COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY AND POLYPHENOLIC CONTENT OF SUCCESSIVE EXTRACTS OF NYCTANTHES ARBOR-TRISTIS LINN.

Objective: Present work comprehensively evaluates the antioxidant capacity, total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) of four successive extracts of various parts of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis Linn. at different concentrations using spectrophotometric assays. Methods: TPC and TFC were measured using Folin–Ciocalteu's and aluminium trichloride method, respectively. Antioxidant activity was evaluated by Trolox-equivalent antioxidant capacity and 2, 2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays. Relationship between free radical scavenging assays and phenolic compounds was deduced using correlation matrix between various study parameters. TPC, TFC and antioxidant activity was higher in methanolic extracts followed by aqueous, petroleum benzene and chloroform extracts. Results: Methanolic and aqueous extracts were found to have higher phenolic and flavonoid content. Antioxidant capacity of methanolic and aqueous extracts were greater than petroleum ether and chloroform extracts. Conclusion: The study suggests that to a certain extent, all extracts act as radical scavengers possibly due to presence of polyphenolic compounds. It was concluded that Nyctanthes arbor-tristis Linn. exhibit strong antioxidant activity and could serve as potential therapeutic plant for various diseases

Chemical characterization of extracts from various parts of Salvia hispanica L. and their antibacterial activity

Plants have been an important source of phytomedicines for thousands of years. Salvia hispanica L. distributed in Central and Southern Mexico and Guatemala has potential medicinal properties. The current research focused on the chemical characterization of the plant extracts from leaf, seed, and flower parts using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC MS) analysis and evaluating its antibacterial effects. Results of antibacterial tests proved that the crude extracts could be potentially utilized in controlling some bacterial strains. The highest zone of inhibition (14.6 mm) was observed against the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens at 50 µg/100 μL ethyl acetate flower extract. GC-MS analysis confirmed the occurrence of 49 and 34 different compounds in the ethyl acetate flower and leaf extract respectively. Many of them are used in industry for various applications like flavour and fragrance agent, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antitumor etc. These plant extracts which proved to be potentially effective can be used as natural alternative preventives to control food poisoning diseases and preserve foodstuff avoiding health hazards of chemical antimicrobial agent applications

Chemical characterization of extracts from various parts of Salvia hispanica L. and their antibacterial activity

202-213Plants have been an important source of phytomedicines for thousands of years. Salvia hispanica L. distributed in Central and Southern Mexico and Guatemala has potential medicinal properties. The current research focused on the chemical characterization of the plant extracts from leaf, seed, and flower parts using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC MS) analysis and evaluating its antibacterial effects. Results of antibacterial tests proved that the crude extracts could be potentially utilized in controlling some bacterial strains. The highest zone of inhibition (14.6 mm) was observed against the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens at 50 μg/100 μL ethyl acetate flower extract. GC-MS analysis confirmed the occurrence of 49 and 34 different compounds in the ethyl acetate flower and leaf extract respectively. Many of them are used in industry for various applications like flavour and fragrance agent, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antitumor etc. These plant extracts which proved to be potentially effective can be used as natural alternative preventives to control food poisoning diseases and preserve foodstuff avoiding health hazards of chemical antimicrobial agent applications

Chloroplast ultra structure, photosynthesis and enzyme activities in regenerated plants of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Stevia rebaudiana</i> (Bert.) Bertoni as influenced by copper sulphate in the medium

898-904Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> Bertoni is an important medicinal plant used as noncaloric commercial sweetener. Plants regenerated with higher levels of copper sulphate in the medium exhibited enhanced activity of peroxidase and polyphenoloxidase (PPO) enzymes. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed increase in size and number of electron dense inclusions in the chloroplasts of plants regenerated at optimised level of copper sulphate (0.5µM) in the medium. There was decrease in chlorogenic acid (CGA) content. Chl-a-fluorescence transient pattern (OJIP) showed that the photosynthesis process was more efficient at 0.5µM CuSO4 in the medium.&nbsp

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: HI" lang="EN-GB">Optimization of micronutrients for the improvement of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">in vitro</i> plant regeneration of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Stevia rebaudiana </i>(Bert.) Bertoni</span>

486-490<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: " times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";mso-bidi-font-family:="" mangal;mso-ansi-language:en-gb;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-GB">Optimization of micronutrients in the MS basal culture medium resulted into enhanced in vitro plant regeneration, chlorophyll content and biomass in Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni. The shoot bud induction response improved on medium with increased levels of MnSO4 (400 µM), KI (10 µM) and CoCl2 (2 µM). Plant regenerated on higher levels of micronutrients showed significant increase in leaf chlorophyll content. The cumulative effect of all micronutrients at the optimum level in the composite medium also positively influenced the biomass and chlorophyll content of the plantlets.</span

<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">In vitro</i> plant regeneration of <i>Citrullus colocynthis </i>(L.) Schard. and assessment of genetic fidelity using ISSR and RAPD markers

409-414In vitro plant regeneration protocol has been developed for Citrullus colocynthis (Linn.) Schrad. using nodal segments and shoot tip explant cultures. The impact of different concentrations and combinations of auxins and cytokinins was evaluated for direct and indirect shoot bud induction and proliferation. Multiple shoot bud induction and proliferation occurred on MS medium fortified with BA (2.2 µM). Shoot buds were subcultured to multiplication medium containing BA (2.2 µM) for proper growth and elongation of shoots. Rooting was readily achieved upon transferring the shoots on to ½ strength MS medium supplemented with IBA (4.9 µM). Micropropagated plantlets were hardened in the greenhouse and successfully established in soil. The genetic fidelity of in vitro-raised clones was assessed by using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Out of 20 RAPD and 20 ISSR primers screened, only 12 RAPD and 8 ISSR primers produced clear, distinct and scorable bands with an average of 5.5 and 6.5 bands per primer, respectively. The number of bands generated per primer was greater in ISSR than RAPD. All banding profiles from micropropagated plants were monomorphic and similar to those of the mother plant. This confirmed the true-to-type nature of the in vitro-raised clones

Characterization of genetic diversity in <i style="">Jatropha curcas</i> L. germplasm using RAPD and ISSR markers

54-61Jatropha curcas L. is a rapidly emerging biofuel crop attracting a lot of interest, triggering large investments and rapid expansion of cultivation areas. In the present investigation, the genetic relationships of 29 J. curcas accessions were assessed based on randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analyses. A total of 72 polymorphic primers (47 RAPD and 25 ISSR) were used. Amplification of genomic DNA of the 29 genotypes, using RAPD analysis, yielded 552 fragments that could be scored, of which 334 were polymorphic with an average of 7.1 polymorphic fragments per primer. Number of amplified fragments varied from 2 to 23 and ranged in size from 100-3,500 bp. The 25 polymorphic ISSR primers used in the study produced 336 bands across 29 genotypes, of which 201 were polymorphic. The number of amplified bands varied from 7 to 20 with a size range of 100-3,500 bp. Molecular polymorphism was 60.5 and 59.8% with RAPD and ISSR markers, respectively. Mantel test between the two Jaccard’s similarity matrices gave r=0.8623, showing good fit correlation between RAPD and ISSR based similarities. Clustering of genotypes within groups remained more or less similar in ISSR and combined data of RAPD and ISSR

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: HI" lang="EN-GB">PCR based detection of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">cry </i>genes in indigenous strains of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Bacillus thuringiensis</i> isolated from the soils of Rajasthan</span>

491-494Novel cry genes are potential candidates for resistance management strategies due to their different structure and mode of action. Therefore, it is desirable to clone and express novel cry genes from several novel isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). Eight different Bt strains (namely ISI-IS8) were isolated from the desert part of Rajasthan and a simplified PCR method was developed for extensive analysis of cry and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">cyt genes in the native isolates. PCR results demonstrated that cry1 type<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> genes (100%) were the most abundant genes in the indigenous Bt strains, followed by vip3A (87.5%), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">cry2 (75%), cry9 (62%), cry3 (50%), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">cry11 (37.5%), cry7-8 (37.5%), cry5,12,,14, 21 (25%), cyt1 (25%), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">cry4 (12.5%) and cyt2 (12.5%). Further, PCR with degenerate primers also showed the presence of cry type genes. The toxicological characterization of these novel cry genes will have huge importance in transgenic technology and will be useful in transgenesis of crop plants for better resistance management

Novel microbial route to synthesize silver nanoparticles using spore crystal mixture of <i style="">Bacillus thuringiensis</i>

1152-1156Metallic nanoparticles are traditionally synthesized by wet chemical techniques, where the chemicals used are often toxic and flammable. In the present study, the spore crystal mixture of Bacillus thuringiensis was used for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Nanoparticles were characterized using UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, XRD and TEM. X-ray diffraction and TEM analysis showed the average particle size of 15 nm and mixed (cubic and hexagonal) structure. This is for the first time that any bacterial spore crystal mixture was used for the synthesis of nanoparticles. Further, these biologically synthesized nanoparticles were found to be highly toxic against different multi drug resistant human pathogenic bacteria

Exploring Plant Tissue Culture and Steviol Glycosides Production in <i>Stevia rebaudiana</i> (Bert.) Bertoni: A Review

Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni, commonly called “sweet leaf” is a medicinally and industrially important plant known to be rich in zero-calorie natural sweetening compound(s) known as “steviol glycosides”. However, due to its poor seed germination and slow vegetative propagation, it has become rather difficult to meet the increasing global demand for Stevia-based products. Different biotechnological approaches have been developed over the past few decades to overcome these limitations and allow for mass propagation of the plant. Several protocols for in vitro organogenesis, callogenesis, and cell suspension cultures have been developed during the past few years. Apart from this, attempts have also been made to improve the production of steviol glycosides through nutrient manipulation, the use of elicitors, hairy root cultures, genetic transformation, and metabolic pathway engineering. Therefore, this review provides an up-to-date report on the applications of various biotechnological tools for mass propagation and enhanced steviol glycoside production, along with a detailed bibliometrics analysis. This review also highlights research gaps and future considerations that could be fruitful for the scientific community to delve deeper into the various unexplored aspects of the architecture and functionality of this natural sweetening plant