Safety Evaluation of Sankhaholi (Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.) in the Management of Essential Hypertension: A Randomized Standard Control Trial

Khan, Qamar Alam,Khan, Asim Ali,Parveen, Shagufta Cellmed Orthocellular Medicine and Pharmaceutical 2019 셀메드 (CellMed) Vol.9 No.4

Background: Hypertension is one of the major risk factors for stroke, heart attack, heart failure and kidney failure, thereby causing deaths and disability world-wide. The most predominant type of HTN is essential hypertension (HTN). Unani scholars have mentioned about the clinical manifestations and management of the hypertension and documented it in the context of 'Imtila'. The drug Sankhaholi (Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.) is one of the widely prescribed medicines for the management of essential hypertension in Unani medicine. Material and Methods: The present clinical study was carried out to evaluate the safety of Sankhaholi (Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.) in the management of stage-1 essential hypertension. Newly diagnosed 41 patients of Essential Hypertension (22 patients were in the test group and 19 patients in the control group) were enrolled for the study. All the patients in the test group were given with the test drug 3 g powder of Sankhaholi twice a day for 6 weeks orally. Patients in the control group were given standard drug Ramipril 5 mg once a day for the same duration. Clinical as well as hematological parameters were recorded before and after the treatment. Results: No significant changes are recorded in safety parameters viz. CBC, Haemogram, LFT and KFT. Clinically no adverse effect of the drug has been reported during the course of treatment. Also, significant effect on the systolic blood pressure (p<0.001) were recorded in test group. The drug Sankhaholi was also found effective on the symptoms associated with hypertension. Conclusion: The finding of the study revealed that the test drug Sankhaholi (Evolvulus alsinoides Linn.) is safe and has substantial efficacy as an antihypertensive drug.

Morphology controlled facile synthesis of MnO2 adsorbents for rapid strontium removal

Umar Asim,Syed M. Husnain,Naseem Abbas,Faisal Shahzad,Abdul Rehman Khan,Tahir Ali 한국공업화학회 2021 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.98 No.-

MnO2 nanostructures with three distinct architectures, namelyflower, balk and tube-like, have beensynthesized through a single step microwave assisted hydrothermal method at different reactiontemperatures (110 C, 140 C and 180 C). The characterization of as prepared MnO2 samples wereperformed by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electronmicroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms revealedthe higher specific surface area and porosity of theflower like MnO2 as compared to balk and tube-likeMnO2. The adsorption behavior of as prepared adsorbents was investigated towards Sr2+ radionuclide. Because of the hierarchal structure and the high surface area (62.64 m2/g), MnO2-110 depicted the bestSr2+ adsorption performance with maximum adsorption capacity of 52 mg/g at pH 6 as compared to otherMnO2 morphologies synthesized at 140 C and 180 C. The kinetic studies revealed that the adsorption ofSr2+ onto MnO2-110 followed the pseudo-first-order model whereas the adsorption equilibrium dataobeyed the Freundlich and Sips model. Moreover, the MnO2-110 adsorbent reached the steady statequickly ( 10 min) and is capable to bind Sr2+ in slightly acidic to alkaline solutions.

Effect of electrochemical reduction on the structural and electrical properties of anodic TiO2 nanotubes

Muhammad Asim Rasheed,Kamran Ahmad,Nilem Khaliq,Yaqoob Khan,Muhammad Aftab Rafiq,Abdul Waheed,Attaullah Shah,Arshad Mahmood,Ghafar Ali 한국물리학회 2018 Current Applied Physics Vol.18 No.3

The effect of electrochemical reduction on the structural and electrical properties of amorphous as well as annealed TiO2 nanotubes (TNTs) is investigated under ambient conditions. TNTs were prepared by anodizing titanium sheet in ethylene glycol electrolyte containing NH4F and de-ionized water at 40 V for 6 h. Electrochemical reduction is carried out in 1 M aqueous KOH solution for ~15 s at 3 V. TNTs are characterized by SEM, XRD, XPS and impedance spectrometer. XRD results confirm an increase in dspacing for (101) and (200) planes, after electrochemical reduction. XPS data reveal that electrochemical reduction produced prominent shifts of ~0.7e1.0 eV in the binding energies of TNTs. Interestingly, these shifts recover completely (in case of amorphous TNTs) and partially (in case of anatase TNTs) within ~7 days after reduction process due to oxygen uptake. Partial recovery in the binding energies of anatase TNTs is due to the fact that the oxygen vacancies are thermodynamically more stable as compared to amorphous TNTs. Similarly, the electrochemical reduction process decreases the impedance values of TNTs by more than three orders of magnitudes (from MU to kU). The impedance values also recover to the similar values before reduction in a span of ~7days.

Next Generation Flexible Antennas for Radio Frequency Applications

Aamir Razaq,Asim Ali Khan,Unsa Shakir,Asim Arshad 한국전기전자재료학회 2018 Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Material Vol.19 No.5

In the era of modern disposable electronic technology, fl exible substrate materials are excessive in demand due to foldable,bendable and stretchable choices. This paper reviews the research undertaken on fl exible substrates particularly employed inhigh-tech applications of radio frequency and antenna design technologies. Irrespective of traditional applications, naturalfi brils based substrates are considered most promising candidates as substrates for next-generation electronic applicationsdue to abundant, low profi le, light-weight, fl exible and environment safe characteristics. This paper also presents a comprehensivestudy of the design and methods that have been applied to use mentioned materials in radio frequency applications. Several challenges are highlighted in the large-scale production and deployment of these technologies in real-world systems.

Electrochemical sensing of H2O2 using cobalt oxide modified TiO2 nanotubes

Ullah Rahim,Rasheed Muhammad Asim,Abbas Shafqat,Rehman Khalil-ul,Shah Attaullah,Ullah Karim,Khan Yaqoob,Bibi Maryam,Ahmad Mashkoor,Ali Ghafar 한국물리학회 2022 Current Applied Physics Vol.38 No.-

Cobalt oxide (Co3O4) modified anatase titanium dioxide nanotubes (ATNTs) have been investigated for the electrochemical sensing of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). ATNTs have been synthesized by a two-step anodization process. ATNTs were then modified with Co3O4 employing chemical bath deposition method. The structure and morphology of ATNTs and their modification with Co3O4 has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction by scanning electron microscopy. H2O2 sensing has been studied in 0.1 M PBS solution, by cyclic voltammetry and amperometry. Variation in the peak positions and current densities was observed with addition of H2O2 for Co3O4 modified ATNTs. Sensitivity and limit of detection improved with modification of ATNTs with Co3O4 with precursor concentration up to 0.8 M. However, at higher precursor concentrations sensitivity and limit of detection toward H2O2 deteriorated. Co3O4 Modified ATNTS using 0.8 M precursor concentration are comparatively more suitable for H2O2 sensing applications due to the optimum formation of Co3O4/ATNTs heterojunctions.

Plan Dose Evaluation of Three Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy Planning (3D-CRT) of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC): Experience of a Tertiary Care University Hospital in Pakistan

Abbasi, Ahmed Nadeem,Hafiz, Asim,Ali, Nasir,Khan, Khurshid Ahmed Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.10

Background: Radiation therapy is the mainstay of treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Importance of tumor coverage and challenges posed by its unique and critical location are well evident. Therefore we aimed to evaluate our radiation treatment plan through dose volume histograms (DVHs) to find planning target volume (PTV) dose coverage and factors affecting it. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study covered 45 histologically proven nasopharyngeal cancer patients who were treated with definitive 3D-CRT and chemotherapy between Feb 2006 to March 2013 at the Department of Oncology, Section Radiation Oncology, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. DVH was evaluated to find numbers of shrinking field (phases), PTV volume in different phases and its coverage by the 95% isodose lines, along with influencing factors. Results: There were 36 males (80%) and 9 females (20%) in the age range of 12-84 years. Stage IVA (46.7%) was the most common stage followed by stage III (31.1). Eighty six point six-percent received induction, 95.5% received concurrent and 22.2% received adjuvant chemotherapy. The prescribed median radiation dose was 70Gy to primary, 60Gy to clinically positive neck nodes and 50Gy to clinically negative neck regions. Mean dose to spinal cord was 44.2Gy and to optic chiasma was 52Gy. Thirty seven point eight-percent patients completed their treatment in three phases while 62.2% required four to five phases. Mean volume for PTV3 was $247.8cm^3$ (50-644.3), PTV4 $173.8cm^3$ (26.5-345.1) and PTV5 $119.6cm^3$ (18.9-246.1) and PTV volume coverage by 95% isodose lines were 74.4%, 85.7% and 100% respectively. Advanced T stage, intracranial extension and tumor volume > $200cm^3$ were found to be important factors associated with decreased PTV coverage by 95% isodose line. Conclusions: 3D CRT results in adequate PTV dose coverage by 95% isodose line. However advanced T stage, intracranial extension and large target volume require more advanced techniques like IMRT for appropriate PTV coverage.

Highly dispersive substitution box (S-box) design using chaos

Faheem, Zaid Bin,Ali, Asim,Khan, Muhamad Asif,Ul-Haq, Muhammad Ehatisham,Ahmad, Waqar Electronics and Telecommunications Research Instit 2020 ETRI Journal Vol.42 No.4

Highly dispersive S-boxes are desirable in cryptosystems as nonlinear confusion sublayers for resisting modern attacks. For a near optimal cryptosystem resistant to modern cryptanalysis, a highly nonlinear and low differential probability (DP) value is required. We propose a method based on a piecewise linear chaotic map (PWLCM) with optimization conditions. Thus, the linear propagation of information in a cryptosystem appearing as a high DP during differential cryptanalysis of an S-box is minimized. While mapping from the chaotic trajectory to integer domain, a randomness test is performed that justifies the nonlinear behavior of the highly dispersive and nonlinear chaotic S-box. The proposed scheme is vetted using well-established cryptographic performance criteria. The proposed S-box meets the cryptographic performance criteria and further minimizes the differential propagation justified by the low DP value. The suitability of the proposed S-box is also tested using an image encryption algorithm. Results show that the proposed S-box as a confusion component entails a high level of security and improves resistance against all known attacks.

Evolvulus alsinoides: A potential antihypertensive herb

Siraj, Mantasha Binth,Khan, Asim Ali,Jahangir, Umar,Hashimi, Ayshah,Ahmad, Yasmeen Cellmed Orthocellular Medicine and Pharmaceutical 2019 셀메드 (CellMed) Vol.9 No.4

In spite of the fact that a variety of unfailing guidelines are existing for the management of hypertension, the problem of inadequate managing of this condition still continues. Several classes of existing antihypertensive drugs are associated with various side-effects. Since ancient times before the advent of anti-hypertensive drugs, this disease has been treated by the prominent classical scholars. Various herbal drugs are being used since ages for the treatment of hypertension and some of them are validated too. Evolvulus alsinoides is also one such herb used in classical literature since ages for various disorders like insanity, anxiety, nervous debility, epilepsy, melancholy, palpitation and many others. This review is to highlight the antihypertensive potential of Evolvulus alsinoides.