Bishnu Prasad Pandey

• PhD
• Associate Professor at Kathmandu University

In this study, thalli nitrogen (N) and metal ions contents in the two fruticose lichens (Ramalina intermedia and Usnea cornuta) were quantified, which were collected from a pristine Himalayan forest of Shey Phoksundo National Park of western Nepal. Besides, the probable impacts of N and metal ions in physicochemical responses such as electrical con...

Background Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng. (Rutaceae) is an evergreen shrub distributed over the sub-tropical to lower temperate climatic zone of Nepal which has been used as spice in culinary practice and traditionally being used to treat bites of poisonous animals, dysentery, skin diseases, vomiting, diarrhea, and inflammations. Objective The main...

Streptomyces are bacteria well known for producing bioactive secondary metabolites which are commonly found in diverse habitats. Te biosynthesis of metabolites from Streptomyces is infuenced by various factors such as the growth medium, environmental conditions, and gene regulation. Tis study aimed to investigate the infuence of diferent growth med...

The production and consumption of soybean and soy products, characterized by high nutritional values are augmenting. Particularly, Asians consume soy foods on daily basis in several forms. In this study, we evaluated the elemental contents, phenolics, antioxidants, and enzyme inhibitory potential of white soybean, black soybean, brown soybean, tofu...

Excess nitrogen is a pollutant and global problem that harms ecosystems and can severely affect human health. Pollutant nitrogen is becoming more widespread and intensifying in the tropics. There is thus a requirement to develop nitrogen biomonitoring for spatial mapping and trend analysis of tropical biodiversity and ecosystems. In temperate and b...

The process of seed germination is described as the culmination of a series of events that start with wetting and end with the emergence of the embryo (typically the radicle) from the seed coat. This method has an impact on crop output and quality. The characteristics of the seed surface and the surroundings have an impact on the kinetics and volum...

As drinking water quality determines the health and sanitation of any area, it is imperative to assess and monitor the water quality. Kathmandu University Drinking Water Supply Centre (aKUa) was established in 2017 with an aim to provide good quality and processed drinking water to different schools and associated offices of Kathmandu University (K...

The flavonoids and phenolics contents, antioxidant potential, and enzymes (α-amylase, lipase, elastase, tyrosinase, acetylcho-linesterase, and butyrylcholinesterase) inhibition potential of leaf extracts from Elaeocarpus sphaericus, Santalum album, Pterocarpus santalinus, and Ziziphus budhensis collected from Ramechhap District of Nepal were evalua...

The effect on the germination and seedling growth of radish ( Raphanus sativus ) seeds were examined employing a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at atmospheric pressure and room temperature for various treatment time. DBD plasma using argon gas of flow rate 2 l m ⁻¹ was employed in this study. Radish seeds were treated with DBD plasma for 1–5 mi...

Himalayan forests are biodiverse and support the cultural and economic livelihoods of their human communities. They are bounded to the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain, which has among the highest concentrations of atmospheric ammonia globally. This source of excess nitrogen pushes northwards into the Himalaya, generating concern that Himalayan for...

The present study reports the generation of plasma-activated water (PAW) using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), its physicochemical properties, and its potential impact on the seed germination and seedling growth of soybean. The results revealed significant changes in physical parameters, such as pH, total dissolved solids, total suspended solid...

Seed germination is a complicated physiological process that starts with the seed absorbing water and concludes with the radicle emerging. The kinetics and amount of water uptake by seeds are known to be influenced by both seed surface properties and the surrounding environment. As a result, altering seed surface features are linked to seed medium...

The present work is focused on investigating the effect of plasma-activated water (PAW) on the seed germination and seedling growth of radish, fenugreek, and pea seeds. A home-made gliding arc discharge (GAD) reactor generated in air under atmospheric pressure and operating at 50 Hz line frequency is used for water activation. PAW was prepared by e...

Streptomyces are widely distributed in soil and known for the production of bioactive secondary metabolites. It has been reported that among microbial-derived antibiotics, two-third are produced by the Streptomyces species alone. Hence, continuous screening of the Streptomyces species is of growing scientific interest. A small Himalayan country lik...

Flavonoids have achieved widespread importance in pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries. Furthermore, modification of these naturally occurring flavonoids to structurally diverse compounds through whole cell biotransformation with enhanced biological activities has numerous biotechnological applications. The present study investigated the...

The industrial use of polypropylene (PP) films is constrained due to their unattractive properties like poor wettability, printability and adhesion. In the present study, a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is employed to enhance the surface properties of PP. A sinusoidal power supply with discharge voltage of 13 kV (r.m.s), and frequency of 50 Hz...

Cold plasma-liquid interaction becomes a growing interdisciplinary area of research involving plasma physics, fluid science, and chemistry. Plasma-liquid interaction has gained more interest over the last many years due to its potential applications in different fields. Cold atmospheric plasma jet is an emerging technology for surface drinking wate...

Industrial applications of the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) have a long tradition. However, lack of understanding in some of its fundamental issues, such as the stochastic behaviors, is still a challenge for DBD researchers. The work was carried out at line frequency, 15 kV and at atmospheric pressure. This work focuses on the study of the el...

The aim of this study was to examine antioxidant properties, major enzyme inhibition activities, and targeted metabolites profiling of Lepisorus mehrae, Pleurospermum benthamii, and Roscoea auriculata in different solvent extracts. This is the first report on metabolites profiling and biochemical activities of these plant species. Our results revea...

Background This study was focused on the measurement of anticancer properties of six medicinal plants from western Nepal in three cell lines; HeLa, Hep3B, and HCT116, and anti-inflammatory properties in RAW 264.7 cell line through NO, PGE 2 , and TNF-α production. In addition, the phytochemical screening, total phenolic, flavonoid content, and anti...

The low surface energy of HDPE limits its industrial uses as it is not suitable for printing and adhesion. The main aim of this work is to improve the wetting properties of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) using air dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operating at the line frequency (50 Hz). The estimation of electron temperature and electron densit...

Plant extracts contain active ingredients that can absorb, reflect or scatter the sunlight, depending on their nature. The effectiveness of plant extracts as a skin protective agent can be determined by measuring the sun protection factor (SPF). The main aim of this study was to investigate the potential of selected medicinal plant extracts as a co...

Background: The Bergenia species are perennial herbs native to central Asia, and one of the most promising medicinal plants of the family Saxifragaceae which are popularly known as 'Pashanbheda'. The aim of this study was to evaluate antioxidant and α-amylase, α-glucosidase, lipase, tyrosinase, elastase, and cholinesterases inhibition potential of...

Background: Medicinal plants and their products are gaining global popularity due to their several health benefits. However, the biological activities of the vast majority of medicinal plant species have not been explored yet. In this study, we evaluated the enzyme inhibitory potential of six medicinal plant species involved in digestion, skin-rela...

Background: This study was focused on the ethnobotany of different ethnic communities residing in Majhuwa and Chuchure villages of Khandadevi and Gokulganga Rural Municipality of Ramechhap District of Bagmati Province of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Methods: The ethnobotanical study was carried out by using semi-structured questionnair...

The objective of this study was to profile the chemical components and biological activities analysis of crude extract of Bryophyllum pinnatum and Oxalis corniculata . Results revealed that the analyzed plant materials encompass the high amount of total phenolic and flavonoids content and have significant antioxidant activities. Furthermore, methan...

The present study aim to evaluate the chemical constituents and biological activities of the commercially available green tea sample. High performance liquid chromatography equipped with UV detector was used to quantify the caffeine content in the tea extract. The caffeine content in the green tea sample range from 7.18 to 22.90 mg/g DW. Whereas, t...

An atmospheric-pressure plasma jet (APPJ) has a lot of applications in recent years such as in material processing, surface modification, biomedical material processing, and thin film deposition. APPJ has been generated by a high-voltage power supply (0-20 kV) at an operating frequency of 27 kHz. This paper reports the generation and characterizati...

Cold atmospheric pressure plasma generated at atmospheric air produces high energetic electrons, ions, UV radiations, reactive oxygen, and nitrogen species (RONS) which has a wide range of applications in biomedicine, agriculture, textiles, water treatment, etc. Recently, many researches have been carried out on ozonation through DBD (Dielectric ba...

Potential of Bergenia pacumbis (Pakhanved) towards alpha-amylase, alpha-glucosidase, lipase, tyrosinase, and elastase enzyme inhibition

About Lichens of Sagarmatha Region, Nepal

Problem Statement: In the field of ethnobotany, only single work has been carried out in the Ramechhap District of Nepal. Ethnobotanical knowledge is being declined in the new generation due to a lack of communication and written documentation. Objective: The principal aim of the study was to document the knowledge regarding ethnobotany that exists...

Aim of this study was to evaluate the total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoids content (TFC), antioxidant and antibacterial activities of fruits, leaves and peels of locally available citrus species. Result revealed that TPC and TFC of the fruit, leaves and peels range from 6.1 to 34.22 mg GAE/ g DW and 1.71 to 28.96 mg QUE/g DW, respectively...

In this present study, phytochemical screening, anti-ulcer assay, anti-diarrhea assay, anti-inflammatory assay, analgesic assay, lipase activity assay, amylase activity assay and the anti-bacterial activity of Eucalyptus camaladulensis Dehnh leaf extracted with methanol and 50% ethanol was analyzed for biological significance. Physical characteriza...

We have reported that the expression of CYP105D7 in Streptomyces avermitilis produces 112.5 mg L⁻¹ of 7,3′,4′-trihydroxyisoflavone (3'ODI) in 15 h of the reaction time, when 7,4′-dihydroxyisoflavone (daidzein) is used as a substrate. Although production is significant, rapid degradation of 3'ODI after 15 h was observed in a whole-cell biotransforma...

Abstract Aims: The present study aims to investigate chemical composition and biological activities of Pinus roxburghii collected from Kavre district of Nepal. Material and Methods: Phytochemical screening, antibacterial activities and antioxidant activities were measured. Total phenolic content and total flavonoid content was determined using the...

Aim: The main aims of the study were to evaluate the phytochemicals, antioxidant, antibacterial and chemical constituents of storage medicinal plant materials used as a traditional medicine in Nepal. Methods: Phytochemical screening, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, antibacterial activities, anti-oxidant assay of the crude extract...

Objective: To identify the chemical constituents and biological activities of essential oil and crude methanol extract of Artemisia vulgaris (A. vulgaris) and Gaultheria fragrantissima (G. fragrantissima). Methods: Phytochemical screening, total phenolic and flavonoid content, antibacterial activities, anti-oxidant assay of the crude extract wer...

(S)-equol, a gut bacterial isoflavone derivative, has drawn great attention to its potent use for relieving female postmenopausal symptoms and preventing prostate cancer. Previous studies have reported dietary isoflavone metabolism of several human gut bacteria and the involved enzymes for daidzein to (S)-equol conversion. However, the anaerobic gr...

It was previously proposed that regiospecific hydroxylation of daidzein at 3'-position is mediated by cytochrome P450 hydroxylase (CYP105D7) in the presence of putidaredoxin (CamB) and putidaredoxin reductase (CamA) as electron transfer proteins from Pseudomonas putida. The genome sequence of Streptomyces avermitilis MA4680 revealed 33 P450 (CYPs)...

A cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme, 3'-daidzein hydroxylase, CYP105D7 (3'-DH), responsible for daidzein hydroxylation at the 3'-position, was recently reported. CYP105D7 (3'-DH) is a class I type of CYP that requires electrons provided through electron transfer proteins such as ferredoxin and ferredoxin reductase. Presently, we constructed an artificia...

CYP51, a sterol 14α-demethylase, is one of the key enzymes involved in sterol biosynthesis and requires electrons transferred from its redox partners. A unique CYP51 from Nocardia farcinica IFM10152 forms a distinct cluster with iron-sulfur containing NADPH-P450 reductase (FprD) downstream of CYP51. Previously, sequence alignment of nine reductases...

Among 33 cytochrome P450s (CYPs) of Streptomyces avermitilis, CYP102D1 encoded by the sav575 gene is naturally a unique and self-sufficient CYP. Since the native cyp102D1 gene could not be expressed well in Escherichia coli, its expression was attempted using codon-optimized synthetic DNA. The gene was successfully overexpressed and the recombinant...

Screening of cytochrome P450 monoxygenases responsible for the regiospecific hydroxylation of flavones, isoflavones and chalcones was attempted using a P450 library constructed from Streptomyces avermitilis MA4680, Bacillus and Nocardia farcinica IFM10152 strains. As electron transfer redox partners with the P450s in Escherichia coli system, putida...

Regiospecific 3'-hydroxylation reaction of daidzein was performed with CYP105D7 from Streptomyces avermitilis MA4680 expressed in Escherichia coli. The apparent K(m) and k(cat) values of CYP105D7 for daidzein were 21.83 +/- 6.3 microM and 15.01 +/- 0.6 min(-1) in the presence of 1 microM of CYP105D7, putidaredoxin (CamB) and putidaredoxin reductase...

The bioconversion of the isoflavonoid daidzein using whole cell Nocardia farcinica IFM10152 showed two kinds of major metabolic modifications, i.e. mono-hydroxylation and subsequent O-methylation. The major hydroxylated products of daidzein prior to the O-methylation reaction were 3',4',7-trihydroxyisoflavone (3'-ODI), 4',6,7-trihydroxyisoflavone (...

Screening of bacterial whole cells was performed for regioselective hydroxylation of daidzein and genistein. Among the strains examined, Streptomyces avermitilis MA-4680 showed high ortho-dihydroxylation activity to produce 3',4',7-trihydroxyisoflavone and 3',4',5,7-tetrahydroxyisoflavone from daidzein (4',7-dihydroxyisoflavone) and genistein (4',5...

Screening of bacterial whole cells was performed for regioselective hydroxylation of daidzein and genistein. Among the strains examined, Streptomyces avermitilis MA-4680 showed high ortho-dihydroxylation activity to produce 3',4',7-trihydroxyisoflavone and 3',4',5,7-tetrahydroxyisoflavone from daidzein (4',7-dihydroxyisoflavone) and genistein (4',5...