Conservation of biodiversity is crucial to maintaining or increasing the sustainability and stability of farming systems, for nature conservation and for crop production. In agricultural systems, biodiversity provides important ecological services, such as recycling of nutrients, management of organisms that are undesirable for agriculture, regulation of the local hydrological cycle and microclimate and storage of carbon. It is a well-known fact, that worldwide thousands of plant species are endangered and facing extinction with the current trend of their exploitation anddestruction. It is acknowledged that the future survival of humanity depends on the conservation and protection of natural wealth and destruction of a species or a genetic line symbolizes the loss of a unique resource. Changes in the structure in the multiplicity of resources lessen the society’s scope to respond to new problems and opportunities and there is a danger of new plant diseases or pests, climatic change due to the greenhouse effect and other setbacks. Botanists have a crucial role to play in conservation, bioprospecting and sustainable utilization of plant diversity because they know about the plants, their distribution, status, importance, species that need immediate measures and methods of conservation. Collaborative efforts and cooperation among government, policy makers, funding agencies, society and botanists is the need of the hour for plant conservation. Grazing  animals can affect an ecosystem through defoliation, treading and leaving excreta.

Eco-taxonomical studies of aquatic fungi have been carried out on six different water bodies viz. Halali reservoir, Larpur reservoir. Lower lake, Mansarovar Lake, Sarangpani Lake and Upper Lake belongs to different pollution categories for the period of one year, Dec.2012 to Nov.2013. Water was assessed for physico- hemical parameters and their impact on the fungal flora. During the study total ten genera of fungi were recorded from 268 isolates. Total twenty seven species were identified which belong to family Saprolegniaceae (Achlya, Aphanomyces and Saprolegnia), Leptomitaceae (Leptomitus), Pythiaceae (Pythium),Blastocladiaceae (Allomyces) Pleosporaceae (Alternaria), Trichocomaceae (Aspergillus & Penicillum) and Nectriaceae (Fusarium).Upper lake was found to be the richest water body with maximum fungal species while Mansarovar lake was found to be the poorest in fungal flora. Present study reveals that the difference in percentage occurrence, frequency and distribution of aquatic fungi depends on some physico-chemical parameters and seasonal variations. 

In the present study, the algae Monoraphidium minutum has shown excellent growth in the water of Upper Lake in Bhopal (M.P.). Moreover, when CO2 concentration got increase in the water, the algae grown much better in fresh water and can be used to decrease CO2 concentration in the environment. Results showed that growth rate of algae Monoraphidium minutum in 8 liter water of Upper Lake at 560 nm with CO2 was found to be highest 1.98 nm on day 8th and without CO2 it was noticed to be lowest 1.68 nm on day 8th. Moreover, production of algae can be a good source for Bio diesel production because of high oil content present in it.

Lead (Pb) concentration was assessed of the arable soils in the vicinity of mining and dumping sites in Nigeria. Its contents in the arable soils assayed by means of atomic absorption spectrophotometry, (AAS) ranged from 6.8 – 47.8 mg/kg. The enrichment factor (EF) calculated by using Chromium as a reference element fell within a range of 1.61 – 8.01. The mean values of the enrichment factor of 3.7 classified the soil as moderately contaminated with lead. Anthropogenic activities contribute moderately to the level of lead in the studied areas. This poses  ebilitating effects on the agro – ecosystems, since lead has no known essential functions in plants metabolism.

The toxic stress of lead on fish was tested employing a 96-hour bioassay test. The experimental fish used were Clarias batricus fingerlings. Lead in the form of lead chloride was used to prepare the stock solution. The concentrations of lead used for the experiment were 0, 1.8, 3.2, and 5.6, and10.0mg/l. The lethal concentration (LC50) was estimated using the logarithmic method and was found to be 0.6, 0.58and 0.62mg/l for replicates1, 2 and 3 respectively.

India is the only country in the world which produces all varieties of silk namely tasar, muga and mulberry. India occupies a predominant position in the world and it is the second largest producer of silk after China. Though Indian silk industry occupies a predominant position in the world, its production is only 15% of total world production and more than 80% of production is contributed by China. India’s export has adequately progressed during the study period with both quantity and value of export showing high and significant growth. This increased growth is also accompanied by higher volatility. With Japanese technology and cooperation, Central Silk Board has recently been able to evolve & popularize Bivoltine silkworm races which can yield raw silk of international standards thereby increasing production. With these races, we can expect reforms in the marketing and processing of cocoons, India can hope to develop its sale of domestic raw silk beyond its own borders. The bivoltine sericulture development has been one of the priority sectors of Indian silk industry but its production is yet to meet the targets. Chhattisgarh is the only state of the country which is in the same altitude in which leading Bivoltine Sericulture countries of the world lie. Even the Sericulture experts of Japan have recognized the superiority of natural climatic conditions in the state favorable for the development of Sericulture and for the production high grade raw silk of international quality. Women play a dominant role in this sector, as the  ctivities are mostly home-based. Women have been contributing to all the sectors of Sericulture starting from on-farm activities to fabric production, marketing and consumption. The involvement of women in different activities of Sericulture is well above 53 percent. 

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is a fruit used mainly as a vegetable  both in fresh as well as in processed forms. Lycopene, an important carotenoid in tomatoes is responsible for the red colour in tomatoes. The antioxidant capability of lycopene has led to promising results in decreasing the risk of some illnesses and diseases. Tomatoes are processed for the production of many useful food items such as juice, paste, puree, catsup, sauce, etc. Tomato pomace is the main by-product of such processing and does not have high economic utilization at present. The tomatoprocessing waste (pomace) having peel, some pulp and seed has a high amount oflycopene and hence, is considered to be the potential raw material for production of naturallycopene.However, the pomace is a high moisture by-product and therefore, it is require to dry it appropriately for preservation and then used for lycopene extraction. The effects of different dryers (tray, vacuum and fluidized bed) and drying temperature (50,60, 70, 80and 90 °C) on lycopene retention in dried pomace were evaluated. The dried pomace produced using standardized drying technique can be used for extraction oflycopene.

This paper presents a study on an equilibrium gas composition model developed for prediction of chemical composition of producer gas resulted from the process of down draft gasification of agro-residues. The study was conducted on cotton stalk and by taking four levels of moisture content (3%, 8%, 14% and 20%),four levels of load variation (35%, 50 %, 65 % and 80%) and levels of moles of oxygen per moles of fuel (MOPMF) in the range of 2.0 – 5.0 as independent parameters and producer gas composition, adiabatic reaction temperatures, A/F ratio of the gas, and gasification efficiency as dependent parameters. The model predicts moisture content in the range 3 – 8 % and a MOPMF value ranging 2.0 – 2.5 is optimum for the gasification of cotton stalk in a downdraft gasifier. The model is very much useful in having first hand information on the suitability of biomass for down draft gasifier application and proper designing of reactor.

The presently studied Cymbopogon hybrid species was collected from naturally growing wild populations in Chamundi hills, Mysore, Karnataka. The studies were made with respect to the plant morphology, cytological behavior andessential oil content and composition. The cytological study revealed that the plant possessed hybrid nature (triploid with 2n =30).The present study on Cymbopogon hybrid made on morphological features, cytological behavior and essential oil characteristics showed that the plant could have been originated under natural conditions involving cross between C. travencorensis and C. flexuosus. The morphological characterization made on the plant also showed the morphological features of C. travencorensis and C. flexuosus. The GC analysis made on the plantrevealed the presence of Elemicin and Neral, the key compounds of C. travencorensis and C. flexuosus respectively. The essential oil obtained from the plant possessed numerous compounds rich in aromatic properties which can be further screened and utilized for commercial purpose.

The amla berry Phyllanthus emblica or Emblica officinalis of family Phyllanthaceae is a widely used traditional food cummedicine. Amla berries contain the highest amount of naturally occurring vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in comparison to any ripened fruit in the world. Numerous studies conducted on amla fruit suggest thatit has anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. A clinical study on patients with pulmonary tuberculosis showed that the vitamin C contained in amla berries was better assimilated than synthetic vitamin C. Further research of contemporary and traditional medical literature indicates that amla alone or in combination with other herbs is found useful in the treatment of cold, warts, skin infections, influenza, anemia, diabetes, lung diseases and elevated cholesterol. It has been identified as an immunomodulator in cancer conditions. This herb is placed at hallowed position in Ayurveda. The current study utilizes a simple method for quantitative estimation of ascorbic acid in hydro-alcoholic extract obtained from mature fruit of Emblica officinalis. Ascorbic acid concentration was determined in a solution by redox titration using iodine. As the iodine is added during the titration, the ascorbic acid is oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid, while the iodine is reduced to iodide ions. From the experiment, it was concluded that the content of ascorbic acid in the hydro-alcoholic extract of Emblica officinalis is 4.8% w/w in comparison to literature values ranging between 4.5-5.5% w/w.

Acorus Calamus (AC)-a novel, herbal biosorbent has been utilised as the adsorbent for the removal of Methylene Blue (MB) from an aqueous solution. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to study the effect of biosorbent dosage, contact time, initial dye concentration and pH for the removal of dye. Adsorption data were modelled using Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin adsorption and D-R isotherms.The characteristic parameters for each isotherm and related correlation coefficients have been determined using origin 8.0. The equilibrium data were best represented by the Langmuir isotherm model indicating monolayer adsorption process. Pseudo-firstorder, pseudo -second- order and intraparticle diffusion models were used to fit the experimental data. Kinetic parameters, rate constants, equilibrium sorption capacities and related correlation coefficients, for each kinetic model were calculated and discussed. It was shown that the adsorption of MB could be described by the pseudosecond-order equation, suggesting that the adsorption process is a most likely chemisorption. Furthermore, the mean adsorption energy value from D-R isotherm also supports analogous identity.

We report the biosynthesis of Zinc oxide nanoparticles from the aqueous extracts of leaves, stem, roots, and flowers, immature and mature fruits of Passiflora foetida L. Passiflora foetida has wide role in medicine, paper and food industries.Zinc oxide nanoparticles are used in the preparation of substances possessing medically as well as cosmetically useful properties. These nanoparticles were synthesized using Zinc Nitrate hexahydrate [Zn(NO₃)₂.6H₂O] solution. The synthesized nanoparticles were confirmed and characterized by spectrophotometric analysis. The aqueous extract with Zinc suspension gave maximum UV-Vis absorbance peak at 295 nm to 315 nm. The leaf extract mixture showed absorption peak at 314 nm, stem extract 294 nm, root extract 293 nm, flower extract 311 nm, immature fruit extract 296 nm and mature fruit extract at 302 nm. This is the first report for the biogenic synthesis of Zinc oxide nanoparticles from the aqueous extracts of different parts of Passiflora foetida.

The fungus Venturia inaequalis infects members of the Maloideae, and causes the disease apple scab, the most important disease of apple worldwide. Withthe cultivation of susceptible commercial apple cultivars, apple scab control is becoming more difficult, such that losses caused by apple scab would be about 70% if no control measures were taken The experiment is carried out at Qerret (Puka region) Albania, during the years 2012 and are chemicals tested: - Armicarb®100 (85% KHCO3 from Helena Chemical Company, USA), 2- Kresoxim-methyl, from BASF, Belgium), 3- Thiovit jet (80% micronized sulphur, from Syngenta Agro S.A.S.,France) and 4-control (un treatments). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of bicarbonates used alone or combined with horticultural oils for the control of apple scab in order to develop a successful strategy using environmentally friendly substances compatible with the organic production system.

This paper is an attempt to create awareness about the low flash point value of Diesel in India. The flash point affects the handling and storage of a fuel. The low value of flash point is an indication of fire hazard. The low flash point of Diesel is the root cause of many tragic fire accidents of transport vehicles happened in India. Many of us are ignorant of the low flash point value of Diesel in India and the threat behind it. This paper points out some of the fire accidents caused by the low flash point value of Diesel.The prevention of any such incidents in future can only be done by raising the flash point of Diesel in India to a value higher than 60 ^oC.

Environmental problems are the major concern of any industry and there is a great need to bring that along green lines. From the dairy effluents, the characterizationof effluent in terms of dissolved oxygen levels of effluent water plays an important role for its discharge into the ecosystem. Some of the traditional tests or indicators for water quality are BOD, COD, and Chloride Content and pH. The major objective of wastewater treatment is generally to allow sewage and industrial effluents to be disposed of without danger to human health or damage to the environment. Conventional wastewater treatment consists of a combination of physical, chemical and biological processes and operations to remove solids, organic matter and sometimes nutrients from wastewater. Both the BOD and COD tests are a measure of the relative oxygen depletion effect of a waste contaminant. Both have been widely adopted as a measure of pollution effect. The BOD test measures the oxygen demand of biodegradable pollutants whereas the COD test measures the oxygen demand of biodegradable pollutants and the oxygen demand of the non-biodegradable oxidisable pollutants. The main objective of the present study is to characterize the effluents from dairy by determining the BOD and COD levels and to analyze different methods for minimizing the COD and BOD level to the required levels stipulated by environmental standards by employing oxidizing agents like hydrogen peroxide.

Mussaenda erythrophylla is a species of family Rubiaceae. The pH indicators are substances whose solutions change color due to changes in pH. These are also called acid-base indicators or neutralization indicator. In the present work acid base titration has been performed by using natural indicators. The natural indicator is prepared from the ethanolic flower extract of Mussaenda erythrophylla. Two acids (H₂SO₄ and CH₃COOH) and two bases (KOH and NH₄OH) were selected for acid base titration. 0.1N, 0.5N, 1N, 5N strength of these acids and bases were prepared. The results obtained by the natural indicators are almost similar to the results given by thesynthetic indicator. Thus using ethanolic extract of flower as an indicator is more economical and with the same accuracy of result as that given by synthetic indicator.

In this paper we propose a novel auxanometric system which is fundamentally different from all the previously known analogues, as it allows a simultaneous monitoring of forest plant species growth together with plant development stages. Unlike the quantitative approach in standard auxanometric measurement techniques with the shoot elongation being the only criterion of the plant growth, our system implements a comprehensive qualitative growth dynamics criterion including one-to-one correspondence between the chemical analysis of plant molecular emission and the environmental conditions variations, which allows the feedback analysis between the plant growth / development and the environmental parameter variation. This is provided by the fact that the automatic system during operation in different modes after pattern recognition learning (with the subsequent completion of the database) allows us to investigate and simulate not only a single plant development pattern characteristic of a certain standard feature space, but also to study experimentally the response of the ecological feature structure upon the changing of external factors. The above strategy leads to the emergence ofphenological, simulating-biogeographical, biometeorological, bioclimatological and ecology-physiological approaches in auxanometry. The system proposed allows parameter variation in the course of the germination / elongation process monitoring as needed (if this is possible within the biotron, climatic chamber or the greenhouse used for germination / elongation of forest plant species), with the following addition of the spectral and chromatographic data in the form of correlation patterns into the database for subsequent comparison. In the case of experimental phelonological spectral plant germination / elongation with the system described it is possible to program and control the temperature using a feedback and thus to predict vegetationinitiation accurately. This can be implemented by summing the effective temperatures or their trend detection, which allows to reconstruct the sequence of germination or vegetation of individual plant forms in correlation with the characteristic parameters of the artificial climate (for example, if known that for maple (g. Acer) the sum of effective temperatures is 156.2°Ð¡, and for linden (g. Tilia) - 739°Ð¡, it is obvious that in the thermal ranking database the linden will be behind the maple). Due to this factthe auxanometric system described allows automatic classification of forest plants in the model plant communities on a set of characteristics according to the phenorhythm types or phenological groups using a more scaled classification than in outdated systems. The same fact allows monitoring in a climate chamber parameter regulation mode by the plant feedback registration using their molecular emission sensors in a controlled physical environment, i.e. the registered parameters from the detector can be considered as a signal changing the chamber operation mode. The system described operates in a wide range of conditions and possesses a number of different application fields, so it is worth being recommended for implementation in both field and laboratory practice of forest engineering. The novel method can also provide phenospectral data ranging useful for establishing the dependence of plant growth anddevelopmental stage phenology on the environmental factors. Since the method is based on combination of several different measurement sources, it is standardless, and thus possesses a wide application in laboratory climatic chambers as well as in natural field conditions with equipment placed in Stevenson screen (meteorologicalinstrument shelter) like the abundant tools for meteo-climatic monitoring.

During the years 2010 – 2012 the olive saplings of “Kaninjot” cv. and “BardhiTiranes” underwent the following treatments (i) Control, only soil (ii) Substrate (soil + manure + torfe) (iii) Substrate + Spraying with Biobrot 2ml/lt and (iv) Substrate + Spraying with Folur 2ml/lt. The sprayings were held every 15 days, starting from May. Both synthetic nutrients were stimulated in contrast to Control;vegetative growth 9% and 4%, height of sapling 12% and 9%; developed the rootingsystem 13% and 7%, number of vegetative sprigs 17% and 9%. developed the rooting system 13% and 7%, number of vegetative sprigs 17% and 9%. Changes of the biological parameters were the result of the stimulation of biochemical and physiological processes during the stage of vegetative growth. Vegetative growth was developed along with the nutrients in correlation with the temperature of the environment (r²=0.97). The substrate (indicator), influenced 96%, whereas foliar nutrients 4% during the performance of vegetative growth. The “Kaninjot” cv during the same vegetative period achieved higher biometric indices than the olive“BardhiTiranes” during the same period.

Pyrazoles are well-known and important nitrogen containing 5-membered heterocyclic compounds and various methods have been worked out for their synthesis. Numerous pyrazole derivatives have been found to possess considerable biological activities, which stimulated the research activity in this field. A series of (4-(substituted phenyl)-3-methyl-4,5-dihydropyrazolo[3,4-c]pyrazol-1(3aH)-yl)(pyridine-4-yl)methanone were prepared by cyclo-condensation of Chalcones. Structures of these compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods; IR, ¹HNMR, ¹³CNMR and MS. Their purities were confirmed by elemental analyses. These derivatives were screened for their antimicrobial activity against different microorganism. Mosquito larvicidal activity of the synthesized compounds was also studied against fourth instar larvae.

Concentration levels and spatial distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was assessed for the first time in interstitial water from superficial sediments of intertidal zone at the north shore of Bahía Blanca estuary (southwest of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina). After separating of pore water from sediments and removing of colloids, the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) was carried out by solid phase microextraction (SPME) and determined by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Concentration levels for PAHs in interstitial water ranged from <LD to 21.7 μg.L^-1.

Biochemical resource manipulation is typical of bacterial-plant gall interactions. Catharanthus roseus (Vinca rosea) was the organism of choice to demonstrate the effects of tumours induced by the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The choice of this particular subject is based on the fact that the plant is known to possess several important medicinal properties, and is used extensively in the field of anti-cancer drug production. The pathogen chosen is of great relevance in the field of biotechnology. Analytical procedures were carried out to demonstrate the variations of several parameters such as auxins, cytokinins, flavonoids, β-carotene and total protein. Along with the above mentioned parameters, the activity of the antioxidant enzyme peroxidase was also determined. As the various parameters analyzed provide a wholesome measure to determine the extent of damage caused by the pathogen, the results thus obtained helped us evaluate the effects of tumors on various facets of the plant growth.