Background: The association among food and health is momentous as consumers now demand healthy, tasty and natural functional foods. Knowledge of such food is mainly transmitted through the contribution of individuals of households. Throughout the world the traditions of using wild edible plants as food and medicine are at risk of disappearing, hence present appraisal was conducted to explore ethnomedicinal and cultural importance of wild edible vegetables used by the populace of Lesser Himalayas-Pakistan. Methods: Data was collected through informed consent semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, market survey and focus group conversation with key respondents of the study sites including 45 female, 30 children and 25 males. Cultural significance of each species was calculated based on use report. Results: A total of 45 wild edible vegetables belonging to 38 genera and 24 families were used for the treatment of various diseases and consumed. Asteraceae and Papilionoideae were found dominating families with (6 spp. each), followed by Amaranthaceae and Polygonaceae. Vegetables were cooked in water (51%) followed by diluted milk (42%) and both in water and diluted milk (7%). Leaves were among highly utilized plant parts (70%) in medicines followed by seeds (10%), roots (6%), latex (4%), bark, bulb, flowers, tubers and rhizomes (2% each). Modes of preparation fall into seven categories like paste (29%), decoction (24%), powder (14%), eaten fresh (12%), extract (10%), cooked vegetable (8%) and juice (4%). Ficus carica was found most cited species with in top ten vegetables followed by Ficus palmata, Bauhinia variegata, Solanum nigrum, Amaranthus viridis, Medicago polymorpha, Chenopodium album, Cichorium intybus, Amaranthus hybridus and Vicia faba. Conclusions: Patterns of wild edible plant usage depend mainly on socio-economic factors compare to climatic conditions or wealth of flora but during past few decades have harshly eroded due to change in the life style of the inhabitants. Use reports verified common cultural heritage and cultural worth of quoted taxa is analogous. Phytochemical analysis, antioxidant activities, pharmacological applications; skill training in farming and biotechnological techniques to improve the yield are important feature prospective regarding of wild edible vegetables.

Present investigation deals with antimicrobial screening of ten medicinally important plants used by the inhabitants of district Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) for different infectious diseases.

Silver nanoparticles have received much attention, due to their wide range of biological applications as an alternative therapy for disease conditions utilizing the nanobiotechnology domain for synthesis. The current study was performed to examine the antioxidant, anticancer, antibacterial, and antifungal potential of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (TpAgNPs) using plant extract. The TpAgNPs were produced by reacting the Tradescantia pallida extract and AgNO₃ solution in nine various concentration ratios subjected to bioactivities profiling. According to the current findings, plant extract comprising phenolics, flavonoids, and especially anthocyanins played a critical role in the production of TpAgNPs. UV–visible spectroscopy also validated the TpAgNP formation in the peak range of 401–441 nm. Further, the silver ion stabilization by phytochemicals, face-centered cubic structure, crystal size, and spherical morphology of TpAgNPs were analyzed by FTIR, XRD, and SEM. Among all TpAgNPs, the biosynthesized TpAgNP6 with a medium concentration ratio (5:10) and the plant extract had effective antioxidant potentials of 77.2 ± 1.0% and 45.1 ± 0.5% free radical scavenging activity, respectively. The cytotoxic activity of TpAgNP6 in comparison to plant extract for the rhabdomyosarcoma cell line was significantly the lowest with IC₅₀ values of 81.5 ± 1.9 and 90.59 ± 1.6 μg/ml and cell viability % of 24.3 ± 1.62 and 27.4 ± 1.05, respectively. The antibacterial and antifungal results of TpAgNPs revealed significant improvement in comparison to plant extract, i.e., minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) 64 μg/ml against Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa while, in the case of antifungal assay, TpAgNP6 was active against Candida parapsilosis. These TpAgNPs play a crucial role in determining the therapeutic potential of T. pallida due to their biological efficacy.

Wild marigold (Tagetes minuta), a flowering plant of the family Asteraceae contains compounds of pharmaceutical and nutritional importance especially essential oils and flavonols. Identification, characterization of flavonols and determination of their antibacterial activity were major objectives of the current study. The isolation and purification of flavonols was accomplished using chromatographic techniques while structural elucidation was completed by LC-MS and NMR spectroscopy. The extracts and purified compounds were tested against various bacterial strains for antibacterial activity. A total of nineteen flavonols were isolated from this species. Of these, seventeen were of butanol and two of ethyl acetate extracts. Based on the concentration and purity, eight potential flavonols were selected and structurally elucidated. Four flavonols, 6-hydroxyquercetin 7-O-β-(6''-galloylglucopyranoside) (2), 6-hydroxykaempferol 7-O-β-glucopyranoside (5), 6-hydroxykaempferol 7-O-β-(6''-galloylglucopyranoside) (7), 6-hydroxyquercetin 7-O-β-(6''-caffeoylglucopyranoside) (9), were identified for the first time from T. minuta. Butanol and ethyl acetate extracts of flowers and seeds showed significant antibacterial activity against Micrococcus leteus, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas piket. Among the isolated flavonols only 1, 2 and 18 were found to possess significant antibacterial activity against M. luteus. The extracts and purified flavonols from T. minuta can be potential candidates for antibacterial drug discovery and support to ethnopharmacological use.

Dye effluents and their degradation products disrupt the aquatic ecosystem functioning. Corncob was used as a low-cost biosorbent for decolorization of methylene blue (MB) dye. Batch and fixed-bed column adsorption were performed by varying temperature, pH, initial dye concentration, adsorbent dose, particle size, and bed height, flow rate and inlet dye concentration, respectively. High MB adsorption capacities of corncob were attained at pH 9, i.e. 45.86 mg g⁻¹, 91.7%. Equilibrium data was best described by Langmuir II (R² = 0.999) followed by Freundlich (R² = 0.994) and Halsey (R² = 0.994) isotherm models, which indicates the favorable adsorption of MB dye onto corncob adsorbent. Moreover, chemisorption nature of corncob was confirmed through Dubinin–Radushkevich (E = 16.01 kJ mol⁻¹) and the best fit of pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic studies revealed spontaneous (∆G < 0) and endothermic (∆H > 0) nature of reaction with increased randomness (∆S > 0) at the solid–liquid interface. The breakthrough curves were predicted using Thomas and BDST models. BDST reflected that 2.26 min were required to exhaust 1 cm of the fixed-bed column. MB dye-loaded corncob adsorbent could be regenerated (80%) and reused using 0.1 M acetic acid.