Polystyrene is considered stable to biological degradation. Lantinus tigrinus isolated from wood sample produced esterase in growth medium under normal conditions. However, acidic medium, 37 degrees C temperature, presence of tween 80; and urea and yeast extract in mineral salt medium enhance the production of esterase and specific activity. Purified esterase was active at broad pH range and 45 degrees C. FTIR analysis confirmed that esterase produced by Lantinus tigrinus effectively degraded polystyrene film and broke macromolecules down to non-toxic molecules. This study concludes that the presence of Lantinus tigrinus at dumping sites can be exploited for waste management containing high molecular weight synthetic polymers.

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Vitamin 'A' is essential for normal growth and its deficiency causes night blindness, affects the regulatory function of skin and reduces the general resistance of organism to infection. This deficiency does not occur by using balanced diet or by fortification of staple food with appropriate amount of Vitamin 'A'. In Pakistan vitamin 'A' fortification is done in vegetable ghee/cooking oil. It is generally assumed that fortified amount of vitamin 'A' is fully destroyed when the food is cooked at high temperature.The present study was focused to examine the effect of Pakistani traditional cooking style on the degree of destruction of vitamin 'A' mandatory fortified in the vegetable ghee/ cooking oils. The study indicates that there are some losses of Vitamin A of the fortified oils during cooking. However in case of deep fat frying destruction of added vitamin 'A' is more pronounced. The loss of vitamin 'A' was less than 50%, when the food was cooked in Pakistani style in case of all the cooking oils/ vegetable ghee. In prolonged frying conditions substantial amount of vitamin 'A' (45%) remains in the oil. Any how, this retention of vitamin 'A' is sufficient to meet the body requirements when oils/ ghee was fortified according to the prescribed Pakistan Pure Food Rules 1965 i.e. 33,000 IU per Kg.

Diethanolamine and its derivatives have wide applications in pharmaceuticals, surfactants formation, polishers and cosmetics industries. Diethanolamine has been used as intermediate in the rubber chemicals industry and as an emulsifier and dispersing agent in various agricultural products 1,2 and also used in adhesives, cements, coatings, electroplating, printing inks, paints, papers, petroleum, coal and polymer productions, textile finishing and lubricants 3. The use of lubricants is crucial and plays an important role in our daily lives. The search for new lubricants particularly liquid and stable at high temperature is highly desired. TGA/DSC have successfully been utilized for determination of physical properties and study of chemical reactions 4-8 and for investigation of thermal stabilities of compounds 9,10. Diethanolamine derivatives have previously been in

Fixed oil of seeds of Benincasa hispida and Nigella sativa was found active against various resistant pathogens of both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. The maximum zone of inhibition was observed against S.aureus (24mm) for Nigella sativa but when 1:1 combination of both the plants was used, good activity against all the tested pathogens i.e., M. luteus, E. coli, S. aureus, P. multocida, P. aeruginosa and B. subtilis (20.31 to 18.61mm) was observed proving seeds as a strong candidate for formulations based on these oils to treat various diseases caused by these resistant pathogens