Actinomycetes: an unexplored microorganisms for plant growth promotion and biocontrol in vegetable crops.

Actinomycetes, a Gram positive bacteria, well reported as a source of antibiotics, also possess potential to control various plant pathogens, besides acting as plant growth promoting agent. Chemicals in different forms are extensively being used in vegetable farming, adversely affecting the environment and consumer health. Microbial agent like actinomycetes can substantially replace these harmful chemicals, and have now started finding a place as an important input in to farming practices. Only selected vegetable crops belonging to 11 different families have been explored with use of actinomycetes as biocontrol and plant growth promoting agent till now. It provides ample opportunities to vegetable researchers, to further explore with use of this very important group of microorganisms, in order to achieve even higher production level of safe vegetables. Mycostop and Actinovate are two actinomycetes based formulations globally available for use in vegetable farming as a substitute for chemical formulations. Present review article has summarized the literature available on use of actinomycetes in vegetable farming. Existing wide gap in knowledge, and potential thrust areas for future research have also been projected.

Structural elucidation of 4'-epiadriamycin by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and comparison with adriamycin and daunomycin using quantum mechanical and restrained molecular dynamics approach.

The structural and electronic properties of 4'-epiadriamycin, adriamycin, and daunomycin have been studied using density functional theory (DFT) employing B3LYP exchange correlation. The chemical shifts of (1)H and (13)C resonances in nuclear magnetic resonance spectra have been calculated using Gauge-Invariant Atomic Orbital (GIAO) method as implemented in Gaussian 98 and compared with experimental spectra recorded at 500 MHz. (13)C resonances of drugs have been assigned for the first time. A restrained molecular dynamics approach was used to get the optimized solution structure of drugs using inter-proton distance constraints obtained from 2D NOESY spectra. The glycosidic angle C7-O7-C1'-C2' is found to show considerable flexibility by adopting 156 degrees -161 degrees (I), 142 degrees -143 degrees (II), and 38 degrees -78 degrees (III) conformations, of which the biological relevant structure appears to be the conformer II. The observed different conformations of the three drugs are correlated to the differential anticancer activity and the available biochemical evidence exhibited by these drugs.

Quantum chemical and nuclear magnetic resonance spectral studies on molecular properties and electronic structure of berberine and berberrubine.

The structural and electronic properties of berberine and berberrubine have been studied extensively using density functional theory (DFT) employing B3LYP exchange correlation. The geometries of these molecules have been fully optimized at the B3LYP/6-311G** level. The chemical shift of 1H and 13C resonances in NMR spectra of these molecules have been calculated using the gauge invariant atomic model (GIAO) method as implemented in Gaussian 98. One- and two-dimensional HSQC (1H-13C), HMBC (1H-13C) and ROESY (1H-1H) spectra were recorded at 500 MHz for the berberine molecule in D(2)O solution. All proton and carbon resonances were unambiguously assigned, and inter-proton distances obtained from ten observed NOE contacts. A restrained molecular dynamics (RMD) approach was used to get the optimized solution structure of berberine. The structure of berberine and berberrubine molecules was also obtained using the ROESY data available in literature. Comparison of the calculated NMR chemical shifts with the experimental values revealed that DFT methods produce very good results for both proton and carbon chemical shifts. The importance of the basis sets to the calculated NMR parameters is discussed. It has been found that calculated structure and chemical shifts in the gas phase predicted with B3LYP/6-311G** are in very good agreement with the present experimental data and the measured values reported earlier.

Flow injection analysis of iron in rain water with thiocyanate and surfactant.

This paper explains a new procedure for flow injection analysis (FIA) determination of iron in rain water based on the colour reaction of Fe(3+) with thiocyanate ions in the presence of the cationic surfactant cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC). The value of apparent molar absorptivity of the complex in terms of iron is (2.00) x 10(4) l mole(-1) cm(-1) at an absorption maximum of 490 nm. The detection limit of the method is 8 ppb Fe. The sample throughput is 90 samples/h at a flow rate of 4.0 ml/min. The reaction mechanism, optimization of FIA variables, and effect of various types of surfactant are described. None of the tested anions and cations interfered with the determination of iron. The method was used for the quantification and flux determination of iron in rain water.

Microprocessor based detection of epileptic discharges.

Parametric and Non-parametric methods have been developed for the detection and interpretation of EEG data for normal and abnormal patients. These methods have been implemented on mainframe computers or dedicated microcomputers. The heuristic methods are suitable for implement on dedicated microprocessor based system as they involve less degree of computation in comparison to the parametric methods. In this work a microprocessor based system has been developed and heuristic pattern recognition technique has been applied, which is based on the measurement of amplitude, duration slopes etc. for the detection of spike and sharp waves as well as the different frequency band of background activity. The computed values of amplitude and durations are shown on the graphs from which the different symptoms based on EEG are determined.