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Rini Roy ¹, Aditi Nag Chaudhuri ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Microbiology, Maulana Azad College, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN
2 Department of Microbiology, Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) have contaminated environmental compartments in many countries, increasing the risk of contamination in food, ground water and other water resources. The only feasible solution over here is the use of environmental engineering like phytoremediation to avoid the run-off of the pesticides to the ground water sources or the surface water bodies. Environmental duckweed is chosen as the aquatic plant to observe the rate of disappearance of OPs in increasing concentrations of 1/20 LD₅₀ for seven different OPs. Chromatography is the method of choice which is both sensitive and economical for identification of these pesticides in biological materials. The chlorophyll content of duckweed on 3^rd days, 5^th days and 7^th days of incubation of pesticides was also observed. In case of phytoremediation, OPs were taken to formulate the predicting equation which would show how far a toxic agent could be remediated. Here the assumed model is balanced two stage nested model (in ANCOVA set up). Utilising the linear model a pesticide could be designed with high phytoremediable characteristics. From the study it can be proposed that the residual content of pesticide can be minimized by using natural resource like suitable plants in water bodies surrounding the agricultural fields.

Keywords

Organophosphorus Pesticide, Duckweed, Phytoremediation, Predicting Equation.

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Rini Roy ¹, Anamika Sekhar ², Ruchika Chorara ², Aditi Nag Chaudhuri ²

Affiliations
1 Dept. of Microbiology, Maulana Azad College, Kolkata, IN
2 Dept. of Microbiology, Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

Metallothioneins (MTs) are a group of low molecular mass, cysteine-rich proteins with a variety of functions including involvement in metal homeostasis, free radical scavenging, protection against heavy metal damage and metabolic regulation via Zn donation. Besides, levels of MTs in invertebrates and aquatic vertebrates well correlate with heavy metal pollution of an environment and, thus, serve as bio-environmental marker. It is not surprising that these proteins are of great interest not only for biochemists, molecular biologists, clinical chemists but also for environmental chemists and ecologists. Detection and quantification of MTs, which is needed in all above mentioned areas is challenging due to the high cysteine content and relatively low molecular mass. The main objective of this study was to isolate and extract metallothionein from the bacterial culture isolated from the coal mining areas, since the micro-organisms present in the soil of these areas are naturally exposed to a number of various heavy metals as drainage from the coal mines and further to study the thiol content and hence the expression of metallothionein by SDS PAGE in presence of two divalent heavy metal ions.

Nitric oxide synthase (NOS) binds transition metals and demonstrates increment in expression of NOS activity in presence of metal like chromium. In this study the effects of metals on the activity of NOS and the effects of NOS on the thiol content of proteins were observed in bacterial culture isolated from coal mine area.

Finally an attempt was made there to establish any type of relationship between NOS and MT in the above study.

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Madhulika Gupta ¹, Aditi Nag Chaudhuri ¹

Affiliations
1 Lady Brabourne College, P1/2 Suhrawardy Avenue, Kolkata-70017, IN

Abstract

Heavy metals occur in immobilized form in sediments and as ores in nature. Due to various human activities like ore mining and industrial processes, the natural biogeochemical cycles are disrupted causing increasing deposition of heavy metals in terrestrial and aquatic environment. Heavy metals even at low concentration cause toxicity to humans and other forms of life. The toxicity of metal ion is owing to their ability to bind with the protein molecules and to prevent replication of DNA and thus subsequent cell division. The metal of concern in this case is nickel. With increasing environmental awareness and legal constraints being imposed on discharge of effluents, a need for cost effective alternative is essential. Cyanobacterial biomass has emerged as an alternative for developing economic and ecofriendly waste treatment process. Effect of chlorophyll on heavy metal nickel, metal uptake by free living and immobilized cyanobacterial cells along with pH variation was studied. The cell morphology of metal treated Cyanobacteria was studied by SEM. It was observed that Ni uptake increased from 10mg/l upto 200 mg/l. Moreover, metal absorbance by free cyanobacterial cells was higher than that of immobilized cells.

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Souvik Roy ¹, Aditi Nag Chaudhuri ²

Affiliations
1 Post-Graduate Department of Biotechnology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), 30, Mother Teresa Sarani, Kolkata -700 016, West Bengal, IN
2 Department of Microbiology, Lady Brabourne College, P-1/2, Suhrawardy Avenue, Kolkata-700 017, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the deadliest diseases of humans, with a present worldwide annual mortality rate of over a million. Global resurgence of TB, and the emergence of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively-drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) in India call for the development of new anti-tubercular drugs to combat them. Medicinal plants from the rich heritage of Indian flora, a lesser-explored area as anti-TB green pharmacy till date, offer a hope for the development of alternative medicines, necessitating their potencies to be meticulously scanned and evaluated. For the effective control of MDR-strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a systematic screening of plants would be the first step in the development of a suitable phytodrug, which would also be economically viable in the medicinal plant trade. Use of such non-conventional anti-TB herbal medicines is expected to acquire brisk popularity, owing to the toxicity and overwhelming side-effects of anti-tubercular allopathic medicines. In the present review, a situation report on the on-going global efforts to discover and develop drugs from twelve selected medicinal plants have been discussed, which have ample potential as anti-TB agents, as identified from various sources in the corresponding literature reviewed.

Keywords

Tuberculosis, Multi-drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB), Extensively-drug Resistant Tb (XDR-TB), Anti-tubercular Drugs, Green Pharmacy, Alternative Medicines, Phytodrug, Medicinal Plant Trade, Anti-tb Herbal Medicines.

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