets have been healthy for the last 6 to 9 months and will be transported for field trials in June 2019.
 Conclusion: Ex-vitro rooting technique was found to be more effective than in-vitro rooting. Thus, by optimizing the rooting hormone parameters, female plants of Garcinia indica can be successfully grown using tissue culture technology and can be propagated in large numbers to increase the female plant number in plantations.

Bioremediation of Textile Dye Procion Red Yellow by Using Pseudomonas fluorescens

Dyes primarily present in effluents from textile industries are recalcitrant organic molecules with a complex aromatic structure, which are considered difficult to eliminate, degrade and detoxify biologically. In the current study, Pseudomonas fluorescens was used to degrade Procion Red Yellow. The bacterium P. fluorescens NCIM 2100 was procured from National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, India, that was well adapted to grow and survive in broth supplemented with dyes. The dye was exposed to bacterium followed by the identification of its degradation products by a combination of UV, 1H NMR and IR spectrophotometry. After exposure, the dye was firstly broken down into an intermediate compound lacking azo benzene group. This compound further changed into another intermediate compound that may contain either OH or NH group. This intermediate finally changed into 3, 5-diamino-1, 4, 6, 8-tetrahydroxy-2,7-naphthyldisulfonic acid sodium salt or 1, 3, 4, 5, 6-hexa-hydroxy-2, 7-naphthyldisulfonic acid sodium salt in broth. These breakdown or transformation products were innoxious in nature. Thus P. fluorescens can be used as a promising candidate for the bioremediation of the textile effluents containing Procion Red Yellow to offer promise for environmental decontamination and even greater development for green chemistry in the near future.

J.V. P.Long (1926–2003)

Jim Long was born in Winchester in 1926. After attending Peter Symonds’ Grammar School he went up to Cambridge University (Christ’s College) to read Natural Sciences, with physics as his main subject, and was awarded the BA degree in 1945. After working at RAE Farnborough for a year, he moved to the National Chemical Laboratory, Teddington, where he worked on radioactive isotopes. In 1954 he joined the Electron Microscope Section in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, under Dr V.E. Cosslett. The work which led to the award of the PhD degree in 1958 included the construction of an electron microprobe. Compared with the few other existing instruments, this was a remarkably simple and compact design and was the first to incorporate a transmitted light microscope for …

Screening of N-Benzoyl Isoserine Methyl Ester (N-bime) for anti-inflammatory analgesic activity and toxicity profile in animals

Background: Pain and inflammation are the basic processes involved in the pathogenesis of many diseases. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are often used to treat rheumatic diseases. The study compound N-Benzoyl Isoserine Methyl Ester (N-bime) is a newly synthesized propionic acid derivative by National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. Since the biological data of this compound is not available, the present study has been planned to screen this compound for anti-inflammatory, analgesic activity and its toxicity profile in animals.Methods: Single dose toxicity study was carried out in rats. Anti-inflammatory activity was tested by Rat Hind Paw Oedema and Cotton Pellet Implantation method. For Analgesic activity, Acetic acid induced writhing and Tail Pinch method was used. Yeast induced Pyrexia was used for evaluation of anti-pyretic activity. Ibuprofen was the positive control. Data are presented as mean±SEM. Statistical analysis was performed by analysis of variance and students unpaired‘t’ test.Results: The test compound N-bime did not show any apparent adverse effects or mortality in the dose range 1mg - 500mg / 100gm body weight in animals. It showed better anti-inflammatory actions in higher doses as compared to Ibuprofen (p˂ 0.05). In acetic acid induced writhing test N-bime offered better protection against writhes, than Ibuprofen. But, both failed to demonstrate analgesic activity in the Tail Pinch method. N-bime showed a gradual decrease in temperature in the anti-pyretic test (P<0.001).Conclusions: The present study indicates that N-bime does possess anti-inflammatory, analgesic and weak anti-pyretic properties like the NSAIDs. It has proved to be safe in the dose range of 1mg - 500mg / 100gm body weight in rats and mice.

2-D Organic Material Kills Bacteria

By incorporating a bonding weakness into an organic framework compound, researchers in India have devised a simple procedure for making two-dimensional materials that can be used to make membranes with antimicrobial properties (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b13533). Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are porous 3-D networks constructed of strong covalent bonds between light elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. Researchers have tried delaminating COFs to make 2-D analogs, expecting that they would lead to novel applications in gas separation, electronics, and other areas. But those efforts have largely been thwarted because of strong π-π stacking interactions between adjacent layers. So Shouvik Mitra and Rahul Banerjee of the National Chemical Laboratory, in Pune, and coworkers made self-exfoliating materials based on guanidinium halides. They explain that repulsions between loosely bound chloride or other halide ions and between positively charged guanidinium units weaken π-π interactions, causing the material to spontaneously form

Debendra Mohan Bose (1885-1975)-An Eminent Physicist of India

Debendra Mohan Bose was one of the leading experimental physicists of India in the 20th century. He did notable work with Wilson cloud chambers, successfully photographing the recoil tracks of radioactive nuclei during the process of alpha-emission. He earned international eminence for his contributions in the field of simple and complex compounds containing paramagnetic and rare-earth ions and for the determination of the mass of μ-mesons using the photographic emulsion method. He was also responsible for initiation of research in India in the areas of cosmic rays, artificial radioactivity and neutron physics. He was a member of the committee which recommended the formation of the Atomic Energy Commission in India. He was also a member of the CSIR committee which planned the setting up of the National Physical Laboratory and the National Chemical Laboratory.

CSIR-Tech Private Limited: Facilitating Lab to Market Journeys

It was January 20, 2015. Sitting in his office situated in the lush green campus of National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), a constituent R&D laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) India, Pune, Amitabh Shrivastava, CEO and Executive Director, CSIR-Tech Private Limited (CTPL), looked at the presentation he had made to the representatives from development institutions, banks, Indian arm of global MNCs, and corporates for raising a venture fund to invest in Indian scientific start-ups. His efforts had led to the formation of a corpus of INR 50 croresa, known as the India Science Venture Fund (ISVF) to help in the creation of spin-offs in areas of science and technology by providing seed money and start-up grants.

Reactivity and operational stability of N-Tailed TAMLs through kinetic studies of the catalyzed oxidation of orange II by H2 O2 : synthesis and X-ray structure of an N-phenyl TAML.

Invited for the cover of this issue are Terrence J. Collins and co-workers at Carnegie Mellon University (USA) and the National Chemical Laboratory (India). The image depicts five generations of tetraamido macrocyclic ligand (TAML) activators, which are small molecule, full-functional mimics of oxidizing enzymes that arguably outperform the peroxidase enzymes they mimic. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/chem.201406061.

Corrigendum: Large Magnetocaloric Effect, Moment, and Coercivity Enhancement after Coating Ni Nanoparticles with Ag.

These acknowledgements should replace those in the original manuscript: P.P. acknowledges the Centre for Excellence in Surface Science at the National Chemical Laboratory and network project Nano-SHE funded by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India, and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India, (DST/INT/ISR/P-8/2011). R.D. acknowledges the CSIR, India, for financial support. The authors also acknowledge help from Dr. Tanushree Bala (Currently Assistant Professor in Chemistry at University of Calcutta) for the preparation of NicoreAgshell particles and the TEM images discussed in this work.

A concise account of various approaches for stereoselective construction of the C-20(H) stereogenic center in steroid side chain.

ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVReviewNEXTA Concise Account of Various Approaches for Stereoselective Construction of the C-20(H) Stereogenic Center in Steroid Side ChainBapurao B. Shingate*†‡ and Braja G. Hazra*‡View Author Information† Department of Chemistry, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad 431 004, India‡ Division of Organic Chemistry, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune 411 008, India*Telephone 91-240-2403311-313; fax 91-240-2403113; e-mail [email protected]*E-mail [email protected]Cite this: Chem. Rev. 2014, 114, 12, 6349–6382Publication Date (Web):May 20, 2014Publication History Received29 July 2013Published online20 May 2014Published inissue 25 June 2014https://doi.org/10.1021/cr4004083Copyright © 2014 American Chemical SocietyRIGHTS & PERMISSIONSArticle Views2429Altmetric-Citations19LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InReddit Read OnlinePDF (6 MB) Get e-AlertsSUBJECTS:Alcohols,Alkyls,Molecular structure,Organic compounds,Steroids Get e-Alerts

ChemInform Abstract: Structural Design of Coordination Polymers

a College of Chemistry, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Structure and Performance for Functional Molecules, MOE Key Laboratory of Inorganic–Organic Hybrid Functional Material Chemistry, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China. E-mail: dumiao@public.tpt.tj.cn National Chemical Laboratory, Physical Chemistry Division, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune, 411008, India c University of Calgary, Department of Chemistry, 2500 University Drive NW, Alberta, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Canada

Synthesis of ciprofloxacin-conjugated poly (L-lactic acid) polymer for nanofiber fabrication and antibacterial evaluation.

Ciprofloxacin was conjugated with polylactide (PLA) via the secondary amine group of the piperazine ring using PLA and 7-(4-(2-Chloroacetyl) piperazin-1-yl)-1-cyclopropyl-6-fluoro-1, 4-dihydro-4-oxoquinoline-3-carboxylic acid. Zinc prolinate, a biocompatible catalyst was synthesized, characterized, and used in ring opening polymerization of L-lactide. Five different kinds of OH-terminated poly(L-lactide) (two-, three-, four-, six-arm, star-shaped) homopolymers were synthesized by ring opening polymerization of L-lactide in the presence of dodecanol, glycerol, pentaerythritol, dipentaerythritol as initiator and zinc prolinate as a catalyst. The structures of the polymers and conjugates were thoroughly characterized by means of gel permeation chromatography, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization – time of flight mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. PLA (molecular weight =100,000) and ciprofloxacin conjugated PLA were used for fabrication of nonwoven nanofiber mat (diameter ranges; 150–400 nm) having pore size (62–102 nm) using electrospinning. The microbiological assessment shows that the release of ciprofloxacin possesses antimicrobial activity. The drug-release behavior of the mat was studied to reveal potential application as a drug delivery system. The result shows that the ciprofloxacin release rates of the PLA conjugate nonwoven nanofiber mat could be controlled by the drug loading content and the release medium. The development of a biodegradable ciprofloxacin system, based on nonwoven nanofiber mat, should be of great interest in drug delivery systems.

Structural design of coordination polymers

a College of Chemistry, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Structure and Performance for Functional Molecules, MOE Key Laboratory of Inorganic–Organic Hybrid Functional Material Chemistry, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China. E-mail: dumiao@public.tpt.tj.cn National Chemical Laboratory, Physical Chemistry Division, Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune, 411008, India c University of Calgary, Department of Chemistry, 2500 University Drive NW, Alberta, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Canada

Repressive efficacy of lactic acid bacteria against the human pathogenic and fish-borne spoilage microbiota of fresh Indian mackerel fish chunks

Different strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) namely Lactobacillus acidophilus NCIM 2287, Lactobacillus plantarum NCIM 2085, Lactobacillus helveticus NCIM 2126 and Lactococcus lactis NCIM 2114 were procured from the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) Pune, India. These LAB cells were individually (107 cfu/ml) sprayed using a sterile syringe on the dressed fresh mackerel fish chunks and incubated at 37°C for two days. The growth pattern of each LAB and their antagonism against fish-borne spoilage bacteria namely, specific spoilage bacteria, halophilic bacteria, coliforms, lipolytic, proteolytic bacteria and total plate count were estimated for three days. Pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus was inhibited by Lb. acidophilus on the second day with 4.30 log difference as compared to control. The growth of specific spoilage bacteria was decreased by Lb. plantarum spray on the first day by 1.0 log difference. Lb. helveticus inhibited S. aureus on the third day by 3.5 log difference. Out of the four LABs tried, Lb. helveticus showed the best inhibitory effect against the fish-borne bacteria. All three LABs exhibited inhibition against the fish-borne spoilage bacteria, they may thus be potentially used as bio-preservative bacteria to preserve the whole fish meat or minced meat products etc. for a shorter duration. Key words : Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus acidophilus , antagonism, spoilage bacteria, mackerel fish.