Volume 19, Issue 4, 2019 October-December


Volume 19, No 4 Pages:
2019 October-December Articles: 3

Diversity and abundance of birds in Reiek Biodiversity Spot, Mizoram, northeastern India

Birds are one of the best-known classes of living organisms, they are important bioindicators of an ecosystem. This study was undertaken to determine the diversity and abundance of birds in Reiek Biodiversity Spot, Mizoram, northeastern India. An intensive study was carried out by line transect method. A total of 117 species of birds belonging to 37 families and 10 orders were recorded and the Shannon-Wiener Diversity index was calculated (H'= 3.85). Family Muscicapidae dominated the area comprising of 16 species, followed by Timaliidae with 6 species. Among all the species recorded, Alcippe nipalensis has the highest relative abundance (13.35%), followed by Staphida castaniceps (Striated Yuhina) and Zosterops palpebrosus (Oriental White Eye) with 8.6007% and 6.03337% each. Family-wise relative abundance revealed that Pycnonotidae has the highest relative abundance (17.45%), followed by Sylviidae (15.91%) and Timaliidae (13.35%). The area supports a rich and diverse avian community, therefore, recommended better management of the entire landscape.


Awareness on the possible adverse effects of Garcinia cambogia: A scientific approach

The modern popular ideology is that plant-based products do not have adverse effects. Hence, people are fond of using herbal products of their choice to treat their own ailments or anyone else. As majority of the population are not aware of herbal toxicity concept, the use of formulated single or combined medicinal and/or nutritional plant extracts or isolated compounds to treat chronic diseases are increasingly popular due to the widespread concerns regarding the adverse effects of pharmaceutical drugs. Awareness from the scientific community to bring society to its senses regarding the safety issue of a herbal product is rare. Garcinia gummi-gutta (more popularly known by the synonym Garcinia cambogia in commercial preparations), belonging to the family of Clusiaceae (alt. Guttiferae) is a popularly consumed weight-loss nutraceutical. This review aims to highlight the possible adverse effects of G. cambogia. For the said purpose, 147 articles were collected from PubMed, Web of Science and Google scholar. Literature review revealed a plethora of beneficial actions. Investigational outcomes and clinical evidences hint the possible adverse effects likely to be linked with the use of G. cambogia. However, the use of G. cambogia as an anti-obesity agent is advisable as long as the therapeutic value outweighs the adverse effect.


The breeding biology of Fejervarya limnocharis complex, F. multistriata (Hallowell, 1861) in Mizoram, northeast India

The breeding behavior of Fejervarya multistriata was studied from the selected study sites in Mizoram for over three years between 2016 and 2019. In natural condition, breeding took place in group. The advertisement call of males consisted of a series of notes emitted at an interval of 0.1–0.4 s where the frequency spectra had a dominant band at 2670.1172 Hz and the band width ranges from 2497.8516–28422.3828 Hz. Morphometric measurements showed that females are larger than males with snout-vent length of 45.55 ± 1.54 mm vs 33.77 ± 1.03 mm, respectively. The clutch sizes ranges from 488 to 1035. We found that the calculated ‘t’ value 0.03 is less than the ‘p’ value, i.e. 1, therefore there is no correlation between SVL of females and clutch sizes.