Background: Despite the medicinal importance of Balanites aegyptiaca (L.) Del, Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni, Tylophora indica (Burm.f.) Merrill and Cassia sophera (Linn.), the antimicrobial potential of these plants has not been explored extensively, especially those of Cassia sophera. Methods: Both aqueous and alcoholic extracts of various parts of respective plants, and their in vitro ra...

Nucleotide sequences were determined for two hop stunt viroid-related Group II citrus viroids characterized as either a cachexia disease non-pathogenic variant (CVd-IIa) or a pathogenic variant (CVd-IIb). Sequence identity between the two variants of 95.6% indicated a conserved genome with the principal region of nucleotide difference clustered in the variable (V) domain. Full-length viroid RT-...

A culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae M30 entrapped in loofa-reinforced alginate was used for continuous ethanol fermentation in a packed-bed reactor with initial sugar concentrations of 200-248 g/L. Maximum ethanol productivity of 11.5 g/(L·h) was obtained at an ethanol concentration of 57.4 g/L, an initial sugar concentration of 220 g/L and a dilution rate (D) of 0.2 h(-1). However, a maximum...

In vitro studies were carried out to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of the ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Luffa acutangula against human neuronal glioblastoma cells (U343) and human lung cancer cells (A549). Screening of these extracts was done using the brine shrimp lethality bioassay, MTT assay and SRB assay. The results showed the significant decrease of the viability of the cells in a ...

Alcoholic and aqueous extracts of endangered medicinal plants Balanites aegyptiaca and Tylophora indica were analyzed for antibacterial potential against various gram positive and gram negative bacteria including resistant strains harbouring bla genes by agar well diffusion method. Alcoholic extracts of both the plants showed activity against wider range of tested bacteria as compared to aqueou...

This study aimed to improve the production of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) by microbial cells immobilized on synthetic or loofa sponges both with and without the use of alginate or chitosan. The most suitable matrix for the immobilization of Bacillus firmus strain 7B was synthetic sponge and for Bacillus sphaericus strain 41 was loofa sponge. After 330 days of storage, the β-CD production by Bacillus ...

Sponge gourd is versatile summer vegetable having potential applications across many sectors. Twenty sponge genotypes were studied at the Department of Vegetable Science, College Agriculture, Vellanikkara, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, for study variability in morphological, yield and biochemical traits. Significant difference existed among all characters under study. In general, Ph...

As a devastating holoparasitic weed, Orobanche aegyptiaca Persoon. (Egyptian broomrape) causes serious damage to agricultural production and threatens economic development, which has raised widespread concern. The present study was conducted to determine whether lilies have the potential to be used as 'trap crops' for controlling O. aegyptiaca Persoon. In the experiments, the ability of three p...

Different extracts of L. cylindrica were taken for anthelmintic activity against Indian earthworm Pheretima posthuma. Two concentrations (50 and 100 mg/ml) of various extracts were tested and results were expressed in terms of time for paralysis and time for death of worms. Albendazole (20 mg/ml) was used as reference standard and carboxy methyl cellulose (0.5%) as a control group. Dose depende...