Medical curriculum and pharmacology: An appraisal.

Pharmacology was introduced with Western Medical Education in India in 1900s. RN Chopra was the first Professor of Pharmacology along with patient care in School of Tropical Medicine Calcutta. Now Pharmacologists do not have clinical care nor give laboratory services to hospitals.

Influence of intragastric perfusion of aqueous spice extracts on acid secretion in anesthetized albino rats.

Background: The effect of spices on gastric acid secretion is variable. Their mechanism of action is also not well established.

Aim: To study the effect of spices on gastric acid secretion in anesthetized rats.

Use of rat jejunum for assay of acetylcholine.

Experiments were carried out to determine the advantage in using isolated rat jejunum in the assay of acetylcholine (ACh) in preference to other tissues. Rat jejunum was found to be sensitive to ACh 0.01 micrograms, 5-hydroxytryptamine (5HT) 0.

Effects of cholinomimetic drugs and their antagonists injected into vertebral artery of unanaesthetized dogs.

In unanaesthetized dogs, cholinomimetic drugs and their antagonists, catecholamines and 5HT were injected into vertebral artery placed in a skin loop. Acetylcholine (1 mg), pilocarpine (1-2 mg), nicotine (250-500 microng), eserine (100 microng) and neostigmine (250 microng) produced sleep apart from a few other peripheral effects. Sleep for longer periods followed injections of tubocurarine (1 mg), atropine (50 microng) and hexamethonium (500 microng).

Sleep induced by drugs injected into the inferior horn of the lateral cerebral ventricle in dogs.

1 In unanaesthetized dogs, cholinomimetic drugs and their antagonists were injected into the inferior horn of the left lateral cerebral ventricle. Injection volumes of 5 mul were used to limit spread of the drugs beyond the inferior horn. The effects on EEG and behaviour were recorded and compared with the effects of the same doses given into the body of the right lateral ventricle a little behind the foramen on Monro.

Pressor response induced by local anaesthetics perfused through the cerebral ventricles of dogs.

1 The antihistamines mepyramine and halopyramine which have local anesthetic properties, produced a rise in arterial blood pressure followed by a fall, similar to that seen with procaine, when perfused in a 10 mg/ml solution from the lateral ventricle to the cisterna magna in dogs. 2 The pressor response produced by procaine perfused through the cerebral ventricle is due to an action on structures situated in the caudal half of the floor of the fourth ventricle because a pressor response was obtained when a few microlitres of a 50 mg/ml solution of procaine were applied to a small area of the exposed floor of the fourth ventricle in a region 2 to 4 mm rostral to obex, and after cauterization of this area procaine perfused through the cerebral ventricles no longer raised arterial blood pressure. 3 Bilateral denervation of the carotid sinus did not affect the pressor response obtained with procaine perfused through the cerebral ventricles.

Cholinomimetic effects of aqueous extracts from Carum copticum seeds.

An aqueous extract from roasted seeds of Carum copticum (omum) has cholinomimetic effects. It shows muscarinic effects on rabbit duodenum, guinea-pig ileum and rat jejunum, and on the blood pressure of rat and cat. These effects are blocked by atropine.