Herbal remedy

Researchers at Hamdard University in New Delhi have found that fruits of a creeper — which is predominantly found in the Indian subcontinent — may help keep heart attacks at bay. Uma Bhandari and her colleagues at the university’s department of pharmacology report in the January 2008 issue of the Indian Journal of Experimental Biology that mice — whose myocardial cells were artificially damaged for the purpose of the study — showed remarkable improvement in cardiac function after being fed with a liquid extract of the fruits of the herb Vidanga or Embelia ribes. Oral administration of the extract for 40 days effectively warded off myocardial infarction in the animals, the researchers claim. While the herb is widely used in Ayurveda preparations for treating rheumatism and fever, it is for the first time that its cardioprotective effects were scientifically tested. Vidanga is also known for its de-worming properties.

Waste plastics for stronger roads

It is like killing two birds with one shot. Engineers in New Delhi have found a productive way of disposing of discarded polythene bags, which have of late emerged as a huge ecological nuisance. Used plastics accounts for nearly a quarter of municipal solid waste by volume. A study by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and Central Road Research Institute, also in the capital, have found that substituting bitumen with 5 per cent of plastic bags and 15 per cent copper slag, an industrial waste, makes for great quality paving material. Roads built with this new material would last five to six years as against the service life of three to four years of roads paved with bitumen alone, the engineers say. Moreover, the new material significantly lowers construction cost, the researchers report in a recent issue of the Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research.