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The present study deals with the preparation of porous chitosan scaffolds by using a greener technique i.e., supercritical carbon dioxide (sc.CO2). 0.2 M chitosan (CS) solution in aqueous acetic acid was treated with 4% (w/v) genipin solution; the resulting hydrogels were subjected to solvent exchange prior to the final treatment procedures. Their morphology, pore structure, and physical properties were characterized by thermal analysis, X-ray diffractogram (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the specific surface areas and porosimetry of scaffolds were determined by using N2 adsorption. The biological activity of scaffolds was investigated by immersing them into 1.5 x simulated body fluid (SBF) and cellular attachment study was assessed using Alamar Blue assay by seeding MG63 osteoblastic cells onto the scaffolds. The sc.CO2 assisted chitosan scaffold prepared by using green chemistry approach is highly pure and bioactive and can be served as a potential material for tissue engineering applications.

The intrinsic viscosity of protein solutions changes when denaturation occurs. Therefore, viscosity measurement using traditional glass capillary viscometers has been a key method to study the process of protein denaturation. Such measurements are laborious, time consuming and need at least 10 ml of sample. The Viscotek differential viscometer can be used as an on-line detector for high-performance liquid chromatography to monitor the viscosity of column effluent. In this study, samples were injected using an autosampler onto a “delay” column containing glass beads in place of the high-performance liquid chromatography columns. Results indicate guanidine hydrochloride, heat and pH act as denaturing agents and changes the intrinsic viscosities of serum albumin, turkey egg albumin, and ovalbumin solutions. The differential viscometer is sensitive and provides accurate measurements of minor changes in viscosities of very dilute protein solutions undergoing denaturation. The advantage of using the differential viscometer instead of conventional glass capillary viscometer is the increased sensitivity, precision, speed and operational ease that permits measurements of solution viscosity of low sample concentrations up to 1.2 μg of pure proteins.

To achieve the target of health for all by 2000 AD (HFA/2000), developing countries such as India need a proper perspective to implement health for all through a Primary Health Care approach and must develop a plan to achieve manpower needs. The present health institutional infrastructure is inadequate to meet this requirement. Distance education is a relatively new concept which not only has the ability to train a large number of health care workers in a short time in a cost effective way but can also attend to skills of health care without diluting the quality. The School of Health Sciences, IGNOU, is, at present, working on two health programs for nursing and medical personnel through distance education. Alternate models in distance education could also be envisioned to meet the immediate pressing needs.

A new triterpene saponin, spergulacin, has been isolated from Mollugo spergula and its structure has been determined as spergulagenin-A-3- O -[(α- L -rhamnopyranosyl (1 → 3)]-β- D -xylopyranoside.