Antibiotics, once considered the lifeline for treating bacterial infections, are under threat due to the emergence of threatening antimicrobial resistance (AMR). These drug-resistant microbes (or superbugs) are non-responsive to most of the commonly used antibiotics leaving us with few treatment options and escalating mortality-rates and treatment costs. The problem is further aggravated by the drying-pipeline of new and potent antibiotics effective particularly against the drug-resistant strains. Multidrug efflux pumps (EPs) are established as principal determinants of AMR, extruding multiple antibiotics out of the cell, mostly in non-specific manner and have therefore emerged as potent drug-targets for combating AMR. Plants being the reservoir of bioactive compounds can serve as a source of potent EP inhibitors (EPIs). The phyto-therapeutics with noteworthy drug-resistance-reversal or re-sensitizing activities may prove significant for reviving the otherwise fading antibiotics arsenal and making this combination-therapy effective. Contemporary attempts to potentiate the antibiotics with plant extracts and pure phytomolecules have gained momentum though with relatively less success against Gram-negative bacteria. Plant-based EPIs hold promise as potent drug-leads to combat the EPI-mediated AMR. This review presents an account of major bacterial multidrug EPs, their roles in imparting AMR, effective strategies for inhibiting drug EPs with phytomolecules, and current account of research on developing novel and potent plant-based EPIs for reversing their AMR characteristics. Recent developments including emergence of in silico tools, major success stories, challenges and future prospects are also discussed.

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Improper management and unsanitary approaches are implemented in disposal of leachate, which has resulted in groundwater pollution at village Uruli Devachi, Pune, India. Various physico-chemical treatment methods are commercially available for leachate treatment. However, the application of biological methods viz. phytoremediation to the municipal solid waste landfill leachate has been limited. We report the remediation ability of Typha aungstifolia and Acrorus calamus that is capable of reducing hazardous constituents from the landfill leachate. After 96 h of hydraulic retention time (HRT), it was observed that T. aungstifolia-treated sample showed high reduction potential in reducing biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, hardness, total dissolved solids, Na, Mg, Ca and Ni whereas A. calamus showed greater reduction capacity for alkalinity, Cl, Cu, Zn and Cr. Furthermore, it was also observed that T. aungstifolia withstood longer HRT than A. calamus. In situ application of T. aungstifolia and A. calamus for remediation of landfill leachate carries a tremendous potential that needs to be further explored.

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India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world, which has reflected in the steep infrastructural growth being observed in most of the Indian cities. However, the evolution of urban waste management system has not matched the fast pace of urbanization. The inefficiency of solid waste management systems could be attributed to unreliable and inaccurate estimation of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation, obtained due to lack of data on population dynamics (unpredictable rural urban migrations) and incomplete information on bulk waste from the informal sector. As per rules published by MoEF, 2000 and MoEF & CC, 2016, it is expected that all the urban local bodies should comply with the rules and manage the waste as suggested, however none of the urban local bodies managed to comply as of now. One of the reasons being inappropriate estimation of MSW and therefore, in the present study, using a case study of Pune City, the 8th largest metro city in India, we tried to highlight the inconsistency and unreliability of currently used methods for per capita estimation of MSW generation. We have also analysed available data to see how integration of informal waste sector could help in predicting more accurate estimates. We suggest derivation of more robust, scientific and standardised method at national level and integration of informal sector in to the mainstream waste management system, which will help municipal authorities and policy makers in India to formulate effective strategies for value recovery form wastes and protection of environment.