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The studies of advanced materials in environmental remediation and degradation of pollutants is rapidly advancing because of their wide varieties of applications. BiFeO 3 (BFO), a perovskite nanomaterial with a rhombohedral R3c space group, is currently receiving tremendous attention in photodegradation of dyes. The photocatalytic activity of BFO nanoparticle is a promising field of research in photocatalysis. BFO nanomaterial is a photocatalyst enhanced by doping because of its reduce bandgap energy (2.0-2.77 eV), multiferroic property, strong photoabsorption and crystal structure. The material has proven to be very useful for the degradation of dyes under visible light irradiation among other photocatalysts. Its exceptional nontoxicity, suitability, low cost and long term excellent stability makes it an efficient photocatalyst for the degradation of effluents from textile and pharmaceutical industries which ended-up in the environment and now a major concern of the modern world. This mini-review attempts to provide some detailed synthetic routes of BFO and BFO related nanomaterials and the notable achievements so far on the effect of doping the material. It also discusses the effect of crystallite size of the material and other photophysical properties and how they influence the photocatalytic process of model organic dye pollutants, to date.

Neocarya macrophylla belongs to the Chrysobalanaceae family and is extensively used in folk medicine as an antibacterial, antivenin, antiasthmatic, anticancer, analgesic and anti-inflammatory agent. This study was aimed at isolation and characterization of compounds from the stem bark of Neocarya macrophylla. Pulverized plant material was exhaustively extracted with methanol using maceration method and concentrated invacuo with the aid of rotary evaporator at 40 o C to afford a reddish brown crude methanol extract (ME). The methanol extract was successively partitioned into hexane, dichloromethane, ethylacetate, n-butanol and aqueous fractions. Stigmasterol was isolated from the hexane fraction and a catechin glycoside, Bis-(5,7-diacetyl-catechin-4'-α-rhamnopyranoside) was isolated from the ethylacetate soluble fraction using a combination of silica gel column, gel filtration (sephadex LH-20) and preparative thin layer chromatography. The structures of the compounds were established on the basis of chemical tests, spectroscopic analysis and by comparison with reference spectral data.

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Mycobacterium tuberculosis has instigated a serious challenge toward the effective treatment of tuberculosis. The reoccurrence of the resistant strains of the disease to accessible drugs/medications has mandate for the development of more effective anti-tubercular agents with efficient activities. Time expended and costs in discovering and synthesizing new hypothetical drugs with improved biological activity have been a major challenge toward the treatment of multi-drug resistance strain M. tuberculosis (TB). Meanwhile, to solve the problem stated, a new approach i.e. QSAR which establish connection between novel drugs with a better biological against M. tuberculosis is adopted. The anti-tubercular model established in this study to forecast the biological activities of some anti-tubercular compounds selected and to design new hypothetical drugs is subjective to the molecular descriptors; AATS7s, VE2_Dzi, SpMin7-Bhe and RDF110i. The significant of the model were observed with R 2 of 0.8738, R 2 adj of 0.8351 Q_cv^2 of 0.7127 which served as criteria to substantiate the QSAR model. More also, the model significant with the QSAR external validation criterial ''(R 2 test) of 0.7532. Ligand-receptor interactions between quinoline derivatives and the receptor (DNA gyrase) was carried out using molecular docking technique by employing the PyRx virtual screening software and discovery studio visualizer software. Furthermore, docking study indicates that compounds 10 of the derivatives with promising biological activity have the utmost binding energy of -18.8 kcal/mol. Meanwhile, the interaction of the standard drug; isoniazid with the target enzyme was observed with the binding energy -14.6 kcal/mol which was significantly lesser than the binding energy of the ligand (compound 10). This implies that ligand 10 could be used as a structural template to design better hypothetical anti-tubercular drugs with more efficient activities. The presumption of this research aid the medicinal chemists and pharmacist to design and synthesis a novel drug candidate against the tuberculosis. Moreover, invitro and in-vivo test could be carried out to validate the computational results.

Bioactive compounds derived from plants and microbial sources are required for the survival of the human race and groundbreaking research must continue in this line. Plants and microbes are the major sources of naturally occurring bioactive compounds for numerous biotechnological applications. Recent progress in the fields of bioactive compounds and soil chemistry in agriculture has since given man a lead to the discovery of potent drugs that combat both human and plant diseases. The soil provides the medium for the growth of medicinal plants, but its contamination greatly affects the quality of drugs, food crops, and other essential elements present in the plants which give strength to the body. This area has attracted the attention of scientists and the drug industry toward developing more potent drugs from medicinal plants grown in different soil. The studies of the effect of various parameters and the properties of soil such as; effect of heavy metals, pH, soil organic matter, and phytoremediation process have given a measure of some quality dependence of the soil producing secondary metabolites and soil containing microbes. The information provided will be useful in determine the action of microbes and their interaction with the soil and all true plants producing drugs. Some active compounds in plants and microbes, their properties, and applications have been described in this review. The soil microbes, activities and their interactions, effects of soil particle size, dispersibility and stability of microbes in the soil, and the future outlook for the development of novel active compounds have been reported.

Time consumed and expenses in discovering and synthesizing new hypothetical drugs with improved biological activity have been a major challenge toward the treatment of multi-drug resistance strain Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB). To solve the above problem, Quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) is a recent approach developed to discover a novel drug with a better biological against M. Tuberculosis. A validated QSAR model developed in this study to predict the biological activities of some anti-tubercular compounds and to design new hypothetical drugs is influenced with the molecular descriptors; MATS2s, nHBint3, maxtsC, TDB9u, RDF90i and RDF110s. Molecular docking studies was as well carried for all the studied compounds in order to show the interactions and binding modes between the ligand and the receptor (DNA gyrase). The lead compound (compound 41) with higher anti-tubercular activity was observed with prominent binding affinity of − 21.9 kcal/mol compared to the recommended drugs; Isoniazid (− 14.6 kcal/mol). Therefore, compound 41 served as a template structure to designed compounds with more efficient activities. Among the compounds designed; compounds 41p was observed with better anti-tubercular activities with more prominent binding affinities of − 24.3 kcal/mol. The findings in the research will be valued to pharmacology, medicinal chemists and pharmacist to design and synthesis a novel drug candidate against the tuberculosis. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo test could be carried out to validate the computational results.