Bio Technology

The aim of the present study was to investigate the antimicrobial activity of the Cinnamomum cassia against the fungi, Penicillium notatum and Aspergillus niger. Cinnamomum cassia is the dried bark of an evergreen busy tree. It is commonly known as Cinnamon. Cinnamon bark is widely used as a spice. It is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavoring material. In the present study different concentration of the crude extracts samples of Cinnamomun cassia and media were prepared (i.e-10%, 20%, 30% and 40%) and one plate is maintained as Control which contains only MRBA(Martin Rose Bengal Agar) media and fungal culture, not the extracts of the Cinnamomum cassia, are poured onto the different petri plates. This was left to solidify for 20 minutes. With the help of cork borer one hole was made in the center of each petri plate. The Fungus cultures of A.niger and P.notatum with the help of cork borer were removed from the pure culture one by one. This was then inoculated onto the Petri plates containing different concentration of the Cinnamomum cassia samples. Petri plates were wrapped with paraffin and incubated .After incubation of 4days at room temperature with P.notatum and A.niger the growth of fungus was observed. It was observed that as increase in the concentration of the Cinnamomum cassia sample the growth is inhibited. The growth is very less at the 40% of the sample used. The growth was totally inhibited by the Cinnamon extract as 40% against the fungus P. notatum.

Albizzia lebbeck and Syzygium cumini are two natural plants with secondary metabolites and antioxidant properties, which was shown to have a diabeto-protective effect in animal experiments. There were major reductions in the levels of endogenous antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase, catalase and reduced glutathione after 30 days of experimental period with STZ suggesting the generation of free radicals in animals. The co-administration of aqueous, methanolic and methanolic fraction of aqueous extract of Albizzia lebbeck and Syzygium cumini significantly increased these antioxidant enzymes and reduced the elevated serum levels of malondialdehyde in the experimental animals. The established diabetoprotective actions of various extracts of Albizzia lebbeck and Syzygium cumini in experimental hepatic injury in rats widens the scope for further investigations in the field of research on other models either alone or in combination with other herbal molecules with proven diabeto-hepato-protective action in clinical practice.

The production of extracellular ?-amylase by thermotolerant Bacillus amyloliquefaciens was studied under solid state fermentation (SSF). Various agro- byproducts namely Wheat flour, Barley flour, Corn flour, Gram flour, Moong husk, Arhar husk, Mustard oil cake, coconut oil cake, Banana peel, Potato peel, Sweet Potato peel, Soybean hull, Wheat bran, Rice bran, and Sugarcane baggase were examined for ?- amylase production. Wheat flour was found to be best substrate for amylase production (145.56 IU/ml) in phosphate buffer as extracting medium. Further, the appropriate incubation period, moisture level, incubation temperature and inoculum concentration was determined. Maximum yields of 149.62 IU/ml, 144.64 IU/ml, 173.28 IU/ml, 164.48 IU/ml were achieved by employing wheat flour as substrates at temperature 37°C, pH 7, moisture content 80% and incubation period 72 h. The inoculums concentration 4ml (106cfu/ml) and phosphate concentration 0.03M were found to enhance ?- amylase yield. Media supplementation with carbon source as maltose in SSF medium increased amylase enzyme yield (167.44 IU/ml). Organic nitrogen (tryptone) and inorganic source (ammonium chloride) supplementation showed a higher enzyme production 169.16 IU/ml and 167.11 IU/ml respectively.

A total of ten plant samples of Rhus mysorensis (Darsan) from unique locations of Sanganer region of Rajasthan were collected for isolation of fungal endophytes. Of these, maximum frequency of Fusarium species (26.33 %) were recorded which are morphologically similar but ecologically variant. The present paper discusses the diversity of Fusarium species (Fusarium oxysporum & Fusarium roseum) within the Rhus mysorensis plant samples of unique location of sanganer region of rajasthan on the basis of frequency distribution and occurrence.

Aeromonas species are ubiquitous bacteria in terrestrial and aquatic milieus. They are becoming renowned as enteric pathogens of serious public health concern as they acquire a number of virulence determinants that are linked with human diseases, such as gastroenteritis, septicaemia, and skin diseases. Identification of Aeromonads to the species level is problematic and complex due to their phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity. With the aim of clarifying taxonomic relationships among the strains, Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic sequence (REP) was used as molecular marker for biotyping Aeromonas strains isolated from surface and sub- surface soil sediments from Forest ecosystem. Out of a collection of 120 strains isolated from surface and sub-surface soil sediments, 15 strains were confirmed as Aeromonas based on phenotypic fingerprinting obtained from 69 biochemical tests. Genetic diversity among Aeromonas sp. was determined by analysing their REP fingerprint patterns using NTSYS pc software package and UPGMA cluster method. Considerable amount of genetic diversity was observed among the isolated strains. Furthermore, dendrogram demonstrated the existence of distinctive clusters at various similarity levels. These fingerprinting techniques can therefore be used to recognize the relatedness of strains derived from clinical and environmental isolates, which helps in further characterization of factors/genes responsible for the disease.

The present study deals with the isolation of polyurethane (PU) degrading microorganisms from the soil, analysis of biodegradation and optimization of various factors (temperature, pH and by using different co-metabolites). Soil sample was collected from dumping area, Sector H/8, Islamabad, Pakistan and was used as a source for isolation of polyurethane degrading bacteria. Sterilized polyurethane films were buried in soil for three months. The PU pieces were taken from the soil, washed with sterilized distilled water and enriched in liquid MSM for a period of one month. Six different bacterial strains were isolated through enrichment technique, which were identified on the basis of standard morphological and biochemical tests. The study yields that the bacteria with the ability to degrade polyurethane were isolated from soil. It is therefore concluded that soil contains the potential candidates for bioremediation of plastic wastes.

Solanum nigrum Linn. (Solanaceae) has been extensively used in traditional medicine and other parts of the world to cure liver disorders, chronic skin ailments (psoriasis and ringworm), inflammatory conditions, painful periods, fevers, diarrhea, eye diseases etc.Present study showed that the ethanolic extract of Solanum nigrum which contain highest amount of flavonoids and phenolic compounds so can exhibit the greatest antioxidant activity and among other extract used for the study. Solanum nigrum species contain the highest phenol and Flavonoids, thus can be used to explore new drugs. The results revealed that there is relation between phenol and flavonoids content with antioxidant activities.

Environmental contamination by textile dye effluents is of greater concern nowadays. The use of biological process for its elimination is a convenient way to get rid of it. This study sought to explore the potential use of bacterial isolates from textile dye contaminated soil in the degradation of the dyes. Different optimizing parameters such as pH, temperature and concentration have been worked out to find out the effective degradation. The work involved isolation of isolates (S1,S2 and S3) for the degradation of three different dyes (Black B1, BlueNE2RL, and Red BS11) at different parameters such as pH (pH6, pH7 and pH8), Temperature ( Room temperature and Incubation temperature) and Concentration (5mg/l and 10mg/l). The results show varying degree of degradation under various optimizing conditions. The optimal conditions for the effective degradation for all three dyes were found to be at neutral pH and slightly acidic pH, at incubation temperature and at concentration of 5mg/l. Thus this study demonstrates means of developing a management strategy based on the biodegradation process for the effective removal of persistent textile dye.

Natural products remain either the source of the inspiration for a significant proportion of the new small molecule chemical entities introduced as drugs. Actinomycetes are the largest antibiotic producing genus in the microbial world discovered so far. The number of antimicrobial compounds reported from the different species of actinomycetes per year has increased almost exponentially for about two decades. As marine environment are different from terrestrial it is concluded that marine actinomycetes might produce various types of novel bioactive compounds and enormous antibiotics. The objectives of this study is to isolate actinomycetes from salt pans of Marakanam to optimize and screen the production of secondary metabolites from the isolated, two isolated selected actinomycetes and to the check the antimicrobial activity of these metabolites against pathogens. Out of 30 actinomycetes isolates Ros11 and Ros25 were screened and characterized based on antimicrobial properties. The secondary metabolites were extracted from Ros 11 and Ros 25 by chemical solvents, ethyl acetate and acetone. Using well diffusion method it was observed that secondary metabolites of Ros 25 formed maximum inhibition zones, 10mm, 12mm and 15mm against Staphylococcus aureus and fungal pathogens Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus fumigates, respectively. The Ros 25 isolate could be the better candidate for the production of antibacterial and antifungal compounds.

Hepatoprotective activity and antioxidant status of ethanolic extracts of 200,400,600 mg/kg of Alpinia purpurata rhizome was evaluated against Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) in rats. Acute and short-term toxicity studies were performed initially in order to ascertain the safety of ethanolic extracts of Alpinia purpurata rhizome. After 48 hrs of CCl4 induced, the extract was administered daily for 15 days. After administration of the last dose followed by 18 h fasting, rats were then sacrificed for observation of hepatoprotective activity. The effect of ethanolic extracts of Alpinia purpurata on the CCl4 treated rats. Ethanolic extract showed significant (p<0.05) hepatoprotective effect by lowering the serum levels of various biochemical parameters such as serum glutamic oxaloacetate transaminase (SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvate transaminase (SGPT), alkaline phospatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TBL), total cholesterol (CHL) in the selected model and liver biochemical parameters (lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzymes) were estimated. These biochemical observations were in turn confirmed by histopathological examinations of liver sections and are comparable with the standard hepatoprotective drug Silymarin (25.0 mg/kg body weight, p.o) which served as a positive control. Treatment with ethanolic extracts of Alpinia purpurata decreased the levels of lipid peroxidation and increased the levels of glutathione, superoxide dismutase and catalase. The ethanolic extracts of Alpinia purpurata rhizome exhibited hepatoprotective effect by modulating lipid peroxidation and augmenting antioxidant defense system in CCl4 treated rats.