A solution of oleanolic acid, a renewable nano-sized monohydroxy triterpenic acid in tetrahydrofuran, transformed into a gel instantly at room temperature on treatment with aqueous ammonia. Study of the self-assembly properties of ammonium oleanolate in water and aqueous solvent mixtures indicated that it self-assembles in the aqueous solvent mixtures forming gels in DMSO-water and DMF-water. Fibrillar networks with optical birefringence properties were observed by polarized optical microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy of the dried gel samples indicated fibrillar networks with fibers of nano to micrometer diameters. The thermodynamic parameters calculated from the gel to sol transition temperatures indicated the stability of the gels. A gel-gold nanoparticles hybrid material has also been prepared and characterized by HRTEM, EDX, SAED and surface Plasmon resonance studies.

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune skin disease with a substantial negative impact on the patient's quality of life. To date, a wide range of treatment options such as topical delivery of corticosteroids, vitamin D derivatives, phototherapy, and administration of immuno-modulators are available. However, these approaches have major limitations such as a plethora of side effects and skin develops resistance to treatments over time. In addition, therapeutic outcome of psoriasis treatments also can be unpredictable. To address these limitations several attempts have been made in recent years using nanotechnology. These nanotherapeutics offer several advantages including reducing non specific targeting, bypassing first passage metabolism, increasing the efficacy of the drugs. An innovative, safer and effective therapeutics and strategies are required to target hyperactive immune elements that target multiple pathways of psoriasis pathogenesis.

A clerodane type diterpene, nasimalun A was isolated from a dichloromethane extract of the leaves of Croton oblongifolius Roxb. Nasimalun A showed moderate cytotoxicity toward MOLT- 3 cell line with IC50 value of 26.44 µg/mL. Furthermore, nasimalun A showed minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 50, 12.5, and100 µg/mL for Bacillus cereus and both Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus epidermidis respectively.

Glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is expressed in the cytoplasm of almost all cells, if not all of cancer and non-cancer cells. Moreover, unlike many other factors implicated with cancer, it is neither over-expressed nor is it expressed on cell-membrane surface to qualify logically as a viable target for treating cancer. GR is importantly linked with alternate pathway of energy metabolism in cancer cells and our research indicated that cancer cells possibly tend to avoid activation of GR which would have otherwise instigate that energy demanding alternate pathway called gluconeogenesis. We discovered a way to induce cancer cell-selective GR-transactivation which leads to among many things, gluconeogenesis, reversal of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), drug- sensitization in drug-resistant cancer cells etc. Thus, we proved, although it warrants further studies, that GR in cancer cells behave differently and hence it can be a viable target for the treatment of cancer.

The antioxidant activity of the endosperm extract of Borassus flabellifer (commonly known as Taal) has been studied against a long lived 2,2-diphenylpicrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical at room temperature. The phytochemicals present in the endosperm extract have been utilized for the synthesis of stable gold nanoparticles at room temperature under very mild conditions. The synthesized gold nanoparticles were characterized by Surface Plasmon Resonance spectroscopy, High resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-Ray diffraction and FTIR studies and a mechanism for the synthesis of stabilized gold nanoparticles has been proposed.