Advances in BioScience
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Evaluation of Chitin as Natural Coagulant in Water Treatment
Get PDFThe use of synthetic coagulants is not regarded as suitable due to health and economic considerations. The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of alum as coagulant in conjunction with chitin as coagulant aid on the removal of turbidity, hardness and Escherichia coli from water. A conventional jar test apparatus was employed for the tests. The experiment was conducted at three different pH conditions of 6, 7 and 8. The dosages chosen were 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2mg/l. The results showed that turbidity decrease provided also a primary Escherichia coli reduction. Hardness removal efficiency was observed to be 93% at pH 7 with 1mg/l concentration by alum whereas chitin was stable at all the pH ranges showing highest removal at 1 and 1.5mg/l with pH 7. At low concentration chitin showed marginally better performance on hardness. In conclusion, using natural coagulants results in considerable savings in chemicals and sludge handling cost may be achieved
Biodiversity and Concentration of Airborne Fungi of Suburban Weekly Market Associated Environment
Get PDFIt is supposed that the vegetable markets of tropical countries are the significant source of airborne fungal spores, which are generated during transportation, handling and putrefaction. The aim of this work was to monitor the prevalence of the airborne cultivable fungi in the air of weekly market associated environments to evaluate whether the vegetable trading zone of market is a source of airborne cultivable fungal spores of weekly market environment or not. Airborne cultivable fungal spore levels were monitored by using Andersen two-stage viable (microbial) particle sampler. The Spearman correlation coefficients and stepwise linear regression analysis test was used to analyze the influence of meteorological factors on spore concentration and paired Student’s t-test was used to compare the bioload of total viable cultivable fungi of vegetable trading area and general item trading area of weekly market extramural environment, the percentage frequency and the percentage contribution of the individual genus was also reported. In both areas, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Alternaria, and Penicillium, were the most abundant fungal types observed. The spp. of Candida was reported only at the vegetable trading area. The bioload of fungal spore presented maximum values during the Monsoon and lowest in the season of summer. There is no significant difference in quantity between the mean values of the bioload of total viable cultivable fungi of vegetable trading area and general item trading area of weekly market extramural environment were observed. For present environment, activities of animals and humans were supposed to be the key factor governing aerosolization of microorganism
Utilization of Jamun Fruit (Syzygium cumini) for Production of Red Wine
Get PDFJamun (Syzygium cumini) fruit was utilized for the production of red wine which is offering a lot of health benefits by acting as an effective medicine. The alcohol content of wine varied from 6.62 to 10.25 depending upon the variable concentration of total soluble sugars (7.88 to 10.53%) and varying levels of yeast (5, 10, 15 and 20%). Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used in the process of fermentation. The wine that had 8.22% alcohol obtained by fermentation with 10% yeast level, 8.18% TSS (Treatment T2) was considered to be the best acceptable when compared with others (T1, T3 and T4 Treatments). This wine was found to be the best by the panel members with respect to colour, taste, astringency and flavour. The wine that had 6.62% alcohol obtained by fermentation with 5% yeast level, 7.88% TSS was considered to be the least preferred and less acceptable when compared with others. No significant changes were observed in colour and clarity of wine obtained with 5% addition of yeast. However, with 5% addition of yeast, the taste, flavor and astringency attributes of wine were the least preferred when compared with others. The highest test score for taste, flavour and astringency properties was obtained for Treatment (T2). The time required for fermentation was 7 days at 28 ± 20C. The wine obtained with 15% (9.16% alcohol content) and 20% (10.25% alcohol content) yeast levels were found to have moderately acceptable scores
Isolation, Characterization and Purification of α-Galactosidase from Peas
Get PDFIn India, the peas are cultivated on a large scale. The α-galactosidase enzyme has principle applications in food industries and in the medical field. The α-galactosidase enzyme was purified from dry peas (Pisum sativum). The purification steps include acetone precipitation and DEAE-cellulose column chromatography. The enzyme has maximum activity at 40°C and optimum pH=7.5. The molecular weight of the enzyme was determined by using SDS-PAGE analysis and found to be 110 kDa. The purified enzyme was immobilized by sodium alginate and it was observed that the immobilized enzyme showed an increase in thermal tolerance
Construction of Novel Phytochelatins by Overlap Oligonucleotides
Get PDFSynthetic phytochelatins are protein analogs of phytochelatin with similar heavy metal binding affinities that can be easily produced from a synthetic DNA template. We design synthetic phytochelatin [(Glu-Cys)n Gly] linked to hexahistidine by viral linker peptide and then followed by gene synthesis and cloning of it. Then peptide coding gene (synthetic phytochelatin with linker and hexahistidine) was designed exactly and constructed with step by step methods by overlapping oligonucleotides using T4 DNA Ligase. Finally, synthesized gene amplified by PCR, cloned in pTZ57R/T and transformed to Escherichia coli (DH5α). The results of sequencing show that some types of synthetic phytochelatin (EC4, EC12, and EC20) with linker and hexahistidine were constructed and cloned in vector
The Effect of Different Organic Fertilizers in Various Compactness Levels on the Amount of Some Nutrients of Sport Lawn in spring
Get PDFLawn has an incredible role in designing and construction of landscape areas and lawn bed provides aeration, moisture and nutrients, which is essential for having an acceptance lawn, so the role of organic matter and degree of soil compactness need to be studied. In the current study, the effect of some bed mixtures including Leaf Mold (LM), Rice Husk (RH), manure, Spent Mushroom Compost (SMC), a mixture of LM, RH and SMC (mixture 1), a mixture of LM, RH and manure (mixture 2), with the ratio of 1:1:1 and control (no fertilizer), also the effect of some different soil compactness (roller weights of 36, 56 and 76 kilograms) on the content of some nutrients of sport lawn in spring season were investigated. Hence, an experiment was conducted as the strip plot design in three replications, in research farm of Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources during 2008-09. According to the results of this study, interaction of fertilizer and soil compactness was significant for most measured factors so that treatments containing manure showed the most nitrogen content in all three compactness levels. As well, in all three compactness levels, the high phosphorus content of plant was also found in manure treatment and the lowest in control and LM. Furthermore, manure, SMC, and treatments containing these two organic fertilizers showed increased potassium of plant toward control and LM
Diversity of Endophytic Actinomycetes from Wheat and its Potential as Plant Growth Promoting and Biocontrol Agents
Get PDFA total of 35 endophytic actinomycetes strains was isolated from the roots, stems and leaves tissues of healthy wheat plants and identified as Streptomyces sp. (24), Actinopolyspora sp. (3), Nocardia sp. (4), Saccharopolyspora sp. (2) Pseudonocardia (1) and Micromonospora sp. (1). Seventeen endophytic actinomycetes isolate showed abilities to solubilize phosphate and produce IAA in the range of 5 to 42mg/100ml and 18-42µg/ml respectively. Nineteen isolates produced catechol-type of siderophore ranging between 1.3-20.32µg/ml. Also, hydroxamate-type siderophore produced by 9 isolates in the range of 13.33-50.66µg/ml. Maximum catechol-type of siderophore production was observed in Streptomyces roseosporus W9 (20.32µg/ml) which was also displaying maximum antagonistic activity against ten different pathogenic fungi. The results indicated that internal tissues of healthy wheat plants exhibited endophytic actinomycetes diversity not only in terms of different types of isolates but also in terms of functional diversity
Diversity of Termitomyces in Kodagu and Need for Conservation
Get PDFTermites of the subfamily of Macrotermitinae have established an obligate symbiosis with the basidiomycete Termitomyces on substrate called a fungus garden or fungus comb inside the nest. An extensive exploration carried out during May 2009 to September 2010 at a different geographical location of Kodagu District, Karnataka. Eight different species of Termitomyces namely T. microcarpus, T. indicus, T. clypeatus, T. cylindricus, T. globulus, T. eurhizus, T. heimii and T. mammiformis were identified. The ecological significance of Termites and Termitomyces in Kodagu region of Karnataka and its role as a food for local communities has been discussed. All hotspot diversity of all species well recorded. Some strategy also recommended for conserving one of the rear examples of symbiosis on the earth. This is the first report on the occurrence and diversity of Termitomyces species in the Kodagu region of Karnataka
Effect of Seed Priming on Some Characteristic of Seedling and Seed Vigor of Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)
Get PDFIn order to investigate the effect of seed priming on some characteristic of seedling and seed vigor of tomato cultivar: ZD 610, an experiment was conducted base on randomized complete design with four replications at the applied agricultural science education center of Shahrood (Iran) greenhouse during 2010. Traits such as fresh weight of seedling, root length, shoot length, mean germination time (MGT) and final germination percentage (FGP). Treatment included Distilled water (dH2O), sodium chloride (NaCl-2%), salicylic acid (SA-60 ppm), acetylsalicylic acid (ASA-60 ppm), ascorbic acid (AsA-60 ppm), PEG-6000 and potassium nitrate (KNO3-5%), in darkness for 48 hours. The results indicated that the effect of priming treatments was significant. KNO3 in all of traits was better than other priming. The lowest fresh weight of seedling was observed in control and then H2O and NaCl. The minimum of root and shoot length was observed in NaCl treatment. The KNO3 treatment as a superior treatment introducing this experiment
Effect of L-Ascorbic Acid on the Glycogen Contents during Mercury Intoxication in the Freshwater Bivalve, Parreysia cylindrica
Get PDFFreshwater bivalve, Parreysia cylindrica was exposed to acute (0.6 ppm) and chronic (0.12 ppm) doses of HgCl2 and HgCl2 with several concentrations of ascorbic acid. Glycogen contents from mantle, foot, gills, gonads and digestive glands were estimated after 24 hours and 96 hours of acute and 7 days and 21 days of chronic exposure from each group of test animals. Depletion of glycogen contents in different tissues caused due to mercury stress was much more as compared to those exposed to HgCl2 with ascorbic acid