Background & objectives: Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be the second the major cause of morbidity and mortality in India as well as worldwide. Early diagnosis is required to prevent transmission of TB and also to reach the WHO goal to end TB by 2035. TB is diagnosed in laboratories by smear microscopy and culture which either lacks sensitivity or delay in reporting. Hence, RT-PCR was compared with sputum microscopy to find an appropriate method to diagnose TB at the earliest. Methods: Forty-four sputum samples were collected from presumptive TB cases, sputum microscopy was done by Ziehl-Neelsen stain, Auramine O stain microscopy and RT-PCR was done by using primer IS6110 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Results: Of the forty-four sputum samples, ZN staining showed 48% positivity while Fluorescent stain showed 55% positivity in smear and PCR showed 71% positivity in the sputum samples. Interpretation & conclusions: PCR is a better method than staining techniques for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Fluorescent microscopy is more sensitive when compared to ZN stain but requires an expensive microscope.

The objective of this study was to find efficiency of a treatment regimen that combines the use of Progesterone and gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) for induction of estrus and fertility in anestrous rural buffalo heifers. A total of 30 buffalo heifers were selected for the study. All heifers were administered Prostaglandin (2 ml, I/M) injection. Animals which exhibited estrus were excluded from the study and rest 24 animals were divided in four groups. Estrus was detected (moderate to strong) in three (50%) out of six heifer buffaloes in group II and two (33.33%) out of six heifers in group III. Strong estrus was detected in five (83.33%) out of six heifers of group IV. All five heifers conceived with 100% pregnancy rate. It is concluded that the use of progesterone followed by GnRH treatment is an effective ovulation control method in late maturing anestrous buffalo heifers under field conditions where estrus detection is a problem. Routine reproductive examination and adequate hormone treatment may improve the reproductive performance of anoestrous rural buffalo heifers. The results obtained may be helpful to adopt preventive and therapeutic measures for improvement of reproductive efficiency of buffalo heifers and thus production of the dairy animals.

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of rhizosphere isolates as consortia to control wilt disease. Three rhizosphere isolates (RGB8, RGP7 and RGT4) were selected as efficient biocontrol agents based on their antagonistic activity against the pathogen and used for the development of microbial consortia. The results revealed that treatments inoculated with all the three isolates along with recommended dose of fertilizers (T8: RGB8+ RGP7+ RGT4+ RDF), showed significantly higher disease suppression and higher seed yield compared to all other treatments.

The GC-MS studies revealed the presence of antifungal bioactive compounds and antioxidant compounds especially phenols in the seaweed extracts of Gracilaria cervicornis and G. gracilis. Hence the extract of these two were utilized for the liquid bioinoculant production in combination with the 3 compatible Phosphate Solubilising Bacterial cultures (Pd 1, Pd3) and Zinc Solubilising Bacterial cultures (Zd1). As the microbial load of these bacterial isolates were not affected by the addition of seaweed extract upto 5% level, the final liquid bioinoculant was prepared by growing Pd 1, Pd3 and Zd1 cultures in liquid broth containing 5% seaweed extract. The influence of the prepared ‘seaweed based liquid bioinoculant’ on the germination of bhendi was observed for the bhendi crop (Hybrid: Green Gold Plus) by imposing 5 treatments and one control. The treatments imposed were T1 - Azospirillum + PB +KRB, T2- PSB + ZSB, T3- PSB + ZSB + 1 % Seaweed Extract, T4- PSB + ZSB + 3 % Seaweed Extract, T5- PSB + ZSB + 5 % Seaweed Extract and Control. T2 (78.9%) recorded a germination percent lesser than T1 (80.3%) which is the existing recommendation of bioinoculants. T3 (83.5%) and T4 (83.7) were statistically on par. Germination % observed in T5 was statistically significant than all other treatments. The % increase over control showed that influence of T2 treatment was lesser than the existing recommended bioinoculants treatment (T1). But the newly formed ‘seaweed based liquid bioinoculant’ at 1%, 3% and 5% increased the germination percent. T5 treatment recorded 15.27 % increase over control. When compared the % increase over T1 (existing bioinoculant recommendation) it was 6.23, 4.23 and 4.0 for T5, T4 and T3 respectively. This study proved that this newly formulated seaweed based liquid bioinocuant enhances germination of bhendi crop.

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made by the fermenting fruit juice with sugar and yeast. Wines are commonly manufacturing from different types of grape fruits. Investigations on the production of wines from flowers are very limited. Hence, the aim of present study was to evaluate the non-distilled alcoholic beverage (wine) from chrysanthemum, ixora, lotus, hibiscus and nerium flowers. The ethanol content five different flower wine was ranged between 0.75 - 2.55 % (v/v). Among the five different flowers wines, the maximum alcohol (ethanol) content (2.55%) was occurred in nerium followed by hibiscus (2.08%), chrysanthemum (1.89%), ixora (0.94%) and lotus (0.75%). Additionally, the percentage of tartaric acid in wines prepared from ixora, chrysanthemum, nerium, lotus, and hibiscus are 0.045, 0.015, 0.03, 0.015 and 2.4, respectively. The presence of tannin content in each wine was determined by ferric chloride test and results showed that tannin was detected only in nerium and hibiscus, and absent in ixora, chrysanthemum, and lotus. However, it is the first report of production of wines from chrysanthemum, ixora, lotus, hibiscus and nerium flowers. The present study suggests that nerium might be best alternative raw material for commercial production of non-alcoholic beverages (wines) from flowers in a cost-effective way.

A bacterial strain with the ability to grow on nitrogen free media under aerobic condition was isolated from the soil collected from Rangwasa Jaivik farm which has been practicing traditional and organic farming practices for the last twenty-five years. The strain was identified as Azotobacter sp. and was found to have the ability to solubilize minerals such as phosphate, potassium and zinc. The isolate also produced Indole Acetic Acid and was found to improve germination of seeds in Fenugreek when used as bio-inoculant. The plants from the seeds inoculated with the isolated strain showed significant reduction in yellowing of the leaves.

Several different chemotherapeutic agents have been found to possess potent antimicrobial action. The most active compounds were found to be the phenothiazines and also those that are structurally related to phenothiazines. The antidepressant drug mianserin being structurally closely related to phenothiazines was selected to determine its antimicrobial properties. Mianserin was found to exhibit a definite antimicrobial property against 166 strains of bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determined with the help of standard agar diffusion technique, ranged from 5-25 µg/ml in most of the strains; however, some were also inhibited even at lower concentrations. Mianserin was found to be bacteriostatic against Staphylococcus aureus as well as Vibrio cholerae. Additionally, the drug exhibited significant protection (P < 0.001) in animal experiments against virulent pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Through this detailed investigation it can be inferred that mianserin has remarkable possibilities of combating multidrug resistant infections.