Dissipation of tembotrione in maize and its effect on biochemical attributes of maize under mid-hill sub-humid zone.

The present study was undertaken to investigate the dissipation behavior of tembotrione in soil and its effect on the biochemical constituents of maize leaves and grain. The average recovery of tembotrione from soil, maize grain, and stover was in the range of 84.0 to 86.0%, 79.3 to 83.0%, and 81.0 to 84.4%, respectively, with RSD less than 10%. Half-life (DT50) of tembotrione ranged from 9 to 14 days at an application rate of 60 to 240 g ha-1. Terminal residues in soil, maize grain, and stover were below detectable levels (≤ 0.025 µg g-1) at studied application rates. The chemical attributes, i.e., total chlorophyll, total carotenoids, and carbohydrate content, of rice leaves were observed at monthly intervals (zero (2 h), 30, 60 days after the herbicide application) and at harvest for biochemical analysis and grain samples at maturity of the crop for carbohydrate content. The results revealed that total chlorophyll, total carotenoids, and carbohydrate content in maize leaves increased significantly with applied tembotrione treatments, and the maximum increase was noticed in treatment 120 g ha-1. A significant increase in total carbohydrate content in maize grain over the control was noticed in all the herbicide-applied treatments. It can be inferred that the application of tembotrione is safe in the production of food with better quality and food safety.

Novel guar gum/Al2O3 nanocomposite as an effective photocatalyst for the degradation of malachite green dye.

Guar gum/Al2O3 (GG/AO) nanocomposite was prepared using simple and cost effective sol-gel method. This nanocomposite was characterized by several analytical techniques viz. scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermal analysis (TGA/DTA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis). The FTIR analysis confirmed that GG/AO composite material was formed. TEM images inferred the particle size in the range between 20 and 45nm. GG/AO nanocomposite exhibited good photocatalytic performance for malachite green (MG) dye (dye initial concentration 1.5×10(-5)M) degradation from aqueous phase. The adsorption followed by photocatalysis and coupled adsorption/photocatalysis reaction achieved about 80% and 90% degradation of MG dye under solar irradiation. Antibacterial test showed the excellent activity of GG/AO nanocomposite against Staphylococcus aureus.