Phytoremediation of heavy metals using Brassica juneca-A Review

Remediation of contaminated sites with toxic and heavy metals is particularly a challenging task. Therefore pre-treatment is needed before the discharge of these effluents. Among all method investigated presently, Phytoremediation is found to be an emerging and most innovative tool for removal of environmental contaminants such as heavy metals, trace elements, radioactive compounds and organic compounds from soil or water. It has been proposed as a cost-effective and environmental friendly technique. It involves the use of either naturally occurring metal hyper accumulator plants or genetically engineered plants. Indian mustard known as Brassica juncea is well known hyper accumulator. This paper aims to compile some information about sources of heavy metals and their toxicity. It also reviews deeply about phytoremediation technology, including the heavy metal uptake mechanisms and several case studies associated with Brassica juneca

Challenges and Responsibilities in Successful Management of Municipal Solid Wastes in India

Management of Municipal Solid wastes (MSW) is a genuine problem to all Municipal Corporations irrespective to their size, population or financial condition in India. Scientific technologies are available for pollution free hygienic disposal of all biodegradable solid wastes by converting them to good quality compost and also for systematic recycling of non-biodegradable wastes for their beneficial utilization. Machineries are also available for converting Municipal solid wastes to energy for partial fulfillment of highly demanded electricity. But still all Municipal Corporation in India mainly depend on old open dumping of solid wastes in some low lying dump-yards creating known environmental pollution hazards. The Municipal authority, the district administration and the common citizens have to play a constructive role for overcoming this problem. Important challenges faced by Municipal authorities all over India are non-preparedness to handle huge quantity of MSW generated daily, lacking of awareness by common people on benefits of segregation of MSW at source, non-availability of infrastructure as well as expert / skilled manpower for scientific disposal of MSW, accurate forecasting about city wise MSW generation and proper encouragement to Public – private partnership (PPP) model for efficient management of MSW. Everyone is essential part of this management system. Citizens have to take the responsibility for segregating solid wastes at home before handing over to Municipal workers and for refraining themselves from throwing out any solid wastes. Municipal corporations have to consider MSW as important resource material, use it for beneficial purposes through vermicomposting and recycling, and to stop dumping of MSW at outskirt by unnecessary spending money on its transportation. It is mainly found that installation of costly machinery for mechanical composting and electricity generation have sometimes become not 2 much fruitful to Municipal authorities due to lack of their expertise as well as maintenance and repairing problem of machineries. Scientific disposal with the help of NGOs and Entrepreneurs are found more effective, employment generative and cheaper than adopting costly mechanical system. Paradigm shift in thought process of every citizen can change the situation of management of municipal solid waste successfully

Impact of Sewage on Seed Germination and Growth of Kharif and Rabi Crops

Wastewater is an effective source for irrigation of crop. Sewage generated from a hostel of Thapar University campus, Patiala was used for growing Kharif crops (Lady Finger & Pearl millet) and Rabi crops (Wheat, Fenugreek, Mustard & Cluster bean) for 35 days in plastic cups at laboratory scale. When sewage was applied at 50%, 100% individually, the dilution of 50% supported better growth of crops. Both sewage and soil used showed absence of metal constituents and hence non-possibility of their accumulation in the grown crops. Germination period of crop was observed and it was found different from crop to crop, four days in Lady finger as against eight days in Fenugreek. The biomass was higher in Kharif crops than was in Rabi crops. Composition of soil was estimated and it was found that the nutrients (organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) had enriched the treated soil besides aiding the growth of crop. The study was found promising suggesting that the sewage could be used as an irrigating medium for crops. However, several growth parameters are to be optimized before sewage is tried for application at commercial scale

Occupational Hazards and their Impact On Workers In Pulp and Paper Industries

The use of numerous synthetic chemicals and other aspects of constructed environment in paper industry have become a matter of concern to the environmentalists. Several studies have revealed that chemical industries are associated with health hazards. However, precious little data is available about the effects of such environment on the health of workers in these industries. Therefore, present study was aimed to investigate the existence of various psychological disorders and physical ailments in workers exposed to hazardous environment in factory premises. The data was collected on a specially designed survey performa from different pulp and paper industries. It was found that the workers were provided with protecting devices but most of them do not use them because of unawareness and climatic discomfort. In order to check the effectiveness of protecting/preventives devises, the workers were divided into two categories : (i) directly exposed (not taking preventive measures) and (ii) indirectly exposed (taking preventive measures) against these conditions vis-à-vis their health (healthy and sick), working conditions (good & poor) and job satisfaction (satisfied and unsatisfied). The extent of correlation amongst health, work environment and job satisfaction has been studied by using Youle’s Coefficient of association and to test the significance of association, Chi-square test of independence of attributes was deployed. The comparison of the two categories was made by using test of proportions. The statistical significance of the differences of the two categories of workers vis-a-vis their physical and mental health was studied by using test of proportions (Z-test). It was found that with the exception of the association between job satisfaction and physical health, which is moderately positive, there is high degree of positive association amongst job satisfaction-mental health and work environment; work environment-physical and mental health

Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles by Using Pomegranate and Their Antimicrobial Activity-A Revolution

The Pomegranate, punica granatum belongs to the family lythraceae is an ancient fruit. The present study has attempted to analyze the work done by different researchers on green synthesis of silver nanoparticles and their characterization by different techniques like UV-Visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Tunnling electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction method (XRD). The antimicrobial activity were also analyzed in the present paper

Phytochemical Study of Nothapodytes foetida by LC-ESI-MS

In the present study, hyphenated technique using dyad system of high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection directly coupled with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) has been employed for identification of camptothecines and some minor constituents of methanol extract from different parts of Nothapodytes foetida on the basis of systematic mass spectrum analysis without isolation and purification of these components. Also, a simple, precise, sensitive and reproducible LC-MS method has been developed for quantification of camptothecin (CPT), a potent cytotoxic isoquinoline alkaloid, in methanol extract from these different parts of Nothapodytes foetida using the same technique

Soil Property Variations Under Different Land Use/ Cover Types In Traditional Agricultural Landscape In Northeast India

Clearing of forests and their subsequent conv ersion into croplands greatly influence soils in terms of its water holding capacity, structure stability and compactness, nutrient supply and storage as well as its biological life. Consequently, many agricultural soils in the tropics are now below their potential levels. In this paper we are reporting that there is expansion of agricultural land use in Northeast India at the expense of forest area in order to meet increasing human population and market demands. New land use/ cover types are also being introduced for commercial and well as subsistence purpose. On the other hand fallow period of shifting agriculture has been reduced. We suggest that a minimum fallow period of seven years is necessary sufficiency of soil nutrients and vegetation in this humid subtropical mountain landscape of Northeast India

Molecular Interaction Studies of Aqueous Acetonitrile Solutions Using Ultrasonic Technique

Density (ρ), viscosity (η) and ultrasonic velocity (u) of aqueous acetonitrile solutions were measured as functions of concentration at 308.15K. The measured data of ρ, η and u have been used to calculate various acoustical and thermodynamic parameters viz. adiabatic compressibility (β ad ), intermolecular free length (L f ), acoustic impedance (Z), relaxation time (τ), rao’s constant (R M ), wada’s constant (W), free volume (V f ), absorption coefficient (α/f 2 ), gibb’s free energy (∆G), relative association (R a ) and available volume (V a ). These parameters help out in elucidating the molecular association in the mixture. The variation of these parameters with concentration of solute indicates the nature of interaction present in the binary mixtur

Antibacterial Activity of Terminalia Chebula Fruit by Agar well Diffusion Method

Antibacterial activity of ethanolic, acetonic and chloroform extract of the fruit of Terminalia Chebula were studied against Escherichia Coli and Staphylococcus aureus by agar well diffusion method. Results obtained showed that the growth of both coli and S. anreus were inhibited by all the three extracts of dried fruit of Terminalia Chebula . The antibacterial activity against selected strains depends on the type of solvent used for extraction and the bacterial stain tested. The results revealed that Terminalia Chebula can be exploited for new potent antibacterial agents

Carbon Footprint of Public Transportation – A Case Study of Religious Tourism to Shri Mata Vaishano Devi Shrine in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

The rates of increment in G h Gs concentrations in the atmosphere are extraordinarily high, far exceeding their natural sequestration rates. Transportation accounts to 19% of the global energy use and 23% of all the C o 2 emissions globally, a bout 75% of these emissions come from cars and trucks. i n i ndia, transportation sector consumes about 17% of total energy and produces 60% of G h G emissions, estimated at around 261 Tg of C o 2 , of which 94.5% is contributed by road transport. Travel and tourism, one of the largest industries in the world is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Religious tourism in particular, is an important cultural and traditional heritage of i ndia. This paper is a case study to estimate the individual carbon footprints of pilgrims travelling s hri m ata Vaishano Devi s hrine in k atra, Jammu and k ashmir. The analysis considers individual emissions from different modes of transportation viz. train, bus, taxi/auto-rickshaw and air travel using equivalent carbon emission factors