Inula racemosa Hook. f. is commonly called Pushkarmool, belongs to family Asteraceae. The plant is distributed in temperate alpine Himalayas at an altitude of 1,500-4,200m from Kashmir to Kumaon, Afghanistan to Central Nepal. Pushkarmool is commercially a very important medicinal plant of the North Western Himalayas. The plant is used in Ayurveda as an expectorant, rejuvenator and immune modulator. Root powder is reportedly hypoglycemic and hypocholesterolemic in human subjects. The species is critically endangered because of the fragile nature of its habitat, habitat destruction, illegal harvesting from the wild source, high market demand and destructive harvesting practices. The objective of the present study was to develop effective pre-sowing treatments to improve the seed germination, and to reduce mean germination time, so that protocols for commercial production of the plant could be developed and natural populations restored to ensure proper conservation of the species. In the present study phytohormones and other seed dormancy breaking chemicals were used to investigate their effect on seed germination. The results revealed highest mean percentage of germination in chilling treatment Ch 1 (30 day chilled seeds) followed by treatment GA 3 1 (Gibbrellic acid, 10 -3 M) in almost all day intervals, barring 16 th day interval where highest mean percentage of germination was observed in chilling treatment Ch 2 (40 day chilled seeds) and least was observed in Com. 1 and control treatments. On 30 th day, the highest mean percentage of germination ± SE (82±1.15) was observed in treatment Ch 1 followed by GA 3 1 (79±1.73) and least (24±1.15) was observed in treatment Com .4 (H 2 SO 4 /NAA2). However, no germination was observed treatments K 1 (Potassium nitrate, 0.2 %,) and K 2 (Potassium nitrate, 0.3 %). Treatment S 1 (Acid scarification for 1 min.) with mean percentage of germination ± SE (31±1.15) was at par with treatment Com 2 (H 2 SO 4 /GA 3 2), but was statistically different from all other treatments. All the treatments were statistically significant. On 28 th day, the highest mean percentage of germination ± SE (82±1.15) was observed in treatment Ch 1 followed by Ch 2 (78±1.15) and GA 3 1 (74±1.15) least (23±1.15) was observed in treatment Com .4. From day 14 th to day 26 th , treatments GA 3 1 and GA 3 2 (Gibbrellic acid, 10 -4 M) were statistically different from each other as well as from the rest of all other treatments. From day 6 th to day 18 th , treatments NAA1 (Naphthalene acetic acid, 25 ppm) and NAA2 (Naphthalene acetic acid, 50 ppm) were at par with each other, but from day interval of 20 th to 26 th these treatments were statistically different from each other. Treatments were statistically significant on all day intervals. The germination study gives an insight into the measures to be taken to increase the efficiency of seed germination to ensure the conservation of the endangered species.
Impact of anthropogenic activities on physico-chemical properties of sediment of Hokersar wetland was carried in summer, spring and autumn seasons. Sediment at Inlet site was having higher value for physicochemical parameters viz; EC (0.509 dS/m), available nitrogen (109.86 mg/kg), available potassium (89.97 mg/kg), available phosphorus (10.18 mg/kg), Ca (352.53 mg/kg) and Mg (152.44 mg/kg) except pH which was highest (7.99) at Outlet. The values of all the physico-chemical parameters of sediment were found maximum in summer season and minimum in autumn except for pH which was higher (7.81) in autumn and lower in (7.16) in summer. Highest values for Fe (23.90 mg/kg), Mn (8.54 mg/kg), Cu (3.65 mg/kg) and Zn (2.77 mg/kg) in sediment were found at Inlet site and lowest values for Fe (11.82 mg/kg), Mn (3.52 mg/kg), Cu (0.97 mg/kg) and Zn (1.14 mg/kg) at outlet site. Further, these trace elements were observed in higher concentration during summer season as compared to autumn. This all may be due to the high rate of degradation of huge quantities of waste present in the Wetland. Bangladesh J. Bot. 51(1): 83-92, 2022 (March)
Colchicum luteum L. is an economically important and endangered medicinal plant of the Kashmir Himalaya. The corm extract is used for the treatment of rheumatism, gout, Behcet’s syndrome, and Alzheimer disease. It is also used extensively in plant breeding programs for the doubling of chromosomes. The present study was carried out for two years (2017–2019) to study the genetic diversity of C. luteum, an economically important and endangered medicinal plant of Kashmir Himalaya. The mapping of genetic diversity of C. luteum was estimated using Mahalanobis D2 analysis in the Aharbal (Kulgam), Dhara (Theed), and Baera Baal Hills (Harwan) of Kashmir Valley. The results showed the presence of 5 clusters for 30 populations. There were 17 populations in cluster-1, 1 in cluster-2, 2 in cluster-3, 3 in cluster-4, and 7 in cluster-5. The majority of the population was a group in cluster-1 followed by cluster-5. The maximum intracluster distance (D2 values) was observed in cluster-5 (46.55588) followed by cluster-3 (41.61871), and the maximum inter-cluster distance (D2 values) was observed in cluster-3 (46.55588) followed by cluster-5 (41.61871). Our study revealed that plant species possessed sufficient genetic diversity among the populations. Cluster-5 showed superiority in plant−1 respect of the maximum mean plant height (28.46 cm), leaf area (47.0 cm2), number of seeds plant−1 (26.85), corm length (5.15 cm), corm width (3.17 cm), fresh weight of corm plant (6.87 g), and dry weight of corm plant (4.81 g) as compared to other clusters. Out of five clusters, cluster-5 is a promising one for better yield and yield attributing traits. The present study revealed that plant species possessed sufficient genetic diversity among the populations as 30 populations were arranged into 5 clusters. Therefore, cluster-5, consisting of seven populations from the undisturbed area of Harwan, and consequently the populations from the same cluster can be multiplied for initiating a conservation and breeding program and can serve as a tool for the scientific community to evolve better contemporary varieties of C. luteum with profitable characters such as more yield of corms, etc. This will assist farmers, particularly the marginal farmers, to alleviate their income.
Environmental biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for the protection and restoration of the quality of our environment. Biotechnological processes to protect the environment have been used for almost a century now, even longer than the term "biotechnology" exists. Biotechnological techniques to treat waste before or after it has been brought into the environment are components of environmental biotechnological tools. Biotechnology can also be applied industrially for use in developing products and processes that generate less waste and use less nonrenewable resources and consume less energy. A biosensor is an analytical device that integrates a biological sensing element (e.g., an enzyme or an antibody) with a physical (e.g., optical, mass, or electrochemical) transducer, whereby the interaction between the target and the bio-recognition molecules is translated into a measurable electrical signal. Potent alternatives to conventional analytical techniques are Optical biosensors that exploit light absorption, fluorescence, luminescence, reflectance, Raman scattering and refractive index. Devoid of any time-consuming sample concentration and or prior sample pretreatment steps these biosensors provide rapid, highly sensitive, real-time, and highfrequency monitoring. Although optical biosensors have great potential applications in the areas of environmental monitoring, food safety, drug development, biomedical research, and diagnosis. Their use in fields of environmental pollution control and early warning is still in the early stages. Biosensors are classified according to their transduction principle such as optical, electrochemical and piezoelectric or based on their recognition element as immunosensors, apt sensors, genosensors, and enzymatic biosensors, when antibodies, aptamers, nucleic acids, and enzymes are, respectively, used.
Landfills are regarded most cost effective and accomplishable operation for managing waste in numerous parts of the world. Inspite of many merits, it gives rise to remarkable menace to different domains of the environment owing to the existence of noxious inanimate and animate components in the leachate and imperfectly evolved solid refuse handling techniques. Water is indispensable for bolstering existence, growth, and the environment and is one of the fundamental indicator of fiscal expansion and communal opulence of a country. Percolation of noxious substances from unscientific dumpsites is among the main environmental consequences of these landfills in majority of the progressing countries like India. Leachate serves as a prominent point source of contamination in many environmental media like soil, ground water and surface water around the world. So the prime issues humans are experiencing are associated with water quality. Thus the investigation was accomplished to investigate the impact of leachate from Achan landfill on surface water quality in Temperate Himalayas. Monitoring was done during all the four seasons viz, spring, summer, autumn and winter. Leachate outflow site was found to have highest mean value of pH (8.4), EC (4.50), total Nitrogen (3.55), P (5.78),K (1.90), Ca (114.40), Mg (60.35), Fe (2.25), Cu (0.84), Mn (1.03), BOD (29.32), COD (95.68), temperature (20.23), NTU (19.70) during summer season, while as lowest mean values of EC (0.12), total Nitrogen (0.79), P (2.19),K (0.25), Ca (43.06), Mg (21.83), Fe (0.67), Cu (0.25), Mn (0.30), BOD (6.08), COD (24.55), temperature (3.56), NTU (1.78) were recorded at control site during winter season. From the study we concluded that a decreasing trend was observed during all the seasons in the concentration of all physico chemical paramaters with increase in distance from landfill. So it is recommended that the leachate should be treated at source before disposing into the water body and landfill should be lined properly to prevent the entry of leachate into water sources.
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