Antimicrobial efficacy of nano-particles for crop protection and sustainable agriculture.

Plant diseases cause colossal crop loss worldwide and are the major yield constraining component in agriculture. Nanotechnology, which has the possible to revolutionize numerous fields of science, innovation, drug, and agriculture. Nanotechnology can be utilized for combating the plant infectious diseases and nano-materials can be utilized as transporter of dynamic elements of pesticides, host defense etc. to the pathogens. The analysis of diseases, finding of pathogens may turn out to be substantially more precise and fast with the utilization of nanosensors. As worldwide demand for food production raises against an evolving atmosphere, nanotechnology could reasonably alleviate numerous challenges in disease managing by diminishing chemical inputs and advancing quick recognition of pathogens. The major goal of this review is to increase growth and productivity using supplements with nanoparticles. (i.e., metals, metal oxides, and carbon) to treat crop diseases and make agricultural practices more productive and sustainable. Prominently, this improved crop may not only be straight connected to the diminished occurrence of pathogenic microorganisms, yet in might possibly add nutritional benefits of the nanoparticles themselves, particularly for the micronutrients important for generating host resistance.

Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Property of a True Mangrove Rhizophora apiculata Bl.

Mangroves are abundant in bioactive natural substances that fight off pathogenic diseases. Different parts of R. apiculata, an abundant mangrove found in Bhitarkanika National Park, India were extracted with methanol and a mixture of solvents methanol/ethanol/chloroform (60 : 20 : 20) to evaluate their antimicrobial properties. The combination solvent extract of bark had the highest zone of inhibition (ZOI) of 18.62 mm against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and a ZOI of 17.41 mm against Streptococcus mitis. Bark extracts had the highest DPPH (43 %) and FRAP (96 %) activities. The combination solvent bark extract of R. apiculata had the highest ZOI of 20.42 mm (lowest MIC of 2.12 µg/ml) against Candida albicans and ZOI of 15.33 mm (MIC of 3.02 µg/mL) against Penicillium chrysogenum. Combination bark extracts of R. apiculata contained flavanols than methanolic extracts. The crude extract of R. apiculata bark made with a mixture of solvents containing more active ingredients could be used in novel drug formulation.

Morphological and biochemical responses of Macrotyloma uniflorum (Lam.) Verdc. to allelopathic effects of Mikania micrantha Kunth extracts.

Yield loss due to noxious weeds is one among several reasons for the reduced economy for the developing countries. Impacts of one such weed i.e. Mikania micrantha were investigated on the rate of seed germination, growth, biomass, photosynthetic pigments, total soluble protein, phenolics and proline content of leaves of Macrotylama uniflorum (an important pulse). In a completely randomized setup, control and four concentrations (10 mg/ml, 50 mg/ml, 100 mg/ml and 200 mg/ml) of the aqueous leaf extracts of M. micrantha were tested on the seeds of M. uniflorum. The extracts inhibited germination, growth, biomass, chlorophyll, carotenoid and protein contents. The protein content of M. uniflorum decreased to 8.48 mg/g at 200 mg/ml. Similarly, shoot length and root length were also decreased up to 5.11 cm and 0.85 cm respectively and water content increased with the increasing concentration of weed extracts. The leaf extracts resulted in an increase in the phenolics (19.66 mg) and proline (24.49 mg) content of the crop plant. The preliminary study indicated that the aqueous leaf extracts of weed plant resulted in negative or detrimental impact on growth and physiology of the plant and this might be due to the release of secondary metabolites. The present investigation may further lead to the identification of certain secondary metabolites or allelo-chemicals that may have an important agricultural application for sustainability and may enhance the level of crop protection against several other harmful plant species.

Study on biodegradability and thermal behaviour of composites using poly lactic acid and gamma-irradiated fibres of Luffa cylindrica.

Surface modification of natural fibres by gamma irradiation is an economical and potent technique. The biodegradability of gamma irradiated Luffa cylindrica (LC) fibres having response of doses (0.5Gy, 1Gy and 2Gy) is studied. The degradation process is carried out in various environments like compost, sand, soil, salt water, brackish water and sweet water for a period of 90 days and microbial degradation using bacteria and fungi for a period of 90 days. The rate of biodegradation was calculated by measuring the loss of weight of composites at an interval of 30 days in each environmental condition. Preliminary results reported that the bacterial environment was the most prominent medium for degradation than fungi. B8 composites showed degradation of 27.5% and 3.59 in bacterial and fungal medium respectively. A minimum degradation was observed in compost medium (0.29%, 2.52%, 0.21%, 0.08%, 0.11%, 0.13%, 0.17%, 1.25% and 1.51% for B1-B9 respectively). For exploring the use of the composites in the field of biomedical sciences, the LC fibres are modified using calcium salts before reinforcement. The thermal properties like crystallization temperature (Tcc), glass transition temperature (Tg), melting peak temperature (Tm) and thermal stability of the bio-composites were analyzed using Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in temperature range from 30 °C to 250 °C and the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was done in the temperature range of 20 °C to 700 °C. With increase in irradiation dose, crystallization temperature and glass transition temperature increased. Increasing in the irradiation dose, thermal stability of the composites decreased.