Vishnupriya

Malnutrition is defined to be the condition resulting from relative or absolute deficiency of one or more essential nutrients. The school age period is nutritionally the prime time to build up the body stores of nutrients in preparation for rapid growth in adolescents. The nutritional state is therefore critical to the development and wellbeing of the nation. The physical growth of the child is thus reflected by different Anthropometric measurements especially height and weight. This study was done to evaluate the level of malnutrition in government (govt.) higher primary school in Bengaluru. Cross sectional descriptive survey was done using a structured questionnaire, the dependent variables for this study were the anthropometric measurable like height for age and independent variables for the study were occupation of parents, family income, maternal education, gender and type of residence (kacha or pucca). A total of 404 children were included from the govt. primary school in the study. It was seen that maximum children belongs to the 13+ age group most of them being boys. Their family monthly income being in the range of Rs.5000 to 6000. Most of their family members are daily laborer’s and housewives by profession. Therefore it can be concluded that the Mother’s Education is directly proportional to the child health. Hence development in fields on family employment, mother’s education will result in improved child health.

A total of fifty six actinomycete isolates were isolated from the ten marine sediments of south India. Marine environment is a potential source of novel actinomycetes, which are a potent source of antibiotics and novel bioactive compounds. The isolates were identified as actinomycetes by morphological, biochemical and microscopic studies. The isolated actinomycetes were screened for L-asparaginase activity by rapid plate assay method. Based on screening, isolate 1, 2 and 18 were showed large clear pink zone and its diameter (dm) was measured as 9.0, 8.5 and 8.5 cm and the enzyme production has been determined by nesslerization method. The spectrophotometric assay of enzyme activity of the isolates 1, 2 and 18 were found to be 1.92, 1.48 and 1.46 U/ml.

Marine Streptomyces sp.T1027 obtained from South coast of India was discovered to produce and accumulate β-carotene under the influence of light in liquid shake flask culture. The accumulation of β-carotene was growth associated and controlled by light, aeration, carbon and substrate solubility. Starch was the ideal substrate for maximum growth (4.5-6.1 g l-1) and β-carotene accumulation (92-130 μg g-1). Rapid extraction was done in Dimethylsulphoxide, Methanol (1:1) Solvent mixture. The organism was sensitive to a variety of antibiotics; in turn it was able to inhibit the human pathogen Corynebacterium diphtheria. Commercial substrates with high soluble starch content were found to produce maximum biomass and β-carotene production.