Comparative Assessment of Soil Quality at the Defence Establishments

The present study was carried out to adjudge the soil quality of two sites at the defence establishments in India. Various soil samples were collected from the surface and up to 20 cm depth (subsurface) as per apportioned gridding method. These samples were subjected to air drying for 15 days and were characterised for various parameters. The soil is clayey and loamy with granular blocky structure on both the sites.  The pH ranged from 7.1 to 7.72 0.1 for site I and from 5.5 to 8.0 f 0.1 for site 11; salinity and bulk density ranged from 0.1 per cent to 8 per cent and from 1.2 glcm3 to 1.5 g/cm3, respectively and soil moisture was about 0.4 f 1 per cent for both the sites. Similarly, total Kjeldahl nitrogen ranged from 1100 mg kg-' to 1900 mg kg-' for site I and 1700 mg kg-' to 9000 mg kg ' for site I1 and total organic carbon ranged from 18 mg g-' to 75 mg g ' for both the sites. A good correlation between nitrate concentration and various explosive process activities has been observed which gives substantial evidence in terms of contamination of the soil. High performance liquid chromatography analysis, which shows varied concentrations of RDX-HMX, NB, DNB, DNT, and TNT in the respective ranges 0.003-2.300 rng g-1, 0.002-0.350 mg g~1, 0.002-0.550 mg g-1, 0.004-0.041 mg g-1 and 0.010- 0.050 mg g-1 for site 1 and 0.002 - 0.013 mg g-1, 0.005 - 0.350 mg g-1, 0.003 - 0.080 mg g-1, 0.001- 0.100 mg g-1, 0.0001- 0.044 mg g ~a1n d 6*10-6- 0.080 mg g-1 for sites I1 has also indicated the contamination of soil by nitro-organics. These results serve as a valuable database for an ongoing project on the development of phytoremediation technology to detoxify such sites

Chromatographic determination of bioactive compounds in Hippophae leaf extracts: a comparative study of three varieties.

Seabuckthorn plants (Hippophae Linn), belonging to the family Elaeagnaceae have shown diverse therapeutic potential and the adaptogenic activity of some of the species have also been established in our previous studies. The present study aims to characterize aqueous and alcoholic leaf extracts of three different varieties of seabuckthorn, namely, Hippophae salicifolia, Hippophae rhamnoides mongolica and Hippophae rhamnoides turkestanica and evaluate their antioxidant potential in vitro. An elaborate characterization of phytochemicals such as volatile organic compounds (VOC) and flavonoids occurring in the concerned extracts has been carried out by GC-MS and HPTLC respectively. GC-MS demonstrated the presence of 35 distinct VOCs in the seabuckthorn leaf extracts which are known to possess substantial pharmacological and antioxidant potential. The most abundant VOCs identified were trimethylsilyl palmitate, methyl octadec-9-enoate, methyl palmitate, methyl stearate and methyl (9E)-9-octadecenoate. HPTLC results revealed variable quantities of quercetin, gallic acid, ascorbic acid and rutin in all the seabuckthorn leaf extracts. HPTLC-centered chemometric analysis using R programming helped to distinguish among the various extracts based on pattern recognition and unsupervised clustering, thus, enabling grouping of the extracts for further studies

Effect of Surface Oxygen Complexes of Activated Carbon on the Adsorption of 2,4,6- Trinitrophenol

The adsorption isothenns for 2,4,6-trinitrophenol (picric acid) on five samples of coconut-based activated carbons (ACs) with varying. surface area have been studied. The results obtained show thatadsorption depends upon surface area but is not linearly related to it. The adsorption increases on oxidation with ammonium persulphate (NH4)2 S2 08) as well as on degassing at 600 °C. The resultshave been explained on the basis of the existence of surface carbonyl groups, where the 02 of thecarbonyl group interacts with pi electrons of the benzene ring of picric acid

¹⁹F and ¹³C NMR studies of some pentafluorophenylantimony  (III and V) derivatives

736-73819F and 13C NMR studies on a number of pentafluorophenylantimony(III and V) compounds of the type (C6F5)nSbX3-n,(C6F5)nSbX5-nand C6F5SbBr2CI2 (X=Cl or Br; n=1-3) have shown that the chemical shift values mainly depend on the oxidation state of antimony (III and V). A marginal yet distinct effect on chemical shift has been noticed due to electronegativity difference of halogens (Br, CI) attached to antimony. The results show standard spin-spin interaction of fluorine atoms with respect to 0-, m- and p-phenyl positions in ring as well as expected chemical shift due to pp - dp: interaction of fluorinated benzene ring and antimony. The fluorine of a-position is profusely influenced in comparison to that at p- and m-positions. The fluorine signals in oxidation state (III) derivative appear at lower field in comparison to those for oxidation state (V) compounds. The additive effects of anions and pentafluorophenyl rings seem to be negligible

Removal of arsenic from water by different adsorbents

518-525Present study is carried out for the removal of As(III) from water using commonly available adsorbents such as sand, from Yamuna river (Delhi ), as well as from Ganga river (Kolkata), activated carbon, Hametite ore and sand -iron scrap mixture. All these adsorbents are used as received but sand and activated carbon which do not show much adsorption for As(III) are modified by treating with different metal ions in order to improve their adsorption efficiency. Results of the laboratory experiments under static conditions have confirmed that iron impregnated granular activated carbon (GAC), spherical activated carbon (SAC) as well as sand - iron scrap mixture have much promise as a medium for the removal of As(III) in drinking water. Various parameters like adsorbent dose, contact time, pH and arsenic concentration are optimized. A simple and economical domestic arsenic removal kit has been designed and successfully evaluated in the laboratory using sand-iron scrap mixture as media for the removal of arsenic from water

Protective efficacy of Hippophae rhamnoides L. extract exhibited in rat heart against hypobaric hypoxia is possibly mediated by configurations in JAK/STAT pathway

390-398Hypoxia is a condition deprived of oxygen at tissue level, is known to be linked to oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines. Hippophae rhamnoides L., commonly called Seabuckthorn, being rich in flavonoids, is reported to reduce oxidative stress. It is hypothesized that aqueous extract of H. rhamnoides relieves adverse changes in rat heart induced by continuous sub-acute hypobaric hypoxia. Exposure to continuous hypobaric hypoxia for seven days resulted in elevated levels of malondialdehyde, decrease in reduced glutathione, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activities with concomitant increase in NFkB expression in rat heart. The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, TNFα and IL6 and TGFβ1, AKT and ERK were found to be decreased. The expression levels of JAK1 were reduced while STAT3 and STAT6 levels were found increased following hypoxia exposure. The treatment of rats with aqueous extract of H. rhamnoides significantly attenuated hypobaric hypoxia induced oxidative stress, increased TNFα and IL6 and deactivated NFҡB activity. H. rhamnoides treatment augmented expressions of JAK1, AKT and ERK proteins. Overall, results of this study indicate that the aqueous extract of Hippophae rhamnoides helps in inducing tolerance to rat heart at extreme altitude faster by optimizing tissue oxidative stress, preventing inflammatory response and configuring JAK1/ERK/AKT and STAT3/STAT6, at least to certain extent

Phenolic Rich Fractions from Mycelium and Fruiting Body of Ganoderma lucidum Inhibit Bacterial Pathogens Mediated by Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species and Protein Leakage and Modulate Hypoxic Stress in HEK 293 Cell Line

Ganoderma lucidum (G. lucidum) fungus (Family Ganodermataceae) is widely used as a traditional medicine in China, Japan, and many Asian countries on account of its numerous medicinal properties such as antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, energy enhancing, and immunostimulatory. This broad spectrum of therapeutic effects exhibited by G. lucidum is ascribed to its abundance in several classes of chemical constituents, namely, carbohydrates, flavonoids, minerals, phenolics, proteins, and steroids which possess substantial bioactivities. The aim of the current study was to prepare phenolic rich fractions (PRFs) from aqueous extract of the Indian variety of G. lucidum mycelium and fruiting body. These fractions were assessed for their antioxidant capacity by TPC (total phenolic content), TFC (total flavonoid content), FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power), and ABTS [2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulfonic acid] assays. Quantification of flavonoids and nucleobases present in the fractions was carried out by high-performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC). The antibacterial activity of the fractions was evaluated against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, and Staphylococcus aureus. The antibacterial mechanism of action of the PRFs was established to be generation of reactive oxygen species and leakage of proteins within bacterial cells. Additionally, the protective effect of the PRFs in counteracting hypoxia was observed in HEK 293 cell lines