Fox nut (Euryale ferox), an aquatic crop of the Family Nymphaeaceae commonly known as MAKHANA, is unique, highly nutritious, non-cereal food cultivated in flood prone zone of north Bihar, lower Assam, and part of Bengal. It is commonly known as Makhana or Gorgon nut or Fox nut, and grown in stagnant perennial water bodies like ponds, land depressions, oxbow lakes, swamps and ditches. Makhana seeds are also called as Black Diamond. The seeds of Makhana are popped and eaten as roasted as well as used in preparation of various kind of sweets and recipes. It has nutritional and medicinal properties and there is a great export potential of this crop. Production of fox-nut in Bihar state accounts for over 80% of the Makhana production of the country. Darbhanga, Madhubani, Saharsa, Katihar, Purnea, Supaul, Kishanganj, Araria and Sitamari districts are major producer of Makhana (Figure A). These districts comprise an area of 15000 ha under makhana cultivation with an average productivity of 1.5 t/ha. The State Government has set a target to extend the cultivation of makhana in 20,000 ha by 2020, adopting the field based makhana cultivation technology. The nutritional analysis showed the highest content of carbohydrates in comparison to protein, mineral, fat and dietry fibres. However, the individual analysis of mineral content shows excessive amount of Sodium in comparison to other minerals. Phosphorus is also seeming to be satisfactory content. The objective of thi s study was to review a short approach on economic, nutritional and medicinal aspects of Fox nut of India for human health perspectives

Inorganic ion-exchangers are of great interest because of their applications as versatile ion-exchange materials, molecular sieves and promising separation potentialities etc. Synthetic inorganic ion-exchange materials are advanced materials that are superior to their organic counterparts because these are stable in ionizing radiation, elevated temperatures and have high chemical resistivity. Instead of synthesizing these materials by conventional methods, new phases of bismuth tungstate and stannic arsenate inorganic ion-exchangers were obtained by microwave-assisted method, which takes only 5- 10 minutes to obtain the crystalline product. Both the materials were characterized by observing their chemical stability, cation-exchange capacities (CEC) for various metal ions, effect of heat on CEC, pH titration and FTIR studies.">

The usage of prokaryotic microorganisms within the synthesis of nanoparticles emerges as an eco-pleasant the existing method. On this have a look at, Sliver nanoparticles were correctly synthesized by Escherichia coli, in which exposure of supernatant to silver ions resulted in the extracellular reduction of the metallic ions and formation of silver nanoparticles. The check bacterium was isolated from an infected water sample on Eosin- methylene blue (EMB) agar medium and diagnosed as an Escherichia coli microorganism. The silver nanoparticles had been characterized by several strategies. The nanoparticles show absorbance at 400 nm on UV-Visible spectroscopy. The presence of proteins turned into recognition by way of Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) analysis. Silver nanoparticles’ size become studied using Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The antimicrobial activity of these nanoparticles changed into studied towards microorganisms such as Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus.    

The quiet sentinels that keep watch on the world's environmental health are animals as model organisms. These non-human animal species can be utilized to comprehend particular biological processes and gather data that can shed light on how other creatures function. One of the finest leading models for studying developmental biology, cardiovascular studies, Dermatological studies, Cancer, Toxicity, Drug discovery, Xenotransplantation, and Molecular genetics among model organisms is the zebrafish (Danio rerio). The zebrafish is also being used more and more as a genetic model organism for aquaculture species, in toxicogenomic research, and to create illness models in the fish that may be used in human biomedicine. Due to its simple care requirements, ease of reproduction, and translucent body during early growth, this little fish serves as a flexible model organism for several scientific disciplines.

Carotenoids are coloured organic molecules synthesized naturally in a number of plants belonging to Arecaceae, Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Convolvulaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae, Passifloraceae, Poaceae, Rubiaceae, Solanaceae, Vitaceae etc. Over 1100 carotenoids have been known in plants. These are biosynthesized in plastids from fats and other organic metabolic intermediates. These are tetraterpenes and are classified into two groups: xanthophylls and carotenes. Xanthophylls contain oxygen while carotenes consisting only of hydrocarbons with no oxygen. These may be of various colours like yellow, orange and red providing characteristic colour in carrots, corn, pumpkin, tomatoes etc. These play key roles in absorbing light for photosynthesis and protecting plants from harmful radiations and reactive oxygen species. Carotenoids act as precursor molecules for the synthesis of visual pigment, vitamin A in animals and stress hormone, abscisic acid in plants. Carotenoids have been reported to have antibacterial, antiviral, anti-hyperglycemic, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. These regulate expression of gene by modulating the effects of transcription factors. In humans, carotenoids boost immunity and function as nutraceuticals.

The conventional farming usually put higher yields at lesser expenses compared to green farming practices, yet conventional farming has become of concern for using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which affect consumer health and quality of farm soils. Green farming is carried out using natural methods where consumer health is at highest priority and takes care of the soil quality and biodiversity. The aim of this study was to compare the levels of heavy metals in Organic vegetables grown under green farming practices and Normal vegetables grown conventionally and thereby to compare the consumer health risk due to their dietary consumption. The accumulated levels of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni and Pb were determined in organic Spinach, Mustard, Carrot, Cucumber, Tomato, Cabbage and Cauliflower.  Based on the observed levels of accumulated metals in tested vegetables, daily Intake of metals (DIM) and thereby consumer Health Risk Index (HRI) were evaluated for these vegetables, the results were compared with Normal vegetables. The accumulated levels of tested metals in Organic vegetables varied as: Cd (0.16± 0.010 - 0.34±0.013), Cr (0.71± 0.008 - 1.24±0.016), Cu (0.27± 0.008 - 0. 53±0.015), Ni (0.26± 0.010 - 0.51±0.014) and Pb (0.81± 0.008 - 1.12±0.013). However, the levels of metals in Normal vegetables were much higher than the Organic vegetables, which varied as: Cd (0.48±0.011- 0.78±0.019), Cr (1.62±0.021- 2.91±0.054), Cu (0.56±0.011 - 0.82±0.018), Ni (0.47 ±0.014- 0.86±0.022) and Pb (1.34± 0.019– 2.34±0.041 mg /Kg, dw). The computed consumers health risk index (HRI) on dietary intake of Organic vegetables were many times lower than Normal vegetables and varied as: Pb (86.00 -114.80)  > Cd (68.0 - 145.0) > Cu (2.875 – 5.625) > Ni (0.055 –1.035) > Cr (0.201 - 0.351) and HRI due to Normal vegetables varied as: Pb (142.5 – 231.8) > Cd (204 – 332) > Cu (5.95- 8.73) > Ni (1.00- 1.83) > Cr (0.459- 0.825).">">