Retting is a critical technique employed for the fibre extraction of plant materials. Controlled aerobic retting experiments were conducted where plant stems were inoculated with a known species of aerobic microflora to determine the quality and quantity of fibre attainable from the stem. A pre-treatment of autoclaving the media consisting of plant stems and minimal salt supplements was used to control the impact of the naturally occurring microflora. The “processed” treatment of plant stem steps involved autoclaving, adding minimal salt, and aerobic incubation. The current study investigates the controlled parameters for aerobic retting using Bacillus subtilis subsp. spizizenii ATCC 6633 on linseed flax (Linum usitatisimum L.) and canola (Brassica napus L.) stem portions. The six treatments considered were: unprocessed (UP), processed (P), processed without salts (P-S), processed without aerobic retting (P-R), processed without autoclaving (P-A), and processed with inoculation (P+I). Results demonstrated that autoclaving plant material assisted in easier fibre separation and increased plant mass when salts were added to the media, with an otherwise decreased mass. The processing impacted linseed flax and canola plant stem composition and fibre separation differently. For linseed flax, shive, and whole plant portion had higher composition when treatments were compared to P. However, the compositional changes were inconsistent across the canola plant portion due to the fibre and shive separation issue. Salts and other conditions chemically treated plant material. To further understand the impact of salts, future research could include treatments UP, P-A, P-A+I, and P-S-A on plant stems for fibre extraction.

Antibiotic pollution from residential and agriculture wastewater is a growing environmental concern. Antibiotics are often ineffectively removed by municipal and agricultural sewage lagoons, resulting in antibiotic persistence within lagoon systems and subsequent antibiotic release through effluent discharge. The development of antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) in sewage lagoons is correlated to antibiotic presence. Engineered phytoremediation systems such as floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) present a potential cost-effective way of improving antibiotic and ARG removal in conventional sewage lagoon systems. In the present study, microbial diversity and ARGs within the Dunnottar Sewage Lagoon (Manitoba) were analysed through metagenomic sequencing. It was found that microbial diversity and ARG relative abundance were greater in the secondary cell compared to the primary cell. These results suggest that within the lagoon system ARGs proliferate, increasing the risk of ARG release. Microcosms (containing 1.5 L wastewater) were planted with Typha, and compared to unplanted control microcosms, to evaluate the effect of hydroponic plant treatment on sulfamethoxazole (a sulfonamide antibiotic consistently detected in the Dunnottar Sewage Lagoon) and ARGs within wastewater. It was found that Typha increased the rate of removal of sulfamethoxazole at high (20 µg L-1) and low (5 µg L-1) concentrations. However, the presence of Typha within microcosms did not have a significant effect on overall sulfamethoxazole concentrations after 14 days. 16s DNA samples were taken and sent for sequencing to examine the effect of plant presence on ARGs and microbial diversity. Currently the metagenomic results are still pending completion of sequencing.

Nanotechnology has facilitated a significant transformation in agrotechnology, which offers the potential to revolutionize global food supply. However, certain obstacles need to be overcome, such as potential toxicological concerns, unknown life cycles of nanomaterials, high cost, interactions with the biotic or abiotic environment, and the possible amplified bioaccumulation effects. To address these concerns, niosomes have been developed as nanocarriers composed of non-ionic surfactants that are relatively inexpensive, stable, nontoxic, and biodegradable. This study focused on preparing niosomes loaded with Azadirachta indica seed oil using different molar ratios of surfactants (Tween 80) and stabilizers (Soy lecithin) via the thin-film hydration method. Various analytical methods, such as Dynamic Light Scattering, Transmission Electron Microscopy, and Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy, were used to characterize the niosomes. Additionally, the researchers used the Box-Behnken experimental design to optimize the conditions for niosome preparation. The optimized niosomes showed favorable characteristics, including a particle size of less than 250 nm and an entrapment efficiency greater than 70%. These niosomes have the potential to be utilized in agriculture for targeted delivery of natural fungicides or pesticides to combat agricultural diseases, and further research in this area is in progress.