Annona muricata Linn. (Soursop) of Annonaceae is a medicinal plant. Major bioactive compound methyl ester of hexadecanoic acid was isolated from the leaves. It was tested for antifungal potentials and found to be highly effective at 10.0, 15.0 mg/ml concentrations for Alternaria solani (NCBT-118) and Aspergillus erithrocephalus (NCBT-124); at 15.0 mg/ml concentration Aspergillus albicans (NCBT-120); less effective for Aspergillus fumigatus (NCBT-126) and Penicillium chrysogenum (NCBT 162). This bioactive compound will find a place in the formulation of herbal based antifungal drugs for the test fungi of this work.
The results justify the antifungal potentials of both plant and human pathogenic fungi. The plant bioactive compound will be helpful in herbal antifungal formulations.
Removal of heavy metal chromium was carried out using the fungus Fusarium oxysporum NCBT-156 strain isolated from soil of leather tanning effluent in in situ condition using potassium dichromate solution with 10 per cent Czapek-dox liquid medium. Biosorbent matrix was developed using Carica papaya plant dry stem to colonize the fungal strain to facilitate bioabsorption process. Bioabsorption of chromium was by metabolically mediated intracellular accumulation process. Maximum efficiency of chromium removal by biosorption upto 90 per cent was achieved at the end of 5th day of incubation (120 h of contact time) for 100 and 200 ppm concentration, upto 80 per cent for 300 and 400 ppm, and upto 65 per cent for 500 ppm to 1000 ppm concentrations with pH ranging from 5.8, 5.6, 5.5, 5.4 and 5.2, respectively for 100, 200, 300, 400, 500-1000 ppm concentration. SDS-PAGE protein profile showed significant difference in 34 kDa protein band after chromium absorption by the fungus. FTIR spectroscopic analysis revealed that the main functional groups involved in the uptake of chromium by F. oxysporium strain were carbonyl, carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl groups.
Angiosperms are recognized as appropriate genetic models to detect heavy metal based environmental mutagens and are used in monitoring studies. Allium cepa (onion) has been used to evaluate DNA damages like chromosome aberrations and abnormalities in the mitotic cycle. The aim of the present study is to analyze the cytotoxic effects of chromium, copper, lead and zinc in A. cepa root tip squash mitotic cell divisions. The root tips were treated with three concentrations, viz. 5, 10 and 20 mg/100 ml of chromium, copper, lead and zinc at room temperature for 24 h. Mitotic indices and chromosomal abnormalities were calculated. It was observed that these heavy metals induced different types of chromosomal abnormalities comprising of Chromosome break, Chromosome bridge, C-mitosis, Vagrant, Delayed Anaphase and Vagrant, Chromosome Loss, Polyploidy and Chromosome Bridge, Chromosome Loss and Loculated Nucles, Stickiness, Multipolarity and Polyploid prophase along with the increasing doses. The effect of chromium and lead at 20 mg/100 ml concentration was found to be more toxic rather than copper and zinc to the root meristem of A. cepa. The ranking of cytotoxic potentials was in the descending order: lead > chromium > copper > zinc.
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