S.K. Jadhav’s research while affiliated with Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University and other places

Calocybe indica or milky white mushroom, it’s an indigenous edible mushroom originates from India and apart from India, it is also gaining considerable importance in other tropical countries like Bangladesh, Malaysia, China and Singapore. It has an attractive fruiting body, pleasant white color, highly nutritious, long shelf life, require less time to grow, its cultivation process is easy and economical. C. indica is rich in metabolites including protein, lipid, carbohydrate, and dietary fibers. C. indica is a micro-fungus, they accumulate nutrients as well as minerals from the substrate in which they grow. Because of these feature, C. indica can be a good candidate for making and use it as an enriched food source. Enrichment of C. indica is the new way for mushroom quality improvement. By using a different type of renewable and cheaper supplementation substrates, we can minimize the overall production cause and makes a better quality of C. indica for consumption, as well as nutraceutical development etc. Enriched mushroom cultivation and production can helpful for sustainable development.

India is rich in medicinal plant diversity, which is distributed in different geographical, environmental conditions and associated tribal and folk knowledge systems. The field study was carried out during November 18, 2015 to December 02, 2015 on the Campus of Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur (Chhattisgarh.). A total 78 plant species belongs to 72 genera and 35 families were collected from the study area. All the plant species were identified and their ethnobotanical information was elucidated. Out of 35 families, 02 were monocotyledons (Poaceae and Liliaceae) and the remaining belongs to dicotyledons.

Infectious diseases produced by bacteria are an urgent healthcare concern worldwide. Several infections in humans are caused by bacterial agents such as Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, and Staphylococcus aureus. The current development of resistance to antibiotics and accompanying toxicity issues is causing a rise in studies into the antibacterial role of plants against resistant strains due to relative effectiveness and safety. The current work was done to check the antibacterial activity of Azadirachta indica leaves (Neem) along with the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Methanol and Acetone extracts of Neem leaves were tested against Klebsiella oxytoca and Staphylococcus aureus, both of which are resistant to antibiotics. Silver nanoparticle synthesized in methanol was very effective against Klebsiella oxytoca (13.5mm).

α-Amylase is the most significant glycoside hydrolase having applications in various industries. It cleaves the α,1–4 glucosidic linkages of polysaccharides like starch, glycogen to yield a small polymer of glucose in α-anomeric configuration. α-Amylase is produced by all the three domains of life but microorganisms are preferred sources for industrial-scale production due to several advantages. Enormous studies and research have been done in this field in the past few decades. Still, it is requisite to work on enzyme stability and catalysis, as it loses its functionality in extreme. As the enzyme loses its structural and catalytic property under extreme environmental conditions, it is mandatory to confer some potential strategies for enhancing enzyme behaviour in such conditions. This limitation of an enzyme can be overcome up to some extent by extremophiles. They serve as an excellent source of α-amylase with outstanding features. This review is an attempt to encapsulate some structure-based strategies for improving enzyme behaviour thereby enabling researchers to selectively amend any of the strategies as per requirement during upstream and downstream processing for higher enzyme yield and stability. Thus, it will provide some cutting-edge strategies for tailoring α-amylase producing organism and enzyme with the help of several computational biology tools.

A Study of Aeromycoflora of phytopathogenic fungal spores at the periphery of Raipur city was conducted for one year during March 2018 to February 2019. The aeromycoflora was isolated by using gravity petriplates method. The atmosphere was rich in propagule of different fungal species. Fungal spores are widely distributed over the area, which constitute the major bioparticle component of the air. The qualitative and quantitative assessment of pathogenic fungal spores would be useful for diseases forecasting system. Survey was carried out in six outdoor sites situated at rural and semi urban areas at the periphery of Raipur city. A total of 48 species belonging to 20 fungal genera in addition to two sterile types were isolated and identified on the basis of colony morphology, mycelia and spore structure. Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus niger, Acremo-nium strictum, Cladosporium cladoporioides, Curvularia lunata, C. oryzae, Fusarium oxysporum and Penicillium species were found in all the sites throughout the year which were known to be the major airborne fungi causing various diseases in plants (crop and vegetables) like Fusarium wilt, collar rot, Alternaria blight, Colletotrichum blight, downy mildew, powdery mildew, Phoma blight, sheath and collar rot in winter season and blast and brown spot in the rainy season. Major fungal diseases harm the crops and vegetables, which also affect the production of crops (5%-8%) and vegetables (7% to 10%) in the study area.

Plants have a well-developed defense response system to deal with different biotic and abiotic stresses. Inducible defense system is triggered by the effector molecules produced by pathogens resulting in the synthesis and accumulation of a special group of proteins known as pathogenesis-related proteins. The response is generally mediated by two signaling pathways, salicylic acid and jasmonic acid. Initially there were five families of PR proteins reported in the tobacco plant, but to date there are 17–19 classes reported to have a varied role and mechanism of action as antibacterial, antifungal, membrane permeabilizing, proteinase, peroxidase, ribonuclease, and lysozyme activities. PR genes have come up as suitable candidates for the production of stress-resistant transgenic plants.

The world is gaining a lot of interest in the production of bioethanol from various biobased, agricultural waste sources in order to reduce net carbon dioxide emissions and lower the global dependence on fossil fuels. Lignocellulosic materials were a good choice as a feedstock for ethanol production considering their incredible accessibility and their ethanol yields. Rice straw is one of the major agro-waste which is produced during rice processing. This demonstrates the potential of using such waste materials for further processing, particularly in the production of bioethanol. The goal of this research is to make bioethanol from rice straw. For fermentation, rice straw hydrolysate was produced and inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After fermentation, the fermented samples were qualitatively checked for the confirmation of bioethanol production and quantitatively estimated by the specific gravity method. Effects of various parameters like temperature, incubation period, and inoculum were also optimized to enhance bioethanol production. The highest bioethanol was obtained when 1% inoculum size was taken at 30℃ for 72 h.

Due to increasing pollution, the availability of safe, clean and hygienic drinking water has become very difficult in the recent era. This study was conducted to evaluate the oligodynamic potential of various metals such as copper, bell, silver, aluminium, and brass as well as soil pot against the bacterial colonies in drinking water. The research focuses on the impact of different kinds of metals on bacterial growth in drinking water. The method of research includes the study of the growth and number of bacterial colonies present in drinking water and how much the metals inhibit the growth of bacteria at different time intervals. This study concludes that the copper, bell metal, silver and soil pot efficiently control the growth of bacteria and out of them, copper was found to be most effective in inhibiting bacterial growth. This study helps to provide an easy and cheap method for the purification of drinking water in rural and backward areas.

Increased urbanization and industrialization in recent time has made a significant impact on air quality of the area. The atmosphere is rich in propagule of different fungal species. The investigation on airborne Aspergillus contribution was conducted in Periphery of Raipur city from February, 2018 to March, 2019 with the help of gravity petriplate containing PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar) medium. In this study, total 11 species of Aspergillus were recorded. The percentage frequency and percentage contribution of different Aspergillus species were different in different seasons. Aspergillus niger was most frequent throughout the year followed by Aspergillus fumigatus, A. flavus, and A. nidulans etc. While Aspergillus clavatus, and A. versicolor, A. aculeatus were the least frequent species. The result indicated the highest percentage contribution of Aspergillus niger (43.29 percent) followed by A. fumigatus (9.02percent), A. flavus (8.42 percent) while A. clavatus (0.21 percent). The objective of the studies was to determine a seasonal variation in concentrations of Aspergillus on the basis of meteorological parameters.