Cow dung, an excreta of bovine animal, is a cheap and easily available bioresource on our planet. Many traditional uses of cow dung such as burning as fuel, mosquito repellent and as cleansing agent are already known in India. Cow dung harbours a diverse group of microorganisms that may be beneficial to humans due to their ability to produce a range of metabolites. Along with the production of novel chemicals, many cow dung microorganisms have shown natural ability to increase soil fertility through phosphate solubilisation. Nowadays, there is an increasing research interest in developing the applications of cow dung microorganisms for biofuel production and management of environmental pollutants. This review focuses on recent findings being made on cow dung that could be harnessed for usage in different areas such as medicine, agriculture and industry.

Several environmental factors adversely affect plant growth and development and final yield performance of a crop. Drought, salinity, nutrient imbalances (including mineral toxicities and deficiencies) and extremes of temperature are among the major environmental constraints to crop productivity worldwide. Development of crop plants with stress tolerance, however, requires, among others, knowledge of the physiological mechanisms and genetic controls of the contributing traits at different plant developmental stages. In the past two decades, biotechnology research has provided considerable insights into the mechanism of biotic stress tolerance in plants at the molecular level. Furthermore, different abiotic stress factors may provoke osmotic stress, oxidative stress and protein denaturation in plants, which lead to similar cellular adaptive responses such as accumulation of compatible solutes, induction of stress proteins, and acceleration of reactive oxygen species scavenging systems. Recently, various methods are adapted to improve plant tolerance to salinity injury through either chemical treatments (plant hormones, minerals, amino acids, quaternary ammonium compounds, polyamines and vitamins) or biofertilizers treatments (Asymbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria, symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria) or enhanced a process used naturally by plants (mycorrhiza) to minimise the movement of Na+ to the shoot. Proper management of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) has the potential to improve the profitability and sustainability of salt tolerance. In this review article, the discussion is restricted to the mycorrhizal symbiosis and alleviation of salinity stress.

The accelerated population and industrial development have caused an extensive increase in the use of plastic products. Since polyethylene degrades slowly generating poisonous compounds, therefore, elimination of plastic from the environment is the prerequisite requirement today. Biodegradation of plastics seems to be a convenient and effective method to curb this problem. In view of this, the present study focuses on LDPE degradation capability of bacterial strain Pseudomonas aeruginosa ISJ14 (Accession No. MG554742) isolated from waste dump sites. Further, the stability of 16S rDNA of the isolate was determined by applying bioinformatics tools. For biodegradation studies, the polyethylene films were incubated with the culture of P. aeruginosa ISJ14 in two different growth medium namely Bushnell Hass broth (BHM) and Minimal Salt medium (MSM) for 60 days at 37 °C on 180 rpm. In addition, hydrophobicity and viability of bacterial isolate along with quantification of total protein content was also done. The microbial degradation was confirmed by surface modification and formation of fissures on polyethylene surface along with the variation in the intensity of functional groups as well as an increase in the carbonyl index using field emission scanning electron microscopy (Fe-SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometry (FTIR). These results indicate that P. aeruginosa strain ISJ14 can prove to be a suitable candidate for LDPE waste treatment without causing any harm to our health or environment.

Mycorrhizal symbiosis is a highly evolved mutually beneficial relationship that exists between Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) and most of the vascular plants. The majority of the terrestrial plants form association with Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (VAM) or Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). This symbiosis confers benefits directly to the host plant’s growth and development through the acquisition of Phosphorus (P) and other mineral nutrients from the soil by the AMF. In addition, their function ranges from stress alleviation to bioremediation in soils polluted with heavy metals. They may also enhance the protection of plants against pathogens and increases the plant diversity. This is achieved by the growth of AMF mycelium within the host root (intra radical) and out into the soil (extra radical) beyond. Proper management of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi has the potential to improve the profitability and sustainability of agricultural systems. In this review article, the discussion is restricted to the mycorrhizal benefits and their role in sustainable development.

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.

Collection of sample:Dung sample of Desi cow breed was collected aseptically from cow shed located in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The sample was analysed immediately after transporting to the laboratory (Gupta and Rana, 2016a).

:Herbal drugs have been used as remedies for the treatment of large number of humans, ailments since ancient times as the traditional medicine system; India has a glorious past, having first documented record of fully developed medical science known as Ayurveda written by several ancient Rishi's. Major groups of indigenous system of medicine are based on herbal drugs. A survey made by WHO indicated that about 80% of the world population relies on herbal drugs. Herbal drugs are becoming more popularized and important even in the developed nations with hope of their non-toxicity and may play a role of substitute to overcome the problems of multi drug resistant pathogens. Cultivation of drug plants has been started in large scale without considering the land quality and in certain cases irrigation with waste

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