Tehreema Iftikhar

Government College University, Lahore | GCU · Department of Botany

Arsenic (As) is a naturally occurring metalloid that is present in the earth's crust, soil, water, and air. It can be found in various forms, including organic and inorganic compounds. Inorganic arsenic is considered more toxic than organic arsenic and is known to cause serious health problems such as cancer, skin lesions, cardiovascular diseases,...

Novel research has been conducted on Aloe vera, focusing on stems fiber (agricultural waste), for the extraction of cellulosic fiber, an area lacking prior scientific exploration. This fiber is being reported for the first time in the scientific community. Aloe barbadensis Miller variety was subjected to various cultivation methods, including the a...

Zinc malnutrition is major health problem in children and women of reproductive age (WRA) in developing countries. This study aimed to find nutritionally balanced food at an affordable cost. For this purpose, Pleurotus pulmonarius (Mushroom) is fortified with zinc oxide nano particles (ZnO-NPs) synthesized from Nigella sativa seed extract. ZnO-NPs...

Salt stress poses a significant threat to global agriculture, affecting crop growth and productivity. This study investigated the impact of sodium chloride stress on different mung bean ( Vigna radiata ) cultivars in both winter and summer seasons and explored potential mitigation strategies employing Bacillus pseudomycoides inoculum. The experimen...

United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) are mended for the betterment of all living species on this earth. Climate change planning consistently revolves around sustainable products derived from natural raw materials. Our recent research has specifically targeted the optimization of biocatalyst production and microorganism growth through...

Genome editing is a technology to make specific changes in the DNA of a cell or an organism. It has significantly altered the landscape of life sciences, facilitating the establishment of exceedingly customized genetic modifications. Among various genome editing technologies, the CRISPR/Cas9 system, a specific endonuclease induces a double stranded...

Climate change poses a pervasive global threat to humanity, and regrettably, the textile industry stands as the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions due to its large supply chain. Pollution involves various sub-sectors, including water pollution, where urea emerges as a hazardous chemical detrimental to both human health and aquat...

Salt stress is one of the significant abiotic stress factors that exert harmful effects on plant growth and yield. In this study, five cultivars of mung bean ( Vigna radiata L.) were treated with different concentrations of NaCl and also inoculated with a salt-tolerant bacterial strain to assess their growth and yield. The bacterial strain was isol...

Agricultural waste and trash are a universal issue which requires extensive working to reduce the impact. Improper management of agricultural waste can lead to serious environmental problems such as soil contamination, water pollution and air pollution. Lipases (protein-based catalyst) were produced with industrial and agriculture by products throu...

The purpose of this study was to synthesize ecofriendly nano-composite in which agricultural waste (seeds of Tamarindus indica) was used to synthesize tamarind seed polysaccharides (TSP) and its composite with copper nanoparticles (Cu-NPs) for the purpose of green and clean environment as well as reduction of green-house gases. Confirmation of extr...

In this study COVID-19 effects on different aspects of life that how this virus created a mess in every discipline of life starting from a small tuck shop of a street to a huge business with a chain between different countries; and some preventive measures are also suggested. Not only mental healthiness as well as physical health of people was also...

Agricultural waste upcycling is crucial in the context of climate change. Utilizing seven agricultural by-products as basal substrates, coconut meal ( Cocos nucifera ) emerged as the most efficient, supporting the highest extracellular lipase (triacyl glycerol acyl hydrolases) yield i.e., 5.27 ± 1.75 a U mL ⁻¹ . This study explored the production o...

Climate change is a universal issue and plastic trash is the major cause of global warming. The present study was specifically designed to address the escalating plastic waste problem, the biodegradation of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) bags was investigated over an 8-week period using liquid culture approach. Bacterial strain ( Pseudomonas putid...

Mitigating climate change can be achieved by opting for sustainable, plant-based materials instead of relying on hazardous chemicals that come with various side effects. Various natural plant extracts find widespread application in synthesizing insect-repellent coatings, particularly in industries such as paint manufacturing. The increasing demand...

A sustainable approach in all industrial processes is prerequisite in industrial revolution 5 and 6. The need for optimization of all industrial products with less greenhouse gas emissions is beneficial for a better-quality product too. Bio scouring is a sustainable alternative to traditional scouring methods for cellulosic (cotton) fabrics. This r...

Synthesis of plant-based zinc oxide nanoparticles, and the application of these materials in the synthesis of antibacterial and mosquito-repellent paint formulations.

The present study aims to develop a natural insect-repellent paint formulation derived from plant-based materials with UV absorption and antibacterial properties.

The utilization of industrial waste for valuable product synthesis is essential for mitigating the environmental impact of climate change and managing waste disposal challenges. Industrial waste is always a big challenge for global warming. In this study, a novel fungus strain was isolated, and identified as Aspergillus oryzae (AKMS), from the oily...

The detergent formulations and the ingredients used in the formulations are variable in the entire world depending on the climate, cost, results, laundry trends and other multiple factors. The impact of detergent components on lipase (enzyme) activity was evaluated after incubation at 20 °C for 1 h and 2 h. Tween-80 demonstrated the highest residua...

The current research was carried out by using a fungal strain that was isolated from oily curry of Cicer arietinum (L). After morphological and microscopic identification, the strain was subjected to molecular characterization using 18S rRNA sequencing and scanning electron microcopy (SEM). The production and optimization of extracellular lipase pr...

Thymus vulgaris L. widely known as garden thyme is extremely valuable plant with around 100 species distributed around the globe. The genus Thymus comprises of highly beneficial medicinal plants with a number of therapeutic activities. Thymus grows best in well aerated soils with pH ranging from 5.0 to 8.0. Usage of vermicompost promotes Thyme plan...

Wild marigold (Tagetes minuta L.) is an annual aromatic herb belonging to Asteraceae (sunflower family) that is the largest family of plants. It is grown in many areas of the world and grows as weed in orchards, gardens, waste grounds. It can grow in both moist and dry conditions. It is a source of a variety of secondary products such as pharmaceut...

Vanilla plant belongs to an ancient lineage of flowering plants. It is a very important plant because it is the source of organic vanillin, extracted from the beans, that is used as aroma and flavouring agent in food. The famous and major international companies use vanilla to enhance the flavour of their products i.e., Pepsi, Coca Cola, Smoothie k...

Polianthes tuberosa L. commonly known as tuberose belongs to family Asparagaceae. Tuberose is a bulbous plant with pale green leaves. Different agronomic factors play vital role in the cultivation of tuberose. Tuberoses are mostly cultivated in warm, humid regions with temperature ranging from 16 to 30 °C. It can also been grown in hilly areas at a...

Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) represents a class of remarkable porous materials composed of organic building blocks that are covalently linked in a periodic manner to form crystalline structures. High surface area, high porosity, tunable pore size, and high stability are their exceptional properties, which make them attractive candidates for v...

In this research paper, a novel process was developed for reactive printing of cotton fabric, with the objective of producing a high-quality printed fabric that is sustainable, eco-friendly, and low-cost which will ultimately reduce the impact of climate change. The study incorporated substituted tamarind polysaccharide (STP) obtained from agricult...

Dental caries, a widespread oral infection affecting people worldwide, has significant societal impact due to its high prevalence. The issue of antibiotic resistance in the oral environment was investigated in rural areas in the antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and biofilm development in the bacteria causing dental caries. Cross-sectional stud...

Agricultural waste is not only contributing to landfills but also generating significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs), thereby increasing carbon footprints. The key solution to address climate change lies in adopting sustainable practices across all research fields. Our current study is innovative, as it involves utilizing fruit waste for gre...

Mosquitos have been a malice and source of many diseases in humans. Later on, humans understood they learned that plants also possess mosquito-repellent properties. . Different insect-repellent coatings are present in the market which are chemically prepared and can be harmful to humans and the environment. Different plants have insect-repellent pr...

In the present research project, the first report on comparative analysis of the taxonomical, biological and pharmacological potential of healthy and geminivirus infected Hibiscus rosa sinensis (L.) leaves of the family Malvaceae was done by using different micro and macroscopic techniques. First of all, leaves were characterized for Cotton leaf...

The study revealed enhanced production of α 1, 4 D glucan glucanohydrolase utilizing the synergistic phenomena of bacterial hetero-culture. For this purpose, 101 hetero-cultures were screened qualitatively and quantitatively. The bacterial hetero-culture showing the highest amylolytic potential was identified as Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus amylo...

The present investigation was conducted for thebiosynthesis of extracellular lipasesby already isolated alkaliphillic fungal strains that were Aspergillus niger, Candidaalba and Mucor sp. through solid state fermentation. Aspergillus niger produced themaximumlipases(7.5±0.63 a U/mL). The greatest lipases productivity was attained with theammonium n...

Feather wastes-byproduct of commercial poultry processing plant is produced in large amounts. Keratinolytic enzymes produced by feather degrading bacteria can easily degrade these waste products releasing pure keratin as a residue. The aim of present study was to isolate, and characterize feather degrading bacteria as well as assess the keratinolyt...

The main bottleneck in fermentation technology is scaling up procedure of industrial enzymes according to the biological characteristics of the organism. The current study describes the production kinetics of cellulases in stirred tank reactor by using mutant and wild strains of T. dupontii. The fermentation span of both the strains in bioreactor w...

YEAR 2022: The COVID-19 Pandemic; A multidisciplinary Review of Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment (Editors: Hanadi T. A., M. Riaz, Sagheer A., Marius-Alexandru M.) Part 3; Treatment; Chapter # 11; The Role of Natural Products in COVID-19

R. Abdullah, A. Toor, H. Qaiser, A. Kaleem, M. Iqtedar, TEHREEMA IFTIKHAR, M. Riaz, and Dou Deqiang. Apple Academic Press Inc. USA. ISBN: 9781774910504. https://www.appleacademicpress.com/the-covid-19- pandemic-a-multidisciplinary-review-of-diagnosis-prevention-and-treatment/9781774910504).

The present study was conducted to estimate relative growth rates (RGR) and above- and below-ground biomass stocks of 10 tree species commonly planted in arid irrigated urban areas in Pakistan. Saplings were grown in the Botanic Garden of Government College University, Lahore. The growth was monitored for a year and a half and then trees were destr...

Cellulase has myriad applications in various sectors like pharmaceuticals, textile, detergents, animal feed and bioethanol production, etc. The current study focuses on the isolation, screening and optimization of fungal strain through one factor at a time technique for enhanced cellulase production. In current study sixteen different fungal cultur...

The development of vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 to counteract the COVID-19 disease is one of the hot areas of research of the present times. Though the current pandemic is attributed to a novel type of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, the scientific communities all around the globe are trying to use the findings of previous studies conducted on other coronav...

8. YEAR 2021: Qaiser H., Abdullah R., TEHREEMA IFTIKHAR, H. Majeed, Imran I. (2021) COVID-19 Pandemic and Vaccines. In: Zia-Ul-Haq M., Bin-Jumah M.N., Alothman S.I., Henidi H.A. (eds) [(ISBN 978-3-030-67988-0 ISBN , https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3- 030-67989-7)]. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67989-7_7 (Chapter DOI). Corresponding Author: TEHREEM...

The current study investigates the total bacterial contamination in various packed and unpacked ras malai samples of 14 different localities of Lahore, Pakistan. The bacterial colonies such as Bacillus sp. and Gamella sp. were isolated from ras malai samples and grown on agar-broth media under sterile environmental conditions. Serial dilution techn...

A consecutive optimization based on statistical approach was applied for a-glucosidase production by both wild and mutant T. dupontii. Plackett Burman design (PBD) with two levels was employed in order to screen the significant effect of different nutritional and physical parameters through submerged fermentation. Among all nine variables tested in...

β-glucosidase has wide spectrum of biotechnological applications in different industries including food, textile, laundry detergents, pulp and paper, pharmaceutical and biofuel industry. The present investigation related to isolation, screening, and process optimization of fungal strain for enhanced production of β-glucosidase (BGL). For this purpo...

Citric acid is an edible acid with the current global demand of 1.7x10 6 tons/annum. It is required to improve the industrial production of citric acid to satisfy the exponentially growing demands, using low-cost and renewable sources. Hydrol is a by-product of starch industry which contains approximately 70% fermentable sugars and can be exploited...

Mesophilic fungi have evolved inherently thermostable/thermophilic enzyme production potentials over the years. To explore this potential, fungal colonies were isolated from rotten food items and screened, based on their extracellular triglycerol acyl-hydrolase (lipase) potential over lipid-rich agro-wastes. Hyper-lipase producing fungus was identi...

Different fungal strains were isolated from the local soil, fruits and vegetables on the basis of pectin hydrolysis. All the isolated strains were identified through microscopic studies and screened for pectinase production using solid state fermentation. The fungal strain identified as Aspergillus Niger IBT-7 showed the highest pectinase productio...

The present study deals with the isolation screening and optimization of fungal strain for pectinase production. The fungal strains were isolated from different sources, including soil, fruits etc. Qualitative screening was performed on the basis of the pectin hydrolysis zone. While, quantitative screening was carried out employing submerged fermen...

Endoglucanase is one of the most important enzymes of the cellulase group. Endoglucanase are involved in the catalytic hydrolysis of cellulose and plays a pivotal role in different sectors like pharmaceutical, textile, detergent, and food processing as well as paper and pulp industry. With consumers getting more and more aware of environmental issu...

Isolation and screening of fungal hetero-culture for the production of xylanase were dealt with. The fungal strains were isolated from different soil samples and subjected to primary and secondary screening for xylanase production. The hetero-culture LCWU-31consists of Aspergillus Niger and Aspergillus flavus which showed highest xylanlolytic poten...

The exponential increase in the application of 1,4-α-D-glucan glucanohydrolase (GGH) in various fields has placed stress and demand in both qualitative improvement and quantitative enhancement through strain improvement. In the present work, Bacillus subtilis LCBT-15 and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LCBT-20 were subjected to physical as well as chemi...

Background: The present study was carried out to clear up the taxonomic position and delimitation of the taxa through palynological parameters. In the present study palynological investigation of some selected medicinal plants belonging to district Lahore was conducted. Materials and Methods: The distinguishing characteristics for the selected spec...

Memnoniella echinata (Rivolta) Galloway, Rotula graminis (Desm.) Crane, Chaetomium aureum Chivers, Phaeoisaria clematids (Fuckel) Hughes, reported for the first time on Bombax ceiba from Faisalabad, Pakistan.

The present investigation was conducted for extracellular lipases production. One hundred and forty samples of fungi were isolated from different environment and food samples. Among all the isolated cultures, an isolate obtained from chicken roasted in oil (MBL-1511) gave the highest extracellular lipase through SSF. Hyper producer strain (MBL-1511...

In present study an isolated hyper producer of Aspergillus niger (MBL-1511) was treated for sodium azide mutagenesis. Results showed 147.27 % enhanced extracellular lipase activity after 150 minutes of sodium azide treatment. Wild and mutant hyper lipase producer strains were exploited to submerged fermentation (SmF). Brassica meal as an additive a...

The present study deals with the enhanced production of alpha amylase by using synergistic phenomena of bacterial co-culture. The bacterial strains were isolated from different soil samples and compatibility of all the isolated strains was tested. The compatible strains were screened for alpha amylase production using solid state fermentation. The...

Triadelphia inquinans Shearer & Crane, Fusarium semitectum Berk. & Rav., Lasiodiplodia theobromae (Pat.) Griff. & Maubl and Torula herbarum f. quaternella Sacc. are reported first time on Bombax ceiba L. from Faisalabad, Pakistan.

The current research deals with isolation, screening and selection of fungal strains for 1,4-alpha-D-glucan glucohydrolase production. Forty strains were isolated and selected quantitatively on the basis of zone of starch hydrolysis and further screened quantitatively for 1,4-alpha-D-glucan glucohydrolase production in SSF. A strain of A.niger prod...

The present investigation describes the production of lipases (Triglycerol acyl-hydrolases; E.C. 3.1.1.3) by using nitrous acid, a mutagen affecting non-replicating DNA, to enhance the enzyme potential of the strain using submerged fermentation technique. A native fungal strain of Aspergillus niger (MBL-33) was subjected to mutagenic treatment @ th...

Dematophora necatrix Hartig, Stachybotrys atra Hansf, Alternaria chlamydospora Mouchaccak are reported for the first time on Bombax ceiba from Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Different lipid rich products were used to obtain oil degrading fungal isolates. The isolates were codified for referral to our culture bank and compared for their lipolytic potential. Amongst the isolates, MBL-1412 isolated from the cooked "sliced cicer arietinum" (Channa Daal) was found to be a potent hyper-producer and was optimized for lipase p...

The aim of the present project is to investigate the effect of salinity on growth, biochemical parameters and fatty acid composition in six varieties of safflower as well as identification of stress tolerant variety under saline (8 d Sm-1) condition. It was observed that salinity significantly decreased the dry weight and fresh weight of safflower...

The present study deals with the isolation, screening and selection of native fungal strain for the alpha amylase production. Forty fungal strains were isolated from different soil samples. These strains were initially screened qualitatively on starch agar medium and quantitative screening was carried out in solid state fermentation. A strain of As...

The genetic potential of different plant species to different environmental conditions differ in relation to different physiological, biochemical and anatomical characteristics. Of these varying attributes leaf anatomical characteristics play most important role for the establishment of that cultivar in varied environmental conditions. So, the pres...

In the present studies, a number of putrefying food items were used in order to isolate various fungi inhabiting cooked masala rice. Isolates were further screened for production of lipase and a hyper producer was identified and codified as Aspergillus nidulans MBL-S-6. The isolate was subjected to submerged fermentation using different cultural co...

Amylases are starch-digesting enzymes that are naturally present in seeds, fruits, tubers, roots, stem and pith of all plants. The present study is focused on the comparative studies on the α-amylase from apple and orange seeds to seek the better source. The enzyme extract was subjected to 40-60% salt precipitation. Further purification was carried...