Assistant Professor Department of Chemistry Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (A Central University), Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand - 246174, India
Chemistry, Cancer Research, Multidisciplinary, Analytical Chemistry
49
Scopus Publications
1059
Scholar Citations
20
Scholar h-index
36
Scholar i10-index
Scopus Publications
Chemical Profiling and Quality Assessment of Food Products Employing Magnetic Resonance Technologies Chandra Prakash, Rohit Mahar Foods, 2025 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are powerful techniques that have been employed to analyze foodstuffs comprehensively. These techniques offer in-depth information about the chemical composition, structure, and spatial distribution of components in a variety of food products. Quantitative NMR is widely applied for precise quantification of metabolites, authentication of food products, and monitoring of food quality. Low-field 1H-NMR relaxometry is an important technique for investigating the most abundant components of intact foodstuffs based on relaxation times and amplitude of the NMR signals. In particular, information on water compartments, diffusion, and movement can be obtained by detecting proton signals because of H2O in foodstuffs. Saffron adulterations with calendula, safflower, turmeric, sandalwood, and tartrazine have been analyzed using benchtop NMR, an alternative to the high-field NMR approach. The fraudulent addition of Robusta to Arabica coffee was investigated by 1H-NMR Spectroscopy and the marker of Robusta coffee can be detected in the 1H-NMR spectrum. MRI images can be a reliable tool for appreciating morphological differences in vegetables and fruits. In kiwifruit, the effects of water loss and the states of water were investigated using MRI. It provides informative images regarding the spin density distribution of water molecules and the relationship between water and cellular tissues. 1H-NMR spectra of aqueous extract of kiwifruits affected by elephantiasis show a higher number of small oligosaccharides than healthy fruits do. One of the frauds that has been detected in the olive oil sector reflects the addition of hazelnut oils to olive oils. However, using the NMR methodology, it is possible to distinguish the two types of oils, since, in hazelnut oils, linolenic fatty chains and squalene are absent, which is also indicated by the 1H-NMR spectrum. NMR has been applied to detect milk adulterations, such as bovine milk being spiked with known levels of whey, urea, synthetic urine, and synthetic milk. In particular, T2 relaxation time has been found to be significantly affected by adulteration as it increases with adulterant percentage. The 1H spectrum of honey samples from two botanical species shows the presence of signals due to the specific markers of two botanical species. NMR generates large datasets due to the complexity of food matrices and, to deal with this, chemometrics (multivariate analysis) can be applied to monitor the changes in the constituents of foodstuffs, assess the self-life, and determine the effects of storage conditions. Multivariate analysis could help in managing and interpreting complex NMR data by reducing dimensionality and identifying patterns. NMR spectroscopy followed by multivariate analysis can be channelized for evaluating the nutritional profile of food products by quantifying vitamins, sugars, fatty acids, amino acids, and other nutrients. In this review, we summarize the importance of NMR spectroscopy in chemical profiling and quality assessment of food products employing magnetic resonance technologies and multivariate statistical analysis.
Assessing cancer therapeutic efficacy in vivo using [2H7] glucose deuterium metabolic imaging Mario C. Chang, Vinay R. Malut, Rohit Mahar, Anna Rushin, Marc A. McLeod, Geraldine L. Pierre, Indu R. Malut, Stephen J. Staklinski, Max E. Glanz, Mukundan Ragavan, Gaurav Sharma, Manoj Madheswaran, Arshee Badar, Aparna D. Rao, Brian K. Law, Michael S. Kilberg, James H. P. Collins, Vikram D. Kodibagkar, James A. Bankson, Ralph J. DeBerardinis, Matthew E. Merritt Science Advances, 2025 Metabolic imaging produces powerful visual assessments of organ function in vivo. Current techniques can be improved by safely increasing metabolic contrast. The gold standard, 2-[ 18 F]fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging, is limited by radioactive exposure and sparse assessment of metabolism beyond glucose uptake and retention. Deuterium magnetic resonance imaging (DMRI) with [6,6- 2 H 2 ]glucose is nonradioactive, achieves tumor metabolic contrast, but can be improved by enriched contrast from deuterated water (HDO) based imaging. Here, we developed a DMRI protocol employing [ 2 H 7 ]glucose. Imaging 2 H-signal and measuring HDO production in tumor-bearing mice detected differential glucose utilization across baseline tumors, tumors treated with vehicle control or anti-glycolytic BRAFi and MEKi therapy, and contralateral healthy tissue. Control tumors generated the most 2 H-signal and HDO. To our knowledge this is the first application of DMRI with [ 2 H 7 ]glucose for tumoral treatment monitoring. This approach demonstrates HDO as a marker of tumor glucose utilization and suggests translational capability in humans due to its safety, noninvasiveness, and suitability for serial monitoring.
Phytochemical and Pharmacological Investigations of Genus Ranunculus (Ranunculaceae) Bipin Rawat, Rohit Mahar, Surendra Puri, Upendra Bhatt, Sudhir Kumar Kothiyal, Mohan Singh Maniyari Rawat Mini Reviews in Organic Chemistry, 2025 The genus Ranunculus, a member of the family Ranunculaceae, is widely distributed across regions such as India, China, Nepal, Pakistan, and Russia. These plants hold significant value in traditional medicine and folklore, having been used to treat a variety of ailments, including malaria, rheumatism, asthma, cardiovascular conditions, liver and gallbladder disorders, snake bites, and even cancer. Notably, numerous bioactive compounds such as flavonoids, triterpenes, saponins, alkaloids, and fatty acids have been isolated from this genus and investigated for their diverse pharmacological properties, including antioxidant, antitubercular, antimalarial, and immunomodulatory effects. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the phytochemistry and pharmacological potential of Ranunculus species, highlighting their traditional medicinal uses. A distinctive feature of this work is its thorough compilation of phytochemical investigations across various Ranunculus species, along with a detailed account of the biological activities exhibited by their extracts and phytoconstituents.
Detecting altered hepatic lipid oxidation by MRI in an animal model of MASLD Marc McLeod, Mario C. Chang, Anna Rushin, Mukundan Ragavan, Rohit Mahar, Gaurav Sharma, Arshee Badar, Anthony Giacalone, Max E. Glanz, Vinay R. Malut, Dalton Graham, Nishanth E. Sunny, James A. Bankson, Kenneth Cusi, Matthew E. Merritt Cell Reports Medicine, 2024 Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) prevalence is increasing annually and affects over a third of US adults. MASLD can progress to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), characterized by severe hepatocyte injury , inflammation, and eventual advanced fibrosis or cirrhosis . MASH is predicted to become the primary cause of liver transplant by 2030. Although the etiology of MASLD/MASH is incompletely understood, dysregulated fatty acid oxidation is implicated in disease pathogenesis. Here, we develop a method for estimating hepatic β-oxidation from the metabolism of [D 15 ]octanoate to deuterated water and detection with deuterium magnetic resonance methods. Perfused livers from a mouse model of MASLD reveal dysregulated hepatic β-oxidation, findings that corroborate in vivo imaging. The high-fat-diet-induced MASLD mouse studies indicate that decreased β-oxidative efficiency in the fatty liver could serve as an indicator of MASLD progression . Furthermore, our method provides a clinically translatable imaging approach for determining hepatic β-oxidation efficiency.
DFT investigation of coupling constant anomalies in substituted β-lactams Emily B. Crull, Alexei V. Buevich, Gary E. Martin, Rohit Mahar, Bo Qu, Chris H. Senanayake, Tadeusz F. Molinski, R. Thomas Williamson Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry, 2024 β‐lactams are a chemically diverse group of molecules with a wide range of biological activities. Having recently observed curious trends in 2JHH coupling values in studies on this structural class, we sought to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of these diagnostic NMR parameters, specifically interrogating 1JCH, 2JCH, and 2JHH, to differentiate 3‐ and 4‐monosubstituted β‐lactams. Further investigation using computational chemistry methods was employed to explore the geometric and electronic origins for the observed and calculated differences between the two substitution patterns.
Design and Discovery of Water-Soluble Benzooxaphosphole-Based Ligands for Hindered Suzuki-Miyaura Coupling Reactions with Low Catalyst Load Arun D. R. Shada, Hari P. R. Mangunuru, Leila Terrab, Srinivasarao Tenneti, Nageswara Rao Kalikinidi, Santhosh Reddy Naini, Praveen Gajula, Emily B. Crull, Venumadhav Janganati, Raghavendra Kovvuri, Vasudevan Natarajan, Daniel Lee, Jinya Yin, Lalith Samankumara, Rohit Mahar, Xueyi Zhang, Anji Chen, Chathuranga C. Hewa-Rahinduwage, Zhirui Wang, Manasa Mamunooru, Jagruti Rana, Chaitanya S. Wannere, Joseph D. Armstrong, R. Thomas Williamson, Gopal Sirasani, Bo Qu, Chris H. Senanayake Organic Letters, 2024 We report a new class of highly effective, benzooxaphosphole-based, water-soluble ligands in the application of Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions for sterically hindered substrates in aqueous media. The catalytic activities of the coupling reactions were greatly enhanced by the addition of catalytic amounts of organic phase transfer reagents, such as tetraglyme and tetrabutylammonium bromide. The optimized general protocol can be conducted with a low catalyst load, thereby providing a practical solution for these reactions. The viability of this new Suzuki-Miyaura protocol was demonstrated with various substrates to generate important building blocks, including heterocycles, for the synthesis of biologically active compounds.
Exploring the Significance, Extraction, and Characterization of Plant-Derived Secondary Metabolites in Complex Mixtures Ruchi Barthwal, Rohit Mahar Metabolites, 2024 Secondary metabolites are essential components for the survival of plants. Secondary metabolites in complex mixtures from plants have been adopted and documented by different traditional medicinal systems worldwide for the treatment of various human diseases. The extraction strategies are the key components for therapeutic development from natural sources. Polarity-dependent solvent-selective extraction, acidic and basic solution-based extraction, and microwave- and ultrasound-assisted extraction are some of the most important strategies for the extraction of natural products from plants. The method needs to be optimized to isolate a specific class of compounds. Therefore, to establish the mechanism of action, the characterization of the secondary metabolites, in a mixture or in their pure forms, is equally important. LC-MS, GC-MS, and extensive NMR spectroscopic strategies are established techniques for the profiling of metabolites in crude extracts. Various protocols for the extraction and characterization of a wide range of classes of compounds have been developed by various research groups and are described in this review. Additionally, the possible means of characterizing the compounds in the mixture and their uniqueness are also discussed. Hyphenated techniques are crucial for profiling because of their ability to analyze a vast range of compounds. In contrast, inherent chemical shifts make NMR an indispensable tool for structure elucidation in complex mixtures.
Inactivation of mitochondrial MUL1 E3 ubiquitin ligase deregulates mitophagy and prevents diet-induced obesity in mice Lucia Cilenti, Jacopo Di Gregorio, Rohit Mahar, Fei Liu, Camilla T. Ambivero, Muthu Periasamy, Matthew E. Merritt, Antonis S. Zervos Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 2024 Obesity is a growing epidemic affecting millions of people worldwide and a major risk factor for a multitude of chronic diseases and premature mortality. Accumulating evidence suggests that mitochondria have a profound role in diet-induced obesity and the associated metabolic changes, but the molecular mechanisms linking mitochondria to obesity remain poorly understood. Our studies have identified a new function for mitochondrial MUL1 E3 ubiquitin ligase, a protein known to regulate mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy, in the control of energy metabolism and lipogenesis. Genetic deletion of Mul1 in mice impedes mitophagy and presents a metabolic phenotype that is resistant to high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and metabolic syndrome. Several metabolic and lipidomic pathways are perturbed in the liver and white adipose tissue (WAT) of Mul1(−/−) animals on HFD, including the one driven by Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase 1 (SCD1), a pivotal regulator of lipid metabolism and obesity. In addition, key enzymes crucial for lipogenesis and fatty acid oxidation such as ACC1, FASN, AMPK, and CPT1 are also modulated in the absence of MUL1. The concerted action of these enzymes, in the absence of MUL1, results in diminished fat storage and heightened fatty acid oxidation. Our findings underscore the significance of MUL1-mediated mitophagy in regulating lipogenesis and adiposity, particularly in the context of HFD. Consequently, our data advocate the potential of MUL1 as a therapeutic target for drug development in the treatment of obesity, insulin resistance, NAFLD, and cardiometabolic diseases.
Comprehensive isotopomer analysis of glutamate and aspartate in small tissue samples Feng Cai, Divya Bezwada, Ling Cai, Rohit Mahar, Zheng Wu, Mario C. Chang, Panayotis Pachnis, Chendong Yang, Sherwin Kelekar, Wen Gu, Bailey Brooks, Bookyung Ko, Hieu S. Vu, Thomas P. Mathews, Lauren G. Zacharias, Misty Martin-Sandoval, Duyen Do, K. Celeste Oaxaca, Eunsook S. Jin, Vitaly Margulis, Craig R. Malloy, Matthew E. Merritt, Ralph J. DeBerardinis Cell Metabolism, 2023
Chemical profiling and quality assessment of food products employing magnetic resonance technologies C Prakash, R Mahar Foods 14 (14), 2417 , 2025 2025 Citations: 13
Pharmacometabolomics: An emerging platform for understanding the pathophysiological processes and therapeutic interventions C Prakash, P Moran, R Mahar International Journal of Pharmaceutics 675, 125554 , 2025 2025 Citations: 9
Assessing cancer therapeutic efficacy in vivo using [ 2 H 7 ]glucose deuterium metabolic imaging MC Chang, VR Malut, R Mahar, A Rushin, MA McLeod, GL Pierre, ... Science Advances 11 (13), eadr0568 , 2025 2025 Citations: 16
Phytochemical and Pharmacological Investigations of Genus Ranunculus (Ranunculaceae) B Rawat, R Mahar, S Puri, U Bhatt, SK Kothiyal, MSM Rawat Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry , 2025 2025 Citations: 1
Detecting altered hepatic lipid oxidation by MRI in an animal model of MASLD M McLeod, MC Chang, A Rushin, M Ragavan, R Mahar, G Sharma, ... Cell Reports Medicine 5 (9) , 2024 2024 Citations: 12
Cyclodextrin in drug delivery: Exploring scaffolds, properties, and cutting-edge applications P Singh, R Mahar International Journal of Pharmaceutics 662, 124485 , 2024 2024 Citations: 45
DFT investigation of coupling constant anomalies in substituted β‐lactams EB Crull, AV Buevich, GE Martin, R Mahar, B Qu, CH Senanayake, ... Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry 62 (8), 573-582 , 2024 2024 Citations: 1
Inactivation of mitochondrial MUL1 E3 ubiquitin ligase deregulates mitophagy and prevents diet-induced obesity in mice L Cilenti, J Di Gregorio, R Mahar, F Liu, CT Ambivero, M Periasamy, ... Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences 11, 1397565 , 2024 2024 Citations: 6
Age-related differences in affective behaviors in mice: possible role of prefrontal cortical-hippocampal functional connectivity and metabolomic profiles M Febo, R Mahar, NA Rodriguez, J Buraima, M Pompilus, AM Pinto, ... Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience 16, 1356086 , 2024 2024 Citations: 11
Exploring the significance, extraction, and characterization of plant-derived secondary metabolites in complex mixtures R Barthwal, R Mahar Metabolites 14 (2), 119 , 2024 2024 Citations: 46
Bioactive compounds from aquatic ecosystem S Puri, R Mahar, G Goswami Current Status of Fresh Water Microbiology, 387-407 , 2023 2023 Citations: 1
Maturational Differences in Affective Behaviors Involves Changes in Frontal Cortical-Hippocampal Functional Connectivity and Metabolomic Profiles. M Febo, R Mahar, NA Rodriguez, J Buraima, M Pompilus, AM Pinto, ... Biorxiv: the Preprint Server for Biology , 2023 2023
Comprehensive isotopomer analysis of glutamate and aspartate in small tissue samples F Cai, D Bezwada, L Cai, R Mahar, Z Wu, MC Chang, P Pachnis, C Yang, ... Cell metabolism 35 (10), 1830-1843. e5 , 2023 2023 Citations: 19
Design and Discovery of Water-Soluble Benzooxaphosphole-Based Ligands for Hindered Suzuki–Miyaura Coupling Reactions with Low Catalyst Load ADR Shada, HPR Mangunuru, L Terrab, S Tenneti, NR Kalikinidi, ... Organic Letters 26 (14), 2751-2757 , 2023 2023 Citations: 5
Deuterium magnetic resonance imaging P DONABEDIAN, R MAHAR, ME Merritt US Patent App. 17/906,508 , 2023 2023 Citations: 1
Enrichment of hepatic glycogen and plasma glucose from H₂ 18 O informs gluconeogenic and indirect pathway fluxes in naturally feeding mice M Coelho, R Mahar, GD Belew, A Torres, C Barosa, F Cabral, I Viegas, ... NMR in Biomedicine 36 (2), e4837 , 2023 2023 Citations: 3
Segmented Flow Strategies for Integrating Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance for Lipidomics J Lei, R Mahar, MC Chang, J Collins, ME Merritt, TJ Garrett, RA Yost Analytical chemistry 95 (3), 1908-1915 , 2023 2023 Citations: 11
Segmented Flow Strategies for Integrating LC-MS with NMR for Lipidomics J Lei, R Mahar, MC Chang, J Collins, ME Merritt, TJ Garrett, RA Yost 2022
Metabolic signatures associated with oncolytic myxoma viral infections R Mahar, M Ragavan, MC Chang, S Hardiman, N Moussatche, A Behar, ... Scientific Reports 12 (1), 12599 , 2022 2022 Citations: 7
Synergistic effect of ß-lapachone and aminooxyacetic acid on central metabolism in breast cancer. MC Chang, R Mahar, MA McLeod, AG Giacalone, X Huang, ... 2022
MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS
ROS and hypoxia signaling regulate periodic metabolic arousal during insect dormancy to coordinate glucose, amino acid, and lipid metabolism C Chen, R Mahar, ME Merritt, DL Denlinger, DA Hahn Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (1), e2017603118 , 2021 2021 Citations: 72
Synthesis of triazolo isoquinolines and isochromenes from 2-alkynylbenzaldehyde via domino reactions under transition-metal-free conditions RK Arigela, S Samala, R Mahar, SK Shukla, B Kundu The Journal of Organic Chemistry 78 (20), 10476-10484 , 2013 2013 Citations: 58
Lipogenesis mediated by OGR1 regulates metabolic adaptation to acid stress in cancer cells via autophagy S Pillai, I Mahmud, R Mahar, C Griffith, M Langsen, J Nguyen, ... Cell reports 39 (6) , 2022 2022 Citations: 50
HDO production from [ 2 H 7 ]glucose Quantitatively Identifies Warburg Metabolism R Mahar, PL Donabedian, ME Merritt Scientific reports 10 (1), 8885 , 2020 2020 Citations: 50
Rapid screening and quantitative determination of bioactive compounds from fruit extracts of Myristica species and their in vitro antiproliferative activity R Pandey, R Mahar, M Hasanain, SK Shukla, J Sarkar, KB Rameshkumar, ... Food chemistry 211, 483-493 , 2016 2016 Citations: 49
Exploring the significance, extraction, and characterization of plant-derived secondary metabolites in complex mixtures R Barthwal, R Mahar Metabolites 14 (2), 119 , 2024 2024 Citations: 46
A metal-free tandem approach to prepare structurally diverse N-heterocycles: synthesis of 1, 2, 4-oxadiazoles and pyrimidinones PK Gupta, MK Hussain, M Asad, R Kant, R Mahar, SK Shukla, K Hajela New Journal of Chemistry 38 (7), 3062-3070 , 2014 2014 Citations: 46
Cyclodextrin in drug delivery: Exploring scaffolds, properties, and cutting-edge applications P Singh, R Mahar International Journal of Pharmaceutics 662, 124485 , 2024 2024 Citations: 45
Branched chain amino acids and carbohydrate restriction exacerbate ketogenesis and hepatic mitochondrial oxidative dysfunction during NAFLD MS Muyyarikkandy, M McLeod, M Maguire, R Mahar, N Kattapuram, ... The FASEB Journal , 2020 2020 Citations: 43
Pyranocarbazoles from Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng. as antimicrobial agents T Joshi, T Jain, R Mahar, SK Singh, P Srivastava, SK Shukla, DK Mishra, ... Natural product research 32 (4), 430-434 , 2018 2018 Citations: 39
Identification of gallic acid based glycoconjugates as a novel tubulin polymerization inhibitors K Upadhyaya, K Singh, A Arun, M Shukla, N Srivastava, R Ashraf, ... Organic & biomolecular chemistry 14 (4), 1338-1358 , 2016 2016 Citations: 34
Ruthenium (ii)-catalyzed C–H activation/C–N bond formation via in situ generated iminophosphorane as the directing group: construction of annulated pyridin-2 (1 H)-ones RK Arigela, R Kumar, T Joshi, R Mahar, B Kundu RSC Advances 4 (101), 57749-57753 , 2014 2014 Citations: 33
Deuterated water imaging of the rat brain following metabolism of [ 2 H 7 ]glucose R Mahar, H Zeng, A Giacalone, M Ragavan, TH Mareci, ME Merritt Magnetic resonance in medicine 85 (6), 3049-3059 , 2021 2021 Citations: 31
Synthesis of novel pyrimidine nucleoside analogues owning multiple bases/sugars and their glycosidase inhibitory activity RK Thakur, A Mishra, KKG Ramakrishna, R Mahar, SK Shukla, ... Tetrahedron 70 (45), 8462-8473 , 2014 2014 Citations: 31
Synthesis of S -(−)-5,6-Dihydrocanthin-4-ones via a Triple Cooperative Catalysis-Mediated Domino Reaction SU Dighe, R Mahar, SK Shukla, R Kant, K Srivastava, S Batra The Journal of Organic Chemistry 81 (11), 4751-4761 , 2016 2016 Citations: 29
Quantitative measurement of T2, T1ρ and T1 relaxation times in articular cartilage and cartilage-bone interface by SE and UTE imaging at microscopic resolution R Mahar, S Batool, F Badar, Y Xia Journal of Magnetic Resonance 297, 76-85 , 2018 2018 Citations: 28
15 N‐carnitine, a novel endogenous hyperpolarized MRI probe with long signal lifetime C von Morze, JA Engelbach, GD Reed, AP Chen, JD Quirk, T Blazey, ... Magnetic resonance in medicine 85 (4), 1814-1820 , 2021 2021 Citations: 24
Intramolecular C sp 2 –C sp 2 Friedel–Crafts Arylation: Substrate- and Condition-Controlled Divergent Synthesis of Fused-β-carbolines SU Dighe, VD Yadav, R Mahar, SK Shukla, S Batra Organic letters 18 (23), 6010-6013 , 2016 2016 Citations: 23
A Strategy for the Synthesis of Anthraquinone-Based Aryl- C -glycosides N Anand, K Upadhyaya, A Ajay, R Mahar, SK Shukla, B Kumar, ... The Journal of Organic Chemistry 78 (10), 4685-4696 , 2013 2013 Citations: 23
A strategy to access fused triazoloquinoline and related nucleoside analogues K Upadhyaya, A Ajay, R Mahar, R Pandey, B Kumar, SK Shukla, ... Tetrahedron 69 (40), 8547-8558 , 2013 2013 Citations: 20