The supercritical antisolvent (SAS) technique was used to prepare ethyl cellulose/methyl cellulose blends, two biocompatible polymers commonly used as drug carriers in controlled delivery systems. Ethyl cellulose is widely used as a drug carrier. The drug release of the delivery devices can be controlled to some extent by addition of a water-soluble or water swellable polymer, such as methyl ce...

Postsynaptic injection of Ca(2+)/calmodulin (Ca(2+)/CaM) into hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons induces synaptic potentiation, which can occlude tetanus-induced potentiation (Wang and Kelly, 1995). Because Ca(2+)/CaM activates the major forms of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) to produce nitric oxide (NO), NO may play a role during Ca(2+)/CaM-induced potentiation. Here we show that extracellular ap...

An earlier safety assessment of several cellulose polymers has been expanded to include cellulose itself and other cellulose polymers used in cosmetics. In general, these ingredients are modified cellulose polymers formed by reaction with the free hydroxyl groups in cellulose. The number of hydroxyl groups reacting, as well as the nature of the substitute group, largely determine the physical p...

Sarcostemma acidum (Roxb.) Voigt is a valuable medicinal plant to treat number of diseases in India. Four compounds were isolated from the whole S. acidum. The structures characterized as Friedelin (1), ?-amyrin (2), ?-sitosterol (3) and 4?-Carboxy-4?-methyl-5?-cholesta-8,24-dien-3?-ol (4) by extensive spectroscopic (NMR, FT-IR mass) analysis compared their spectral data with literature. vitro ...