The low bulk density of wood wastes causes handling, storage, and transportation issues, limiting its large-scale application. Pelletization can solve this inherent problem by converting biomass into dense and compact pellets with regular shape and size. To evaluate the effect of particle size and binding agents on pellets of carbonized Pinus patula sawdust, the particle size of 0.6 mm, 1.18 mm and 2.3 mm and binding agents of cow dung, molasses and wastepaper were used. The experimental results indicated that the addition of cow dung and molasses into the carbonized sawdust resulted in increase of calorific value, decrease of ash content and increase of fixed carbon. As a result, the maximum calorific value of 28.47 MJ/kg, ash content of 2.93%, and fixed carbon of 59.32% were obtained by using molasses.The calorific value of 25.8 MJ/kg, ash content of 6.03% and fixed carbon of 52.77% were obtained by using cow dung. Whereas, addition of wastepaper into carbonized sawdust resulted in lower calorific value of 22.3 MJ/kg, highest ash value of 8.35% and low fixed carbon of 43.2%. Therefore, the use of cow dung and molasses as a binder can be considered as a sustainable approach to improve the physicochemical properties of biomass pellets.

Background: Over the years, management of human pathogenic microorganisms has primarily relied on the use of synthetic antibiotics. In the recent past, Tagetes patula essential oils (EOs) and their phytochemistry and bioactivities have received great attention in research. Purpose and Methods: In this study, the component, antimicrobial activity, and antioxidant capacity (ferric-reducing antioxidant power assay) of EOs from five plant parts (shoot at vegetative growth stage [TPSV], shoot at flowering growth stage [TPSF], flower [TPF], fruit [TPS], and root [TPR]) of T. patula were investigated. The antibacterial activity against five gram-negative bacterial isolates (including Serratia fonticola, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Proteus mirabilis, and Escherichia coli) and five gram-positive bacterial isolates (including Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, S. saprophyticus, Streptococcus agalactiae, and Streptococcus oralis) was studied using broth microdilution method. FRAP assay was also used to evaluate their antioxidant activity. Results: One hundred and twenty-five compounds of the total EOs were identified, constituting a mixture of oxygenated monoterpenes (33%), monoterpene hydrocarbons (25%), oxygenated sesquiterpenes (19%), sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (12%), and furanocoumarins (8%). In this paper, for the first time, more than 60 new compounds were isolated from T. patula such as bergapten, sylvestrene, (E)-β-farnesene, (E)-epoxy-ocimene, (Z)-jasmone, γ-gurjunene, and γ-himachalene. The EOs of T. patula showed potent antibacterial activity against the studied bacteria with the highest growth inhibition observed in E. coli after 24 h of incubation (MIC value 0. 08 and MBC value 0. 32 µ L/mL). The TPS-EO had the highest mean value for ferric-reducing ability at the three test times, whereas TPR-EO had no activity. Conclusion: It was concluded that the potential biocidal activity of T. patula EOs could be substantially associated with their oxygenated constituents or the synergistic activity of their major and minor chemical components.

Background: Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) causing numerous diseases in humans, have become resistant to antibiotics, hence, urging the need for alternative medicines. Methods: In this study, the Indian medicinal weed, Ruellia patula (R. patula) extracted and fractioned through column chromatography was subjected to antibacterial and anti-quorum sensing activity against S. aureus and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Results: The obtained results confirmed fraction F44 to have significant effect as antimicrobial and anti-biofilm agent against both the micro-organism. Therefore, few of such highly active fractions were chemical finger printed using GC-MS and the compounds identified were further docked with DNA binding (LytTR) domain of agrA, which revealed that compounds identified from fraction were interactive to the protein. Conclusion: R. patula is promising antimicrobial and anti-biofilm agent against S. aureus and MRSA.