Application of synthetic fungicides in agricultural commodities has been restricted due to development of fungicide resistance fungi and deleterious impact on environment and health of farm animals and humans. Hence, there is an urge for development of mycobiocides, and the present study was undertaken to determine the antifungal activity of Cymbopogon martinii essential oil (CMEO) on post-harvest pathogen Fusarium graminearum. The CMEO was extracted by hydrodistillation and GC-MS chemical profile revealed the presence of 46 compounds and abundant was geraniol (19.06%). The minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum fungicidal concentration of CMEO were determined as 421.7 ± 27.14 and 618.3 ± 79.35 ppm, respectively. The scanning electron microscopic observation of CMEO exposed macroconidia was exhibited a detrimental morphology with vesicles, craters, protuberance, and rough surfaces related to control fungi. The CMEO induced the death of fungi through elevating intracellular reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation, and depleting ergosterol content. Regrettably, essential oils are highly volatile and become unstable and lose their biological features on exposure to light, heat, pH, moisture, and oxygen. To overcome these issues, chitosan encapsulated CMEO nanoparticles (Ce-CMEO-NPs) were prepared. The synthesized Ce-CMEO-NPs have spherical morphology with Zeta potential of 39.3–37.2 mV and their corresponding size was found in range of 455–480 nm. The Fourier transform infrared analysis confirmed that bio-active constituents of CMEO were well stabilized due to chitosan conjugation and successfully formed Ce-CMEO-NPs. The in vitro release assay observed that the release of CMEO is stabilized due to the complex formation with chitosan and thereby, increases the lifetime antifungal activity of CMEO by gradual release of antifungal constituents of Ce-CMEO-NPs. In conclusion, antifungal and antimycotoxin activities of CMEO and Ce-CMEO-NPs against F. graminearum were assessed in maize grains under laboratory conditions over a storage period of 28 days. Interestingly, Ce-CMEO-NPs were presented efficient and enhanced antifungal and antimycotoxin activities related to CMEO, and it could be due to perseverance of antifungal activity by controlled release of antifungal constituents from Ce-CMEO-NPs. The study concluded that Ce-CMEO-NPs could be highly appropriate as mycobiocides in safeguarding the agricultural commodities during storage period in agricultural and food industries.

In the present study, activated carbon (AC) was derived from seed shells of Jatropha curcas and applied to decontaminate the zearalenone (ZEA) mycotoxin. The AC of J. curcas (ACJC) was prepared by ZnCl2 chemical activation method and its crystalline structure was determined by X-ray diffraction analysis. The crystalline graphitic nature of ACJC was confirmed from the Raman spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscope showed the porous surface morphology of the ACJC surface with high pore density and presence of elemental carbon was identified from the energy dispersive X-ray analysis. From Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, SBET, micropore area, and average pore diameter of ACJC were calculated as 822.78 (m2/g), 255.36 (m2/g), and 8.5980 (Å), respectively. The adsorption of ZEA by ACJC was accomplished with varying contact time, concentration of ZEA and ACJC, and pH of media. The ACJC has adsorbed the ZEA over a short period of time and adsorption of ZEA was dependent on the dose of ACJC. The effect of different pH on adsorption of ZEA by ACJC was not much effective. Desorption studies confirmed that adsorption of ZEA by ACJC was stable. The adsorption isotherm of ZEA by ACJC was well fitted with Langmuir model rather than Freundlich and concluded the homogeneous process of sorption. The maximum adsorption of ZEA by ACJC was detected as 23.14 μg/mg. Finally, adsorption property of ACJC was utilized to establish ACJC as an antidote against ZEA-induced toxicity under in vitro in neuro-2a cells. The percentage of live cells was high in cells treated together with a combination of ZEA and ACJC compared to ZEA treated cells. In a similar way, ΔΨM was not dropped in cells exposed to combination of ACJC and ZEA compared to ZEA treated cells. Furthermore, cells treated with a combination of ZEA and ACJC exhibited lower level of intracellular reactive oxygen species and caspase-3 compared to ZEA treated cells. These in vitro studies concluded that ACJC has successfully protected the cells from ZEA-induced toxicity by lowering the availability of ZEA in media as a result of adsorption of ZEA. The study concluded that ACJC was a potent decontaminating agent for ZEA and could be used as an antidote against ZEA-induced toxicity.

Nanoparticles of Titanium dioxide [Formula: see text] with its unique optical and electronic characteristics is an important material for photochemical catalysis. The efficiency of catalytic activity of [Formula: see text] anatase nanostructures is greatly influenced by the photo-generated bound excitons. It is found that the interaction of bound excitons generated in [Formula: see text] enhances the cubic nonlinearity of the system due to strong oscillation of photo-generated bound excitons. The trapped electron hole pair concentration is directly proportional to the photocatalytic efficiency of the [Formula: see text] anatase nanostructures. In our report, we show how these photo-generated bound excitons play a significant role in origin of third-order optical nonlinearities. In particular, we have measured large phase shift and seen two photon absorption process through closed and open aperture Z-scan, respectively, using femtosecond pulses at 532[Formula: see text]nm.

In the current scenario, most countries are affected by COVID-19, a pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has a massive impact on human health. Previous studies showed that some traditionally used medicinal herbs and their combinations showed synergistic anti-viral and anti-inflammatory activity against SARS-CoV-2 type infections. Therefore, the goal of this study is to demonstrate the anti-viral and anti-inflammatory effects of a novel polyherbal formulation, hereinafter referred to as Imusil, on Vero E6 cell lines and Raw 264.7 murine macrophage cells respectively. The Imusil was subjected to identify its chemical characterisations such as UV–Visible spectrum profile, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and gas chromatography–mass spectroscopic (GC–MS) analysis. FT-IR analysis of Imusil peak values with various functional compounds such as alcohol, esters, aliphatic and carboxylic acids. GC–MS analysis of compounds with totally 87 compounds major chemical compounds were identified, such as 3-(Octanoyloxy) propane-1,2-diyl bis(decanoate), Succinic acid, 2-methylhex-3-yl 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl ester, Neophytadiene, 3,5,9-Trioxa-4-phosphaheneicosan-1-aminium, 4-hydroxy- N , N , N -trimethyl-10-oxo-7-[(1-oxododecyl)oxy]-, hydroxide, inner salt, 4-oxide, (R)-. The anti-viral activity of Imusil against SARS-CoV-2 was assessed using plaque reduction assay and anti-inflammatory study was conducted on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced RAW 264.7 cells. The results obtained from the study reveal that Imusil significantly inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication in Vero E6 cells and the production of inflammatory mediator’s cyclooxygenase-2 and pro-inflammatory cytokines like tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin- 6 were significantly reduced, along with thwarting the significant oxidative stress by preventing the expression of NOX-2 thereby inhibiting the reactive oxygen species formation. Hence, considering the current study as a novel strategy for mediating the COVID-19 associated aliments, inceptive scientific evidence of Imusil promises its potential therapeutic implications against COVID-19 and inflammatory conditions.

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