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All across the globe, India is considered as an agricultural nation because its agro products drive the economy. An increase in population growth and a hike in food demands lead to the use of hazardous chemicals in farm fields. An in-depth field survey in Northern India was conducted to understand the types of agrochemicals that were used, farmers' knowledge about their safe handling, and their practices on its usage. Ninety-two responders (primarily farmers) from 37 districts of 12 states were interviewed to collect the information. The library containing 58 compounds as toxic spray constituents were developed and further screened in-silico for ADMET, drug-likeness, toxicity prediction, and molecular docking against their target actions in the human system. Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) was selected as target protein showing the best-docked score with Bordeaux, Indoxacarb, Cyphenothrin, Deltamethrin, and Beta-cyfluthrin. The study revealed various adverse effects on human health and advocated provisions of alternative solutions such as using GST as a binding agents to hold the toxic chemicals out of living system and eventually saves valuable lives of the farmers.

Background. Studies on antigenic proteins for arboviruses are important for providing diagnostics and vaccine development. India and its neighboring countries have a huge burden of arboviral diseases. Data mining for country-specific sequences from existing bioinformatics databases is cumbersome and time-consuming. This necessitated the development of a database of antigenic proteins from arboviruses isolated from the countries of the Indian subcontinent. Methods. Arboviral antigenic protein sequences were obtained from the NCBI and other databases. In silico antigenic characterization was performed (Epitope predic- tions) and data was incorporated into the database. The front end was designed and developed using HTML, CSS, and PHP. For the backend of the database, we have used MySQL. Results. A database, named ArVirInd, is created as a repository of information on curated antigenic proteins. This enlists sequences by country and year of outbreak or origin of the viral strain. For each entry, antigenic information is provided along with functional sites, etc. Researchers can search this database by virus/protein name, country, and year of collection (or in combination) as well as peptide search for epitopes. It is available publicly via the Internet at http://www.arvirind.co.in. ArVirInd will be useful in the study of immune informatics, diagnostics, and vaccinology for arboviruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melghat Plant databank (MPdb) is the first attempt to review all the past floristic documents and medicinal plants and digitize the Melghat Flora. This curated database contains compiled information about 1028 plants from 139 plant families and 537 genera. Curated medicinal plant information gathered 660 medicinal species records from 128 plant families and 421 genera in MPdb for Melghat Flora. Each plant record is reviewed, scrutinizes, and recorded. More than 9000 records for medicinal uses for nearly 140 diseases, reported phytochemicals, and published cross references. MPdb will serve as a valuable information resource for students, researchers, and aboriginal communities to explore Melghat Flora for better-applied prospects in herbal drug research., (© 2022 Biomedical Informatics.)