Journal of Applied and Natural Science
Not a member yet
2928 research outputs found
Sort by
Analysis of physico-chemical parameters of soil and population density of Azospirillum isolates from paddy fields of Theni district, Tamilnadu
Get PDFThe rhizosphere region of eight different paddy field areas of Theni district was studied for their physico-chemical analysis of soil and the population density of Azospirillum sp. The study results showed range of values of pH (7.4-7.9), bulk density (1.13g/cm3 -1.60g/cm3), water holding capacity (34.31% - 18.25%), electrical conductivity (1.31 – 1.11), organic carbon (0.93% - 0.71%) . The macronutrient values namely total nitrogen (1.72% - 0.78%), phosphorus content (0.177% - 0.122%) and potassium (1.364% - 1.273%) were observed. Also micronutrients of various paddy fields like Zn (0.9% - 0.5%), Cu (2.3% - 1.7%), Fe (10.9% -8.2%), Mn (6.7% - 5.2%) were recorded, whereas the values of available macronutrients namely nitrogen (295kg/ha - 223kg/ha), phosphorous (89Kg/acre - 49kg/acre), potassium (790kg/acre - 490kg/acre) were noted. The Azospirillum population density was highest in Chinnamanur (192 x105 CFU/g) and lowest in Royyanpatti (91 x105 CFU/g). Thus through this work we were able to isolate and identify novel high yielding Azosprillium sp from paddy fields of Theni district
Characterization of pectin extracted from Citrus reticulata L. Blanco collected from different altitudes of Sikkim Himalaya
Get PDFSikkim mandarin (Citrus reticulata) is most important cash crops of Sikkim Himalaya, a tiny state in North East India. The fruit is usually peeled off and eaten as desert used for extraction of juiceor processed for other products. The peel is thrown as waste, though it is rich commercially important essentialoil andpectin. The pectin can be obtained from the pulp waste after extraction of essential oil. The essential oil and pectin content is the effect of the climatic functions. In Himalayas, there is abrupt change in microclimate with change in the altitude. C. reticulata in Sikkim Himalayas grows at the altitudinal range of 800 to 1800 metre from mean sea level. During the present studies pectin was extracted from peel waste after extraction of essential oil. The fruits were collected from five different altitude range viz: 800-1000m, 1000-1200m, 1200-1400m, 1400-1600m and >1600m. FTIR works on the basis of functional group showed range from 3607 cm?1 (O-H stretch region) to 748cm?1 (C-H bend) in mature stage and 3585 cm?1(O-H stretch) to 883 (C-Cl stretch)cm?1 in immature stage. Moreover essential oil showed different compound identification. Limonene was found to be the highest at >1600m altitude (88.46%) at mature stage and (89.06%) at immature stage respectively. These variation may be due to different climatic condition and soil of the elevation. The overall results showed that the pectin can be beneficial for industrial use as well as in pharmaceutical health promotion and treatment. Further peel of the species can be evaluated for its rich content of limonene by different industries
Determination of anticholinesterase and antioxidant activities of methanol and water extracts of leaves and fruits of Chamaerops humilis L.
Get PDFThe present study was carried out to investigate the antioxidant activity of the water and methanol extracts of leaves and fruits extracts of Chamaerops humilis L. by using ABTS cation radicals and cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC). Anticholinesterase effect of the extracts was tested against both AChE and BChE using a microplate-reader assay based on the Ellman method. The methanol extracts of C. humilis leaves contained relatively higher content of flavonoids and total phenolics than those of fruits. All the extracts were found to have different levels of antioxidant activity in the systems tested. The leave extract showed the highest value of antioxidant activity, based on ABTS radical-scavenging activity, while the fruit water extract showed the highest value (0.53±0.50 µg/mL) of cupric reducing antioxidant activity. Our data indicates that both methanol and water fruit extract were active for BChE inhibition (31.65 ± 0.37 and 30.19 ± 0.56%) respectively, whereas, all leave extracts did not show any activity against BChE. The present study demonstrated that the methanol and water extracts fractions of C. humilis have different responses with different antioxidant methods. Our results suggest that the C. humilis could be used as a source of antioxidant agents and may be beneficial in the AD treatment
Evaluation of mass bathing effects on water quality status of eight prominent ponds of Haryana (India): A multi-location study
Get PDFAmongst the various anthropogenic activities, mass bathing and other religious rituals also affect the water quality of aquatic ecosystem. The present research has been conducted to evaluate the impact of mass bathing and other religious activities on the eight famous religious water bodies of Haryana (Kapalmochan tirth, Kulotarn tirth, Ban-Ganga tirth, Brahmsarovar, Jyotisar, Saraswati tirth, Phalgu tirth and Pandu-Pindara tirth). The water samples were collected from three sampling stations (A, B and C) at each of the eight selected sites (S1 to S8) before and after the religious rituals and also seasonally. The samples were analyzed for Dissolved oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) ammonia and heavy metals . The study highlighted the seasonal variations of physicochemical characteristics and also the effects of mass bathing and religious activities on water quality of the religious sites. Although the water was reported as safe in terms of DO content, total ammonia, BOD and the values of COD before the religious rituals but the values exceeded the maximum permissible limit {DO (0.8±0.1, 0.76±0.11), BOD (25.07±0.13, 18.13±0.13),COD (131.9±2.08), Ammonia (2.31±.23, 6.57±0.02) Iron (5890 µg L-1) and Zinc (200 µg L-1)} after mass bathing and religious rituals indicating that the water was not suitable for drinking as well as bathing purposes after the rituals/mass bathing. So, bathing during/after such rituals may become a health hazards to the bathers or users of the water and also may affect the aquatic biota, further depleting it. There is thus a need of regular monitoring and regular application of suitable remedial measures to prevent the depletion of the quality of lentic waters
Multiple metal tolerance of Paenibacillus dentritiformis isolated from metal contaminated soils west Godavari district (Andhra Pradesh): MUTLTIPLE METAL TOLERANCE OF PAENIBACILLUS DENTRITIFORMIS
No full textSugar industrial effluents possess high amounts of toxic pollutants and contaminate the receiving sites. Treatment of contaminated sites by using microorganisms provides an alternate to conventional methods hence demands in the identification of metal tolerant microorganisms has been increasing day by day. Therefore in this study soil samples collected from Tanuku sugar factory residual effluent point (bank of Gosthani river), west Godavari district A.P were analyzed for the bacterial tolerance to Copper (Cu), Zinc (Zn) and Lead (Pb) in their chloride forms. Additionally, the study was carried out to identify the metal tolerant bacteria by morphological, biochemical and 16S rRNA gene sequencing studies. Four potential bacterial isolates were selected to analyze metal tolerance against CuCl2, ZnCl2, and PbCl2. The sequences were compared with those in NCBI and submitted in gene bank with accession numbers MK100333 (Paenibacillus cookie), MK100334 (Bacillus cereus), MK100335 (Aneurini bacillus sp) and MK100387 (Paenibacillus sp.). A Phylogenetic tree was constructed to Paenibacillus sp. the highly efficient bacterial strain among the four isolates using MEGA 7 soft ware. The results of this study showed that P. dentritiformis had multiple metal tolerances (Cu, Zn and Pb) up to 500mg/L after 72 hrs. The identified bacterial strain proved to be the strong heavy metal tolerant bacterial strain. Hence, its usage will be helpful in the treatment of heavy metals specifically Cu, Zn and Pb contaminated soils and further optimization of these cultures is required to improve its metal resistant capacity
Sustainable agriculture: Trends and opportunities for 21st Century
Get PDFThe green revolution has been a major boost to the agriculture sector throughout the world including India. The food production of the country increased by many fold during the 1960s and 1970s and has continued to increase since then. But, the boom of green revolution could not last long as we witnessed stagnation in the productivity of our farm lands along with soil and crop health degradation. This forced the scientific and farming community to look for efficient and ecologically safe farming systems which led to the evolution of the concept of ‘sustainable agriculture’. Sustainable agriculture is a holistic concept of agriculture which helps in meeting the needs of the present generation without affecting the future generation. It helps in maintaining optimum crop production along with maintaining soil health, conservation of natural resources and preserving ecological balance and biodiversity in agroecosystems. This review aims to create a paradigm for future studies on new and innovative techniques for sustainable crop production
Sustainable dyeing of wool fabric with Talaromyces purpurogenus
Get PDFNatural dyes had been used by human being since ancient times for colouring of various materials including textiles. These were replaced completely by synthetic dyes, continuous use of which created the problem of pollution and environmental degradation. With the development of green technology and increased awareness of sustainability, the use of non-allergic, non-toxic and eco-friendly natural dyes on textiles has become a matter of significant importance. Among the natural sources of colourants, microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi have gained interest in the field of textile coloration. In the present study, the pigment solution yielded from growth of Talaromyces purpurogenus sp. on organic waste was used for dyeing of wool fabric. Under the dyeing conditions i.e. 1:30 M:L ratio, pH 5, 80º C temperature and 45 minutes dyeing time, the percent absorption could reach 57 %, 32%, 36% and 49% respectively. The wool fabric samples dyed with the fungal dye exhibited very good to excellent washing and rubbing fastness properties. The colour pigment obtained from fungal thus offered an opportunity to reduce impact on plant resources for dye source exploration. So it can be concluded from the study that a natural fungal dye could help to sustain the environment and to minimize the over exploitation of natural resources
Fractal analysis of colony margins as an aid for screening freshwater yeast cultures for bioclarification of turbid polluted water resources
Get PDFIn Iron ore mining areas of Goa, water resources are polluted due to high turbidity and mineral colloids. For bioclarification of the turbidity, we need to identify some promising property of strains by which the strains of freshwater yeasts can be screened. This work presents a screening of freshwater yeast cultures, based on the complexity of colony margins. We performed screening of the wild aquatic yeasts isolated from different fresh water bodies of Goa on 2nd, 4th and 6th day of incubation respectively. Colony margins of sixteen different strains were studied for their fractality indexes and on comparison significant differences were observed among them. We report comparative analysis of five representative strains in this paper. Particularly strain Bchlm-1-2 showed high fractality index approximately 1410 on 6th day of incubation. This work provides quantitative scoring system of the morphological behavior of large number of strains. Our approach has the potential to improve the accuracy and speed to quantify and compare large number of isolates on the basis of their colony margins. 
Effect of cadmium on glycogen content in muscle, liver, gill and kidney tissues of freshwater fish Channa punctatus (Bloch)
Get PDFAquatic environment gets polluted by heavy metals because of their environmental persistence and ability to bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms. Cadmium is a ubiquitous toxic heavy metal, biologically non-essential element, it is not biodegradable and has a very long biological half-life. The aim of the present study was to assess the glycogen content in muscle, liver, gill and kidney of Channa punctatus exposed to sublethal concentrations of cadmium chloride after 4, 7, 15 and 30 days of exposure. The results clearly showed significant decrease in the glycogen levels in the experimental fish C. punctatus. Decrease in muscle glycogen was found highly significant (P<0.001) after 30 days in both low concentration (36.823 mg/L) 6.12±0.41mg/g and in high concentration (73.646 mg/L) 4.04±0.32 mg/g in comparison to control. Decrease in liver glycogen content was found highly significant (P<0.001) after 30 days in high concentration 9.12±0.49 mg/g when compared with control. The decrease in gill glycogen content after 30 days exposure was found highly significant (P<0.001) 1.36±0.13 mg/g in low concentration and in high concentration 0.79±0.25 mg/g in comparison to control. Decrease in kidney glycogen content was found highly significant (P< 0.001) at 30 days in low concentration 3.92±0.05 mg/g and in high concentration 2.81±0.20 mg/g in comparison to control. The influence of toxicant cadmium chloride in selected tissues of fish was taken into account in evaluating fish response against stressor. Hence, we can use glycogen content as biomarker of cadmium stress in fish
Histopathological alterations in gills of freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium dayanum (Crustacea - Decapoda) after acute and sub-acute exposure of lead nitrate
Get PDFLead is a nonessential “grey listed” heavy metal, used in fuels, ceramics, paints and glass wares in industries and vehicles. After taking entry in aquatic ecosystem it becomes toxic and cause serious problem to plants and animals. Haematological, neurological, nephrological and histopathological effects of lead are well known. Fresh water prawn, Macrobrachium dayanum, a potential animal for freshwater aquaculture, subjected to acute and sub-acute concentration of lead nitrate (116.46 mg/l; 96h LC50 and 29.12 mg/l; 25% of 96h LC50) showed severe histopathological alterations in gills after 24, 48, 72 and 96h and 10, 20 and 30 day exposure. Chief alterations during acute exposure were thickening of gill plates, reduction in inter lameller spaces, cuticular irruption, inflammation and necrosis where as clumping of gill plates, hyperplasia, hypertrophied haemocytes with nuclear pycnosis and leakage of haemocytes in inter-lameller spaces as well as deposition of broken tissue debris near gill base were observed during sub-acute exposure. The severity of histopathological alterations was found duration dependant. Present study reveals that histological bio- markers provides complete information regarding heavy metal toxicity particularly lead to these economically important fresh water prawns, which can themselves serve as bio-indicator of worsening status of surface aquatic bodies.