Assessment of Phytochemicals, Antioxidant Activity and Enzyme Production of Endophytic Fungi Isolated from Medicinal Plant Sources

Endophytic fungi are mitosporic and meiosporic ascomycetes that asymptomatically reside in the internal tissues of plants beneath the epidermal cell layer, where fungi colonise healthy and living tissue via quiescent infections. Endophytes are important components of microbial diversity. Endophytic fungi isolated from medicinal plants more likely exhibit pharmaceutical potentials. These plentiful natural products isolated from endophytes represent a huge reservoir which offers an enormous potential for exploitation for medicinal, agricultural and industrial uses. There has been a great interest in endophytic fungi as potential producers of novel, biologically active products. Endophytes are believed to carry out a resistance mechanism to overcome pathogenic invasion by producing secondary metabolites. Globally, there are at least one million species of endophytic fungi in all plants which can potentially provide a variety of structurally unique natural products such as alkaloid, benzopyranones, chinones, flavanoids, phenols, steroids, xanthones and others. Therefore, there is an ample opportunity to unearth novel and interesting endophytic microorganisms with significant therapeutic efficacy. The objectives of our current study are to isolate endophytic fungi from specific medicinal plants found locally and carry out their characterization and isolation, followed by qualitative and quantitative assessment of secondary metabolites produced by them and study their antioxidant and enzyme activities. The present study, therefore would highlight the growing concept that the bioactive compounds produced by the endophytes not only establishes host endophyte relationship but also have an immense chance of application in the field of medicine, agriculture and industry

Resilience of Healthcare Providers during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Rapid Assessment using Digital Platform

Introduction: Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic exposed the health workforce to an unprecedented occupational hazard. While taking care of patients they always had to be conscious simultaneously for safeguarding themselves and their family members against the highly infectious virus. In West Bengal, cases were first reported in the last week of March-2020 and reached the peak around October-2020 in the first wave, once the lockdown was lifted. During the initial months, the staggering number of cases, prevailing uncertainty over case management, and untimely demise of colleagues and relatives, took their toll on the physical and mental health of doctors, paramedics, or support staff, both in the government and private sectors. Aim: To measure perceived stress, resilience and psychological well-being of healthcare providers using standard psychometric tools. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study carried out among healthcare workers in hospitals located in West Bengal, India. A self-administered questionnaire was circulated through a digital platform between June-November 2020. The questionnaire was designed using Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), Kessler-6 (K6), and Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) to assess perceived stress, psychiatric morbidity, and resilience of the person. It had three parts, one to capture socio-demographic details of the participants including age, sex, marital status, occupation, family history of psychiatric morbidity, place of stay etc. Second part consisted of psychometric scales and third was designed to capture the views of participants on the coping strategies. Calculated sample size was 189. Results: Based on standard cut-off values, it was found that 65.6% subjects were under moderate or severe stress; 56.6% had compromised mental well-being and 64% were not coping well with the pandemic situation. PSS were significantly poor for females (p-value <0.001), single (p-value <0.001) and those without history of psychiatric morbidity (p-value <0.001) and low resilient copers (p<0.0001). Mental well-being was compromised more among married (p-value=0.01), doctors (p-value=0.008), aged <40 years (p-value=0.003), high resilient copers (p-value=0.02). Popular means of stress reliever were music and yoga/exercise. Correct and updated knowledge on disease transmission, availability of personal protective equipment, pursuing hobbies like music and gardening were few suggested measures to improve coping with stress associated with patient care. Conclusion: The study revealed that majority of the health workers experienced moderate to heavy degree of stress and compromised psychological well-being during the first wave of pandemic. Relationship of stress and psychological well-being with resilience and socio-demographic variables was not always linear

pi-Conjugation and conformation in a semiconducting polymer: small angle x-ray scattering study

Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) in poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) solution has shown the important role of pi-electron conjugation in controlling the chain conformation and assembly. By increasing the extent of conjugation from 30 to 100 %, the persistence length (l_p) increases from 20 to 66 Angstrom. Moreover, a pronounced second peak in the pair distribution function has been observed in fully conjugated chain, at larger length scales. This feature indicates that the chain segments tend to self-assemble as the conjugation along the chain increases. Xylene enhances the rigidity of PPV backbone to yield extended structures, while tetrahydrofuran solvates the side groups to form compact coils in which the l_p is much shorter.Comment: accepted (J. Phy. Cond. Mat.

Industrial Solid Waste as A Source of Nanomaterial Synthesis

&lt;p&gt;There has been an increase in waste resulting from industrialization and urbanization, which directly impacts the environment and human health. Proper utilization of the waste generated by various industries must be initiated to minimize the pollution caused by these industries. To do this, we must adopt a sustainable approach. Nanomaterials can be synthesized from industrial waste as one example of such an approach. An in-depth look at the various methods involved in converting industrial waste into valuable nanomaterials is the focus of this chapter. Waste generated from the steel industry, the plastic industry, the textile industry, the electroplating industry, the mining industry, the paint manufacturing industry, the battery manufacturing industry, the paper and pulp industry, and many others are used as raw materials for manufacturing nanomaterials. Nanomaterials synthesized from industrial waste have been effectively used for wastewater treatment, fluoride removal, environmental pollutant remediation, and carbon nanotubes, among other uses. It is essential to conduct more research to minimize waste generated during production processes and repurpose waste to convert it into wealth.&lt;/p&gt

Effectiveness of Cadmium on Biochemical Shift of Pea Plant Treated with Mycorrhiza and Putrescine

Heavy metals like cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), bismuth (Bi), and arsenic (As) are potent and harmful poisonous sources that cause havoc on health conditions for the population of the world. However, the response of our crop species to these potent heavy metals-related toxicity is still left to be fully understood. It is a matter of great concern, as we are heavily dependent on crop species like rice, wheat, peas, etc. Our study here aims to learn about the defensive mechanism of Pisum sativum L. aided with putrescine and mycorrhiza against the stress created by Cd-related toxicity. We quantified physiological parameters such as the membrane-related injury and stability index. We further measured the total free proline content, lipid peroxidation content, and SOD activity. We executed our quantitative experiments on the stressed pea plants due to the exogenously applied Cd-toxicity in the presence and absence of mycorrhiza and putrescine. Insights of our significant results will improve the understanding of readers of the role of mycorrhiza and putrescine in improvising the tolerance level of a pea plant over Cd-related toxicity

Genetic diversity and population structure analysis of Kala bhat (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) genotypes using SSR markers

Abstract Background Kala bhat (Black soybean) is an important legume crop in Uttarakhand state, India, due to its nutritional and medicinal properties. In the current study, the genetic variabilities present in Kala bhat were estimated using SSR markers and its variability was compared with other improved soybean varieties cultivated in Uttarakhand state, India. Results Seventy-five genotypes cultivated in different districts of Uttarakhand were collected, and molecular analysis was done using 21 SSR markers. A total of 60 alleles were amplified with an average of 2.85 alleles per locus. The mean value of gene diversity and PIC was estimated to be 0.43 and 0.36, respectively. The unrooted phylogenetic tree grouped soybean genotypes into three major clusters, where, yellow seed coat (improved varieties) genotypes were grouped in one cluster, while reddish brown (improved varieties) and Kala bhat showed intermixing. Population structure divided the soybean genotypes into six different populations. AMOVA analysis showed 12% variance among the population, 66% variance among individual and 22% variance was observed within individuals. Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) also showed that yellow seed coat genotypes were grouped in one cluster, whereas, the Kala bhat showed scattered distribution and few genotypes of Kala bhat showed grouping with red and yellow genotypes. Conclusions The different genetic diversity parameters used in the present study indicate that Kala bhat genotypes were more diverse than the yellow seed coat and brown seed coat colour genotypes. Therefore, Kala bhat genotypes can be a good source for the soybean breeding programme due to its better genetic diversity as well as its medicinal properties

Modified conformation and physical properties in conducting polymers due to varying conjugation and solvent interactions

Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies of poly2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) with varying conjugation, and polyethylene dioxythiophene complexed with polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT-PSS) in different solvents have shown the importance of the role of pi-electron conjugation and solvent-chain interactions in controlling the chain conformation and assembly. In MEH-PPV, by increasing the extent of conjugation from 30 to 100%, the persistence length (l(p)) increases from 20 to 66 angstrom. Moreover, a pronounced second peak in the pair distribution function has been observed in the fully conjugated chain, at larger length scales. This feature indicates that the chain segments tend to self-assemble as the conjugation along the chain increases. In the case of PEDOT-PSS, the chains undergo solvent induced expansion and enhanced chain organization. The clusters formed by chains are better correlated in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution than water, as observed in the scattered intensity profiles. The values of radius of gyration and the exponent (water: 2.6, DMSO: 2.31) of power-law decay, obtained from the unified scattering function (Beaucage) analysis, give evidence for chain expansion from compact (in water) to an extended coil in DMSO solutions, which is consistent with the Kratky plot analysis. The mechanism of this transition and the increase in dc conductivity of PEDOT-PSS in DMSO solution are discussed. The onset frequency for the increase in ac conduction, as well as its temperature dependence, probes the extent of the connectivity in the PEDOT-PSS system. The enhanced charge transport in PEDOT-PSS in DMSO is attributed to the extended chain conformation, as observed in the SAXS results

Formulation and chemical characterization of Clerodendrum infortunatum leaf extract in relation to anti-fungal activity

The study explored to develop an eco-friendly herbal fungicide from chloroform extract of Clerodendrum infortunatum leaves. The extract upon activity guided purification using flash chromatography yielded eight fractions F3 through F10. Total phenol and flavonoid contents in the fractions ranged from 0.12-48.25 mg GAE/g and 0.03–25.29 mg QE/g. LC-MS/MS analysis confirmed the identification of seven phenolic acids across different fractions, the total of which varied between 0 and 2.17 mg/g. Emulsifiable Concentrate (20%) formulation was made with the extract and fractions and tested against Phomopsis vexans causing fruit rot disease in brinjal. Of the various fractions, F8 displayed highest antifungal activity (ED50 = 46.8 μg/ml). Antifungal activity of leaf extract/fractions was correlated with total phenol, total flavonoid and total phenolic acids (r = -0.60 to -0.69). Among the phenolic acids, benzoic acid showed maximum antifungal activity followed by t-cinnamic acid. The relationship between phenolic composition and activity is also reported