Endophytes could be efficient biological control agent in sustainable crop production and offer unique opportunity for crop protection and biological control. Present study was carried out to investigate the effects of indigenous endophytic microorganisms Pseudomonas sp., Bacillus sp., Burkholderia sp. Streptomyces sp., Actinoplanes sp., Alternaria sp. and Fusarium sp. on plant growth and disease control against challenge inoculation with Rhizoctonia solani in soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merril). It was observed that treatment with endophytes significantly (p<0.05) improved the seed germination, root, shoot length, Seedling Vigour Index (SVI), root nodulation in soybean. The significant increments were recorded fresh and dry weight, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) uptake and seed yield (p<0.05). The disease incidences were reduced significantly over control (p<0.05). Thus, present studies indicate that utilization of indigenous endophytes may exert more favorable effects on plant health, disease control which ultimately will enhance crop productivity.

Background: Herbal juices are gaining global attention due to their medicinal properties, nutritive and antioxidant activity. They are frequently consumed by the people of all age groups in the form of health drinks. However, many outbreaks of human infections have been reported to be associated with the consumption of contaminated herbal juices. Hence, microbial quality assessment of herbal juices is utmost important.Methods: The present study was undertaken to detect the existence of enteric pathogens as well as coliforms in the herbal juices sold at sport complex in Washim city area. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing was also performed to evaluate the MDR status of the isolates.Results: The results showed that most of the herbal juices are contaminated with Salmonella, Shigella and Coliforms. The pathogens were found to be multiple drug resistant strains which pose an alarming threat for the consumers.Conclusions: Regular monitoring of the quality of herbal juices for human consumption is recommended to avoid disease outbreak.

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Endophytic microorganisms live within host plants without causing any noticeable symptoms of disease. Endophytes are usually symptomless, but may produce beneficial to pathogenic effects. Present investigation describes the isolation and identification of endophytic bacteria from soybean. During this investigation 21 endophytic isolates were obtained that included 12 bacterial, 05 fungal and 04 actinomycteal isolates. Among the bacterial genera Pseudomonas, Rhizobium, Enterobaer, Baciillus and Klebsiella spp. were obtained. Fungal genera were Aspergillus, Fusarium, Rhizoctonia and Alternaria spp. and actinomycetal were Streptomyces spp. Endophytic microorganisms received considerable attention due to their biotechnological utility in various agricultural, industrial and medical fields.