Fluoride concentration of groundwater reserves occurs in many places in the world. A critical area for such contamination in India is alluvial soil of the plain region, consisting of five blocks (Jhajjar, Bahadurgarh, Beri, Matanhail, and Sahalawas) of the Jhajjar District adjacent to the National Capital Territory of India, New Delhi. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between water fluoride levels and prevalence of dental fluorosis among school children of the Jhajjar District of Haryana, India. The fluoride content in underground drinking water sources was found to vary in villages. Hence, the villages were categorized as high-fluoride villages (1.52-4.0 mg F/l) and low/normal-fluoride villages (0.30-1.0 mg F/l). The source of dental fluorosis data was school-going children (7-15 years) showing different stages and types of fluorosis who were permanent resident of these villages. The fraction of dental fluorosis-affected children varied from 30% to 94.85% in the high-fluoride villages and from 8.80% to 28.20% in the low/normal-fluoride villages. The results of the present study revealed that there existed a significant positive correlation between fluoride concentration in drinking water and dental fluorosis in high-fluoride villages (r = 0.508; p < 0.001) and insignificant correlation in low-fluoride villages.

Imidacloprid (IMD), 1(6-chloro-3-pyridinyl)methyl)-N-nitro-2-imidazolidinimine, was administered in female mice to study in vivo cytogenetic (chromosomal aberrations (CAs) and micronucleus assay) and hematological effects. The acute oral LD50 was determined to be 150 mg/kg bw in mice following OECD guidelines using AOT StatPgm425 software. The mice were administered orally with distilled water (negative control); mitomycin C (MMC), 1 mg/kg (positive control) and sub-lethal doses of 37.5 (low), 75.0 (medium) and 112.5 (high) mg/kg bw (25%, 50% and 75% of LD50) of IMD to analyze CAs and hematological effects after 24 h, whereas micronucleus test (MT) after 48 h. The genotoxicity analysis revealed that selected test doses of IMD--medium and high doses--induced significantly mitotic inhibition (p < 0.01), CAs (p < 0.01) and at high dose micronucleus (MN) formation (p < 0.05). Significant changes in red blood cell (RBC; p < 0.01), hemoglobin (Hb; p < 0.01) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR; p < 0.001) were observed, except WBC in which significant increase (p < 0.001) was observed. Present observation substantiates overall significant dose dependent genotoxic potential (p < 0.05; r = 0.98) of IMD. Precautions should be taken to minimize possible risk to exposed farmers of the state of Haryana (India)--an agrarian economy.

Obesity is a serious health complication in almost every corner of the world. Excessive weight gain results in the onset of several other health issues such as type II diabetes, cancer, respiratory diseases, musculoskeletal disorders (especially osteoarthritis), and cardiovascular diseases. As allopathic medications and derived pharmaceuticals are partially successful in overcoming this health complication, there is an incessant need to develop new alternative anti-obesity strategies with long term efficacy and less side effects. Plants harbor secondary metabolites such as phenolics, flavonoids, terpenoids and other specific compounds that have been shown to have effective anti-obesity properties. Nanoencapsulation of these secondary metabolites enhances the anti-obesity efficacy of these natural compounds due to their speculated property of target specificity and enhanced efficiency. These nanoencapsulated and naive secondary metabolites show anti-obesity properties mainly by inhibiting the lipid and carbohydrate metabolizing enzymes, suppression of adipogenesis and appetite, and enhancing energy metabolism. This review focuses on the plants and their secondary metabolites, along with their nanoencapsulation, that have anti-obesity effects, with their possible acting mechanisms, for better human health.

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Carbon-based nanomaterials are contemporary and are outpacing the technology platform. Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) had a significant impact on the subject of bioengineering, pharmaceuticals, biomedicine, biosensors, fuel, energy, etc. Depending on how quickly this field is developing, it is important to recognize the new difficulties that GQDs have to overcome. This is incredibly significant because many novel applications and innovations that have made GQD synthesis easier recently have not been systematically evaluated in prior studies. Their ability to combine the benefits of quantum dots, sp2 carbon materials (large specific surface area), and have rich functional groups at the edge makes them special. The naturally occurring inert carbon helps to stabilize chemical and physical characteristics and makes significant advancements in the creation of benchmark photocatalysts. Moreover, current challenges and potential of these rapidly developing GQDs are emphasized. The future of GQD research is limitless, according to the assessment in this review, notably if future research focuses on simplicity of purification and ecofriendly synthesis. This feature article offers a realistic summary on recent developments in the synthesis, characteristics, and uses of GQDs. Frequent review articles focusing on the progress of GQDs for specific applications are published but a thorough review article on GQDs for their numerous uses has not yet been published. The recent trends of scientific research based on new optical biosensing applications, including the comprehensive applications of different zero-dimensional nanomaterials, specially GQDs are discussed in this study.