Critical Study of Moral Teachings of Islam and Buddhism for Promotion of Global Peace

All ancient and contemporary religions of the world like Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Jainism and Islam emphasizes and attempts to uphold the highest moral and ethical values in human society in order to produce discipline and good will. Some of the religions strictly command for proper observance and submission to the laws and cannons", whereas the other religions do not stipulate strict allegiance to its principals, yet they nourish and treat human emotions and direct them for the general good of the society. On the whole, all religions aim at moral and ethical uplift of human beings, to install positivity in them and imbues the spirit of sacrifice, equality, affection, brotherhood and justice in mankind. Thus, these all facts testify that all religions, with some differences of pattern, propagate the message of love, Peace, equality, brotherhood, justice, Harmony and equity in the material age and greed-ridden epoch where individual profits and benefit overwhelm collective cause and general welfare of mankind. What we have done here in this paper is not to establish that one religion is better than the other but to demonstrate that almost all world religions stand for love, peace and harmony. There is no doubt, that all religions preach and advocate positive harmony among human beings but the message of Holy Prophet (SAW) is the only example who gave practical aspect of these theories. However, this paper elaborates this reality by a detailed comparison of Islam and Buddhism.

Phytochemical and Biological Studies of Croton Bonplandianum Euphorbiaceae

The research work was carried out for the phytochemical and biological studies of Croton bonplandianum (Euphorbiaceae). Preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, tannins and terpenoids while anthraquinone glycosides and cardiac glycosides were absent. The extraction of dried plant material was affected by dichloromethane and methanol successively. Both dichloromethane and methanol extracts were subjected to biological activities such as antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, α-chymotrypsin inhibitory, urease inhibitory, α-glucosidase inhibitory and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory activities along with brine-shrimp toxicity, phytotoxicity against Lemna minor. Dichloromethane extract has shown in vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of 97.89 % with IC50 value of 14.93 μg/ml compared to the standard acarbose, which exhibited 92.23 % inhibition with IC50 value of 38.25 μg/ml. Methanol extract appeared with potent butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of 84.14 % with IC50 found to be 31.01 μg/ml compared to the standard eserine, which exhibited 82.82 % inhibition with IC50 value of 30.01 μg/ml. Methanol extract was found toxic with LD50 value of 115.76 (0.0048 - 13.76) μg/ml against Artemia salina and also showed radical scavenging activity (%RSA) of 59.62% with IC50 value of 396.20 μg/ml . Based on these results activity guided isolation of constituents from dichloromethane and methanol extracts were done. Fractionation of dichloromethane extract by column chromatography on silica gel and Sephadex LH 20 using different mobile phase systems led to the purification of compounds (A-I). The structures of these isolated compounds were established by spectroscopic technique such as UV and IR spectroscopy. Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR), 13C NMR and Mass spectrophotometry (EIMS, HRMS) were used for elucidation of structure. On the basis of physical and spectral data from literature, these compounds were identified as n-pentacosanyln- nonadeca-7′-en-9′-α-ol-1′-oate (A), n-tridecanyl n-octadec-9,12-dienoate (B), nonacosyl hexadecanoate (C), heptacosanoic acid (D), 1,3,5-trihydroxy-2-hexadecanoylamino-(6e,9e)- heptacosdiene (E), coumarin (F), betulin (G), stigmasterol (H), and 3,5-dimethoxy 4-hydroxy cinnamic acid (I) were isolated. All these compounds were screened for in vitro α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, compound F, G and I possessed significant α-glucosidase inhibitory activity in a concentration-dependent manner and explained more potent inhibitory activity with IC50 values ranging from 23.0 to 26.7 μg/ml than that of a positive control acarbose (IC50, 38.2 6 μg/ml). Fractionation of methanol extract by column chromatography on silica gel using different mobile phase system afforded five compounds (J-N). Based on spectral data the chemical structure has been established as 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzoic acid (J), 5,8- dihydroxycoumarin (K), stigmasterol 3-O- β -D-glucoside (L), sparsifol (M) and 6-O-β-Dglucopyranosyl- β-D-(1-O-sinapoyl,6''-O-sinapoyl)-glucopyranose (N) were isolated from methanol extract of Croton bonplandianum. The compounds J, K, L and N exhibited significant butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory activity in a concentration-dependent manner and exhibited potent inhibitory activity with IC50 values ranging from 21.0 to 36.0 μg/ml, than that of a positive control eserine (IC50, 32.0 μg/ml).