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The present study was designed to assess the health risk of pesticide residues via dietary intake of vegetables collected from four top agro-based markets of Dhaka, Bangladesh. High performance liquid chromatography with a photo diode array detector (HPLC-PDA) was used to determine six organophosphorus (chlorpyrifos, fenitrothion, parathion, ethion, acephate, fenthion), two carbamate (carbaryl and carbofuran) and one pyrethroid (cypermethrin) pesticide residues in twelve samples of three common vegetables (tomato, lady’s finger and brinjal). Pesticide residues ranged from below detectable limit (<0.01) to 0.36 mg/kg. Acephate, chlorpyrifos, ethion, carbaryl and cypermethrin were detected in only one sample, while co-occurrence occurred twice for fenitrothion and parathion. Apart from chlorpyrifos in tomato and cypermethrin in brinjal, all pesticide residues exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL). Hazard risk index (HRI) for ethion (10.12) and carbaryl (1.09) was found in lady’s finger and tomato, respectively. Rest of the pesticide residues were classified as not a health risk. A continuous monitoring and strict regulation should be enforced regarding control of pesticide residues in vegetables and other food commodities.

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The use of pesticide for crops leads to serious environmental pollution, therefore, it is essential to monitor and develop approaches to remove pesticide from contaminated environment. In this study, water samples were collected to monitor pesticide residues, and degradation of chlorpyrifos was also performed using soil bacteria. Identification of pesticide residues and determination of their levels were performed by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detector. Among 12 samples, 10 samples were found contaminated with pesticides. Chlorpyrifos was detected in four tested samples and concentrations ranged from 3.27 to 9.31 lg/l whereas fenitrothion ranging from (Below Detection Limit, \0.1 lg/ l) to 33.41 lg/l in the tested samples. Parathion was found in two tested samples at the concentration of 0.73 and 6.23 lg/l. None of the tested samples was found contaminated with Methoxychlor, DDT and Ethion. Three soil bacterial isolates, Pseudomonas peli BG1, Burkholderia caryophylli BG4 and Brevundimonas diminuta PD6 degraded chlorpyrifos completely in 8, 10 and 10 days, respectively, when 20 mg/l chlorpyrifos was supplied as sole source of carbon. Whereas, BG1, BG4 and PD6 took 14, 16 and 16 days, respectively, for complete removal of 50 mg/l chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos degradation rates were found maximum by all three isolates at 2nd day of incubation for both tested concentrations. The results of the present study suggest the need for regular monitoring of pesticide residues in water, to protect the aquatic environment. Chlorpyrifos degrading bacterial isolates can be used to clean up environmental samples contaminated with the organophosphate pesticides.

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Cancer comprises a group of diseases which are involved in the aberrant growth of the cells causing disruption of normal body function. Due to the lack of proper sophisticated treatments this nasty disease leads to the death of most of the patients affected with it. Moreover, treatments like chemotherapy involve other post-treatment complications which make them unfavorable for extended use. Medicinal plants possess many phytochemicals of great therapeutic value and many of them are effective in killing cancer cells. These compounds working by variety of mechanisms and in most of the cases exhibit their anticancer potentiality by inhibiting many proteins involved in cell growth and division. Molecular docking is a computational approach which facilitates the finding of the best molecule from a group which may bind with the highest affinity with the intended target by providing a virtual biological system. This process works on the basis of specific algorithm and involves scoring function to rank the molecules that fit with the target. This study has been designed to investigate the potentiality of four phytochemicals from Clitoria ternatea-Kaempferol, Myricetin, P-Hydroxycinnamic acid and Quercetin as inhibitors of two cell cycle checkpoint proteins-Cyclin Dependent Kinase-2 (CDK-2) and Cyclin Dependent Kinase-6 (CDK-6) in Cyclin/CDK pathway. Quercetin and Myricetin docked with higher affinity with CDK-2 and CDK-6 respectively. Drug likeness property analysis and ADME/T test impose computational approach to investigate physicochemical and pharmacological properties of candidate drug molecules.