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Medicinal plants could be a good source of medication to combat antibiotic resistance. Dombeya wallichii, which is commonly called Pink Ball Tree in the family Sterculiaceae, has been documented to have medicinal potential. We observed the highest antibacterial activity in the stem extracts, followed by leaf and bark extracts. The extracts were more effective against tested Gram-positive bacteria when compared with Gram-negative strains.

Here, recognizing the recognizing the growing threat of non-biodegradable plastic waste, the authors investigated the ability to use a modified enzyme identified in bacteria to decompose polyethylene terephthalate (PET). They used simulations to screen and identify an optimized enzyme based on machine learning models. Ultimately, they identified a potential mutant PETases capable of decomposing PET with improved thermal stability.

Here, recognizing the widespread use of hand sanitizers, the authors investigated their effectiveness in relation to storage temperature. They applied hand sanitizer before and after touching a cell phone and used LB-agar plates to monitor the growth of bacteria following this process. They found that 70% ethyl-alcohol-based sanitizers are least effective at temperatures above 107.27 °F and most effective at 96.17 °F.

Seeking an approach to address the increasing levels of methane and chlorinated hydrocarbons that threaten the environment, the authors worked to develop a novel, low-cost biotrickling filter for use as an ex situ method tailored to marine environments. By using methanotrophic bacteria in the filter, they observed methane degradation, suggesting the feasibility of chlorinated hydrocarbon degradation.

Triggered largely by the warming and pollution of oceans, corals are experiencing bleaching and a variety of diseases caused by the spread of bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Identification of bleached/diseased corals enables implementation of measures to halt or retard disease. Benthic cover analysis, a standard metric used in large databases to assess live coral cover, as a standalone measure of reef health is insufficient for identification of coral bleaching/disease. Proposed herein is a solution that couples machine learning with crowd-sourced data – images from government archives, citizen science projects, and personal images collected by tourists – to build a model capable of identifying healthy, bleached, and/or diseased coral.

Systematic consumption of traditional foods is a popular way of treating diseases in India. Rasam, a soup of spices and tomato with a tamarind base, is a home remedy for viral infections such as the common cold. Here, we investigate if rasam, prepared under household conditions, exhibits antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, two common pathogenic bacteria. Our results show rasam prepared under household conditions lacks antibacterial activity despite its ingredients possessing such properties.

The authors looked at phytoremediation, the process by which plants are used to remove pollutants from our environment, and the ability of Lemna minor to perform phytoremediation in various simulated polluted environments. The authors found that L. minor could remove pollutants from the environment and that the addition of bacteria increased this removal.

Anti-diabetic drugs like Metformin are known to increase gut permeability, and this has a negative impact on patient health. These authors hypothesized that this can be mitigated using purple sweet potato extract, which is high anthocyanin content, that feeds bacteria metabolism to decrease gut permeability.

Infections caused by antibiotic resistance are a leading issue faced by the medical field. The authors studied the antibacterial effectiveness of turmeric against gram-positive Staphylococcus epidermidis using antibiotic sensitivity disks. They infused blank antibiotic sensitivity disks with a 5% concentrated solution of turmeric and placed them on agar plates inoculated with bacteria. Overall, there was no measurable ZOI surrounding the turmeric disk so the measurements for all trials were 0 cm, suggesting that turmeric at a 5% concentration is not an effective antibacterial against S. epidermidis.

In this study, the authors investigate whether Moringa Oleifera seeds can serve as material to aid in purifying water. M. oleifera seeds have coagulating properties and the authors hypothesized that including it in a water filtration system would reduce particles, specifically bacteria, in water. Their results show that this system removed the largest percent of bacteria. When used in combination with cilantro, it was actually more efficient than the other techniques! These findings have important implications for creating better and more economical water purification systems.