The extensive environmental pollution caused by petroleum-based plastics highlights the urgent need for sustainable, economically viable alternatives. The practical challenge of enhancing polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) production with cost-effective agro-industrial residues—rice-bran and corn-flour hydrolysates—has been demonstrated. Bacillus bingmayongensis GS2 was isolated from soil samples collected at the Pirana municipal landfill in Ahmedabad, India, and identified through VITEK-2 biochemical profiling and 16S rDNA sequencing (GenBank accession OQ749793). Initial screening for PHB accumulation was performed using Sudan Black B staining. Optimization via a sequential one-variable-at-a-time (OVAT) approach identified optimal cultivation conditions (36 h inoculum age, 37 °C, pH 7.0, 100 rpm agitation), resulting in a PHB yield of 2.77 g L⁻¹ (66% DCW). Further refinement using a central composite response surface methodology (RSM)—varying rice-bran hydrolysate, corn-flour hydrolysate, peptone concentration, and initial pH—significantly improved the PHB yield to 3.18 g L⁻¹(74% DCW), representing more than a threefold enhancement over unoptimized conditions. Structural validation using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (¹H-NMR) confirmed the molecular integrity of the produced PHB. That Bacillus bingmayongensis GS2 effectively converts low-cost agro-industrial residues into high-value bioplastics has been demonstrated, indicating substantial industrial potential. Future work will focus on bioreactor scale-up, targeted metabolic-engineering strategies, and comprehensive sustainability evaluations, including life-cycle assessment.

Cow’s milk, urine, dung, ghee, and curd possess significant medicinal value in Ayurveda and have been integral to traditional Indian clinical practices for centuries. The cow-derived fermented product (CDFP), a formulation rooted in Ayurvedic tradition, combines these five components as a panchgavya and is believed to offer multifaceted health benefits. In this preliminary single-subject case study, we evaluated the microbial composition of CDFP itself and assessed its effects on the human gut microbiome before and after 7 and 15 days of administration. A single healthy male subject consumed CDFP daily for seven consecutive days. Using 16S rRNA metagenomic sequencing, we observed a prominent increase in gut microbial diversity and a rise in beneficial bacterial genera such as Bifidobacterium, Faecalibacterium, and Akkermansia during and after treatment. Functional profiling revealed significant enhancements in pathways associated with amino acid metabolism, vitamin biosynthesis (e.g., folate, riboflavin), and energy metabolism, along with transient boosts in secondary metabolite synthesis. Metabolomic analysis identified 171 bioactive compounds within CDFP, with 33 exhibiting interactions with human proteins involved in immune modulation, oxidative stress response, and gut barrier integrity. Although conducted on a single participant, this study is the first to elucidate the distinct changes observed in gut microbial composition and function following the seven-day CDFP regimen and provides initial insights that warrant further investigation in larger, controlled studies. These findings highlight the potential of CDFP as a microbiota-targeted intervention with health-supportive properties.

Smokeless tobacco (SLT) consumption is a significant risk factor for oral dysbiosis and oral cancer in South Asian countries, including India. However, its impact on oral microbial ecology, functional restructuring, and sex-specific microbial responses remains unclear. The present study aimed to evaluate tobacco-associated oral microbiome dysbiosis across different subject groups (addicted male/AM, addicted female/AF, non-addicted male/NAM, and non-addicted female/NAF) using a controlled sibling-based pooled temporal representative framework. To reduce short-term temporal variability and generate representative oral microbiome profiles, oral gargle samples were collected daily for seven days and pooled within each study group prior to DNA extraction and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla in all samples. Addicted users showed a higher Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, fewer cultivable species, and more pathobionts, along with lower Shannon diversity in tobacco addiction and a partial separation in beta diversity between addicted and non-addicted samples. The enrichment of Streptococcus, Gemella, Neisseria, Veillonella, Acinetobacter, and Pseudomonas in tobacco-associated microbiomes and Comamonas, Chryseobacterium, Delftia, Flavobacterium, and related taxa in non-addicted individuals were consistently identified by all three analyses, that is, differential abundance, STAMP, and SIMPER. A shared core oral microbiome and unique “tobacco-associated” microbial signatures were observed. Orotype mapping showed that the transition in the microbial community to a Streptococcus-dominated (S-type) dysbiotic state was driven by tobacco addiction, introducing a novel conceptual framework, the Tobacco-Associated Dysbiosis Index (TDI), which showed higher values in addicted participants. Furthermore, functional prediction analysis revealed increased enrichment of ammonia oxidation, dehalogenation, sulfate reduction, nitrite reduction, chitin degradation, and xenobiotic metabolism pathways, highlighting microbial adaptation towards detoxification. In summary, chronic exposure to smokeless tobacco is linked to ecological imbalance, pathobiont enrichment, loss of microbial diversity, functional dysbiosis, and metabolic reprogramming, suggesting descriptive ecological patterns that may be relevant to chronic inflammation and oral carcinogenesis.