Seasonal variation in essential oil yield and composition from Thymus vulgaris L. during different growth stages in the south of Jordan

The effect of plant space and time of harvesting on yield and quality of Thymus vulgaris was evaluated in Jordan. Thyme was cultivated in rows of 50?cm apart with inter-row spacing of 15, 30 or 45?cm and was grown at various development stages. Plants were harvested during different growth stages including vegetation, beginning of blooming, full blooming and fruit maturation. Results indicated that oil yields of thyme were affected by growth stage and inter-row spacing. The maximum oil yields was obtained by harvesting at the early growth stage, which was found superior to oil yield corresponding to the later stages of collection. With 45?cm inter-row spacing, the maximum oil yield was recorded when the samples were collected at growth stage. Indicated results showed that the chemical composition during various growth stages was characterised by high percentage of carvacrol and its corresponding monoterpenic hydrocarbon precursors ρ-cymene and γ-terpinene, and ether 1,4-cineol.     

Optimisation and characterisation of various extraction conditions of phenolic compounds and antioxidant activity in olive seeds

This study was conducted to optimise the extraction conditions of phenolic compounds to evaluate antioxidant extraction parameters and to identify the major free and bound phenolic compounds in olive seeds. The results obtained using methanol as an extraction solvent for olive seeds indicated that the optimised total phenolic content and antioxidant activity were obtained at an extraction time of 12 h, an extraction temperature of 70°C and an extraction cycle of three stages. The correlation coefficient between total phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities was positive (R2 = 0.83). The major finding is that the predominant phenolic compounds in olive seeds were present in free form. However, a small percentage of the bound phenolic compounds was found in olive seeds compared to that of the free phenolic compounds. This study recommends that olive seeds with optimised extraction conditions (i.e. optimised correlation between phenolic compound contents and antioxidant activities) can be used as potential food additive candidates in functional, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries.     

The ArNe-N2O van der Waals trimer: a high resolution spectroscopic study of its rotational spectrum,structure and dynamics

A new ternary van der Waals complex of the type rare gas-rare gas'-linear molecule, ArNe-N₂O, was investigated using a pulsed molecular beam cavity Fourier transform microwave spectrometer. The rotational spectra of six isotopomers of the trimer were studied in detail. These include Ar²⁰Ne-¹⁴N¹⁴NO, Ar²²Ne-¹⁴N¹⁴NO, Ar²⁰Ne-15N¹⁴NO, Ar²²Ne-¹⁵N¹⁴N0, Ar²⁰Ne-¹⁴N¹⁵NO and Ar²²Ne-¹⁴N¹⁵NO. Nuclear quadrupole hyperfine structures of the rotational transitions that are due to the one or two ¹⁴N nuclei were resolved and analysed. The resulting spectroscopic constants were used to provide structural and dynamical information about the trimer. Based on the quartic centrifugal distortion constants, a harmonic force field analysis was performed to estimate the frequencies of the van der Waals vibrational modes. A perturbation of the electronic charge distribution at the site of the central ¹⁴N nucleus of N²0 upon complex formation was detected and discussed. Differences of structural parameters of the trimer as compared to those of the respective dimer units are indicative of the presence of significant three-body non-additive contributions to the interaction energy.     

Robust chaos synchronization based on adaptive fuzzy delayed feedback ${\bf{\mathcal{H}}}_{\bf{\infty}}$ control

In this paper, we propose a new adaptive H_￥\mathcal H_\infty synchronization strategy, called an adaptive fuzzy delayed feedback H_￥\mathcal H_\infty synchronization (AFDFHS) strategy, for chaotic systems with uncertain parameters and external disturbances. Based on Lyapunov–Krasovskii theory, Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy model and adaptive delayed feedback H_￥\mathcal H_\infty control scheme, the AFDFHS controller is presented such that the synchronization error system is asymptotically stable with a guaranteed H_￥\mathcal{H}_{\infty } performance. It is shown that the design of the AFDFHS controller with adaptive law can be achieved by solving a linear matrix inequality (LMI), which can be easily facilitated by using some standard numerical packages. An illustrative example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed AFDFHS approach.     

Electric field controlled, pulsed autoionization in two electron wave packets

In this paper, control of the evolution of a two electron wave packet through the application of a static electric field is demonstrated. Specifically, application of a small electric field is used to produce pulsed autoionization events, the timing of which can be controlled on a picosecond time scale. The technique is demonstrated by exciting calcium atoms using a short-pulsed laser to the 4p(3/2)19d doubly excited state, which is energy degenerate with the 4p(1/2)nk stark states. Evolution of the resultant wave packet is monitored through the application of a second short laser pulse, which stimulates the atoms to emit a photon producing singly excited Rydberg states which are detected using field ionization.     

Antioxidant activities, total phenolics and HPLC analyses of the phenolic compounds of extracts from common Mediterranean plants

In this study, the total phenolic amounts and antioxidant activities of plant extracts obtained from some common Mediterranean plant species collected from different places in Jordan were determined. The phenolic constituents of these extracts were also determined using HPLC. The total phenolic amounts ranged from 52.8 to 876.9 mg GAE per 100 g dry material. The antioxidant activities were evaluated according to the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenger method. Sage (Salvia officinalis) showed the highest antioxidant activity (91%), while the lowest (11.3%) was seen in parsley (Petroselinum crispum). A strong correlation (r = 0.85) between antioxidant activity and total phenolic content was found. The phenolic compounds identified by HPLC were gallic acid, protocatechuic acid, catechin, gentisic acid, chlorogenic acid, vanillic acid, syringic acid, caffeic acid, epicatechin and benzoic acid. All the investigated plants contain gallic acid, whose phenolic content ranged from 0.4 to 37.8 mg per 100 g, catechin (0.3-339.9 mg per 100 g), protocatechuic acid (0.3-41.9 mg per 100 g) and gentisic acid (0.3-35.8 mg per 100 g), while caffeic acid (0.3-2.6 mg per 100 g) was detected in six species only. These natural plant phenolics could thus be a good source of antioxidants for applications in food.     

Extreme sensitivity in trace element detection

14 particles. Received: 16 June 1998/Revised version: 4 September 1998