Asha Sharma

NICKEL AND CADMIUM TOXICITY IN PLANTS

Nickel (Ni) and Cadmium (Cd) considered as an essential nutrient where plants cannot complete their life cycle in its absence and cannot be substituted with any other element. Ni was first established as an essential nutrient for the completion of the life cycle and it was reported that Ni deficiency decreases the capacity of plants to develop viable seeds because of hindrance of embryo growth. The uptake of Ni in plants is mainly carried out through the root system via passive diffusion and active transport. The ratio of uptake between active and passive transport varies with the species. It has been reported that plant species and cultivars significantly differ in the uptake of Cd and its subsequent translocation from roots into shoots. Higher Cd accumulation in roots than leaves suggest that Cd transport to the xylem is restricted and Cd is not readily translocated in the phloem. Also, Cd accumulation in root and leaf also depends on binding to the extracellular matrix due to which a significant inhibition of root elongation may be observed. In a study, it was reported that Cd was translocated from lower leaves to upper leaves, and then from upper leaves to culms and ears. Lower leaves accumulated highest Cd content during the early growth stages. However, heavy metals accumulating in the food chain pose risk for health of living being as well as cytotoxicity in plants.

An Improved Indexing Mechanism to Index Web Documents

Owing to the dynamic nature of the web, it is difficult for search engine to find the relevant documents to serve a user query. For this purpose, search engine maintains the index of downloaded documents stored in the local repository. Whenever a query comes search engine searches the index in order to find the relevant matched results to be presented to the user. The quality of the matched result depends on the information stored in the index. The more efficient is the structure of index, more efficient the performance of search engine. Generally, inverted index are based solely on the frequency of keywords present in number of documents. In order to improve the efficiency of the search engine, an improved indexing mechanism to index the web documents is being proposed that keeps the context related information integrated with the frequency of the keyword. The structure is implemented using Trie. The implementation results on various documents show that proposed index efficiently stores the documents and search is fast.

An Improved Approach to Ranking Web Documents

Ranking thousands of web documents so that they are matched in response to a user query is really a challenging task. For this purpose, search engines use different ranking mechanisms on apparently related resultant web documents to decide the order in which documents should be displayed. Existing ranking mechanisms decide on the order of a web page based on the amount and popularity of the links pointed to and emerging from it. Sometime search engines result in placing less relevant documents in the top positions in response to a user query. There is a strong need to improve the ranking strategy. In this paper, a novel ranking mechanism is being proposed to rank the web documents that consider both the HTML structure of a page and the contextual senses of keywords that are present within it and its back-links. The approach has been tested on data sets of URLs and on their back-links in relation to different topics. The experimental result shows that the overall search results, in response to user queries, are improved. The ordering of the links that have been obtained is compared with the ordering that has been done by using the page rank score. The results obtained thereafter shows that the proposed mechanism contextually puts more related web pages in the top order, as compared to the page rank score.

A Novel Context Based Indexing of Web Documents

The organization and retrieval of information from hyper-linked documents is a challenging task for search engine expected to satisfy user queries with relevant content in first few top results displayed to the user. This arrangement implies in need of maintaining index of relevant context based pages. This paper provides a novel technique for indexing the web documents based on the context of keywords that helps a search engine to serve a query with more specific documents, and relevant contents.

The Use of Spectroanalytical Techniques in Detecting the Heavy Metal and Salinity in Solanum tuberosum (cv. Kufri Bahar) During Indoor Study

The vegetable crops are getting most affected by exposure to rising concentrations of heavy metals and salinity in soil all over the world. Their accumulation in such plants can be analyzed by sophisticated techniques for further studies. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) is very popular spectroanalytical technique used to quantify nearly seventy different elements in solution or directly in solid samples. The flame photometry is used to estimate the Na (sodium) in plants as marker of NaCl level. The indoor growth of the Solanum tuberosum was done to check the effects of Cd and salinity in roots and shoots. The nutrients are provided into Hoagland’s solution. The regimes of cadmium, sodium and combination of both stresses were chosen. The cadmium accumulation increased all over the plant but highest level in root was at 2 mM Cd given without NaCl. Root Na increased with increase in external NaCl irrespective of Cd. But, shoot Na levels behaved differently because Na increase peaked at 50 mM NaCl when given individually but increase was continuous when NaCl was given in presence of cadmium. AAS and flame photometry aided in getting a clear picture of Cd and Na accumulation in potato plants.

MODULATION OF ANTIOXIDANT ENZYMES SYSTEM BY KINETIN IN SALT STRESSED SHOOTS OF ZEA MAYS

The antioxidant enzymes system in the shoot of the Zea mays was checked in the laboratory. The seeds Soil culture of Zea mays (cv. African Tall-09) were purchased from the local market and sterilized properly. The growth was done for five days and treated by two NaCl (100mM and 200mM) levels, two kinetin (2μM and 5μM) levels and their respective combinations. The enzymatic assays of key antioxidant enzymes i.e. catalase, guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), ascorbate peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione reductase (GR) in maize leaves were done. The assessment of important metabolic parameters i.e. lipid peroxidation, non-protein thiol levels and proline content in maize leaves was also performed. The activity of catalase was very strongly responsive for kinetin and increased its activity at both the levels. The activity of GR was also inhibited in case of salt and kinetin grouping of lower concentration level. The GPX activity was inhibited by 100 and 200mM of NaCl levels in external medium but stimulated by 5μM Kinetin level alone as well as in high amount salt combination levels while superoxide dismutase of Zea mays shoots was stimulated and showed noteworthy gain were shown in response to 200mM NaCl level as well as kinetin levels. The lower combination of both salt and kinetin suppressed the activity of ascorbate peroxidise while the lipid peroxidation and proline content were increased by both the salt treatments.

A review on the status of quality control and standardization of herbal drugs in India

Background: Most of the herbal medicines in the world originate from the developing countries. There are ample opportunities for these countries to expand their global export. The world market for botanical medicines including drug products and raw materials has been estimated to have an annual growth rate between 5% and 15%. Total global botanical drug market is estimated at US

Analysis of Soil Parameters after the Full Growth of the Kufari Bahar Cultivar of Solanum Tuberosum

62 billion and is expected to grow to the tune of US

STUDY OF TOTAL PHENOLIC CONTENT AND TOTAL PROTEIN IN FRUIT PEELS (POMEGRANATE (Punica granatum)AND ORANGE (Citrus sinensis)

5 trillion by the year 2050. In the USA alone, the usage of botanicals has been increased by 380% between the years 1990 and 1997. Materials and Methods: Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine, is one of the ancient, yet living traditions that face a typical Western bias. Widespread and growing use of botanicals has created public health challenges globally in terms of quality, safety, and efficacy. Results and Discussion: The development of parameters for standardization and quality control of botanicals is a challenging task. Various regulatory authorities, research organizations, and botanical drug manufacturers have contributed in developing guiding principles and addressing issues related to the quality, safety, and efficacy. Conclusions: The present review describes the regulatory aspects of herbal drugs in India and various other countries.