Pre-emergence herbicides used in urban and agricultural settings: dissipation and ecological implications.

Herbicides are widely recognized as the most cost-effective solution for weed control, but their extensive use in both urban and agricultural settings raise serious concerns about nontarget effects. We assessed the possible hazards associated with pre-emergence herbicides such as dimethenamid-P, metazachlor, and pyroxasulfone, which are frequently applied in both urban and agricultural soils. The dissipation rate constant values (k day: 0.

Microalgae-microplastics interactions at environmentally relevant concentrations: Implications toward ecology, bioeconomy, and UN SDGs.

Microplastics (MPs) are one of the emerging pollutants, causing potential harm to aquatic ecosystems and serious concern in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Realizing the occurrence of varying concentrations of MPs in the environment, this investigation presents multi-dimensional insights into the ecological and bioeconomic implications at environmentally relevant concentrations. We pursued a multi-step approach to gain a comprehensive understanding on the effects of microalgae‒MPs interactions and their expansive implications toward SDGs.

Enrichment of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH)-Degrading Strictly Anaerobic Sulfate-Reducing Cultures from Contaminated Soil and Sediment.

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are crucial players in global biogeochemical cycling and some have been implicated in the anaerobic biodegradation of organic pollutants, including recalcitrant and hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Obtaining PAH-degrading SRB cultures for laboratories is of paramount importance in the development of the young field of anaerobic biodegradation of PAHs. SRB grow exceptionally slowly on PAH substrates and are highly sensitive to oxygen.

Tetracycline and fluoroquinolone antibiotics contamination in agricultural soils fertilized long-term with chicken litter: Trends and ravages.

We investigated the potential accumulation of tetracyclines (TCs) such as chlortetracycline (CTC), oxytetracycline (OTC) and doxycycline (DC), and fluoroquinolones (FQs) like enrofloxacin (ENR) and ciprofloxacin (CIP) in chicken litter and agricultural soils fertilized over short-term to long-term (<1-30 yrs) with chicken litter in a poultry hub for the first time from Tamil Nadu, India. CTC, OTC, DC, CIP, and ENR were detected in 46-92 % of the selected chicken litter samples, with mean levels ranging from 2.90 to 23.

Pre-emergence herbicides widely used in urban and farmland soils: fate, and potential human and environmental health risks.

We determined the distribution, fate, and health hazards of dimethenamid-P, metazachlor, and pyroxasulfone, the effective pre-emergence herbicides widely used both in urban and agricultural settings globally. The rate-determining phase of sorption kinetics of these herbicides in five soils followed a pseudo-second-order model. Freundlich isotherm model indicated that the herbicides primarily partition into heterogeneous surface sites on clay minerals and organic matter (OM) and diffuse into soil micropores.

Current understanding and future directions of cruciferous vegetables and their phytochemicals to combat neurological diseases.

Neurological disorders incidences are increasing drastically due to complex pathophysiology, and the nonavailability of disease-modifying agents. Several attempts have been made to identify new potential chemicals to combat these neurological abnormalities. At present, complete abolishment of neurological diseases is not attainable except for symptomatic relief.

Additives of plastics: Entry into the environment and potential risks to human and ecological health.

A steep rise in global plastic production and significant discharge of plastic waste are expected in the near future. Plastics pose a threat to the ecosystem and human health through the generation of particulate plastics that act as carriers for other emerging contaminants, and the release of toxic chemical additives. Since plastic additives are not covalently bound, they can freely leach into the environment.

Anoxygenic phototrophic purple non-sulfur bacteria: tool for bioremediation of hazardous environmental pollutants.

The extraordinary metabolic flexibility of anoxygenic phototrophic purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB) has been exploited in the development of various biotechnological applications, such as wastewater treatment, biohydrogen production, improvement of soil fertility and plant growth, and recovery of high-value compounds. These versatile microorganisms can also be employed for the efficient bioremediation of hazardous inorganic and organic pollutants from contaminated environments. Certain members of PNSB, especially strains of Rhodobacter sphaeroides and Rhodopseudomonas palustris, exhibit efficient remediation of several toxic and carcinogenic heavy metals and metalloids, such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and lead.

Coumarin Based Fluorescent Probe for Detecting Heavy Metal Ions.

Heavy metals such as Iron, Copper, and Zinc are micro-essential trace metal and involve animportant biological role, but it quickly turns toxic at exceeding the permissible limit, causing gastrointestinal irritation, liver, bone, and kidney damage, as well as disorders including Wilson's, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's. It is important to detect the metal ions as well as their concentration quickly and affordable cost using organic probes. Among the organic probes,the coumarin fluorescent probe shows a very prominent candidate with heavy metal ions.

WNT-β Catenin Signaling as a Potential Therapeutic Target for Neurodegenerative Diseases: Current Status and Future Perspective.

Wnt/β-catenin (WβC) signaling pathway is an important signaling pathway for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis from the embryonic developmental stages to adulthood. The canonical pathway of WβC signaling is essential for neurogenesis, cell proliferation, and neurogenesis, whereas the noncanonical pathway (WNT/Ca and WNT/PCP) is responsible for cell polarity, calcium maintenance, and cell migration. Abnormal regulation of WβC signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis (MS), and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

Anaerobic biodegradation of phenanthrene and pyrene by sulfate-reducing cultures enriched from contaminated freshwater lake sediments.

Our current understanding of the susceptibility of hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to anaerobic microbial degradation is very limited. In the present study, we obtained phenanthrene- and pyrene-degrading strictly anaerobic sulfate-reducing enrichments using contaminated freshwater lake sediments as the source material. The highly enriched phenanthrene-degrading culture, MMKS23, was dominated (98%) by a sulfate-reducing bacterium belonging to the genus Desulfovibrio.

The use of food additives as green and environmental-friendly anti-corrosion inhibitors for protection of metals and alloys: a review.

Corrosion inhibitors have offered new opportunities to bring positive impacts on our society, especially when it has helped in protecting metals against corrosion in an aqueous solution. Unfortunately, the commonly known corrosion inhibitors used to protect metals or alloys against corrosion are invariably related to one or more drawbacks such as the employment of hazardous anti-corrosion agents, leakage of anti-corrosion agents in aqueous solution, and high solubility of anti-corrosion agents in water. Over the years, using food additives as anti-corrosion agents have drawn interest as it offers biocompatibility, less toxic, and promising applications.

Chemicals/materials of emerging concern in farmlands: sources, crop uptake and potential human health risks.

Certain chemicals/materials that are contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) have been widely detected in water bodies and terrestrial systems worldwide while other CECs occur at undetectable concentrations. The primary sources of CECs in farmlands are agricultural inputs, such as wastewater, biosolids, sewage sludge, and agricultural mulching films. The percent increase in cropland area during 1950-2016 was 30 and the rise in land use for food crops during 1960-2018 was 100-500%, implying that there could be a significant CEC burden in farmlands in the future.

Efficient bioremediation of laboratory wastewater co-contaminated with PAHs and dimethylformamide by a methylotrophic enrichment culture.

A methylotrophic enrichment culture, MM34X, has been assessed for its exceptional ability in biodegradation of dimethylformamide (DMF) and bioremediation of laboratory wastewater (LWW) co-contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The culture MM34X tolerated high concentrations of DMF and efficiently degraded 98% of 20,000 mg L DMF within 120 h. LWW bioremediation was performed in stirred bottle laboratory-scale bioreactor.

Efficient bioremediation of PAHs-contaminated soils by a methylotrophic enrichment culture.

Bioaugmentation effectively enhances microbial bioremediation of hazardous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from contaminated environments. While screening for pyrene-degrading bacteria from a former manufactured gas plant soil (MGPS), the mixed enrichment culture was found to be more efficient in PAHs biodegradation than the culturable pure strains. Interestingly, analysis of 16S rRNA sequences revealed that the culture was dominated by a previously uncultured member of the family Rhizobiaceae.

Metal-Doped Graphitic Carbon Nitride Nanomaterials for Photocatalytic Environmental Applications-A Review.

In the current world situation, population and industrial growth have become major problems for energy and environmental concerns. Extremely noxious pollutants such as heavy metal ions, dyes, antibiotics, phenols, and pesticides in water are the main causes behind deprived water quality leading to inadequate access to clean water. In this connection, graphite carbon nitride (GCN or g-CN) a nonmetallic polymeric material has been utilized extensively as a visible-light-responsive photocatalyst for a variety of environmental applications.

Anaerobic Degradation of Naphthalene and Pyrene by Sulfate-Reducing Cultures Enriched from Former Manufactured Gas Plant Soil.

Biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) under completely anaerobic sulfate-reducing conditions is an energetically challenging process. To date, anaerobic degradations of only two-ringed naphthalene and three-ringed phenanthrene by sediment-free and enriched sulfate-reducing bacteria have been reported. In this study, sulfate-reducing enrichment cultures capable of degrading naphthalene and four-ringed PAH, pyrene, were enriched from a contaminated former gas plant site soil.

Degradation of four pesticides in five urban landscape soils: human and environmental health risk assessment.

Pesticides are the most cost-effective means of pest control; however, the serious concern is about the non-target effects due to their extensive and intensive use in both agricultural and non-agricultural settings. The degradation rate constant (k) and half-life (DT) of four commonly used pesticides, glyphosate, 2,4-D, chlorothalonil and dimethoate were determined in five Australian urban landscape soils, with varying physicochemical characteristics, to assess their environmental and human health risks. The k values (day) for the selected pesticides were inversely proportional to those of organic carbon (OC), silt, clay and Fe and Al oxides, and directly proportional to pH and sand content in soils.

Tamarindus indica seed ash extract for C-C coupling under added organics and volatile organic solvent-free conditions: a waste repurposing technique for Suzuki-Miyaura reaction.

A tremendous research has been appeared on Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling (SMC) during the last four decades due to its high prominence in constructing biaryl motifs of several complexes as well as simple organic compounds of high biological and commercial significance. The use of organic solid waste-derived materials for SMC in benign solvents like water/aqueous media is a very good achievement in these cases. We report in this article the usability of water extract of Tamarindus indica seeds ash (WETS) as a renewable base and reaction medium for Pd(OAc)-catalyzed SMC reaction at room temperature (RT).

Major contaminants of emerging concern in soils: a perspective on potential health risks.

Soil pollution by the contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) or emerging contaminants deserves attention worldwide because of their toxic health effects and the need for developing regulatory guidelines. Though the global soil burden by certain CECs is in several metric tons, the source-tracking of these contaminants in soil environments is difficult due to heterogeneity of the medium and complexities associated with the interactive mechanisms. Most CECs have higher affinities towards solid matrices for adsorption.

Highly economic and waste valorization strategy for multicomponent and Knoevenagel reactions using water extract of tamarind seed ash.

The application of solid organic waste-originated products in the preparation of synthetically and biologically significant compounds in aqueous media or pure water is a highly desired task in chemical synthesis that shows an effective solution to the circular economy and sustainable environment. In this article, we describe our research on the development of highly economic and sustainable protocols for the synthesis of biologically important oxygen-heterocycles (using a multicomponent reaction) and synthetically important olefins (via the Knoevenagel condensation reaction) using water extract of tamarind seed ash (WETS) as catalyst and aqueous reaction medium. The reactions are carried out at room temperature (RT) under toxic/problematic/volatile organic solvent-free conditions.

Sustainability Evaluation of Immobilized Acid-Adapted Microalgal Technology in Acid Mine Drainage Remediation following Emergy and Carbon Footprint Analysis.

Sustainability evaluation of wastewater treatment helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as it emphasizes the development of green technologies and optimum resource use rather than the end-of-pipe treatment. The conventional approaches for treating acid mine drainages (AMDs) are efficient; however, they need enormous amounts of energy, making them less sustainable and causing greater environmental concern. We recently demonstrated the potential of immobilized acid-adapted microalgal technology for AMD remediation.

A Treatise on Furan Cored Schiff Base Cu(II), Ni(II) and Co(III) Complexes Accentuating Their Biological Efficacy: Synthesis, Thermal and Spectroscopic Characterization, DNA Interactions, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Activity Studies.

Three metal complexes [Cu(FMIMDIP) ] (1), [Ni(FMIMDIP) ] (2) and [Co(FMIMDIP) ] (3) where, FMIMDIP=(((furan-2-yl)methylimino)methyl)-4,6-diiodophenol, were synthesized and characterized by various spectroscopy. The analytical data revealed a square planar geometry for 1 and 2 and an octahedral geometry for 3. The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the thermal decomposition steps were calculated from the thermograms.

Phenotypic changes in microalgae at acidic pH mediate their tolerance to higher concentrations of transition metals.

Acclimatory phenotypic response is a common phenomenon in microalgae, particularly during heavy metal stress. It is not clear so far whether acclimating to one abiotic stressor can alleviate the stress imposed by another abiotic factor. The intent of the present study was to demonstrate the implication of acidic pH in effecting phenotypic changes that facilitate microalgal tolerance to biologically excess concentrations of heavy metals.