EVALUATION OF CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY OF ETHYL ACETATE EXTRACT OF PIGMENT FROM PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA

Objective: Bacterial pigments have promising applications in food, cosmetics, textile, and therapeutics. Pigments from microbial origin are stable, safer, cost effective, easy production, and extraction and thus preferred over other natural sources. Under this backdrop, isolation and characterization of pigment-producing bacteria and analysis of bioactivity of the pigment were the aim of the study. From the literature studies, the pigment production was found to be influenced by various physical factors which directed the study toward optimization of physical parameters for pigment production. Methods: Isolation of pigment-producing bacteria from water sample, cultural, and microscopic identification was done as per the standard protocol. Extraction of pigment by solvent extraction was carried out and its antibacterial and cytotoxic activity was assayed. Results: Molecular characterization of the bacteria resembled the query sequence of the isolate to 99% with Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain. Extraction of pigment by solvent extraction method resulted in crude pigment extract with antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria (17 mm zone of inhibition) at 100 μg/ml concentration. Pigment showed dose-dependent inhibition on proliferation of HeLa cells at the concentration of 345.83 μg/mL. Conclusion: From the above results, it was evident that the pigment extracted from the bacterial isolate Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain JBT18N was therapeutically potential

Status of organic forming in agro ecosystems in India

Organic farming is the form of crop growing that relies on techniques like crop rotation, green compost, manure and biological pest control. This study was an initial attempt to know the status of organic farming in pesticide use predominant 28 districts in 12 Indian states. Doctors, pesticide vendors and agricultural officers of regions were interviewed to study the status of organic farming in the selected areas. Data were collected through pre-tested schedules by trained field investigators. A total of 1577 samples from 290 randomly selected villages were keyed in to Visual Basic front end in MS Access data base. In this study only 3% of the respondents across the country reported that they had practiced organic farming only, whereas 51% of respondents practiced chemical farming and 46% of respondents had taken up both organic and chemical farming. Appropriate research and extension services need to be developed to make available to farmers all the relevant information on organic farming

Research and Higher Education Scenario in Select Indian State Universities: An Analysis

This article presents results of an analysis of higher education and research scenario in ten state universities of India during 2000 to 2006. Calcutta University ranked first in terms of published research articles, on an average 664 articles in a year in peer reviewed national and international journals. Similarly Madras, Panjab, Rajasthan, Mysore, Gauhati, Pune, Mumbai, Patna and Sikkim Manipal Universities published 600, 582, 538, 328.33, 221, 184.33, 112.5, 47 and 5 articles respectively. The ratio of number of faculty to research publication varied from 1:0.05 to 1:1.9 in the selected universities. University of Madras, Panjab, Rajasthan and Calcutta have ratio more than 1:1. University of Madras received the maximum research funds of 41.46 crore rupees and ranked first among the selected ten universities. Considering the overall performance of universities in our analysis, Calcutta University and Madras University captured the first two places respectively

Farmer's health externalities in pesticide use predominant regions in India.

The use of pesticides in Indian agriculture, though beneficial in reducing crop loss both before and after harvest, has been associated with threats to human health often due to the misuse of these chemicals. This study was an initial attempt to explore health externalities of farmers and agricultural labourers in pesticide use predominant 28 districts in 12 Indian states. Doctors, pesticide vendors and agricultural officers of regions were interviewed to study the health externalities related to pesticide use. Data were collected through pre-tested schedules by trained field investigators. From a total sample size of 1577 and analysed. The results revealed a steady decrease in overall consumption of pesticides since 1990. About 19.4% of the respondents had experienced negative side effects on health after handling pesticides. The symptoms include headache, weakness, dizziness, fever, blurred vision, and nausea/vomiting. Most of the respondents are aware of pesticide-related symptoms and possible routes of absorption, during application of pesticides. Farmers make only short-term assessments of pesticides and spray these chemicals without taking proper protective clothing. Records on serious pesticide poisoning cases were available only in a few government hospitals, but such details were not even accessible from private hospitals as pesticide poisoning incidences are subjected to medico-legal cases. Training for agriculture and health workers in safety measures, recognition, and management of pesticide-related ill health is a matter of exigency. There is a tremendous scope for agricultural extension activity through which pesticide stewardship can be achieved in India

Innovations that Shaped Indian Agriculture-then and now

There are myriad innovations that have been part of agricultural transformation in India. This paper discusses various innovations and technological breakthroughs that took place in Indian agriculture during the British period and afterwards. Some of the innovations occurred inadvertently that are believed to have had higher impact on food production and livelihood security. Food security being India’s major concern under changing climatic scenario, the reasons for slow down in food grain production in recent past have been looked into with a major emphasis on rice and wheat crops and the possible solutions for overcoming this slow down have been discussed

Reading the agricultural landscape in a river basin: Integrating agro-ecological and social perspectives.

Agricultural landscape of a river basin is constituted by interlinkages between resources used and social relations, both within the basin and linking the basin to the non-basin areas. Expanding scarcities of land and water resources, and the human response to these scarcities, make it imperative to freshly examine these concepts of resource interrelationships, basin unity and stewardship concerns in an agrarian landscape of a river basin from an integrated agroecological and social perspective. The trajectories of change in agricultural resource use at the river basin is conceptualized as influenced by and carried out within multilevel networks of social relations that exchange resources and engage in reciprocal interactions within and outside the river basin

Farmers’ education and perception on pesticide use and crop economies in Indian agriculture

Intensive survey involving 1039 farmers belonging to 28 districts in 12 Indian states was carried out in pesticide use predominant regions to study the influence of farmer’s awareness, education and practices related to pesticide use as well as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) measures. Data were collected through pretested schedules by trained field investigators and the data were analysed by suitable statistical package (SPSS). The results revealed that though overall consumption of pesticide decreased, the expenditure incurred on pesticides remained high. Most of the respondents in the surveyed area followed their own spraying schedules and pesticide doses to manage ever increasing insect pests and disease problems. More than 50 % of the respondents applied both single and cocktail pesticides to manage their crop pests. Greater number of the literate farmers had strong perception on the negative impacts of pesticides on soil, water, air and beneficial organisms. Only 20 % of the respondents obtained their information on plant protection aspect from the agricultural extension officer and the rest of 80% of the farmers used unreliable information in crop production of surveyed areas. The respondents in the study regions were of the opinion that chemical methods of pest control are very effective in combating serious pest infestation. In the study area it was observed that only 3 % of the respondents followed organic farming in a successful way. The total area under organic farming in India is negligible. There is a tremendous scope for agricultural extension activity through which stewardship can be achieved in these pesticide predominant regions. Nevertheless, costs on ever increasing safety measures for pesticide applicators would be an additional burden which is to be considered seriously under resource poor small and medium holding systems in India

Occurrence and activity of cardamom pests and honeybees as affected by pest management and climate change

It has been conjectured that global warming will increase the prevalence of insect pests in most agroecosystems. The variability and possible trends in the occurrence and management of cardamom pests climatic variables and productivity were analyzed for cardamom agroforestry system. Analysis showed a general trend of decreasing temperature for temperature maximum since 2000. Year to year variation was noticeable for all parameters analyzed including relative humidity and soil temperatures (15 cm top soil layer) during 2000-2007. Contrary to the general agreement that recent warming had increased the prevalence of insect pests in majority of the agroecosystems, our results showed decreasing incidence of insect pests in cardamom agroforestry system because of calendar-based pesticide spraying. A decrease in natural enemy populations was observed. There has been an increase in number of pesticide sprays by at least one with the passage of each year. The reason for increased rounds of pesticides could be assigned to more prevalence and altered population dynamics of thrips and capsule borers during the study period. This situation has led to higher use of pesticides in cardamom agroecosystem

Prebiotic and Probiotic Fortified Milk in Prevention of Morbidities among Children: Community-Based, Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Trial

HN019 to milk, in preventing diarrhea, respiratory infections and severe illnesses, in children aged 1–4 years as part of a four group study design, running two studies simultaneously. HN019 (PP; n = 312). Children were followed up for 1 year providing data for 1–4 years. Biweekly household surveillance was conducted to gather information on compliance and morbidity. Both study groups were comparable at baseline; compliance to intervention was similar. Overall, there was no effect of prebiotic and probiotic on diarrhea (6% reduction, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: −1 to 12%; p = 0.08). Incidence of dysentery episodes was reduced by 21% (95% CI: 0 to 38%; p = 0.05). Incidence of pneumonia was reduced by 24% (95% CI: 0 to 42%; p = 0.05) and severe acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) by 35% (95% CI: 0 to 58%; p = 0.05). Compared to children in Co group, children in PP group had 16% (95% CI: 5 to 26%, p = 0.004) and 5% (95% CI: 0 to 10%; p = 0.05) reduction in days with severe illness and high fever respectively.Milk can be a good medium for delivery of prebiotic and probiotic and resulted in significant reduction of dysentery, respiratory morbidity and febrile illness. Overall, impact of diarrhea was not significant. These findings need confirmation in other settings