North Eastern Hill University

About: North Eastern Hill University is a education organization based out in Shillong, Meghalaya, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Catalysis. The organization has 2318 authors who have published 4476 publications receiving 48894 citations.

Short-term storage of alginate-encapsulated protocorm-like bodies of Dendrobium nobile Lindl.: an endangered medicinal orchid from North-east India.

Abstract: Synthetic seed technology is an exciting and rapidly growing area of research as deals with conservation and storage of rare, endangered and desirable genotypes along with its easy handling and transportation. As propagation of many ornamental and medicinally important plant species is labour intensive, application of different growth retardants and osmotica in simple artificial seed system would dramatically reduce labour requirement by storing the germplasm in vitro. Moreover, the primary aim of developing in vitro storage methods is to reduce the frequent demands of subculturing and preserving the unique genetic constituent of the germplasm. Dendrobium nobile is a pharmaceutically important orchid mostly used in the Chinese herbal drug industry for its medicinal property. Commercial exploitation of this species has considerably depleted their population in wild. Hence, for conserving this valuable germplasm, short term in vitro storage of Protocorm-Like Bodies (PLBs) of D. nobile was carried out using different osmotica (sucrose and mannitol). It was observed that incorporation of low sucrose and mannitol (3 and 5 %) in the encapsulating matrix showed almost similar results with that of control. In all these cases, more than half of PLBs burst out from the matrix thus making these concentrations of sucrose and mannitol along with control not suitable for storage studies. However, with the increase in concentration to 7.5 and 12.5 % in the encapsulating matrix, no outburst of encapsulated PLBs was recorded till 60 days of storage; hence it can be concluded that these concentrations play an important role in minimizing the growth of PLBs during storage condition.

Synthesis and characterization of some dibutylbis{5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]-2-hydroxybenzoato}tin(IV) compounds. Toxicity studies of di- and tri-organotin complexes on the second instar of Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae

Abstract: The preparation and spectroscopic characterization of some complexes of the type Bu2Sn(LH)2 (LH = 5-[(E)-2-(aryl)-1-diazenyl]-2-hydroxybenzoate) are reported. On the basis of spectroscopic evidence (1H, 13C, 119Sn NMR, IR and 119mSn Mossbauer) the compounds were judged to adopt the usual dicarboxylato structural type with a skew trapezoidal arrangement. This was further confirmed by X-ray crystallography in the case of Bu2Sn(L5H)2 (L5H = 5-[(E)-2-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-diazenyl]-2-hydroxybenzoate). Toxicity studies of the di- and tri-organotin compounds on the second larval instar of Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae are reported. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Growth and nutritional status of Khasi boys in northeast India relating to exogamous marriages and socioeconomic classes.

Abstract: The Khasis are one of the matrilineal tribes of Meghalaya in Northeast India. They belong to the Indo-Mongoloid racial stock and speak the Monkhmer language of the Austro-Asiatic group. They have their own traditional religion (Niam Khasi) but about 65% of them have converted to Christianity. A few Khasi members have also embraced Islam through matrimonial relationship with immigrant Muslim males. The present study was based on a cross-sectional sample of 1351 urban Khasi boys aged 3-18 years belonging to these three religious groups with a view to understanding the effects of socioeconomic factors on growth and nutritional status using anthropometric variables such as weight and height. The findings showed that about 60% 29% and 6% of these boys were below -2 Z- scores of the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) references in respect of height for age weight for age and body mass index for age respectively. The logistic regression coefficient (s ± standard error) indicated that the prevalence of low weight for age (below -2 Z-scores of the NCHS references) was positively associated with age (0.088 ± 0.014 P 0.05). There were also significant differences between religious groups in respect of anthropometric variables. Allowing for household income the ANCOVA test indicated that Muslim Khasi boys who were the offspring of intermarriages between Khasi females and immigrant Muslim males were significantly heavier and taller than Christian and Niam Khasi boys almost across ages. From about 3-10 years of age Muslim Khasi boys were on average comparable to the 5th and 25th percentiles of the NCHS references of height and weight respectively. Although it looks as though genetic mechanisms like heterosis and/or gene flow might also be associated with the larger body size in Muslim boys such a conjecture could only be substantiated or refuted by further studies concerning genetic and more socioeconomic data on both immigrant and nonimmigrant populations. (authors)