Mentha piperita L. (Peppermint) is a perennial glabrous and strongly scented herb belonging to family Lamiaceae. The plant is aromatic, stimulant and used for allaying nausea, headache and vomiting. Its oil is one of the most popular widely used essential oils in food products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, dental preparations, mouthwashes, soaps and alcoholic liquors. The antibacterial potential of six extracts from leaf, stem and root of Mentha piperita against pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, Streptococcus pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris and Klebsiella pneumonia were evaluated by agar well diffusion method. The organic (ethanol, methanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform, hexane and petroleum ether) extracts of the leaves were found to possess strong antibacterial activity against a range of pathogenic bacteria. The ethyl acetate leaf extract of Mentha piperita showed pronounced inhibition than chloroform, petroleum ether and hexane. The leaf extract activity being more on Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Proteus vulgaris than Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumonia and Klebsiella pneumonia. In the present study, we also evaluated the phytochemical analysis for the presence of various secondary metabolites. The analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, tannins, and phenols.

The present study was designed to develop an efficient protocol for micro propagation of S. rebaudiana from nodal explants and study the influence of additives on enhancement of shoot proliferation. A two-step protocol has been standardized in which, first step comprising growth hormones concentration is optimized and it was found that MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/l BAP + 0.5 mg/l Kin + 0.1 mg/l NAA turned out to be the best treatment for shoot induction. In the second step, the best treatment for shoot induction was fortified with different growth additives for further shoot proliferation. Among the different types of additives used, casein hydrolysate at 0.05% (w/v) was found to be most effective, resulted with maximum of 15.0 shoots. 90% regeneration frequency and shoot length of 6.0 cm were recorded per explant. Thus, the procedure described is a quick and reliable method which could be applied for efficient large scale propagation, genetic transformation assays and secondary metabolite production of Stevia.

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Lampito mauriti is an Anecic earthworm living in the topsoil and it is geophytophagous in nature.This earthworm is an important soil macro fauna as it has the dual role of an ‘ecosystem engineer’ due to the ability to build burrows as well as ‘keystone species’ in soil food webs because of its function in degradationof organic wastes. The present study investigates the gut of this earthworm to find the most predominant bacterium harbored inside. Gut contents were extracted and streaked on bacteriological media. The predominant type of colony was identified based on size, pigmentation, form, margin and elevation. Thendifferent colonies were isolated and streaked separately to get pure colonies. The bacteria was subjected to several biochemical tests like Motility test, Gram staining, Methyl Red test, Voges-Proskauer test, Indole production test, Carbohydrate Fermentation test, Catalase test and Starch Hydrolysis test in order to identify the species. The bacterial species identification was done using Bergey’s manual. The bacterial isolates such as Micrococcus spp, Veillonella spp, Bacillus spp and Streptococcus spp were identified.