Pallab Kar

• M.Sc.; PhD
• Research Scientist at Walter Sisulu University

Context: Fatty acid esters (FAEs) are a unique class of secondary metabolites with promising antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, making them useful ingredients for cosmetic formulations. So far, many plants in the Cyperus genus (family Cyperaceae) are known to contain FAEs, among other classes of phytochemicals. However, Cyperus marginatu...

Phytochemicals are of paramount importance in combating various diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and coronary diseases. These bioactive compounds of plant origin are gaining importance in cancer therapy due to the inevitable negative effects of modern medicine. Ficus rumphii is an under-explored species of the family Moraceae which has been ident...

Clerodendrum thomsoniae is a member of the Lamiaceae family and is found throughout Asia, Australia, Africa, and America. C. thomsoniae (CT), mostly utilized in the floriculture sector, is sometimes referred to as bleeding heart vine or bag flower due to its exquisite decorative qualities. Apart from its high value in the floriculture industry, the...

Context: Diabetes is a metabolic and chronic inflammatory disease that affects over 537 million people worldwide, with a projected rise to 783 million cases by 2045 if not put in check. Plant-derived compounds have continued to show strong anti-hyperglycemic activities with minimal adverse effects, with many more to be explored. Aims: To estimate t...

The luscious fruit‐bearing plant Elaeagnus pyriformis (Hook. f.), sometimes called oleaster or silverberry, is found in northeastern India. Natives from this region consume fruit because it is believed to be nutritious and to offer protection against various diseases. This study aimed to prepare wine from Elaeagnus fruits and assess its nutritional...

Background: The Surinam cherry, Eugenia uniflora belongs to the family Myrtaceae, an edible fruit-bearing medicinal plant with various biological properties. Several anticancer studies have been conducted on its essential oils while the non-essential oil compounds including phenolics, flavonoids, and carotenoids have not been fully investigated. Pu...

Objectives Captopril is a commonly used therapeutic agent in the management of renovascular hypertension (high blood pressure), congestive heart failure, left ventricular dysfunction following myocardial infarction, and nephropathy. Captopril has been found to interact with proteins that are significantly associated with bladder cancer (BLCA), sugg...

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic dysfunction characterized by hyperglycemia. T2DM is a growing global epidemic with diffuse complications, including a high mortality rate. High blood sugar can be lowered by impeding the activities of pancreatic a-amylase and intestinal a-glucosidase enzymes. Although there are a number of orth...

The continued emergence of multi-drug resistance pathogens has been a major setback to lifting the burden of infectious diseases, especially bacterial illnesses. Natural- and/or nature-inspired compounds have so far become a therapeutic backbone on which many novel antibacterial agents are optimized. It is against this backdrop that we used an in s...

Xanthones are chemical substances in higher plants, marine organisms, and lower microorganisms. The most prevalent naturally occurring sources of xanthones are those belonging to the families Caryophyllaceae, Guttiferae, and Gentianaceae. Structurally, xanthones (9H xanthan-9-one) are heterocyclic compounds with oxygen and a γ-pyrone component. The...

Cannabis sativa, otherwise known as hemp, is discussed to highlight the various problems and prospects associated with its use as an herbal ingredient. The chemical composition of hemp, with classification based on cannabinoid contents, its biological activities, current global scenarios and legality issues, economic importance, and future prospect...

In recent years, significant progress has been made in the subject of nanotechnology, with a range of methods developed to synthesize precise-sized and shaped nanoparticles according to particular requirements. Often, the nanoparticles are created by employing dangerous reducing chemicals to reduce metal ions into uncharged nanoparticles. Green syn...

Recent global outbreak of monkeypox virus (MPXV) infections has challenged global public health. Infection cases have been reported from various countries such as North Africa, Middle East, Australia, the Americas, and Europe. Monkeypox virus is zoonotic in the genus Orthopoxvirus that can infect animals as well as human beings. The apprehensions o...

Native people of the Northeast Indian region use a range of underutilized fruits for various purposes. Amongst these, Phyllanthus acidus is very common and well known for its ethnomedicinal values. Despite its ethnopharmacological relevance, a comprehensive investigation of the clinical effects of this fruit has not yet been executed. Therefore, in...

A library of butenolide bioisosteres with sulfur incorporated in the molecule was synthetized and used for the structure-activity relationship studies associated with their inhibitory activity towards the AChE enzyme. Modifications through bioisosteric exchange of oxygen for sulfur either in position one of the butenolide ring (thiophenones) or on...

Lung cancer remains a major public health concern among all cancer diseases due to the toxicity and side-effects of the available commercially synthesized drugs. Natural product-derived synthesized anticancer drugs are now of promising interest to fight against cancer death. Carvacrol is a major component of most essential oil-bearing plants with p...

Objective Drug induced hepatocyte death is a major contributor to acute liver failure. We aimed to determine whether β-sitosterol conjugated silver nanoparticles (BSAgNPs) could ameliorate carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver injury in Swiss albino mice. Methods Biogenic silver nanoparticles were synthesized from β-sitosterol to produce β-sit...

The continuous spread and evolution of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), and the rapid surge in infection cases in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) evoke a dire need for effective therapeutics. In this study, we explored the inhibitory potential of a library of 605 phytocompounds, selected from Indian medicina...

Actinorhizal plants are employed as successional plants for ecological restoration mainly due to their nitrogen-fixing ability. Alnus nepalensis or Nepali alder of Darjeeling hills is one of the potential plants used for agroforestry and known for its symbiotic association with an actinobacterium, Frankia. In this study, we performed a comparative1...

Soil microbial diversity consisted of both culturable and non-culturable microbes. The cultivated microbes can be identified by conventional microbiological processes. However, that is not possible for the non-culturable ones. In those cases, next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based metagenomics become useful. In this study, we targeted two very popu...

In modern science, nanotechnology is the most current area of research. Due to its high surface-to-volume ratio nanoparticles have various biomedical applications. In the present study, we have described the eco-friendly biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles from AgNO3 into AgNPs using underutilized fruit Baccaurea ramiflora (Latka) juice. B....

The emergence of COVID-19 continues to pose severe threats to global public health. The pandemic has infected over 171 million people and claimed more than 3.5 million lives to date. We investigated the binding potential of antiviral cyanobacterial proteins including cyanovirin-N, scytovirin and phycocyanin with fundamental proteins involved in att...

Eu," is a traditional millet-based mild alcoholic beverage consumed by the Toto tribe of West Bengal. Eu is prepared through the fermentation of millet with locally groomed starter culture "Moaa." The study highlighted the overview of the traditional process of Eu preparation along with its molecular and biochemical characterization. Semi-structure...

Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary science in the fields of Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Nanoparticles have a large surface area to volume ratio and high surface energy. Due to this characteristic feature; it opens up new scope for its various applications. In this study, we have reported the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNP) from silv...

Soil being the most heterogeneous and complex microbial habitat on earth exceeds the quantity of inhabiting microbial communities than other environments. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) based metagenomics provides us directs access to the uncultivated genomes. In this study, we targeted two very popular tea gardens of Darjeeling hills- Makaibari...

The medicinally and economically important tea plant of India lacks a report on barcode study. Thus, we aimed to establish the DNA barcode of some elite tea clones of Darjeeling and Dooars along with the study of variation within the chloroplast region. A thorough investigation of 29 tea clones based on the matK (maturase K) gene has been carried o...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), presents an unprecedented challenge to global public health with researchers striving to find a possible therapeutic candidate that could limit the spread of the virus. In this context, the present study employed an in...

Ancient civilization to present-day cultural and technological development, human over the world has been using plants as a source of natural medicine for their basic needs. Clerodendrum serratum (Linn.) Moonis one such traditionally well-accepted plant used vigorously in Indian ayurvedic therapeutic purposes. Despite its ethnomedicinal significanc...

Clerodendrum inerme is a perennial shrub belonging to the family Lamiaceae and is used in many of the herbal preparations of Siddha and Ayurveda in India. Ethnomedicinally, the leaves of this plant are used to cure various ailments. In spite of enormous ethnomedicinal implications, proper chemical profiling and characterization of isolated compound...

A novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has emerged as the causative agent behind the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Treatment efforts have been severely impeded due to the lack of specific effective antiviral drugs for the treatment of COVID-associated pathologies. In the present research endeavour the inh...

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has rattled global public health, with researchers struggling to find specific therapeutic solutions. In this context, the present study employed an in silico approach to assess the inhibitory potential of the phytochemicals obtained from GC-MS analysis of twelve Clerodendrum species...

Background Elaeagnus pyriformis, Myrica nagi and Myrica esculenta are prominent actinorhizal plants of North-East India which produce juicy edible fruits. Native people of this region consume these fruits for nutritional enhancement. Apart from having immense nutritional value, fruits of these plants have been utilized in traditional medicine for p...

Clerodendrum thomsoniae commonly known as bleeding heart vine or bag flower which is a good candidate for a new crop for the floriculture industry. In this study, in-vitro callus regeneration of C. thomsoniae through nodal culture has been attempted. Murashige and Skoog’s medium supplemented with 2 mg/l BAP and 0.5 mg/l

Clerodendrum is a plant with potent antioxidant activity and has been frequently employed as a traditional remedy against bronchitis, asthma, liver and stomach disorders. Three species of genus Clerodendrum namely Clerodendrum indicum, C. colebrookianum and C. inerme (Syn. Volkameria inermis) were investigated for their possible activity against ox...

Background: Clerodendrum infortunatum is a medicinal plant found especially in the Sub-Himalayan regions of West Bengal. Various tribal communities of this region have been using these plants as a source of natural medicine. Objective: Medicinal values of C. infortunatum are well established, but the immunomodulatory properties have never been stud...

A new Schiff base ligand, H2L, and its Zn(II) complex were prepared and characterized by different analytical and spectroscopic techniques. The elemental analysis results suggest the stoichiometry of the complex to be 1:1. The molar conductance study shows the non-electrolytic nature of the complex. Infrared spectra reveal that the metal ion is coo...

The progress in industrialization has blessed mankind with a technologically superior lifestyle but poor management of industrial waste has in turn poisoned nature. One such chemical is carbon tetra chloride (CCl4), which is a potent environmental toxin emitted from chemical industries and its presence in the atmosphere is increasing at an alarming...

Mimosoids form a major group in legumes. Of which, most of the members are traditionally reported remedies to diseases in rural India. However, proper justification and validation of their traditional practice are lacking. Hence, we intended to explore a comprehensive account of phytochemical profiling, antioxidant activity and genetic variation am...

The genus Rhizobium contains many species able to form nitrogen-fixing nodules on plants of the legume family. Here, we report the 6.9-Mbp draft genome sequence of Rhizobium sp. strain RSm-3, with a G+C content of 61.4% and 6,511 candidate protein-coding genes.

Background and Aims: Acacia nilotica (L.) Delile has long been used as a traditional anti-diabetic remedy in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria etc. However, not much work has been done on the medicinal profiling of this herb. Therefore, the objective of the study was to evaluate the efficiencies of a chemically standardized extract of A....

The biodiversity hub at north-eastern region of India contains actinorhizal plants like Elaeagnus pyriformis, Myrica nagi and Myrica esculenta which serve as functional food for the natives. Apart from having immense nutritional value, fruits of these plants have been utilized in traditional medicine and have displayed antioxidant behavior as obser...

Aim: Preparation of daily traditional drink by the indigenous tribes is a common phenomenon in India. Oraon tribes in Malda district of West Bengal, India are very much practiced in making of their own native brew, known as Chullu. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the whole Chullu procedure technology of the region and its socioecon...

Canna is a spectacular ornamental plant which gains its importance in terms of nutritive and medicinal values. However, there are number of problems related to the production and breeding for improved varieties of Canna. Protoplast fusion technique was tried to generate genetically modified hybrid varieties of Canna. In vitro generated leaves and s...

Clerodendrum, with about 580 species, belongs to the family Verbenaceae and is widely distributed in the tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. Th e leaves of some species of Clerodendrum form an important source of diet in North eastern part of India. Various plant parts such as leaf and root extracts of C. indicum, C. phlomidis, C. ser...

Aim: The present study was aimed at exploring the indigenous knowledge of native tribes on the utilization of wild plant species for local healthcare management in Malda district of West Bengal. Materials and methods: Successive field surveys were carried out from July 2012 to August 2013 in search of traditional healers or practitioners who cea...

The ethnobotanical survey in Chanchal block of Malda district recorded a total of 49 species belonging to 29 families were used to treat 25 local ailments. Root was the most frequently used plant part in preparing herbal remedies followed by leaf. The most common diseases treated in the study area were bone fracture, gastritis, diabetes, rheumatism...

Hippophae salicifolia, Elaeagnus pyriformis, Myrica esculenta and M. nagi are actinorhizal plants growing in the sacred forests of Northeast India with multipurpose uses. The present investigation was undertaken to determine the phenol, flavonoid and flavonol contents of the fresh fruit juice of these plant species including the antioxidant potenti...

Extensive loss of the valuable plant species in the past centuries has triggered the conservation of plant resources. However successful conservation depends upon the appropriate identification and characterisation of the plant materials. Bamboo with about 1575 species harbouring both woody and herbaceous bamboo included in the sub family Bambusoid...