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Diwali is celebrated widely in Asian countries, with a custom of firing crackers. Crackers pollute the environment with noise, particulate matter and chemicals. There are reports on the variation of particulates during firing crackers but none on airborne microbes. The present study was conducted to know the impact of fire crackers on airborne microflora. The air samples were collected 3 days prior to Diwali, on Diwali and 3 days after Diwali during the year 2017 at 15 different areas in Chennai, India. Andersen N-6 viable particle air sampler was exposed with petridishes containing nutrient agar and potato dextrose agar for the isolation of bacteria and fungi respectively. An average of 1,904 ± 2.5 CFU/m 3 of bacteria recorded prior Diwali was reduced by 53.23% on Diwali and increased by 27.37% after Diwali. This reduction on Diwali is attributed to the exposure of bacteria to chemicals emitted by the crackers. For fungi, an average of 235.57 ± 1.67 CFU/m 3 was recorded prior Diwali, with an increase of 78.5% on Diwali. The increase in fungal count might be due to the release of spores by ground crackers. The study shows that bacteria are susceptible to the chemicals emitted by fire crackers when compared with fungi.

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Phytochemistry, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of different solvent extracts of Chromolaena odorata leaves obtained by direct and sequential extraction were compared in this study. Antibacterial evaluation of the extracts was performed through a disc diffusion method. The results revealed that the solvents, Petroleum ether and Ethyl acetate showed the presence of a majority of the phytochemicals, Chloroform extract yielded maximum TPC and TAA and ethyl acetate yielded higher TFC when compared to other solvents. Ethanol and chloroform extracts showed lower concentrations of IC50 against DPPH and NO radicals respectively. Acetone recorded the maximum zone of inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa; ethyl acetate against Bacillus subtilis and Chloroform against Streptococcus mutans. Among the solvents studied for phytochemical content and bioactivities, ethanol showed a higher level of phytochemical extraction and better bioactivities. As a direct solvent extraction of C. odorata showed better efficiency when compared with sequential extraction, the study strongly recommends the use of a direct extraction method.