Asian Journal of Biology

Objective: Indonesian State Oil Company processes crude oil into fuel oil, non-fuel fuel and petrochemical, this activity produces waste that allows pollution of the Donan river. herefore, this study aims to analyze the quality of Donan streams based on water chemical - physical quality, and the plankton and benthos diversity conditions, due to the impact of waste discharged from the installation of wastewater treatment units from cilacap state oil companies.

Methodology: This research was conducted by analyzing water samples with Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer method. Water sampling is done at point 2 sampling points is at sampling point A = holding basin output 39 and B = holding basin output 66 - 49.

Results: Based onBiological Oxygen Demand (ppm) analysis between 5.5 ppm - 7.2 ppm. Chemical Oxygen Demand concentration (ppm) between 33.6 ppm - 33.7 ppm. While the concentration of Dissolved Oxygen (ppm) between 6.0 ppm - 5.9 ppm. The results of heavy metal chromium analysis with concentrations between 0.04 ppm - 0.05 ppm. Free chlorine concentration with concentration of 0.04 ppm - 0.05 ppm. While the concentration of H₂S was 0.2 ppm . and the fluoride concentration was 0.88 ppm - 1.01 ppm. Based on the quality standards stipulated by Regulation of the Minister of Environment No. 19 of 2010 and Regional Regulations of Central Java, No. 5 of 2012 shows that the Donan river on the verge of polluted. Plankton analysis was found as the dominant species of Coscinodiscus sp and Nitzschia sp which is a bio-indicator of pollutant. The waters are contaminated lightly.

Aims: The aim of the present study was to determine the phytochemical constituents, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of crude extracts from leaves of two traditional Indian medicinal plants Catharanthus roseus and Ocimum basilicum.

Study Design: The methanol extracts of the leaves were used to study the antioxidant activity using DPPH and superoxide radical scavenging assays. The disc diffusion method was employed to evaluate the antibacterial activities on four major infective pathogenic agents.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at Post Graduate & Research Department of Biochemistry, Mohamed Sathak College of Arts and Science (Affiliated to University of Madras), Chennai - 600 119, Tamil Nadu, India during January 2017-August 2017.

Methodology: DPPH and superoxide radical scavenging assays were performed using standard methods. The disc diffusion method was employed to evaluate the antibacterial activities on four major infective pathogenic agents, namely, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis.

Results: Both the extracts exhibited strong DPPH and superoxide radical scavenging activities in a dose-dependent manner. The DPPH scavenging activity by Catharanthus roseus and Ocimum basilicum extracts was found to be 78.62±5.4% and 62.72± 4.2%, respectively. At the concentration of 100 µg/mL, the superoxide radical-scavenging activities of methanol extracts of Catharanthus roseus and Ocimum basilicum were found to be 72.36±3.21 and 68.76±3.16, respectively. Moreover, both the extracts showed a remarkable inhibition of bacterial growth at a concentration of 300 μg/mL compared to the two other doses tested (100 and 200 μg/mL).

Conclusion: Present findings provide experimental evidence that the leaves of Catharanthus roseus and Ocimum basilicum have potential antioxidant and antimicrobial activities which might be used as a functional food and safe remedy for the treatment of infectious diseases. This study also revealed that the plant could be a promising source for development of natural antioxidant and antibacterial agents.

Aim: The study was aimed at evaluating the mortality and LC₅₀ of Clarias gariepinus exposed to different concentrations of hypo bleach.

Methodology: Thirty (30) fingerlings were used for each aquarium exposed to four (4) different concentrations of the toxicant and the control group. The fingerlings were exposed to 0, 1.20, 1.25, 1.75 and 1.90 mg/l of the bleach and the experiment was done in duplicate. A total of 300 C. gariepinus fingerlings were used throughout the study. The fingerlings were of the same age group, ranging from 9.2 to 10.4 cm in length and 5.5 to 6.5g in weight.

Results: The mortality data trend of fingerlings exposed to different concentrations of the toxicant were dependent on the concentration and exposure duration, with the highest mortality of 96.6% observed in the highest concentration. The 96 hours LC₅₀ value with 95% confidence limit of Clarias gariepinus fingerlings exposed to hypo bleach was 0.19 ± 1.73 mg/l, and was significant with a determination coefficient (r²) of 0.93 at P<0.05. The low LC₅₀ value for the fingerlings exposed to the toxicant showed its high toxicity.

Conclusion: The bleach was highly toxic as shown by its very low LC₅₀ value and are capable of causing mortality to organisms even at low concentration. The toxicity of the toxicant was concentration and exposure duration dependent. Also, several behavioral changes was observed in the fingerlings when exposed to the toxicant. As a result of the observed toxicity of hypo bleach to fingerlings of Clarias gariepinus, more research should be carried out on the hematological and physiological alterations of fingerlings when exposed to bleach.

The present experiment was carried out to investigate the nematostatic and nematicidal potential of aqueous extracts of six weed leaves viz., Ageratum conyzoides, Eichornia crassipes, Ipomoea carnea, Nicotiana plumbaginifolia, Acalypha indica and Trianthema portulacastrum against root-knot nematode, M. incognita in vitro. The eggs and second stage juveniles (J2) of M. incognita were exposed to various concentrations viz., 1500 ppm, 1000 ppm, 500 ppm and 250 ppm of aqueous extracts of leaves. All the aqueous extracts damaged the eggs, reduced the hatching and caused paralysis and death of second stage juveniles (J2) of M. incognita. The highest inhibition in hatching and maximum mortality occurred by using A. conyzoides followed by E. crassipes, I. carnea, N. plumbaginifolia, A. indica and the least was observed by using T. portulacastrum. It can be concluded that the degree of effectiveness was found directly proportional to the dilutions of extract. The 1500 ppm concentration of aqueous extract of all weeds was found to be highly effective against hatching and mortality of M. incognita as compared to other concentrations.

Wheat leaf rust (caused by Puccinia triticina Eriks.) and stem rust (caused by P. graminis f. sp. tritici) are among the most common, widespread and devastating diseases in Egypt and worldwide. A total of 2111 spring wheat accessions (882 landraces; 493 breeding lines; 419 cultivars and 317 with uncertain classification) were obtained from a single plant selection from wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) core collection. The wheat accessions were genotyped through the Triticae Coordinated Agriculture Project using the Illumina iSelect 9K wheat array at the USDA-ARS genotyping laboratory in Fargo, ND, USA. The primary objectives of this study were to: 1. Evaluate the spring wheat collection for stem and leaf rust resistance at adult plant stage under field conditions and detect new sources of resistance, and 2. Identify potential QTLs linked with stem or leaf rust resistance genes. Our results indicated that 6.96% (147 accessions) and 5.87% (124 accessions) of the tested accessions were found to be resistant to leaf and stem rust, respectively. Genome-wide association mapping (GWAS) was used to identify QTLs associated with leaf and stem rust resistance genes. Overall GWAS results demonstrated that 46 SNP markers significantly linked with stem rust resistance, while 36 SNP markers were found to be significantly linked with leaf rust resistance. Most of the significant SNP markers were co-located with previously identified stem rust resistance genes (Sr1RS_Amigo, Sr21, Sr_ND643, Sr35, Sr52, and Sr22) and leaf rust resistance genes (trp-1,Lr 11, Lr 52 and Lr 47). Future work will focus on crossing several leaf and stem rust resistant accessions to pyramid genes and to develop nested association mapping populations to incorporate multiple resistance genes into elite breeding wheat lines.