Biosafety and Toxicological Evaluation of Tissue-Cultured Echinacea purpurea Adventitious Roots

Murthy, Hosakatte Niranjana,Park, So-Young,Lee, Eun Jeong,Paek, Kee Yoeup Korean Society of Horticultural Science 2015 원예과학기술지 Vol.33 No.1

Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench (purple cone flower) is an important medicinal plant; it can enhance immunity, relieve pain, and reduce inflammation, and also has hormonal, antiviral, and antioxidant effects. Adventitious root biomass of Echinacea purpurea was produced in commercial-scale bioreactors for use as a dietary supplement in the food industry and in traditional medicine. Biosafety and toxicological evaluations of tissue-cultured Echinacea purpurea adventitious roots (TCEPARs) were performed. Reverse mutation and chromosomal aberration tests showed no significant mutagenicity. Furthermore, repeated four-week oral dose tests performed in Sprague-Dawley rats did not show any notable changes in the general behavior of the rats, in the gross appearance of their internal organs, or in their mortality rate. There were no differences between the control group and the treatment group in parameters such as absolute body weight, hematology, blood chemistry, and absolute and relative organ weights. These findings indicate that TCEPARs are safe and nontoxic when consumed at an average dietary level and can be used as raw material for traditional medicine and the food industry.

Barriers to Realization of Forestry Mitigation Potential in India

Murthy, Indu K,Prasad KV, Devi Institute of Forest Science 2018 Journal of Forest Science Vol.34 No.5

Implementation of mitigation options on land is important for realisation of the goals of the Paris Agreement to stabilize temperature at $2^{\circ}C$. In India, the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) targets include a forestry goal of creation of carbon sinks of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes by 2030. There are however, multiple barriers to implementation of forestry mitigation options in India. They include environmental, social, financial, technological and institutional barriers. The barriers are varied not just across land categories but also for a land category depending on its regional location and distribution. In addition to these barriers is the impeding climate change that places at risk realisation of the mitigation potential as rising temperatures, drought, and fires associated with projected climate change may lead to forests becoming a weaker sink or a net carbon source before the end of the century.

Evaluation of mechanical properties for high strength and ultrahigh strength concretes

Murthy, A. Ramachandra,Iyer, Nagesh R.,Prasad, B.K. Raghu Techno-Press 2013 Advances in concrete construction Vol.1 No.4

Due to fast growth in urbanisation, a highly developed infrastructure is essential for economic growth and prosperity. One of the major problems is to preserve, maintain, and retrofit these structures. To meet the requirements of construction industry, the basic information on all the mechanical properties of various concretes is essential. This paper presents the details of development of various concretes, namely, normal strength concrete (around 50 MPa), high strength concrete (around 85 MPa) and ultra high strength concrete (UHSC) (around 120 MPa) including their mechanical properties. The various mechanical properties such as compressive strength, split tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, fracture energy and tensile stress vs crack width have been obtained from the respective test results. It is observed from the studies that a higher value of compressive strength, split tensile strength and fracture energy is achieved in the case of UHSC, which can be attributed to the contribution at different scales viz., at the meso scale due to the fibers and at the micro scale due to the close packing of grains which is on account of good grading of the particles. Micro structure of UHSC mix has been examined for various magnifications to identify the pores if any present in the mix. Brief note on characteristic length and brittleness number has been given.

Ginsenosides: prospective for sustainable biotechnological production

Murthy, Hosakatte Niranjana,Georgiev, Milen I.,Kim, Yun-Soo,Jeong, Cheol-Seung,Kim, Sun-Ja,Park, So-Young,Paek, Kee-Yoeup Springer-Verlag 2014 Applied microbiology and biotechnology Vol.98 No.14

<P>Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (ginseng) is a well-known medicinal plant that has been traditionally used in the oriental countries for centuries. Wild ginseng is a scarce and rare commodity. Field cultivation of the ginseng plant is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Ginsenosides, a group of glycosylated triterpenes, also known as saponins, are the principal bioactive constituents of ginseng. The use of cell and organ culture processes has been sought as a potential alternative for the efficient mass production of ginseng raw material. Various bioprocessing strategies have been developed to date. Cells and adventitious roots have been cultured in large-scale bioreactors and various strategies have been developed accordingly for the enhancement of biomass and ginsenoside accumulation. This review highlights the recent progress in the cultivation of ginseng cell and organ cultures for the production of ginsenosides from bioreactor cultures. In addition, the metabolism and biochemistry of ginsenoside biosynthesis, genomic and proteomic studies in ginseng, metabolic engineering, biosafety, toxicological evaluation, and efficacy assessment of ginseng raw material are also summarized and thoroughly discussed.</P>

The Relationships between CO₂ Emissions, Economic Growth and Life Expectancy

MURTHY, Uma,SHAARI, Mohd Shahidan,MARIADAS, Paul Anthony,ABIDIN, Noorazeela Zainol Korea Distribution Science Association 2021 The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Busine Vol.8 No.2

The issue of the relationship between environmental degradation and human health has been widely addressed by medical doctors. However, economists have sparsely debated it. The release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air can cause several environmental problems and, thus, it can affect human health. Therefore, it is imperative to examine the effect of CO2 emissions on life expectancy in the D-8 countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey) from 1992 to 2017. The panel ARDL method is employed and, then, the PMG estimator is selected. The results show that economic growth, population growth and health expenditure can significantly and positively affect life expectancy, but CO2 emissions can have a significant and negative effect on life expectancy. Since, the major findings reveal that life expectancy can be explained by CO2 emissions. Hence, it is important to formulate policies on reducing CO2 emissions so that life expectancy will not be affected. Energy diversification policies should be formulated or improved in some countries. This is to ensure that the countries are not highly dependent on non-renewable energy that can harm the environment. The government should increase its expenditure on the health sector to save more lives by extend human lifespan.

Anther Culture of Niger

Murthy, H.N.,Ashok Kumar, H.G.,Paek, K.Y. The Korean Society of Plant Biotechnology 2000 식물생명공학회지 Vol.27 No.4

Production of secondary metabolites from cell and organ cultures: strategies and approaches for biomass improvement and metabolite accumulation

Murthy, Hosakatte Niranjana,Lee, Eun-Jung,Paek, Kee-Yoeup Springer-Verlag 2014 Plant cell, tissue and organ culture Vol.118 No.1

Effect of steel fibres and nano silica on fracture properties of medium strength concrete

Murthy, A. Ramachandra,Ganesh, P. Techno-Press 2019 Advances in concrete construction Vol.7 No.3

This study presents the fracture properties of nano modified medium strength concrete (MSC). The nano particle used in this study is nano silica which replaces cement about 1 and 2% by weight, and the micro steel fibers are added about 0.4% volume of concrete. In addition to fracture properties, mechanical properties, namely, compressive strength, split tensile strength, and flexural strength of nano modified MSC are studied. To ensure the durability of the MSC, durability studies such as rapid chloride penetration test, sorptivity test, and water absorption test have been carried out for the nano modified MSC. From the study, it is observed that significant performance improvement in nano modified MSC in terms of strength and durability which could be attributed due to the addition pozzolanic reaction and the filler effect of nano silica. The incorporation of nano silica increases the fracture energy about 30% for mix without nano silica. Also, size independent fracture energy is arrived using two popular methods, namely, RILEM work of fracture method with $P-{\delta}$ tail correction and boundary effect method. Both the methods resulted in nearly the same size-independent $G_F$ irrespective of the notch to depth ratio of the same specimen. This shows evidence that either of the two procedures could be used in practice for analysis of cracked concrete structures.

Numerical simulation of an external prestressing technique for prestressed concrete end block

Murthy, A. Rama Chandra,Ganapathi, S. Chitra,Saibabu, S.,Lakshmanan, N.,Jayaraman, R.,Senthil, R. Techno-Press 2009 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.33 No.5

This paper presents the details of finite element (FE) modeling and analysis of an external prestressing technique to strengthen a prestressed concrete (PSC) end block. Various methods of external prestressing techniques have been discussed. In the proposed technique, transfer of external force is in shear mode on the end block creating a complex stress distribution. The proposed technique is useful when the ends of the PSC girders are not accessible. Finite element modeling issues have been outlined. Brief description about material nonlinearity including key aspects in modeling inelastic behaviour has been provided. Finite element (FE) modeling including material, loading has been explained in depth. FE analysis for linear and nonlinear static analysis has been conducted for varying external loadings. Various responses such as out-of-plane deformation and slip have been computed and compared with the corresponding experimental observations. From the study, it has been observed that the computed slope and slip of the steel bracket under external loading is in good agreement with the corresponding experimental observations.

Remaining life prediction of concrete structural components accounting for tension softening and size effects under fatigue loading

Murthy, A. Rama Chandra,Palani, G.S.,Iyer, Nagesh R. Techno-Press 2009 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.32 No.3

This paper presents analytical methodologies for remaining life prediction of plain concrete structural components considering tension softening and size effects. Non-linear fracture mechanics principles (NLFM) have been used for crack growth analysis and remaining life prediction. Various tension softening models such as linear, bi-linear, tri-linear, exponential and power curve have been presented with appropriate expressions. Size effect has been accounted for by modifying the Paris law, leading to a size adjusted Paris law, which gives crack length increment per cycle as a power function of the amplitude of a size adjusted stress intensity factor (SIF). Details of tension softening effects and size effect in the computation of SIF and remaining life prediction have been presented. Numerical studies have been conducted on three point bending concrete beams under constant amplitude loading. The predicted remaining life values with the combination of tension softening & size effects are in close agreement with the corresponding experimental values available in the literature for all the tension softening models.