Effect of Apium Graveolens (Celery) Seed Extract on Serum Uric Acid Level of Hyperuricemic Rats and its Comparison with Allopurinol

Background: Plant derived medicines are widely used in traditional culture all over the world. Objectives: To determine the effect of Celery Seed Extract (CSE) on uric acid levels in hyperuricemic rats and to compare the effect of allopurinol and CSE. Methods: It was an animal experimental research study. Group A served as negative control whereas Group B served as positive control. CSE was given orally to three groups of rats (C, D, and E). One hour prior to administration of CSE; potassium oxonate was injected intraperitoneally in all groups except negative control to induce hyperuricemia. Similarly, group F was given allopurinol one hour after injection of potassium oxonate. Blood samples were collected for uric acid estimation. Results: It was found that administration of both CSE (group C, D, E) and allopurinol (group F) significantly lowered serum uric acid levels (p<0.001) as compared to positive control (group B). Serum uric acid lowering effect of both drugs CSE and allopurinol was found to be statistically significant on day 3rd and day 7th and was almost comparable. Conclusions: Celery seed extract significantly reduces serum uric acid levels in potassium oxonate-induced hyperuricemic rats and its uric acid lowering effect was comparable with that of allopurinol.

Design Modification and Performance Evaluation of Small Scale Sugarcane Striping Machine

Sugarcane leaf stripping is an important part of sugarcane harvesting. Conventionally dry leaves are removed by burning method which deteriorate qualityand reduces sugar contents. In developed countries, sugarcane whole stalk harvester or sugarcane chopper harvester is used for harvesting purpose. Farmers in Pakistanhave small land holdings and poor economic conditions which make difficult for them to use modern large scale machinery hence they harvest the crop manually. Labour availability during peak season is also a big issue. Keeping in view these problems a small scale sugarcane leaf stripping machine was designed, fabricated and evaluated for its performance to facilitate and solve the problem of small farmers. The machine included three different types of intake roller combinations, cleaning element, outlet rollers, power transmission system and an engine as power source. The machine was evaluated in its performance for three inlet roller combination types (C1, C2, C3), three relative velocities between intake rollers (VR1=1.3, VR2=1.7, VR3=1.9), three velocities of cleaning element (CE1=660, CE2=763, CE3=1033 rpm), three sugarcane verities (V1=US-658, V2=HSF-240 and V3=CPF-249) and two level of moisture content ( MC1=8.2 and MC2=17.6%). The results indicated that for individual effect ofintake roller combination C3, velocity ratio VR2, cleaning element speed CE3, sugarcane variety V1 and moisture content level MC1 gave 82.43%, 80%,77.06%,87.72% and 82.84% leaf cleaning efficiency respectively.