Venom extracted from Indian snakes can be an antidote to cancer, Calcutta researchers have found. Aparna Gomes and others at the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology showed that sub-lethal doses of venoms extracted from two common snakes found in eastern India — Indian monocellate cobra and Russell’s viper — can not only destroy blood cancer cells but also trigger programmed cell death, thus arresting the proliferation of malignant cells. The degree and nature of anti-carcinogenic property is different in the two kinds of venom, thanks to the difference in their constituents, the researchers report in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Ethnopharmocology.

Bacterial boost

A bacterial boost is awaiting the paper and pulp industry. A microbe found in sugarcane fields may help the industry get more out of the same quantity of raw material. Researchers at Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam in Tirupati isolated enzymes from a bacterium that thrives in the alkaline soils of sugarcane fields. These enzymes could break down hemicellulose, a plant material otherwise not easily amenable to bleaching or pulping. The second most abundant plant material after cellulose, hemicellulose is usually discarded as a waste, because processes to recover it involve high pH value and temperatures and are hence very expensive. Now the researchers, led by K. Vijayalakshmi, report in Current Science that they have extracted at least three enzymes — called xylanases, as they break down xylan, the predominant compound found in hemicellulose — from the sugarcane fields around Tirupati. Exhibiting optimal chemical activity around a pH value of 9, these enzymes are found to be stable in the temperature range of 30 to 50 degree Celsius, making them suitable for bleaching in the paper and pulp industry.