The need for pulp and paper has risen significantly due to exponential population growth, industrialization, and urbanization. Most paper manufacturing industries use wood fibers to meet pulp and paper requirements. The shortage of fibrous wood resources and increased deforestation are linked to the excessive dependence on wood for pulp and paper production. Therefore, non-wood substitutes, including corn stalks, sugarcane bagasse, wheat, and rice straw, cotton stalks, and others, may greatly alleviate the shortage of raw materials used to make pulp and paper. Non-woody raw materials can be pulped easily using soda/soda-AQ (anthraquinone), organosolv, and bio-pulping. The use of agricultural residues can also play a pivotal role in the development of polymeric membranes separating different molecular weight cut-off molecules from a variety of feedstocks in industries. These membranes range in applications from water purification to medicinal uses. Considering that some farmers still burn agricultural residues on the fields, resulting in significant air pollution and health issues, the use of agricultural residues in paper manufacturing can eventually help these producers to get better financial outcomes from the grown crop. This paper reviews the current trends in the technological pitch of pulp and paper production from agricultural residues using different pulping methods, with an insight into the application of membranes developed from lignocellulosic materials.

Nanotechnology is evolving as a significant discipline of research with various applications. It includes the materials and their applications having one dimension in the range of 1–100 nm. Many chemical and physical protocol have been utilized for the nanoparticles (NPs) fabrication. These protocols are costly, hazardous and consumes high energy. Thus, researchers are inclined towards biological synthesis of NPs using plant and or herbal extract as these methods are simple, sustainable, ecofriendly and cost-effective. Flower is an important part of plants, and contained several phytochemicals such as flavonoids, terpenoids, coumarins, sterol and xanthones which acts as an important precursor for NPs synthesis. These compounds acted as reducing as well as stablishing agent during fabrication processes. They have been thoroughly characterized by various techniques. The fabricated NPs have shown potential antimicrobial activity against bacterial and fungal infections. They have been also used as potential therapeutic agent for human breast cancer, gastric adenocarcinoma cell, colorectal adenocarcinoma cell and pancreas ductal adenocarcinoma cells. Overall, the aim of this review article to facilitates the recent understanding of flower-mediated NPs fabrication (a sustainable and ecofriendly resource), their application in different disciplines and challenges.

Background. Nowadays, the immunomodulatory properties of plants have been studied extensively with greater interest due to increasing awareness and combating the severity of immunomodulatory diseases. Scope and Approach. This paper highlights the efficacy of the available literature evidence on natural immunomodulators of plant origin and synthetic ones. In addition, several aspects of plants and their phytoconstituents responsible for immunomodulation have been discussed. Moreover, this review also discusses the mechanism involved in immunomodulation. Key Findings. One hundred fifty medicinal immunomodulatory plants are currently identified to find novel immunomodulatory drugs. Of these plants, the plant family Asteraceae also takes the first rank by offering 18 plant species (12%). Similarly of the plants studied so far, 40% belong to the Asteraceae family. Echinacea purpurea of this family is most known for its immunostimulating activity. The most prominent immune‐active bioactive molecules are polyphenols, terpenoids, and alkaloids. Also, eight plant bioactive immunomodulators were checked for clinical trials and found in the market. These are six immunosuppressants, resveratrol, epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate, quercetin, colchicine, capsaicin, and andrographolide, and two immunostimulants, curcumin and genistein. Nowadays, there are a lot of polyherbal traditional medicinal products sold in the market and claimed to their immunomodulators. However, much work is still needed to find more active immunomodulatory agents. The mechanism by which immunomodulatory medicinal plant exert their effect is through the induction of cytokines and phagocyte cells and the inhibition of iNOS, PGE, and COX‐2 synthesis.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the worlds leading killers, accounting for 30 deaths. According to the WHO report, CVDs kill 17.9 million people per year, and there will be 22.2 million deaths from CVD in 2030. The death rates rise as people get older. Regarding gender, the death rate of women by CVD (51) is higher than that of men (42). To decrease and prevent CVD, most people rely on traditional medicine originating from the plant (phytochemicals) in addition to or in preference to commercially available drugs to recover from their illness. The CVD therapy efficacy of 92 plants, including 15 terrestrial plants, is examined. Some medicinal plants well known to treat CVD are, Daucus carota, Nerium oleander, Amaranthus Viridis, Ginkgo biloba, Terminalia arjuna, Picrorhiza kurroa, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Tinospora cordifolia, Mucuna pruriens, Hydrocotyle asiatica, Bombax ceiba, and Andrographis paniculate. The active phytochemicals found in these plants are flavonoids, polyphenols, plant sterol, plant sulphur compounds, and terpenoids. A general flavonoid mechanism of action is to prevent low-density lipoprotein oxidation, which promotes vasodilatation. Plant sterols prevent CVD by decreasing cholesterol absorption in the blood. Plant sulphur compound also prevent CVD by activation of nuclear factor-erythroid factor 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and inhibition of cholesterol synthesis. Quinone decreases the risk of CVD by increasing ATP production in mitochondria while terpenoids by decreasing atherosclerotic lesion in the aortic valve. Although several physiologically active compounds with recognized biological effects have been found in various plants because of the increased prevalence of CVD, appropriate CVD prevention and treatment measures are required. More research is needed to understand the mechanism and specific plants phytochemicals responsible for treating CVD.

This paper investigated the impact of the combined use of spent mushroom substrate (SMS) biochar and plant-growth-promoting rhizobia (PGPR) on the growth, yield, and biochemical response of cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis). A preliminary study was conducted under greenhouse condition using six treatments (sextuplicate) as control (no addition), T1 (PGPR), T2 (5 g/Kg biochar), T3 (5 g/Kg biochar + PGPR), T4 (10 g/Kg biochar), and T5 (10 g/Kg biochar + PGPR) under greenhouse conditions. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM-Zeiss), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and Fourier’s transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analyses showed that biochar produced from slow pyrolysis of SMS had advantageous structural, functional, and morphological properties for agricultural use. Results showed that SMS biochar addition aids the acceleration of soil nutrient properties. SMS biochar and PGPR application also significantly (p < 0.05) improved the selected growth, yield, and biochemical parameters of cauliflower. In particular, the highest cauliflower yield (550.11 ± 10.05 g), fresh plant biomass (1.66 ± 0.04 Kg), dry plant biomass (149.40 ± 4.18 g), plant height (22.09 ± 0.14 cm), root length (11.20 ± 0.05 cm), plant spread (28.35 ± 0.18 cm), and the number of leaves (12.50 ± 0.50) were observed in T5 treatment. Similarly, the best values for biochemical parameters and enzyme activities such as total chlorophyll (TC: 3.13 ± 0.07 mg/g), superoxide dismutase (SOD: 79.12 ± 1.29 µg/g), catalase (CAT: 55.70 ± 2.52 µg/g), peroxidase (POD 30.18 ± 0.37 µg/g), total phenolics (TP: 19.50 ± 0.31 mg/g), ascorbic acid (AA: 14.18 ± 0.55 mg/g), and total carotenoids (TCT: 150.17 ± 8.20 µg/100 g) were also recorded in the T5 treatment. The application of SMS biochar and PGPR showed a positive correlation with growth, yield, and biochemical response of cauliflower, as indicated by the Pearson correlation analysis. The findings of this study suggest efficient recycling of mushroom industry waste for biochar production and the use of PGPR to improve nutrient utilization in sustainable agriculture.