Soil is a complex structure and contains mainly five major components i.e. mineral matter, water, air, organic matter and living organisms. The quantity of these components in the soil does not remain the same but varies with the locality. Soil possesses not only a nucleus position for existence of living being but also ensures their future existence. Therefore, it is essential to make an adequate land management to maintain the quality of soil in both rural and urban soil. The presence of different kinds of heavy metals such as Cd, Cu, Mn, Bi and Zn etc. in trace or in minimum level is a natural phenomenon but their enhanced level is an indicator of the degree of pollution load in that specific area. The precise knowledge of these kinds of heavy metals, their forms and their dependence on soil provides a genuine base for soil management. The heavy metals have potent cumulative properties and toxicity due to which they have a potential hazardous effect not only on crop plants but also on human health. The metal contaminants can be reduced by immobilization of contaminants using macrophytes and also by using genetically engineered microorganisms.

ABSTRACT:The present investigation was undertaken to find out pollution reduction potential of Sand intermittent filtration bed in term of physico-chemical and microbiological characteristics of domestic sewage. The domestic sewage was filtered through Sand intermittent filtration beds of mixture of sand and soil at different ratio i.e. 1:1; 1:3; 3:1 and one set of 100% of each sand and soil were also taken. Results revealed that there was a significant pollution reduction in various physico-chemical and microbiological parameters of domestic sewage in sand soil mixture. In general sand and soil beds have shown better performance than only sand or soil bed for sewage treatment. Albeit Sand soil bed of 2 feet depth has been found better in term of pollution reduction ability than other depths used in the present study, but variation of pollution reduction potential has been recorded for different parameters in sand and soil bed of the same ratio. Mixture of Sand soil bed at ratio 3:1 has yielded better results in general than all other used ratio but for certain parameters stands equal with 1:1 ratio. Maximum percentage of reduction in pH i.e. 16.7% and in Temperature 27.9% was found at 2 feet depth in mixed sand and soil bed of 1:1 ratio. Maximum pollution reduction potential of intermittent filtration bed was recorded at 2 feet depth of sand and soil mixture at ratio of 3:1. Percentage of pollution reducing potential was found in CO 2 83.4%, BOD 72.5%, COD 69.9%, Total alkalinity 37.9%, Total solids 88.5%, Total dissolved solids 86.1%, Total suspended solids 91.2%, MPN 82.4% and SPC 78.4%. Minimum reduction ability was found in 100% sand and soil bed without mixture. @JASEM Water pollution is a current global burning problem as a large quantity of water of earth planet i.e. 97% is stored in sea. Marine water is not suitable for domestic use due to high salinity. Remaining 3% water is found in form of ice caps, surface water and underground water. Since a very small quantity of available water is being used in different way i.e. agriculture, industry and domestic purposes. Various types of pollutants such as industrial, domestic waste (solid and liquid) are reaching in surface water through different means. Most of the cities in India are situated on the banks of different rivers. These rivers are receiving both industrial and domestic sewage, which has high percentage of untreated sewage because most of the cities do not have an adequate sewage treatment system.

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Medicines obtained from drug plants and other sources are commonly called traditional medicines. They have played an important role in the treatment of several human diseases since ancient times. India possessed a great wealth of traditional health care system known as Ayurveda related to the use of plant species. The global market of herbal drugs has a great potential around the world. Demand of plant based medicines is also increasing among western countries because of a general consideration that most allopathic drugs are associated with more or less side effects. Many pharmaceutical companies are now manufacturing Ayurvedic phytopharmaceutical products. However, enough efforts have not been made to get suitable substitute of modern allopathic medicines from these traditionally used drug plants and herbal drugs. This traditional system of healthcare in India still needs extensive evidence-based scientific researches in promoting its therapies. This review paper deals with modern scientific approaches to find out new plant based molecules and to develop new technologies in a continuous process and should be applied in the practice to improve the quality of herbal drugs in Indian pharmaceutical industries. Critical assessment of quality assurance including researches on pharmacognosy, chemistry, pharmacology, antimicrobial activity and clinical studies carried out on various Ayurvedic medicinal plants are also being presented.

Abstract:The requirement for materials which exhibit good second and third order non-linear optical properties and also for materials which could sense metals in trace quantities has kindled renewed investigations. Organometallics and coordination compounds show a lot of promise as new NLO materials combining the variety of organic moieties with the strength and variable oxidation states of metals. Especially ligands which selectively detect industrial pollutants like Cd and biologically significant metals like Zn are necessary. In the current work the ligand 1,10-phenanthroline-2,9-di(carboxaldehyde phenylhydrazone) (L) and its Ni 2+ , Co 2+ , Fe 2+ , Zn 2+ , Cd 2+ and Ir 3+ complexes were synthesized. These were characterized by UV-Vis, FT-IR, 1 H NMR, MS and CHN microanalysis techniques. The complexes were shown to have the formula [ML] 2+ . The second and third order NLO of the ligand and its complexes were recorded These new compounds were found to have same order of third order nonlinear optical susceptibility as that of CS 2 and their second hyperpolarizability was an order of magnitude greater than that of C 60 . Furthermore the ligand also displays selective luminescence sensing of metals ions Fe 2+ and Ir 3+ even in the presence of other metal ions.Keywords: Transition metal complexes, 1, 10-Phenanthroline-2, 9-dialdehyde, Second Harmonic Generation (SHG), DFWM, Luminescence IntroductionThe development of the first laser by Miamen in 1960 laid the cornerstone for the development of the field of nonlinear optics as we know it now [1]. There is a great demand for organic molecules which exhibit nonlinear optical (NLO) properties due to the large hyperpolarizability and inherent freedom of synthesis which they offer [2]. The presence of push and pull π-conjugation confers upon organic molecules high values of second order polarizability [3]. It has to be noted that SHG is exhibited only by noncentrosymmetric crystals. A few organic compounds which crystallize in noncentrosymmetric structures give good optical quality crystals [4] but the presence of only organic moieties lack the mechanical strength that is required for practical purposes [5]. Thus with the objective of building closely-knit crystalline structures, the crystal engineering strategy of combining organic and inorganic moieties was introduced [6].There have been several examples in these hybrid organic-inorganic moieties which exhibited good NLO properties [7][8][9][10]. Among these materials, organometallics and coordination compounds have been promising due to the variations they introduce in the nature, the oxidation state and coordination sphere of the metal ion and also due to the changes the metal ion brings about in the coordinating ligands [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Thus, the coordination of a metal ion to a ligand with conjugated π-system may increase the hyperpolarizability γ as a result of very extensive delocalization of electrons and polarizability. In this context, the ligand 1, 10-phenanthroline (phen) Abstract: In th...

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Air pollution has an appalling effect on human health and our planet has a whole. This study quantifies air pollution using a parameter – Air Quality Index and compare the pollution of air in six major sites across Kerala, India (South over bridge and Eloor in Ernakulam district, Pettah and Veli in Thiruvananthapuram district, Chavara and Kadappakada in Kollam district). The significant differences in seasonal variation of pollutants in the three districts are also studied. The conclusion of the study shows: a) Air Quality Index in all these areas is predominantly determined by Particulate Matter concentration; b) Ernakulam district has the highest Air Quality Index among both industrial and residential areas and Kadappakada, Kollam has the lowest Air Quality Index among all the six areas studied; c) The air quality deteriorates during winter and summer because of limited pollutant dispersion.