Indian Journal of Plant Physiology
Year : 2006, Volume : 11, Issue : 2
Print ISSN : 0019-5502.
Impact of seasons on some biochemical parameters in three adiantoid ferns
Guha (Ghosh) Piyali, Gupta K.*, Mukhopadhyay R.
Department of Botany (Special Assistance Programme), University of Burdwan, Burdwan – 713104, West Bengal
Chlorophylls, carbohydrates, carotenoids, total free amino acids, total free phenols, and total free proline were measured in different parts of Adiantum capillus-veneris L., Adiantum incisum Forssk. and Adiantum lunulatum Burm. f. in summer (April – June), rainy (July – October) and winter (November – February) seasons. Among the three species, A. incisum contains the highest amount of these metabolites. Significant differences of primary and secondary metabolites were observed in different parts of the same species. Seasonal impacts on the change of quantity of the metabolites were distinctly evident. Relative water content of the leaf tissue was more in winter in all the species, maximum being in A. lunulatum. Rainy season was found to be the best time for harvest of raw materials for herbal drug purpose as phenol content was found to be highest in this season.
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Journal of Metallurgy and Materials Science
Year : 2005, Volume : 47, Issue : 4
Print ISSN : 0972-4257.
Recovery of zinc from electroplating effluent using cationic resins
Jha M.K.*, Upadhyay A.K., Bagchi D., Kumar V.
National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur-831 007, India.
In India, a large number of zinc-electroplating industries are producing effluents containing toxic metals viz. zinc, chromium, nickel, copper, cadmium etc. The effluents directly discharged in the sewage cause pollution. In order to reduce environmental pollution and conserve the natural resources, the studies have been carried out for the selective extraction of zinc from the electroplating effluents containing chromium (520 ppm Zn and 26.5 ppm Cr) using ion-exchange process. Different cationic resins viz. Indion BSR, Tulsion T-42, Lewatit VP OC 1026 and Amberlite IR-120 (Na) have been studied for the extraction of zinc from the effluent. On comparing the performance of different resins, Tulsion T-42 found more effective in comparison to other resins. The effect of various parameters viz. contact time, pH, resin dose, concentration of aqueous feed on the extraction of zinc has also been studied. Almost total zinc was extracted in 10 minutes from the aqueous feed containing 0.5 mg Zn/ml at eq. pH 2–4 and aqueous to resin ratio (A/R) ratio 100. The adsorption of zinc with Tulsion T-42 follows Freundlich equilibrium isotherm better than Langmuir isotherm. The kinetics extraction showed the validity of second order rate expression. The elution studies carried out with strong sulphuric acid showed that total zinc could be eluted effectively from the loaded resin.
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Indian Journal of Comparative Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Year : 2005, Volume : 26, Issue : 1
Print ISSN : 0790-9320.
Shome B.R. (2), Senior Scientist, Shome Rajeswari (2), Senior Scientist, Das A. (1), Mazumder Y. (1), Murugkar H.V. (3), Senior Scientist, Kumar Ashok (1), Rahman H. (4), Principal Scientist & Head, Bujarbaruah K.M.5, Director
(1) Division of Animal Health, ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam - 793 103 (Meghalaya)
(2) PD-ADMAS, Bangalore.
(3) IVRI Campus, Bhopal.
(4) Division of Veterinary Public Health, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar-243 122 (UP).
(5) ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya.
Escherichia coli are the common inhabitant of gastrointestinal tract of man and animals but some of them become pathogenic due to the events of gene transfer, recruitment of genes and selective expression of genes in a given environment (Chen and Griffiths, 1998).
Shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC) strains are one such group, which has globally emerged as an important zoonotic and diarrhoeal pathogen (Robins et al., 1993). The major virulence factor of STEC is Shiga toxin production (Stx), formerly known as verotoxins/Shigalike toxins (Paton and Paton, 1998).
Two major reactive groups of Stx exist: Stx 1 and Stx 2 (their structural genes stx 1 and stx 2) which inhibit protein synthesis of host cells resulting in cell death. The other virulence factors such as lipopolysaccharide (rfbO157) and enterohaemolysin (hlyA) genes expressed in some E. coli strains cause bloody diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in humans (Tarr, 1994).
STEC have been found in the faecal flora of wide variety of animals which in-turn is the important source of infection for humans (Challmers et al., 2000). Control of STEC diseases in humans and to limit the scale of outbreaks depends upon prompt diagnosis and identification of the source of infection. The traditional microbiological methods of identification of E. coli, including serotype O157 are labour intensive, time consuming and may sometimes provide false-negative results due to atypical phenotypic properties of some strains (Ware et al., 2000).
Moreover, the result obtained by biological (cell cultures) and immunologic (ELISA) assays for the detection of Shiga toxin was found be not very encouraging (Nataro and Kaper, 1998; Rahman, 2002).
PCR-based detection method allows differentiation of all STEC strains from non-pathogenic E. coli (Chen and Griffiths, 1998; Rahman, 2002). The present investigation was undertaken to study the occurrence of different virulence determinants including stx, hlyA and rfbO157 in E. coli isolated from ruminant and non-ruminant species including poultry, and laboratory animals by PCR technique.
