Antimicrobial and plant growth-promoting activities of bacterial endophytes isolated from Calotropis procera(Ait.)W.T.Aiton

Bacterial endophytes are beneficial to their hosts as they can fix nitrogen in the soil and make it available to the host.Endophytic bacteria also secrete plant growth-promoting hormones to support their host plants under normal as well as stress conditions.The current study aimed to isolate endophytic bacteria from different parts of Calotropis procera,i.e.,roots,stem and leaves of Calotropis procera(Ait.)W.T.Aiton.Plants were collected from the Lundkhwar,district Mardan.A total of 12 bacterial strains,i.e.,six from roots,three from the stem and three from the leaves were isolated.The strains were screened for their growth-promoting activity in rice plants because rice shows a quick and easy response to the bioactive compounds present in the culture filtrate(CF)of the potent endophytic strains.The rice plants were cultivated in pots containing 30 mL of 0.8%w/v water-agar medium.The pots were placed in a growth chamber,operated at 28±0.3℃ for 14 h(day);and 25±0.3℃ for 10 h(night),at 70%relative-humidity.Among the isolated strains,R1,S1,S3,L1,R5 and R6 showed visible growth promotion in rice plants.The biochemical analysis revealed that the strains were able to produce indole acetic acid(IAA)and flavonoids in higher quantities.Moreover,the strains also produced bioactive compounds that inhibited the growth of Escherichia coli and Aspergillus flavus using the well diffusion method.From the results,it was concluded that these strains can secrete potent compounds that can promote the host plant growth and inhibit the growth of pathogenic microorganisms and,therefore,can be used as bio-fertilizer and bio-control agents.

Studies on the Traditional Uses of Some Medicinal Shrubs of Swat Kohistan,Pakistan

This paper is based on an ethnobotanical project carried out in the remote Hindukush mountain region of Swat Kohistan.Most of the local people still rely on medicinal plants for curing different diseases.However,the traditional use and pertinent knowledge of medicinal plants are on decline with the introduction of allopathic drugs in the study area.During present study,an effort was made to document the traditional knowledge of some important medicinal shrubs of Swat Kohistan.The traditional uses of 18 frequently used shrubs belonging to 12 different families were thus documented.The Kohistani people use these medicinal shrubs for curing multiple ailments and some of these are also exported to other parts of Pakistan.