The application of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)-based antibacterial therapeutics has emerged as a feasible alternative to traditional antibiotic therapy due to cost-effectiveness and lower possibility of non-evolution of resistant strains. In the present paper, the aqueous extract of wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rice (Oryza sativa) leaflets were used for the fabrication of well-dispersed AgNPs of average size 19.11 and 33.85 nm, respectively, under the controlled condition of pH 10.0 + 0.1 and temperature 80°C + 1°C. This bottom-up approach of AgNPs production was simple, eco-friendly, inexpensive, and highly reproducible. The synthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV-Visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray. Agarwell diffusion and (2, 3-bis [2-methyloxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl]-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxanilide) (XTT) colorimetric methods revealed the bactericidal potential of synthesized AgNPs against Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranges from 125 to 500 µg/ml. AgNPs presented better potency against Gram-negative bacteria compared to Gram-positive bacteria. Interestingly, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Escherichia coli demonstrated a hormetic response (positive stimulated growth) at a sub-lethal concentration (<7.81 µg/ml) of AgNPs, which were 0.39%-1.56% of MIC values of the respective bacterial strains.

The biotechnological advances and various crop improvement strategies have contributed to a great extent in nutritional improvement of important food crops, as an intervention toward alleviating the hidden hunger for the developing countries. The development, evaluation, and utilization of biofortified wheat are of great significance to achieve the above goal. In this study, biofortified wheat lines were subjected to soaking (12 hours) and germination (upto 96 hours) at room temperature. The soluble protein and starch contents were evaluated after 12 hours of soaking. Soluble protein, starch, total phenolics, and anthocyanin contents were determined in germinated seed samples at various time intervals (i.e., 12, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours). In ungerminated wheat, soluble protein and starch contents were observed in the range of 6.96-8.04 mg/g and 0.110-0.147 mg/g, respectively, whereas, after 12 hours of soaking it was increased up to 7.15-8.18 and 0.119-0.150 mg/g, respectively. Moreover, the soluble protein content and starch were slightly improved by 26.8%-48.2% and 21.5%-50.8% of initial value, respectively, between 72 and 96 hours post-germination. In germinated wheat, the overall total phenolic and anthocyanin contents were substantially higher than that of non-germinated wheat. These results suggested that the germination has tremendous potential to improve the bioactive components and functional property of wheat flour. The improvement of the nutritional quality will help the consumers to get benefits of germinated wheat.

Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.), cultivated in more than 60 countries, is grown for fiber and oilseed worldwide. Here effort was made to assess the genetic variability in linseed germplasm and identify some promising lines used as parents in the linseed hybridization program. The study was designed with a total of 82 germplasm and a national check in RCBD for genetic variability for 11 agronomic traits. In this study, a considerable variation was observed for all the studied traits by using PCA analysis. It was also found that single plant yield, number of seeds per capsule, and number of capsules are ideal for linseed improvement through the selection in central India. Few high yielding accessions such as RL-10129 and Padmini showed maximum diversity with the popular variety T-397, and can be used in the hybridization program. Similarly, we identified a few potential accessions such as NDL-2013-03, EC-41741, Ruchi, EC-704, RL-10129 to be used as parents in the breeding program.