National Conference
Environment and Biodiversity of India 30th – 31st December 2011, New Delhi
[AB112] Investigations on antimicrobial property of medicinal plants of Western Ghats Ekta Manglani Garden City College, Old Madras Road, T.C. Palya, Bangalore 560049 ABSTRACT The Western Ghats also known as Sahyadri Hills is one of the world’s top ten biodiversity hot spots and notable for rich phyto-diversity. The forests and hills of Western Ghats area treasure house of about 700 medicinal plants, and on a conservative estimate 50 of these species hold a very high value in the folk and herbal health traditions for the treatment of different forms of ailments. Four species of such plants belonging to four different families were studied for their pharmacological properties. Aegle marmelos, Vitex negundo, Rauwolfia serpentina and Ricinus communis were screened for antimicrobial activity on the basis of their use against skin diseases, wound healing property, treatment of diarrhea, swelling reduction etc. Solvent extracts (Ethanol, Acetone and Aqueous) of all plants were tested against five human pathogenic bacterial strains Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus in different concentration by Standard cup diffusion method (Agar well method). Extracts from all the four plants exhibited varying degrees of growth inhibition for microorganisms tested. The results of these investigations are discussed in the paper. Keywords: Medicinal Plants, Western Ghats, Agar well method, Solvent extracts, antimicrobial property. [AB113] Electro biochemical cure to our fresh water woes Garima Capoor, Neh Satsangi and Anamika Banerjee Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra ABSTRACT The constant apathy shown towards our rivers has slowly turned them into a dumping ground for garbage, agricultural run-offs, sewages wastes etc. Their water is however still a primary sustenance source for the rural and urban set-ups in our country, and so it becomes important that the supply of water is fit for consumption. A relatively new but very popular way of doing this task is the Sewage Treatment Process (STP) using microbes [Effective Microbes] which digest the contaminants and reduce it to simpler components like methane or simply store it away in their biological systems. But over time , this technology has become cost inefficient in terms of the expensive nutrients that are required for the initiation of electron transfer which regulates this process because, in conventional wastewater treatment, microbes or chemicals alter or remove contaminants by adding or removing electrons. The electrons come from large excesses of nutrients and chemicals added to the systems to adjust the reactor chemistry for microbial growth and contaminant removal. Those large excesses must be added to compensate for changes in water chemistry and other factors that limit the availability of electrons to remove pollutants. This makes the system expensive. The idea that we wish to propose is by using a very small amount of electric charge (1 volt) which will compensate the electron requirement of the microbes which in turn will finally lead to the biochemical or rather electro biochemical remediation of the sewages pollutants of the river water and a supply of clean usable water we can make this technology more economically viable. Not only this, but it will also reduce the treatment time. Keywords: Sewage Treatment Process (STP), microbes, contaminants, cost inefficient, electron transfer, electro biochemical remediation.
© 2011. National Conference on Environment and Biodiversity of India Published by North East Centre for Environmental Education and Research (NECEER), Imphal
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