Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd) and chia (Salvia hispanica) are essential traditional crops with excellent nutritional properties. Quinoa is known for its high and good quality protein content and nine essential amino acids vital for an individual’s development and growth, whereas chia seeds contain high dietary fiber content, calories, lipids, minerals (calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc), and vitamins (A and B complex). Chia seeds are also known for their presence of a high amount of omega-3 fatty acids. Both quinoa and chia seeds are gluten-free and provide medicinal properties due to bioactive compounds, which help combat various chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and metabolic diseases such as cancer. Quinoa seeds possess phenolic compounds, particularly kaempferol, which can help prevent cancer. Many food products can be developed by fortifying quinoa and chia seeds in different concentrations to enhance their nutritional profile, such as extruded snacks, meat products, etc. Furthermore, it highlights the value-added products that can be developed by including quinoa and chia seeds, alone and in combination. This review focused on the recent development in quinoa and chia seeds nutritional, bioactive properties, and processing for potential human health and therapeutic applications.

It is a well-known fact that Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have the potential to replace petrochemical based plastics. The purpose of our study is to devise a method to reduce substrate cost and produce PHA from our own microbial isolates selected after isolation from polluted environments. A comparative study was done with the reference bacterium Cupriavidus necator. Fourteen bacterial strains were isolated from Polluted Landfills and Effluent Treatment Plant. Four bacterial isolates having the ability to produce PHA were selected. Orange peel and Onion peel were substituted for carbon source in the medium and all the bacterial isolates along with the reference strain were studied for the maximum ability to produce PHA from these wastes respectively. The reference strain Cupriavidus necator yielded 82% PHA in 1:1 C:N ratio utilizing onion peel and 64% in 4:1 C:N ratio utilizing orange peel at 96h of incubation respectively. The best results obtained on onion peels as carbon source were by the isolate Bacillus subtilis JCM 1465 with 89% in 3:1 at 48h of incubation. Maximum PHA production obtained by bacterial isolate Bacillus siamensis PD- A10 using orange peel as carbon source was upto 82% in 1:1 at 24h of incubation.

Urban freshwater ecosystems are increasingly recognized as reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), yet baseline data from Indian lake systems remain limited. This study assessed the distribution of phenotypic antibiotic resistance among culturable bacterial isolates in two urban lakes in Vadodara—Danteshwar and Gotri—using a culture-based approach. A total of 53 isolates were recovered and tested against Streptomycin, Azithromycin, Ciprofloxacin, and Meropenem using the Kirby–Bauer disc diffusion method. Resistance was most frequent to Streptomycin (24.5%) and Azithromycin (22.6%), moderate to Ciprofloxacin (13.2%), and rare to Meropenem (1.9%). One multidrug-resistant isolate was identified as Pseudomonas straminea using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The Antibiotic Resistance Index (ARI) values were 0.167 for Danteshwar and 0.148 for Gotri, providing baseline information on resistance occurrence within the cultured bacterial communities. Although pollutant-specific parameters were not measured, the detection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in freshwater lakes suggests environmental influences associated with wastewater exposure or urban runoff may influence resistance persistence in natural systems. These findings underscore the need to include freshwater bodies in environmental AMR surveillance frameworks. Future studies employing metagenomics, expanded antibiotic panels, pollutant quantification, and seasonal sampling are recommended to better resolve the ecological and anthropogenic drivers of AMR in freshwater ecosystems.