•There is moderate awareness related to transmission and symptoms of COVID-19 among educated population in India.•There is adequate awareness among public regarding preventive measures for COVID-19 ...infection.•There is a positive attitude of public towards social-distancing, avoiding party and travel and maintaining hygiene.•People report anxiety, worries, paranoia about acquiring infection and sleep disturbances during this pandemic.•More the 80 % people perceive mental healthcare need to deal with their issues during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) originating from China has rapidly crossed borders, infecting people throughout the whole world. This phenomenon has led to a massive public reaction; the media has been reporting continuously across borders to keep all informed about the pandemic situation. All these things are creating a lot of concern for people leading to heightened levels of anxiety. Pandemics can lead to heightened levels of stress; Anxiety is a common response to any stressful situation. This study attempted to assess the knowledge, attitude, anxiety experience, and perceived mental healthcare need among adult Indian population during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was conducted using a semi-structured questionnaire using a non-probability snowball sampling technique. A total of 662 responses were received.
The responders had a moderate level of knowledge about the COVID-19 infection and adequate knowledge about its preventive aspects. The attitude towards COVID-19 showed peoples' willingness to follow government guidelines on quarantine and social distancing. The anxiety levels identified in the study were high. More than 80 % of the people were preoccupied with the thoughts of COVID-19 and 72 % reported the need to use gloves, and sanitizers. In this study, sleep difficulties, paranoia about acquiring COVID-19 infection and distress related social media were reported in 12.5 %, 37.8 %, and 36.4 % participants respectively. The perceived mental healthcare need was seen in more than 80 % of participants. There is a need to intensify the awareness and address the mental health issues of people during this COVID-19 pandemic.
•Three potential endophytic strains pantoea spp. Ar13, pseudomonas spp. Ms5, and microbacterium spp. Ar17 were isolated from a critically endangered medicinal plant trillium govanianum.•Individual as ...well as a consortium of these strains were used in the development of a charcoal-based bioformulation for field evaluation.•Consortia of endophytic bacteria were found more successful for enhancement of soil nutrients.
Trillium govaniaunm is a critically endangered medicinal plant commonly known as ‘Nag Chhatri’ that grows mainly in the dry temperate zone of western Himalayas India. Here, in the present study, T. govanianum plants have been explored to isolate and identify bacterial endophytes with plant growth promoting potential and to evaluate their effects on soil biochemical property under field conditions. In total, 107 endophytic bacteria have been isolated from T. govanianum which were then tested for their in vitro plant growth promoting activity. Twenty two bacterial strains which showed all PGP traits were selected for evaluating their enzymatic and drought tolerating potential. The best P-solubilisation and IAA production 92.56 ± 2.29 μg/ml, and 62.74 ± 0.58 μg/ml were recorded by strain Ar13 respectively" in this way, the strain Ar13 demonstrated the best P-solubilisation and IAA production, whereas Ms5 produced the highest siderophore production i.e. 94.86 ± 2.02%. The maximum protease (18.00 ± 0.11 mm) was shown by strain Ms5 whereas, Ar13 showed the highest cellulase (20.00 ± 0.41 mm), chitinase (22 ± .02 mm) and ACC deaminase (48.84 ± ± 0.17 µM ά-KB mg−1h − 1). In total three bacterial isolates were further selected for further studies and identified as Pantoea spp. Ar13, Microbacterium spp. Ar17 and Pseudomonas spp. Ms5 by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Furthermore, these three selected bacterial isolates were utilized individually and in consortia for the field application for consecutive two years. The findings unveiled a notably enhancement of micronutrients in all plants subjected to bacterial strains, when compared to the control group. The consortium of endophytes recorded significantly higher total soil organic carbon (2.58 ± 0.03%), electric conductivity (0.21 ± 0.01 dsm-1), and soil nutrients like available N (418.75 ± 1.42 kg ha-1), P (36.05 ± 0.12 kg ha-1), K (291.23 ± 0.99 kg ha-1) content and soil enzymes like dehydrogenase, phosphatase and microbial population. To our knowledge, this is the very first report of its kind of the isolation of endophytic bacterial strains from T. govanianum and microorganisms that can be utilized in future applications for agricultural sustainability.
•Employing fermentation to produce biofuel from biomass waste from forestry and agriculture.•Better separation of lignocellulosic components can be achieved through pretreatment.•A greener way to ...extract holocellulose from biomass more effectively is to pretreat it with organosolv.•The RSM approach aims to maximise the yield of bioethanol generated by optimising the fermentation parameters.
A potential substitute for a sustainable and long-term energy source is bioethanol. Although converting lignocellulose to bioethanol may be more economical, eco-friendly, and effective, it would still require extensive process-development and improvement to make biofuel economically feasible. An essential stage in the production of bioethanol is the pre-treatment of biomass to dissolve lignin and recover holocellulose. In this study, waste biomass from agro-forestry was converted into bioethanol by using various pre-treatments and selecting the one that produced the best results to optimize the process using the Classical One Factor at a Time approach (COFAT). The saccharification of selected biomass was done using in-house cultures of hyper-cellulase (Bacillus stratosphericus N12) and hyper-xylanase (B. altitudinus Kd1) producers, while the yeast cultures for fermentation of biomass i.e. Streptomyces cerevisiae and Pichia stiptis were purchased as sterile cultures. COFAT used inoculum size, fermentation pH, incubation time and temperature as optimization parameters and each of these increased the amount of bioethanol produced. Additionally, the Central Composite Design (CCD) of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) contributed to the 28.44 g/L maximum bioethanol output. The pre-treatments that separated the lignin from the holocellulose allowed it to be used in another investigation for the manufacture of nanoparticles and as a biocontrol agent. Since each component of waste biomass can be used to make useful products such as bioethanol from holocellulose and an anti-fungalbiocontrol agentfrom lignin, a comprehensive approach to bioutilization of lignocellulosic biomass has been undertaken.
Lipase production bacterial isolate was isolated from soil of service station and identified as Bacillus methylotrophicus PS3 by 16SrRNA with accession number |LN999829.1|. Lipase enzyme was purified ...by sequential methods of ammonium sulfate precipitation and Sephadex G-100 gel column chromatography. The molecular weight of purified enzyme was 31.40kDa on SDS-PAGE. This purification procedure resulted in 2.90-fold purification of lipase with a 24.10% final yield. The purified lipase presented maximal hydrolytic activity at a temperature of 55°C, and pH of 7.0. Lipase activity was stimulated by Triton X-100 and SDS with Mg2+ and Ca2+ metals employ a positive effect and outlast its stable in organic solvent i.e. methanol and ethanol.
Introduction
The current need of the food industry is to develop a safe packaging system that maintains the quality of food and prevents its spoilage. Food safety techniques improvised using ...functional nanoparticles minimize the chances of spoilage by maintaining moisture stability, mechanical strength, and durability and ensuring product safety. In the present study, we synthesized silver nanoparticles using purified bacteriocins obtained from probiotics. Bacteriocin-synthesized AgNPs are eco-friendly and secure packaging solutions that can be utilized in the packaging industry for the storage of food products.
Methods
Crude, partially purified and purified bacteriocin was obtained from three potential probiotic isolates, i.e.,
Lactobacillus pentosus
S6 (KU92122),
Lactobacillus crustorum
F11 (KT865221) and
Lactobacillus spicheri
G2 (JX481912). The antimicrobial efficacy of bacteriocin was tested against two food-borne spoilage-causing pathogens, i.e.,
Bacillus cereus
and
Staphylococcus aureus
. The purified bacteriocin obtained was used for the synthesis of AgNPs. The synthesized AgNPs were characterized using UV-vis spectroscopy, TEM, and SEM techniques. The AgNPs were used for coating cellulose paper. The coated paper was characterized using SEM and was used for the storage of tomato fruit.
Results and discussion
The purified bacteriocin obtained was used for the synthesis of AgNPs. The formation of AgNPs was confirmed by using UV-vis spectroscopy, which showed maximum absorption at 450 nm. Furthermore, we confirm shape and morphology by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis showed the mean size of synthesized AgNPs in the range of 5–20 nm. Bacteriocin-synthesized AgNPs were then used for the coating of cellulose paper with the main motive to avoid spoilage and enhance the shelf stability of tomato fruit during storage. SEM analysis confirmed the coating of AgNPs in the cellulose paper. The enhanced antimicrobial efficacy of different treatments coated paper was observed against
B. cereus
and
S. aureus
. Out of all, F11 AgNPs coated paper showed maximum inhibition of 24 mm for
S. aureus
and 22 mm for
B. cereus
. The coated paper from three different bacteriocin-synthesized AgNPs, along with silver nitrate (AgNO
3
) coated and uncoated paper, was used for the storage of tomato fruit for a period of 10 days at room temperature. Changes during storage were determined by analyzing morphological and color changes. Compared to AgNO
3
coated and uncoated paper, tomato fruit preserved in F11 AgNPs coated paper maintained and held its appearance and firmness, thereby confirming their effectiveness in the preservation of tomatoes.
Background
Microbial origin polysaccharides have gained popularity due to lesser toxicity, better degradability and selectivity as compared to their synthetic counterparts and can be used as ...emulsifier, stabilizer, thickener, texturizer, flocculating and gelling agent. Here main emphasis on exopolysaccharide production from potential lactic acid bacteria that has GRAS status.
Results
This work was aimed at isolating, purifying and characterizing an extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) produced by a foodgrade lactic acid bacteria
Lactobacillus paraplantarum
KM1.
L. paraplantarum
KM1 was isolated from human milk and identified by conventional and molecular techniques. The 16S rRNA sequence of the isolate was registered in National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) under accession number KX671558.
L. paraplantarum
KM1 was found to produce EPSs in lactose containing MRS medium, and the maximum yield (47.4 mg/ml) was achieved after 32-h incubation. As evident from TLC and HPLC analyses, the polysaccharide was found to be a heteropolymer-containing glucose, galactose and mannose as main sugars. Different oligosaccharides namely hexoses were obtained after partial hydrolysis of the polymer using MALDI-ToF-MS. The total molecular weight of all polysaccharides present was 348.7 kDa with 100 °C thermal stability as well as water soluble in nature. Cell cytotoxicity revealed that the purified EPS was safe for consumption; thus, it can be used in various food industries as emulsifying and texture agent.
Conclusions
The present study highlighted that exopolysaccharides could be harnessed to improve food products in terms of texture, emulsifying agents, pharmaceutical industry (antioxidants, antitumour, anti-inflammatory and antiviral agents) and as safety purposes.
The tremendous need of lipase for varied applications in biotechnology increases its economical value in food and allied industries. Patents suggest that lipase has an impressive number of ...applications viz. enhancements of flavor in food products (Cheese, butter, alcoholic beverages, milk chocolate and diet control food stuffs), detergent industry in removing oil, grease stain, organic chemical processing, textile industry, oleochemical industry, cosmetic industry and also as therapeutic agents in pharmaceutical industries.
This communication extends the frontier of lipase catalyzed benefits to human body by lowering serum cholesterol and enhancement of flavor in different food products.
Among all, multiple innovations going on in the field of lipase applications are widening its scope in food industries consistently. Therefore, in the present work an effort has been made to explore the utilization of lipase in the field of food product enhancement.
Supplementation of food products with lipase results in modification of its physical, chemical and biochemical properties by enhancing its therapeutic activity.
Lipases are the most important enzymes used in food industries. They are utilized as industrial catalysts for lipid hydrolysis. Because of lipases hydrolysis nature it is widely exploited to catalyze lipids or fats in different food products and enhancement of food flavors.
The possible use of activated rice husk and activated alumina as the adsorbents of Cr(VI) from synthetic solutions and the effect of operating parameters were investigated. The activated rice husk ...carbon was prepared thermally in two sizes 0.3 and 1.0 mm. The maximum removal of Cr(VI) occurred at pH 2 by activated rice husk and at pH 4 by activated alumina. The amounts of Cr(VI) adsorbed increased with increase in dose of both adsorbents and their contact time. The Freundlich isotherm was applied.
The brown rot fungus Rhizopus delemar F2 was shown to produce extracellular thermostable and multiple carbohydrase enzymes. The potential of Rhizopus delemar F2 in utilizing apple pomace under solid ...state fermentation (SSF) is the purpose of the study. Solid state fermentation (SSF) is a very effective technique opposed to submerged fermentation in various aspects. Enhanced production of multiple carbohydrases 18.20 U g−1 of cellulose, 158.30 U g−1 of xylanase, 61.50 U g−1 of pectinase and amylase 21.03 U g−1 was released by microwave pretreatment of apple pomace at 450 W for 1 min and then by incubation the culture thus obtained at 30 °C for 6 days with moisture content of 1:4.5. Apple pomace can serve as a potential source of raw material for the production of multiple carbohydrases. Besides, it can find great commercial significance in production of bioethanol and various industries like textile, fruit juice, paper and pulp industry.
PDF
