Seed coat metabolite profiling of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) accessions from Ghana using UPLC-PDA-QTOF-MS and chemometrics

Abstract

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) is an important grain legume in Africa exhibiting high morpho-genetic diversity. However, not much information exists on the phytochemical profiles of its hulls. This study explored the metabolite profiles of seed-coats from thirteen cowpea accessions of varying phenotypes using UPLC-QTOF-MS and chemometric analysis. A total of 34 secondary metabolites were identified, which comprised phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, sphingolipids and fatty acids. Quantification of selected phenolic compounds revealed marked variations among the cowpea accessions. The chemical profiles of the test accessions were distinguished by multivariate analysis, and the results revealed a marked influence of seed-coat pigmentation on the observed differences in their metabolite profiles. Moreover, delphinidin (traces to 2257.6 µg/g), catechin glucoside (traces to 2840.6 µg/g), catechin (traces to 2089.2 µg/g) and epicatechin (26.3 to 3222.7 µg/g) contributed to the segregation amongst the studied samples. The concentrations of the discriminant metabolites were greater in the dark seeded cowpeas compared to their lighter seeded counterparts. The findings represent a useful contribution to the literature on cowpea seed coat metabolites, and also reveal their potential for use in the development of food and pharmaceutical products.     

Efficient Approach for the Synthesis of Novel Functionalized Isoxazolines from Limonene

New functionalized isoxazolines were effeciently and easily prepared from limonene. The procedure involves a peri‐ and regioselective 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxides on the monoterpene external double bond, followed by a highly chemoselective RuCl₃‐NaIO₄ oxidative cleavage of the internal one. All the newly prepared isoxazolyl‐ketoacids were fully characterized from their spectroscopic data.     

Survival time of a heterogeneous random walk in a quadrant

We obtain upper Gaussian estimates of transition probabilities of inhomogeneous random walks on the positive quadrant. Among the most important steps in our proof are comparison arguments based on discrete variants of the Harnack principle and large deviations estimates.     

A new method for the calculation of steady periodic capillary-gravity waves on water of arbitrary uniform depth

This paper presents a method for the calculation of steady periodic capillary-gravity waves on water of arbitrary uniform depth. The method developed by Debiane and Kharif in 1997 for infinite depth is extended to finite depth. The water-wave problem is reduced to a system of nonlinear algebraic equations which is solved using Newton's method. For the resonant configurations, the method does not suffer from the Wilton's failures and is valid for all depths. In addition, it is shown that the method allows the computation of solitary waves and generalized solitary waves.     

Intramolecular hydrogen bonding in structural conformers of 2‐amino methylene malonaldehyde: AIM and NBO studies

The molecular structure and intramolecular hydrogen bond energies of 44 conformers of 2‐Amino methylene malonaldehyde were investigated at MP2 and B3LYP levels of theory using the standard 6‐311++G** basis set and AIM and NBO analysis. The calculated geometrical parameters and conformational analysis in gas phase show that the closed ring via intramolecular hydrogen bonded conformers of this compound are more stable than the other ones. Hydrogen bond energies for H‐bonded conformers were obtained from the related rotamers method (RRM) and Schuster method, and also the nature of H‐bonding of them has been investigated by means of the Bader theory of atoms in molecules, which is based on topological properties of the electron density. Delocalization effects can be identified from the presence of off diagonal elements of the Fock matrix in the NBO basis. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010     

On the finite generation of the effective monoid of rational surfaces

We give a numerical criterion for ensuring the finite generation of the effective monoid of the surfaces obtained by a blowing-up of the projective plane at the supports of zero dimensional subschemes assuming that these are contained in a degenerate cubic. Furthermore, this criterion also ensures the regularity of any numerically effective divisor on these surfaces. Thus the dimension of any complete linear system is computed. On the other hand, in particular and among these surfaces, we obtain ringed rational surfaces with very large Picard numbers and with only finitely many integral curves of strictly negative self-intersection. These negative integral curves except two (−1)-curves are all contained in the support of an anticanonical divisor. Thus almost all the geometry of such surfaces is concentrated in the anticanonical class.