http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10615 2026-01-07T06:00:46Z 2026-01-07T06:00:46Z Jayasekara, S.A.G.C. Gunawardena, U.A.D.P. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10638 2022-03-18T06:20:13Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Willingness to Pay for Water Quality: A Contingent Valuation Approach for Bolgoda Lake Jayasekara, S.A.G.C.; Gunawardena, U.A.D.P.

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z Jayanka, M. Fernando, T.G.I. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10637 2022-03-18T06:17:26Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Recognising Ayurvedic Herbal Plants in Sri Lanka using Convolutional Neural Networks Jayanka, M.; Fernando, T.G.I. Different parts of ayurvedic herbal plants are used to make ayurvedic medicines in Sri Lanka. Recognising these endemic herbal plants is a challenging problem in the fields of ayurvedic medicine, computer vision, and machine learning. In this research, a computer system has been developed to recognise ayurvedic plant leaves in Sri Lanka based on a recently developed machine learning algorithm: convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Convolutional neural networks with RGB and grayscale images and multi-layer neural networks with RGB images have been used to recognise the ayurvedic plant leaves. In order to train neural networks, images of 17 types of herbal plant leaves were captured from the plant nursery of Navinna Ayurveda Medical Hospital, Sri Lanka. As CNNs require a large number of images to train it, various data augmenting methods have been applied to the collected dataset to increase the size of the dataset. Backgrounds of images were removed and all images were resized to 256 by 256 pixels before submitting them to a neural network. The results obtained were highly significant and CNN with RGB images was able to achieve an accuracy of 97.71% for recognising ayurvedic herbal plant leaves in Sri Lanka. The study suggests that CNNs can be used to recognise ayurvedic herbal plants.

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z Bandara, J.M.B.M.G. Arunakumara, K.K.I.U. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10636 2022-03-18T06:14:49Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Development of Low-Cost Growing Media for Spirulina using Alternative Carbon Sources Bandara, J.M.B.M.G.; Arunakumara, K.K.I.U. Spirulina, a blue-green microalgae is grown commercially throughout the world due to the high protein content and non-toxic features of the algal biomass. The Zarrouk’s medium which contains Na2CO3 and NaHCO3 as the carbon sources is known to be the standard medium for Spirulina cultivation. Higher purchasing cost of the carbon sources is recognised to be a limiting factor for large-scale cultivation. Low-cost alternative sources of carbon which can replace Na2CO3 and NaHCO3 in the Zarrouk’s medium has a great economic impact on the commercial production. This study aimed at assessing the growth of Spirulina in different alternative sources of carbon under different concentrations. Table sugar, cassava flour, sweet potato flour and taro flour were used as alternative sources. The Zarrouk’s medium was substituted with different levels (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%) of the solutions prepared with the alternative carbon sources. The algae were cultured at room temperature for 16 days under illumination of 4,000 Lux. The growth was assessed as optical density (OD) using a spectrophotometer at 560 nm and then converted to dry weight (g L-1). According to the results, 100% carbon in the Zarrouk’s medium could be replaced by taro flour and 50% carbon could be replaced by cassava flour. A significantly higher dry weight (1.033 g L-1) was recorded from taro flour at 100% replacement level at the end of 16-day incubation. Therefore NaHCO3 and Na2CO3 in the Zarrouk’s medium could completely be replaced by taro flour solution which substantially reduces the cost of production as well. Cassava flour solution could also be used as an effective replacement while mixing with Zarrouk’s medium into the ratio 1:1. Table sugar and sweet potato flour are found to be poor sources of carbon to replace the NaHCO3 and Na2CO3 in the Zarrouk’s medium. The results could be further confirmed by assessing the growth of Spirulina under different supplementary levels of taro and cassava flour.

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z Perera, P.R.D. Ekanayake, S. Ranaweera, K.K.D.S. http://dr.lib.sjp.ac.lk/handle/123456789/10635 2022-03-18T06:09:23Z 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z

Antioxidant, Antiglycation Potentials and Total Phenolic Content of Scoparia dulcis Decoction Perera, P.R.D.; Ekanayake, S.; Ranaweera, K.K.D.S. Long term diabetes mellitus increases the risk of many micro and macro vascular diabetic complications and oxidative stress, due to formation of excessive amounts of free radicals. Non enzymatic protein glycation is the key molecular basis of the above complications observed in diabetic individuals. The current tendency to use herbal treatments in diabetes mellitus is mainly due to the therapeutic efficacy, safety, low cost and minimal adverse effects. Among the many herbs used, the decoction prepared using the whole plant of Scoparia dulcis is a frequently used traditional medicine in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. Since no data are available on the antiglycation potential of the decoction of S. dulcis plant this study focused on determining the antiglycation potential, DPPH and ABTS antioxidant potentials and total phenolic content of the S. dulcis decoction. The commercially available dried S. dulcis and three other fresh samples collected from three different areas were used for the study. The DPPH and ABTS antioxidant potentials of the samples were in the range of 450-540 μg mL-1 and 549-615 TEAC mmol g-1 respectively. Antiglycation potentials of the four samples were in the range of 131-230 μg mL-1 and total phenolic contents were 160-186 mg/GAE/g. The results of the study prove the effectiveness of the use of S. dulcis plant in traditional medicine for diabetes.

2020-01-01T00:00:00Z