Database on medicinal plants

by Hansraj Agrawal | Dec 25, 2022 | Science

A group of scientists from the North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Assam, have created a database of 6,959 medicinal plants found across India.

The database sources information under four sections — traditional knowledge, geographical indications, phytochemicals, and chemoinformatics. The traditional knowledge section contains the plant taxonomy, including its vernacular names. A total of 27,440 unique phytochemicals associated with these plants were curated.

However, due to non-availability of general information like IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) names and InChI (International Chemical Identifier) key, only 22,314 phytochemicals have been reported in the database, say Kikrusenuo Kiewhuo, et al, in a paper published in the Computational Biology and Chemistry magazine.

The antiviral potency of the phytochemicals was predicted using two machine learning models — Random Forest and XGBoost. The database can be accessed at https://neist.res.in/osadhi/.

Drone cleans solar panels

The next time you visit a solar farm, don’t be surprised to see a drone cleaning the panels. Garuda Aerospace’s Surya automated drone cleans solar panels using only 100 ml of water, as compared to traditional manual methods that require 4 litres or more.

The Surya drone can fly at 10 metres per second and is powered by a 16,000 mah battery. The brush and wiper fixed to the drone are 1 metre wide each. The 6-bar external pressure pump has a flat fan nozzle. The control distance is 1,000 metres. The operations require less equipment maintenance downtime as zero set-ups are required and this, in turn, lowers maintenance labour and insurance costs.

Garuda is working on drones of multiple sizes, including some very large ones, to suit different requirements in the domestic and international markets.

Garuda Aerospace says it provides 99.5 per cent richness and accuracy in data collection on the asset’s condition, easier data structuring and information sharing, and maintenance inspection tasks including visual, thermal, and UT.

Steel roof-turned-solar cell

An organic solar cell made up of an organic polymer and a PCBM (organic semiconductor) developed on steel substrates can potentially convert a steel roof into an energy-producing device. The potential of third-generation solar cell technologies lies in their integration with flexible and conformal surfaces. However, this requires developing new transparent conducting top electrodes as alternatives to indium tin oxide, the optoelectronic material currently in use that has limitations due to its brittleness and whose optoelectronic efficiency varies with temperature.

Researchers at IIT-Kanpur have developed organic solar cell devices consisting of a blend of organic polymer PTB7 as a donor and PCBM as a receiver. The devices were fabricated on opaque steel substrates with a molybdenum trioxide-gold-molybdenum trioxide top electrode. The research at the laboratory of Prof Ashish Garg in IIT-Kanpur demonstrated the integration of the multilayered electrodes with the organic solar cells. It was published in the journal Energy Technology.

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Red seaweed promises a green alternative to plastic

by Hansraj Agrawal | Dec 25, 2022 | Science

Can the red seaweed growing off the coast of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat be a biodegradable alternative to plastic? While synthetic polymers cannot be completely replaced in the foreseeable future, research at the Marine Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai, holds out hope that biopolymers from red seaweed ( Kappaphycus alvarezii) incorporated with nanoparticles could substitute plastic in certain applications.

These include bioplastic films for packaging, biomedical scaffolds/grafts, 3D printing ink, controlled drug delivery, biosensor, and microbial fuel cell for electric vehicles.

Biopolymers are derived from any plant-based biomass that is renewable, biodegradable, and eco-friendly. Polysaccharide extracts from seaweed — carrageenan biopolymers — are already in use by the food industry. But such extraction uses solvents and chemicals, which also generates waste.

Explains Dr MP Sudhakar, Project Scientist at NIOT: “One advantage in our study is that the use of the whole biomass does not generate waste during material fabrication, but commercial carrageenan needs to be extracted using different solvents and chemicals.”

In the NIOT study, the whole seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii (containing carrageenan) was used in preparing the bio-nanocomposite film by blending with metal oxide nanoparticles such as zinc oxide, cupric oxide and silicon dioxide. Then its properties were compared with standard refined commercial-grade carrageenan.

The results were promising, as detailed in a paper published in the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. The nanoparticles improved the properties of films made from commercial carrageenan as well as whole seaweed. The Kappaphycus-based bio-nanocomposite films performed on par with commercial carrageenan-based bio-nanocomposite films on parameters such as wettability, water vapour properties, thermal stability, anti-bacterial activity, and degradation. Overall, the study concluded that whole seaweed can be used directly for multiple industrial applications without need for solvents and chemicals at the extraction stage.

Notes Sudhakar: “The carrageenan obtained from red seaweed was found suitable for different applications such as packaging, biomedical applications… We incorporated nanoparticles and plasticiser to enhance physical and mechanical properties for specific applications. The bioplastic film degrades within two weeks.”

But how did the researchers zero in on red seaweed? According to Sudhakar, it is easy to extract biopolymer from seaweeds and in higher quantities, too. Also, seaweeds are renewable biomass, cultivable using seawater on shore and offshore. The samples for the study were obtained from the Gulf of Mannar coast in Tamil Nadu.

Following the publication of the study, a few start-ups have approached NIOT for technical help. The three other scientists who contributed to the research were Dr S Venkatnarayanan, Dr NV Vinithkumar, and Dr G Dharani.

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Midas in a lab coat

by Hansraj Agrawal | Dec 25, 2022 | Science

Alchemists of yore laboured in vain to find a way of converting “inferior” metals such as iron and copper into gold. They did not know that each element is distinguished from the others by the number of protons their nuclei hold. Each element has a fixed number of protons. So, if you want to turn one element into another, you have to add or subtract protons. For example, to turn iron into gold, you’d have to inject 53 protons into every nucleus of iron — not an easy task.

So, you can imagine how wide-eyed a group of scientists at IIT-Kanpur were when, during a research on transmutation of elements using electrolysis (with a graphite anode and nickel cathode), they found that some of body of the cathode had transmuted into copper. Guess what the tip of the cathode had become? Gold!

When Shyam Sunder Lakesar presented this finding at an international conference in July, he and his professor, Raj Ganesh Pala of IIT-Kanpur, were understandably mobbed.

Apparently, the quantity was a wee bit better than what a 1980 experiment at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab in California had yielded, yet miles from being economically viable. Still, it was a foot forward for scientific research and, after all, gold is gold.

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Deciphering drug dosages

by Hansraj Agrawal | Dec 25, 2022 | Science

Doctors prescribe medicines, we take them. Neither the doctor nor the patient knows exactly how much of the drug is needed to cure the ailment, as this would differ from case to case. Today, to be on the safe side, doctors tend to slightly overdose the drug — because anything less than required cannot do the job well. But the excess drug, if any, mixes with the bloodstream and remains floating in the body, producing side-effects.

This problem will go away if the doctor can determine exactly how much drug is needed for each patient.

A group of researchers led by Dr Chandramouli Subramaniam, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, IIT-Bombay, have devised a mobile app-based method to detect excess drugs in the bloodstream. It involves placing a blood sample on a film developed by the team and scanning it using the app, which then flashes a number.

How does this work?

Chemicals called fluorophores have molecules that absorb light and emit it at a higher wavelength. In higher concentrations they are bright and easy to detect. But low concentrations are difficult to detect.

Dr Subramaniam developed a coating by mixing carbon nanoparticles with a fluorophore. The carbon nano florets enhance the fluorophore’s emissions 1,000-fold. However, in the presence of a drug molecule, the intensity of the emissions falls. By comparing the intensities of the fluorophores in the vicinity of the drug molecules (3-5 nano-metres distance), you can tell how much residual drug molecule is floating in the bloodstream. Even a single molecule can be detected. The emissions can be detected using mobile apps such as Color Grab.

While Subramaniam’s team tested for perindopril erbumine, a drug used to treat blood pressure and prevent heart attack, the approach will work for any drug by using an appropriate fluorophore.

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Glimpses of Harappan superskills

by Hansraj Agrawal | Dec 11, 2022 | Science

Scientists milk tons of information from things that convey no sense to the rest of us. For example, a ray of light from a distant star is enough to tell them how far the star is, how fast it is moving away from us, what the star is made of, when the star was born, and when it will die.

You and I may kick aside a ‘useless’ piece of broken pottery, but to scientists it is a library of information.

Recently, a group of scientists from IIT-Bombay nosed around in Kunal, Haryana, where the Harappans lived 5,800 years ago, and picked up what they were looking for — shards of pottery. And now they tell us that to make the pottery, the Harappans could raise temperatures between 800 degrees Celsius and 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Leave aside the wonder of how the ancient Harappans achieved such high temperatures — the more intriguing question is, how could the scientists tell so much from just the shards.

Well, the colour of pottery is dependent on temperature. The colour changes from orange to light red at 700-800 degrees C, and dark red at 900 degrees C. The higher the temperature, the more advanced the firing technique.

Using hi-tech instruments such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction, the scientists were able to peer deep into the shards and find out all the elements present in them. They also deduced that the Harappans made pottery both by wheel and by hand. They concluded that the Harappans were highly skilled potters.

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Why plastic ban is no silver bullet

by Hansraj Agrawal | Dec 11, 2022 | Science

The ban on plastics that are used once and discarded is generally thought of as a good thing, but there is another side to it, points out a scientific paper published in Environmental Science & Policy.

Authored by three researchers of the Norwegian Institute of Water Research, Oslo, and two from Mu Gamma Consultants based in Gurugram, the paper notes that a corollary of the single-use plastic ban is the use of biodegradable alternatives, not all of which are fully biodegradable in all environments.

At the outset, the authors say they took up India’s ban for study, owing to the country’s size and complexity.

They note that, internationally, compostable plastics typically refer to any plastic that can degrade under composting conditions, often through hydrolysis, thermal degradation, and photodegradation. “However, this does not mean that compostable plastic products will break down completely (with no residues <2mm), degrade in all composting environments (like home compost), or that this process will be without undesirable impacts (microplastic particles and toxic additive releases),” the paper notes.

Moreover, it must be recognised that biodegradable plastic waste may be transported from an environment certified for biodegradability (for example, soil) to another environment where it is not (such as waterbodies). Thus, the potential rate of compostability and biodegradation in Indian soil contexts should be considered when looking at alternatives.

In the Indian context, studies have pointed out that kulhad (earthen) cups and virgin cotton bags having a higher environmental footprint than the single-use plastic they are replacing.

In June 2018, India announced its commitment to eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022 and called for a global phase-out by 2025. The government notified two amendments to the Plastic Waste Management Rules. Single-use plastic made from compostable plastics are exempt from the ban, but manufacturers must first register with the pollution control boards.

It is also proposed that any post-amendment notification prohibiting manufacture, sale and use of single-use plastic will face a 10-year delay to come into force. The authors warn of “severe long-term implications” from this.

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