Garlic and onion have been used widely as common household spices from the ancient period and have also been regarded as traditional healers. This study was designed to evaluate the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of fresh extracts of garlic and onion. Activities of enzymatic antioxidants (superoxide dismutase and catalase) and non-enzymatic antioxidant (ascorbic acid content) activities were measured and compared in between garlic and onion extracts. Superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in garlic were found noticeably high (p < 0.05) compared to onion but significantly reverse in case of the ascorbic acid content (p < 0.05). Likewise, six bacteria were chosen to study antibacterial activities of garlic and onion. The zones of inhibitions exhibited by the extracts against B. cereus, S. aureus, Micrococcus sp., E. coli, Klebsiella sp. and Proteus sp. were compared with the reference antibiotic chloramphenicol (1%). Antibacterial activity of the garlic extract singly and its mixture with onion extract in the ratio 1:1 against the tested bacteria were found significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the onion extract.

Development of a Crotalaria juncea based biorefinery produce large quantity of waste glycerol after trans-esterification of the juncea seeds. This glycerol, after purification, is used as a substrate for producing succinic acid on a microbial route. Hydrogenation of this bio-refined succinic acid is carried out under high pressure in order to produce 1,4butanediol (BDO) using a batch slurry reactor with cobalt supported ruthenium bimetallic catalysts, synthesized inhouse. It is demonstrated that, using small amounts of ruthenium to cobalt increases the overall hydrogenation activity for the production of 1,4-butanediol. Hydrogenation reactions are carried out at various operating temperatures and pressures along with changes in the mixing ratios of ruthenium chloride and cobalt chloride hexahydrate, which are used to synthesize the catalyst. The Ru-Co bimetallic catalysts are characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and TGA. Concentrations of the hydrogenation product are analyzed using Gas chromatography-Mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Statistical analysis of the overall hydrogenation process is performed using a Box-Behnken Design (BBD).

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