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Beans and lentils are good sources of total phenolic contents and possessed excellent free radical scavenging activity. This study was aimed to assess the total phenolic compounds (TPCs) and antioxidant activity of dried and germinated beans and lentils. The total phenolics contents were extracted from seven types of beans and lentils by using 50% (v/v) aqueous ethanol. The TPCs and antioxidant activities were analyzed using Folin-Ciocalteu and DPPH (2, 2-diphenyle-1-picrylhydrazyl radical), ABTS (2,2’-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonate) assays, respectively. The legumes showed the highest total phenolic contents (TPCs) and antioxidant capacity by DPPH and ABTS scavenging activity (p < 0.05) in germinated samples. The germinated beans and lentils contained more total phenolic contents that decrease significantly in dried beans. This study also suggested that germinated beans are a valuable source of commercial natural antioxidants.

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This study encompasses isolation and screening of heavy metal-resistant fungal and bacterial strains from tannery solid waste (TSW). Twelve fungal strains and twenty-five bacterial strains were isolated from TSW. The growth of fungal strains was observed against different heavy metals ranging from 10 mg L-1 to 1050 mg L-1 and the growth of bacteria was observed in metal concentrations ranging from 10 mg L-1 to 1200 mg L-1. Five multi-metal resistant fungal isolates belonging to the genus Trichoderma and ten bacterial isolates belonging to the genus Bacillus showed good metal resistance and biosorption potential. They were identified through molecular techniques, fungi based on ITS region ribotyping, and bacteria based on 16S rRNA ribotyping. The fungal strains were characterized as T. hamatum (TSWF-06), T. harzianum (TSWF-11), T. lixii (TSWF-02) and T. pseudokoningii (TSWF-03, TSWF-10). The bacterial strains were characterized as Bacillus xiamenensis (TSW-02), B. velezensis (TSW-05), B. piscis (TSW-06), B. safensis (TSW-10), B. subtilis (TSW-14, TSW-15, TSW-17) B. licheniformis (TSW-19), B. cereus (TSW-20) and B. thuringiensis (TSW-22). The fungal strains namely, T. pseudokoningii (TSWF-03) and T. harzianum proved to be two multi-metal resistant strains with good biosorption efficiency. Unlike fungi, bacterial strains showed metal specific resistance. The strains Bacillus xiamenensis, B. subtilis (TSW-14) and B. subtilis (TSW-15) showed good biosorption efficiency against Cr, B. safensis against Cu, B. piscis and B. subtilis (TSW-17) against Pb and B. licheniformis and B. thuringiensis against Zn. The autochthonous fungal and bacterial strains can therefore be employed to clean metal contaminated environments.