In order to study the effect of organic fertilizer on growth and yield components in rice, an experiment was carried out in 2008 and 2009, in randomized block design based on 4 replications. The chicken manure, cow manure and paddy rice were mixed together in 1:1:0.5 ratio to from organic fertilizer. The treatments of organic fertilizer were given in 5 levels (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 ton/ha). At one level organic fertilizer 1.5 ton/ha was mixed with inorganic fertilizers (N-50, P-25, K-25 kg / ha) and recommended dose of inorganic fertilizer-NPK (N=100, P=50, K=50 kg/ha) was used as check. The plants without treatments were served as control. Grain yield and its components were significantly increased in all the treatments over control. The maximum grain yield in 2008 (4335.88 kg/ha) was noted in plants treated with 2 ton/ha organic fertilizer and it was (4662.71 kg/ha) for 2009 for plant treated with combination of chemical fertilizer + 1.5 ton/ha organic fertilizer. An increase in the grain yield at the abovementioned treatments was may be due to the increase of 1000-seed weight, panicle number, number of fertile tiller, flag leaf length, number of spikelet, panicle length and decrease number of hollow spikelet per panicle.

India being an agricultural country, more than 80% population of rural India depends on agriculture and its associated activities for their living. To satisfy the requirements of Indian population, there is need for adequate crop yield. But due to urbanisation, pollution, biotic and abiotic stresses, unavailability of micronutrients etc. there are various constraints on seed germination and crop yield. The present review highlights the problems associated with germination and growth of plants. It discusses on seed priming technology that can synchronise seed germination and improve vigour, leading to better crop establishment and yield. Seed priming stimulates the processes involved in metabolism which prevents seed deterioration, breaks dormancy and induces systemic resistance against biotic and abiotic stresses. It explains physiological and biochemical changes occurring in seeds on priming. Extensive study using different seed priming techniques viz. hydro-priming, halopriming, osmo-priming, matrix priming, osmohardening, on-farm priming, hormone priming, nutripriming, biopriming nanoparticle priming etc. has been carried out. Studying the use of different techniques and their need put an insight in the new research area of bionanoseed priming produced by amalgamating nanofertilisers and plant growth promoting rhizobacterias, to improve the productivity of crops.

Amylase inhibitors, also known as starch blockers, contain substances that prevent dietary starches from being absorbed by the body via inhibiting breakdown of complex sugars to simpler ones. In this sense, these materials are projected as having potential applications in diabetes control. In this context, we report on zinc oxide nanoparticles as possible alpha-amylase inhibitors. Zinc oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized using soft-chemistry approach and 1-thioglycerol was used as a surfactant to yield polycrystalline nanoparticles of size ∼18 nm, stabilized in wurtzite structure. Conjugation study and structural characterization have been done using x-ray diffraction technique, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Cytotoxicity studies on human fibrosarcoma (HT-1080) and skin carcinoma (A-431) cell lines as well as mouse primary fibroblast cells demonstrate that up to a dose of 20 μg/ml, ZnO nanoparticles are nontoxic to the cells. We report for the first time the alpha-amylase inhibitory activity of ZnO nanoparticles wherein an optimum dose of 20 μg/ml was sufficient to exhibit 49% glucose inhibition at neutral pH and 35 °C temperature. This inhibitory activity was similar to that obtained with acarbose (a standard alpha-amylase inhibitor), thereby projecting ZnO nanoparticles as novel alpha-amylase inhibitors.

Fe3O4 nanoparticles have been conjugated to curcumin (CU) molecules via a citrate (CA) linker (Fe-CA-CU) and have been explored for superoxide scavenging, tumor suppression, and cancer hyperthermia. The conjugation chemistry reveals that Fe3+ ions on the nanoparticle surface readily conjugates to the available carboxyl sites on the CA molecule, which further conjugates to CU at its central enol -OH group. As seen from the UV-vis spectroscopy, the therapeutically active chromophore group of CU, which is seen at 423 nm, was intact, ensuring the activity the molecule. Magnetization measurements showed good hysteresis curves of Fe3O4 and Fe-CA-CU, indicating the presence of magnetism after conjugation. The loading percentage of citrate-curcumin was seen to be ∼10% from the thermo-gravimetric analysis. The systems when subjected to radio-frequency fields of 240 KHz, were seen to get heated up. The Fe3O4 heating exhibited better slope (1 °C/s) as compared to the Fe-CA-CU system (∼0.7 °C/s) for a sample of concentration 10 mg/ml in average time of ∼20 s to reach the required hyperthermia threshold temperature of ∼45 °C. Tumor suppression studies were done using potato assay, which showed that while only CU showed 100% suppression in 7 days, it was about 89% by the Fe-CA-CU. Upon subjecting these systems to the superoxide anion scavenging assay and superoxide radical scavenging assay (riboflavin), it was observed that the activity was enhanced in the Fe-CA-CU to 40% (from 38% in only CU) and 100% (from 5.75% in only CU). These studies promise Fe-CA-CU as a good cancer hyperthermia-cum-tumor suppressant and antioxidant agent.

Therapeutic agents or agricultural fertilizers captured in polymer colloids (PCs) give rise to interesting applications, which are typically related to sustained release. We synthesized crosslinked polymer structures with poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and borax precursors. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that a polymer-boron ion complex was formed with the crosslinking reaction at the OAH site of PVA; thereby, PCs were formed. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy showed that a uniform mesoporous two-dimensional structure formed via intermolecular and intramolecular crosslinking. Trypsin enzyme and phosphate fertilizer were trapped in these PCs independently to study sustained release. Fertilizer-incorporated PCs were mixed with soil samples, in which seeds of fenugreek were sown, and the plant growth was monitored a duration of 15 days. The fertilizer release, studied with UV-visible spectroscopy, showed a sustained signature of the fertilizer (at 690 nm) in the water extracts of soil, with much healthier plant growth compared to the control. For the trypsinincorporated PC samples, the released enzyme was made to interact with bovine serum albumin protein to monitor the released percentage with UV absorption spectroscopy. A systematic increase in the enzyme signature (at 280 nm) was observed for a duration of 60 min; this indicated the potential of PC for sustained drug release. The swelling calculations predicted that the mechanism involved was composed of pseudo-swelling behavior. We envisaged that the hydroxyl groups of the PC broke in water and formed a complex with water. This complex slowly dissolved in water to release the entrapped molecules.