Over the past several decades, there has been significant growth in the design and development of more efficient and advanced biomaterials based on non-cellulosic biological macromolecules. In this context, hydrogels based on stimuli-responsive non-cellulosic biological macromolecules have garnered significant attention because of their intrinsic physicochemical properties, biological characteristics, and sustainability. Due to their capacity to adapt to physiological pHs with rapid and reversible changes, several researchers have investigated pH-responsive-based non-cellulosic polymers from various materials. pH-responsive hydrogels release therapeutic substances in response to pH changes, providing tailored administration, fewer side effects, and improved treatment efficacy while reducing tissue damage. Because of these qualities, they have been shown to be useful in a wide variety of applications, including the administration of chemotherapeutic drugs, biological material, and natural components. The pH-sensitive biopolymers that are utilized most frequently include chitosan, alginate, hyaluronic acid, guar gum, and dextran. In this review article, the emphasis is placed on pH stimuli-responsive materials that are based on biological macromolecules for the purposes of drug administration.

: COVID-19 has rapidly spread across the globe and has been declared a pandemic. Presently, drugs or vaccines are unavailable, and patients are treated on symptom management basis. Traditional healthcare can contribute to prevent the infection in healthy individuals as well as in the treatment of infected patients. Ayurveda medicines become even more relevant as there is a descriptive illustration of causation and management of diseases similar to COVID-19 as Janapadodhwamsa. Meanwhile, Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India has recommended herbal remedies for prevention of COVID-19 infection. The remedies include 1. Herbal tea twice a day and 2. Golden milk for immunity boosting measures. Further, Steam inhalation and medicated honey is recommended for sore throat. In this review, we have tried to evaluate effectiveness of the recommended Indian remedies in prevention and treatment of COVID-19 conditions with available scientific literature. COVID-19, being primarily a respiratory disease, all 9 herbs of remedies have been selected for analysing their respiratory diseases related immunomodulatory and other activities, anti-viral, antibacterial activities as well as in silico effectiveness of constituents thereof against SARS-CoV-2 targets. The literature search was carried out in electronic databases namely PubMed, ScienceDirect, ACS Publications, Clinicaltrials.gov, Springer, and Google Scholar. The scientific evaluation revealed that the recommended Indian remedies might be useful in tackling COVID-19 situation, though scientific interventional studies are required to establish the claims.

Adulterating herbal and dietary supplements with synthetic hypoglycemics is widely practiced, especially in developing and undeveloped countries. A simple, precise, and novel method was developed to simultaneously determine synthetic antidiabetics belonging to different classes, namely biguanide, sulfonylurea, and thiazolidinedione, in counterfeit herbal products as adulterants using HPTLC-MS. The method can simultaneously identify and quantify undeclared synthetic drugs metformin, pioglitazone, glipizide, and glimepiride in herbal as well as dietary supplements. The optimized mobile phase for the TLC system consists of cyclohexane:dichloromethane:1-propanol:saturated solution of ammonium acetate in acetic acid in the ratio of (7:5:2:2, v/v/v/v). The method is highly selective and sensitive for detecting chemicals in complex herbal molecules. Identification and quantification of drugs were performed using the densitometric method. The drugs were confirmed using triple quadrupole mass spectrometry through the MS interface. The screening of market preparations revealed the presence of metformin in two of eight products. This study shows that the method for simultaneous determination of these four drugs can be applied successfully to screen synthetic antidiabetics in the herbal complex matrix as adulterants. Graphical abstract