Details of New Leads Obtained: 

• Developed a consortium of two biosurfactant-producing bacteria, Bacillus pumilus KS2 and Bacillus cereus R2, to address petroleum hydrocarbon pollution in paddy soil. Over a six-month period, the considerable degradation of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) (91.24%, 74.35%) in the treated soil samples was observed. With the decrease in the TPH level in the polluted soil, a significant improvement in the soil’s physicochemical qualities (such as pH, electrical conductivity, total organic content, and water-holding capacity) was observed.

• An unsymmetrical imidazolium salt, [1-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-3-(2-fluoro-benzyl)-1H-imidazol-3-ium bromide], with a fluorine atom in the ortho position, was synthesized to combat different phytopathogens. Antimicrobial experiments were performed to determine its activity against certain Gram-negative bacterial phytopathogens such as Ralstonia solanacearum and Xanthomonas citri citri, as well as two fungal phytopathogens, Fusarium solani and Pseudopestalotiopsis chinensis. The study reveals that the fluorinated imidazolium salt has potential as a commercial antimicrobial agent for integrated disease management methods targeted at combating important phytopathogenic infections in agriculture, especially those impacting tea growing. These findings provide an intriguing route for future research in the field of plant disease control, perhaps opening the path for more sustainable agriculture.

• Successfully blue luminous N-doped carbon dots (NCDs) were synthesized using Alstonia scholaris leaves and ethylenediamine in a hydrothermal process. The resultant NCDs exhibited good chemical and physical properties, with a notable quantum yield of 21%. These NCDs were applied for the FRET-based detection of Cr6+ and Mn7+ ions in water samples to investigate their suitability as fluorescent probes. The detection limit was 0.173 μM and 0.394 μM for Cr6+ and Mn7+, respectively. Overall, this work highlights an environmentally friendly technique for readily producing blue fluorescent NCDs, implying that they have great promise for future sensing applications, particularly for detecting heavy metal ions in water.

• An efficient and environmentally friendly catalytic method was developed for synthesizing ketones and aldehydes through acceptorless dehydrogenation of alcohols. The procedure uses C,C-chelated Ir(III) NHC complexes as catalysts to dehydrogenate both secondary and primary alcohols. Importantly, primary alcohols were selectively oxidized to yield the appropriate aldehydes while reducing the generation of ester byproducts. A wide range of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes and ketones, including challenging carbonyl compounds bearing heterocyclic rings, were obtained in moderate to high yields by employing C,C-chelated Ir(III) NHC complexes (at a catalyst loading of 0.1 mol%) in combination with a catalytic amount of ^tBuONa base (5 mol%). Furthermore, the approach was successful in synthesizing industrially relevant compounds such as heliotropin and 3,4,5-trimethoxy acetophenone at moderate quantities. Notably, the catalytic system allows for the simple synthesis of potentially bioactive compounds such as cholest-4-en-3-one via acceptorless dehydrogenation followed by double bond isomerization under the reaction conditions. This catalytic process has minimal catalyst loading, mild reaction conditions, good selectivity, fast reaction durations, and a broad substrate scope, making it a potential strategy for the synthesis of different ketones and aldehydes.