ABSTRACT
In both the earlier waves of COVID-19 variants, severe and fatal respiratory disease like acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) became more fatal in population with comorbid conditions. Therefore, early identi?cation of severe COVID-19 is very important for individual's precise management, including antiviral, oxygen support and intensive care unit (ICU) management. First case of COVID-19 got reported in the medical record of India on 30th January 2020 in a student who had returned from Wuhan, China. In 2020 and 2021 it was found that individuals with increased serum ferritin and LDH level landed up with severe and very severe COVID-19 if not treated timely and correctly. So correlation between S. Ferritin and LDH in 1st and 2nd wave was required to evaluate the condition of patients who remained admitted in critical care unit with or without comorbid conditions. This is hospital based cross- sectional observational study on 50-50 (total-100) critically ill patients admitted during 2020 and 2021 respectively. We found that In 2020 during the 1st wave serum LDH and serum Ferritin levels were signi?cantly high with the mean value of 481.65 U/L and 532.56 ng/ml respectively and in 2021 during 2nd wave serum LDH and serum Ferritin levels were again signi?cantly high with the mean value of 488.43 U/L and 667.27 ng/ml respectively. In 2020 patients with comorbid conditions showed S. LDH and Ferritin mean value of 543.47 U/L and 582.63 ng/ml respectively and in 2021 during 2nd wave it showed S.LDH and Ferritin levels mean value of 672.72 U/L and 727.38 ng/ml respectively. Both in?ammatory markers were signi?cantly more increased in the critically ill patients who presented with co-morbidities. This study will provide improved con?dence to health workers working in remote areas and COVID-19 hospitals in predicting transfer of COVID-19 patients to tertiary care hospitals for critical care management at the earliest.
ABSTRACT
The extreme cold environments harbor novel psychrotrophic microbes. The psychrotrophic microbes have been reportedas plant growth promoters and biocontrol agents for sustainable agriculture, in industry as cold-adapted hydrolyticenzymes and in medicine as secondary metabolites and pharmaceutical important bioactive compounds. Inoculationwith psychrotrophic/psychrotolerant strains significantly enhanced root/shoot biomass and nutrients uptake as comparedto non-bacterized control. The psychrotrophic microbes play important role in alleviation of cold stress in plant growingat high hill and low temperature and conditions. The psychrotrophic microbes have been reported from worldwidefrom cold habitats and belong to all three domain archaea, bacteria, and eukarya including different phylum such asActinobacteria, Ascomycota, Bacteroidetes, Basidiomycota, Chloroflexi, Chlamydiae, Planctomycetes, Cyanobacteria,Euryarchaeota, Firmicutes, Gemmatimonadetes, Verrucomicrobia, Mucoromycota, Proteobacteria, Spirochaetes,Thaumarchaeota and Nitrospirae. The most dominant genera belong to Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Exiguobacterium,Paenibacillus, Providencia, Pseudomonas, and Serratia have been reported from the cold habitats. The Psychrotrophicmicrobes have biotechnological applications in agriculture, medicine, industry, food, and allied sectors
ABSTRACT
The plant growth promoting psychrotrophic Bacilli were investigated from different sites in north western Indian Himalayas. A total of 247 morphotypes were obtained from different soil and water samples and were grouped into 43 clusters based on 16S rDNA-RFLP analysis with three restriction endonucleases. Sequencing of representative isolates has revealed that these 43 Bacilli belonged to different species of 11 genera viz., Desemzia, Exiguobacterium, Jeotgalicoccus, Lysinibacillus, Paenibacillus, Planococcus, Pontibacillus, Sinobaca, Sporosarcina, Staphylococcus and Virgibacillus. With an aim to develop microbial inoculants that can perform efficiently at low temperatures, all representative isolates were screened for different plant growth promoting traits at low temperatures (5-15°C). Among the strains, variations were observed for production (%) of indole-3-acetic acid (20), ammonia (19), siderophores (11), gibberellic acid (4) and hydrogen cyanide (2); solubilisation (%) of zinc (14), phosphate (13) and potassium (7); 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase activity (6%) and biocontrol activity (4%) against Rhizoctonia solani and Macrophomina phaseolina. Among all the strains, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus muralis, Desemzia incerta, Paenibacillus tylopili and Sporosarcina globispora were found to be potent candidates to be developed as inoculants as they exhibited multiple PGP traits at low temperature.
ABSTRACT
Curry leaf viz. Murraya koenigiil eaves (MKL) is an ancient Ayurvedic medicinal plant that has recently been described as possessing robust anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. The current study was conducted to determine the long-term LD50 of the methanolic extract of MKL during daily oral administration. Five groups of Sprague Dawley rats were recruited into the study. Each group comprised of six rats including the control group (1). The oral MKL doses used for groups (2) to (5) were 50, 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg/day, respectively for a duration of ten weeks. The daily measured toxicity parameters were food and water consumption, body weight, general activity in forced swimming test and the cumulative mortalities. Group (5) showed 100% mortality within the first month of the study. Group (4) showed 50% mortality with signs of toxicity for the other 3 animals. Group (3) showed no mortalities but signs of toxicity for one animal were observed. No mortalities or toxicity signs were observed for any of group (2) animals. It can be concluded that the chronic LD50 for Malaysian cultivated MKL is 200 mg/kg/day, and the safest dose of MKL methanolic extract that can be implemented for long-term studies should not exceed 50 mg/kg/day.
ABSTRACT
A new spectrophotometric method was developed for the quantification of potassium in the culture broth supernatant of K-solubilizing bacteria. The standard curve of potassium with the new method, which is based on the measurement of cobalt, showed a regression coefficient (R2) of 0.998. The quantification values of potassium obtained with flame photometric method and the newly developed method showed a significant correlation (r) of 0.978. The new method depends on the precipitation of sodium cobaltinitrite with solubilized potassium in liquid medium as potassium sodium cobaltinitrite, which develops bluish green colour by the addition of conc. HCl. The intensity of developed colour can be recorded at 623 nm. This method involves less number of steps, is easy and time saving, and can be used for the reliable estimation of available potassium in culture broth supernatant of K-solubilizing bacteria.