Bioactive Metabolites from Marine Algae as Potent Pharmacophores against Oxidative Stress-Associated Human Diseases: A Comprehensive Review

In addition to cancer and diabetes, inflammatory and ROS-related diseases represent one of the major health problems worldwide. Currently, several synthetic drugs are used to reduce oxidative stress; nevertheless, these approaches often have side effects. Therefore, to overcome these issues, the search for alternative therapies has gained importance in recent times. Natural bioactive compounds have represented, and they still do, an important source of drugs with high therapeutic efficacy. In the “synthetic” era, terrestrial and aquatic photosynthetic organisms have been shown to be an essential source of natural compounds, some of which might play a leading role in pharmaceutical drug development. Marine organisms constitute nearly half of the worldwide biodiversity. In the marine environment, algae, seaweeds, and seagrasses are the first reported sources of marine natural products for discovering novel pharmacophores. The algal bioactive compounds are a potential source of novel antioxidant and anticancer (through modulation of the cell cycle, metastasis, and apoptosis) compounds. Secondary metabolites in marine Algae, such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, and tannins, could have great therapeutic implications against several diseases. In this context, this review focuses on the diversity of functional compounds extracted from algae and their potential beneficial effects in fighting cancer, diabetes, and inflammatory diseases

A stable isotope perspective on archaeological agricultural variability and Neolithic experimentation in India

Agriculture has been crucial in sustaining human populations in South Asia across dramatically variable environments for millennia. Until recently, however, the origins of this mode of subsistence in India have been discussed in terms of population migration and crop introduction, with limited focus on how agricultural packages were formulated and utilised in local contexts. Here, we report the first measurements of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values in well-preserved charred crop remains from sites spanning the Neolithic/Chalcolithic to the Early Historic in two very different environmental zones: tropical East India and the semi-arid Deccan. The results show that this approach offers direct insight into prehistoric crop management under contrasting environmental constraints. Our preliminary results plausibly suggest that early farmers in India experimented with and made strategic use of water and manure resources in accordance with specific crop requirements and under varying environmental constraints. We suggest that the development of modern crop isotope baselines across India, and the application of this methodology to archaeological assemblages, has the potential to yield detailed insight into agroecology in India's past

Effect of Long Term Manuring on Soil Carbon Stock and Some Biological Properties under Rice – Rice Cropping System in an Inceptisol of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

This research was carried out to determine the effect of different manurial treatments on the quantity of carbon added to soil through stubble in rice-rice cropping system, organic carbon stock and its relation to biological properties in an Inceptisol of Bhubaneswar, Odisha. This has been contemplated in existing Long Term Fertilizer Experiment which is in progress since 1994 located in Central Research Station, OUAT with Rice-Rice cropping sequence. The experiment dealt with six treatments during the eighth crop cycle viz, 100% NPK, 100% NPK + FYM, 100% N, 100% NP, 100% NPK +Lime, control (no manuring) with 4 replications in a randomized block design. Both in the kharif and the rabi seasons, rice stubble with undisturbed roots was meticulously collected, processed, and tested for total carbon after rice harvest. The usual approach was followed when collecting and analyzing soil samples. Between 1223.5 and 2571.5 kg/ha of carbon and 2998.9 to 6330.85 kg/ha of total stubble were absorbed into the soil. After kharif and rabi, the surface carbon stock of the soil ranged from 7.41 to 12.50 Mg/ha and 7.14 to 11.76 Mg/ha, respectively. After kharif, the SOC of surface soil ranged between 3.48 and 6.51 g/kg and 3.35 and 6.13 g/kg. In 100% NPK+ FYM, the highest amounts of stubble, stubble carbon, and MBC were found. No manuring enhanced the BD (1.42 Mg/m3) but the addition of FYM and stubble decreased the BD (1.28 Mg/m3). MBC varied from 45.89 to 132.41 g of carbon per g of soil. The importance of subble addition in enhancing SOC was demonstrated by the significantly positive association between SOC and quantity of stubble addition (r = 0.85), carbon addition by stubble (r = 0.94), and carbon stock (r =0.91**). Similar to this, the MBC-SOC connection (r = 0.83**), which supported the contribution of SOC to collective formation. The strong positive link between SOC and MBC suggests that adding carbon helps to improve soil health, and rice straw is an excellent source of carbon. It needs to be suppressed in the soil

Growth, Yield and Quality of Rabi Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) as Influenced by Sources of Calcium and Sulphur under Different Site - Specific Nitrogen Management in Rice-Groundnut Cropping System

The injudicious and imbalanced fertilizer use under the existing farming system necessitates the adoption of amelioration methods and balanced use of nutrients especially nitrogen (N). There is lack of information on effects of various sources of calcium and sulphur in groundnut along with balanced nitrogen management which needs to be addressed. A field experiment was carried out during 2020-21 and 2021-22 at Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India to study the growth, yield and quality parameters of groundnut as affected by site specific nitrogen management in rice and various sources of calcium and sulphur in groundnut. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with six main plot treatments i.e. Soil test based nitrogen (STBN) (100 kg N/ha), 75% N through STBN + 25% N through farmyard manure (FYM), 75% N through STBN + 25% N through vermicompost, N @ 20kg at basal and at leaf colour chart (LCC) < 3, N @ 20kg at basal and at chlorophyll value determined by soil plant analysis development (SPAD) < 35 and no nitrogen to rice during Kharif and three sub plot treatments i.e. lime @ 0.2 LR, gypsum @ 250 kg/ha and lime @ 0.2 LR + gypsum @ 250 kg/ha to groundnut during Rabi each in three replications. Application of 75% N through STBN + 25% N through vermicompost to preceding rice and lime @ 0.2 LR+ gypsum @ 250 kg/ha to groundnut crop resulted in highest plant height at harvest, number of nodules per plant and dry matter accumulation at harvest. Yield attributing characters like pods/plant, kernel/pod and 100 - pod weight of groundnut were highest due to application of 75% N through STBN + 25% N through vermicompost to preceding rice (17.86, 1.87 and 67.2 g, respectively) followed by 75% N through STBN + 25% N through FYM. Application of lime @ 0.2 LR + gypsum @ 250 kg/ha to groundnut recorded more pods/plant (16.86), kernels/pod (1.78) and 100 - pod weight (66.39 g). The treatment receiving 75% N through STBN + 25 % N through vermicompost in rice and application of lime @ 0.2 LR + gypsum @ 250 kg/ha to groundnut resulted significantly maximum pod yield (2,596 kg/ha and 2,291 kg/ha), haulm yield (4,554 kg/ha and 4,343 kg/ha) and harvest index (36.30% and 34.38%) in groundnut. Oil yield (682.2 kg/ha) in groundnut was recorded highest in the treatment lime @ 0.2 LR + gypsum @ 250 kg/ha followed by only gypsum @ 250 kg/ha application to groundnut. Similarly, application of lime @ 0.2 LR + gypsum @ 250 kg/ha to groundnut recorded highest protein yield (424.6 kg/ha)

Surveillance of multidrug resistant suppurative infection causing bacteria in hospitalized patients in an Indian tertiary care hospital

Objective: To examine antibiograms of a cohort of suppurative bacteria isolated from wound-swabs from hospitalized patients of all economic groups of a typical Indian teaching hospital. Methods: In surveillance, antibiotic resistance patterns of 10 species of suppurative bacteria isolated from wound-swabs over a period of 24 months were recorded. Those were subjected to antibiotic sensitivity test, using 16 prescribed antibiotics of 5 different groups (3 aminoglycosides, 4 beta-lactams, 3 cephalosporins, 4 fluoroquinolones, and 2 stand-alone) in each 6-month interval of the study period. Results: Of 1 156 samples collected, 819 samples yielded pathogenic bacteria, of which, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Streptococcus pyogenes (S. pyogenes), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis), Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae), Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii), Enterobacter aerogenes (E. aerogenes), Proteus mirabilis (P. mirabilis) and Proteus vulgaris (P. vulgaris) were isolated in the order of predominance. Isolated bacterial strains were floridly multidrug resistant. Strains of E. faecalis and S. aureus were found resistant to vancomycin, one of the newly introduced antibiotics. Conclusions: Of these S. aureus, particularly the methicillin resistant strain predominates, followed by strains of S. pyogenes and P. aeruginosa that were in the higher proportions of multidrug resistance

Mode and Dose of Boron Nutrition on Growth, Productivity, Nutrient Uptake and Quality of a Rice-groundnut Cropping System

To assess the effect of boron (B) nutrition on growth, productivity, uptake and crop quality of rice-groundnut cropping system under medium land Inceptisols Odisha, a field experiment was conducted during Kharif and Rabi 2016-17 and 2017-18. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with eight treatments being replicated thrice. The results revealed that rice crop showed higher growth rate (9.4 mm day-1) than groundnut crop of 9.1 mm day-1. Soil application of B in split doses maintained higher growth rate than foliar spray irrespective of crops. B fertilization to rice crop reduced chaffiness from 35% in no B fertilization to 15% in B applied in split doses. It also showed 15.6% higher number of nodules than no B application in groundnut crop. Economic yield produced in different mode of B application in rice-groundnut cropping system, the 2nd crop was influenced by 22.5% against 16.0% for the 1st crop. B improved the economic yield by 19.5%over no B application. Application of [email protected] to each crops increased the economic yield by 8.7% compared to its half rate application (0.5 kg.ha-1). Based on rice-equivalent yields (REY) of rice-groundnut cropping system practices followed the order: Split application (288)>Full dose basal (250)>Full dose B to groundnut (199)>Half dose B basal to each crop (188)>Full dose B to rice (186) = Foliar spray of B (186)>STD (100). The recovery of added N increased by (42.2%) when B was applied to 1st crop with full dose (53.5%), again it increased further by 60.8% when applied in split. B nutrition to rice-groundnut system influenced P and K uptake by 36.4% and 48.4% respectively over no application. In rice-groundnut cropping system split application of [email protected] kg.ha-1 to both crops at active growth stages improved the yield, uptake, crop quality and economic benefit was found superior over no or sub optimal dose of B application in a deficient medium land Inceptisols of Jajpur district