Biological Efficacy of Essential Oils and Plant Extracts of Cultivated and Wild Ecotypes of Origanum vulgare L.

Current study describes discrepancy in biological efficacy of methanolic and ethanolic extracts and essential oil procured from cultivated and wild accessions of Origanum vulgare. Simultaneously, quantification of carvacrol, thymol, caryophyllene, ocimene, and terpinen-4-ol contents was determined via GC-MS and GC in both accessions. The results revealed significantly a higher antioxidant potential by methanolic extracts displaying IC50 of 19.9 μg/ml compared to essential oil with IC50 of 10 μg/ml, and ethanolic extracts were found to be less effective even at the concentration of 3 μg/ml. However, essential oil from wild and cultivated accessions of O. vulgare exhibited significantly high antimicrobial activity against all 39 bacteria, 16 fungi, and 2 yeast species tested due to higher concentrations of carvacrol and thymol as revealed by GC analysis. Inhibition of tyrosinase activity in a C6 cell line displayed 81.0%–87.0% depigmentation potential of the methanolic extracts, while ethanolic extracts revealed a maximum of 88.54–99.02% inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in H2O2-treated cells. Hence, the study determines efficacy of essential oil against microbial pathogenesis, methanolic extracts as potent depigmentation agents, and ethanolic extracts as potent free radical scavenger

Effect of fertilizer nitrogen and varied C:N ratio of mushroom compost on rice yield and nitrogen forms of soil

Field experiment was conducted to evaluate effect of spent mushroom composts of varied C:N ratio with and without fertilizer nitrogen on yield, nitrogen uptake and nitrogen forms in rice grown on the Inceptisol of Allahabad. Nitrogen mineralization from oyster spent mushroom compost (OYSMC) was slower than from white button spent mushroom compost (WBSMC) when used alone or with mineral fertilizer nitrogen. Ammonia nitrogen dominated over nitrate nitrogen among mineral nitrogen forms. The highest accumulation of nitrate and ammonia nitrogen occurred under conjunctive use of narrow C:N ratio WBSMC with mineral fertilizer nitrogen. Hydrolysable nitrogen content generally decreased with use of mineral fertilizer nitrogen, compared to varied C:N ratio composts. An increase in the organic nitrogen forms, i.e. nitrogen contained in amino sugars, amino acids and ammonia nitrogen was conditioned primarily on t he application of composts. Crop yield was even lower than control when wider C:N ratio OYSMC was used but highest yield was obtained by supplying nitrogen through WBSMC and mineral fertilizer nitrogen. Application of WBSMC 5 t/ha can produce a rice yield comparable with that produced from application of fertilizer nitrogen 90 kg/ha