Characterization of bile acids and fatty acids from ox bile in oil paintings by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Characterization of ox bile, traditionally used in painting, is of interest in the fields of archaeometry and conservation and restoration of works of art. Bile acids, fatty acids (F), and cholesterol found in ox bile have been identified using a derivatization method that combines the formation of ethyl esters from the carboxylic groups and the trimethylsilyl ethers from hydroxyl groups. This method of analysis is consistent with these others proposed by the authors to analyze drying oils, proteins, and diterpenic resins usually used as binders and varnishes by the painters. Bile acids from binary samples such as animal glue/ox bile, casein/ox bile and Arabic gum/ox bile have been successfully analyzed using the proposed method. Finally, a method of analysis of mixtures of drying oil and ox bile has been also proposed attempting to quantitatively characterize samples in which ox bile was added to the drying oil for increasing the surfactant properties.     

Adhesives and coatings from phenol-formaldehyde/resorcinol-formaldehyde resins

Resole phenol-formaldehyde resins were prepared and modified with the prepared resorcinol-formaldehyde resins. The optimum conditions of formulation and curing processes were studied to obtain modified wood adhesives characterized by high-tensile shear strength values. This study indicated that the more suitable conditions are equal weight ratios of phenol-formaldehyde to resorcinol-formaldehyde resins in the presence of paraformaldehyde (10 or 15 wt%) of the resin content as a curing agent at 80 or 25°C for 40 min or 100–110 days, respectively. The activation energies of the curing reactions for phenol-formaldehyde/resorcinol-formaldehyde resin samples were determined. Metallic and glass coatings from the previous pure resins and their formulated cured mixtures were prepared and evaluated as varnishes or paints. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis of diterpenoic compounds in natural resins applied as binders in museum objects by capillary electrophoresis

The exudates of conifers consist mainly of diterpenoic acids of the abietane and pimarane type (abietic, neoabietic, dehydroabietic, palustric, pimaric, isopimaric, levopimaric and sandaracopimaric acid) and larixol acetate. These natural resins were used as adhesives, coatings, varnishes or plasticizers in artistic and historic works since ancient times. For the purpose of conservation and restoration and for art historic examination of such museum objects the identification of the binding media used is undoubtedly of paramount importance. In the present paper, the characterization of these resins based on the pattern of their diterpenoid constituents is carried out by capillary electrophoresis. For separation a background electrolyte which has been initially introduced for the analysis of chlorinated and natural resin acids in waste water was modified and the experimental conditions were adjusted in terms of resolution and analysis time. Separation was carried out in borate buffer at pH 9.25 (ionic strength 20 mmol L(-1)) with methyl-beta-cyclodextrin and sulfobutylether-beta-cyclodextrin as additives to increase selectivity and enhance the solubility of the analytes. With this electrophoretic system the resin acids of interest and larixol acetate--all as anionic cyclodextrin complexes--were separated within 5 min and detected at 200, 250 and 270 nm with a diode array detector. The electrophoretic patterns served for the characterisation of the relevant diterpenoic resins, balsams and copals. Sample pre-treatment was limited to sonication in methanol at 55 degrees C for 30 min. This enables the identification of the resins in mixtures with other binders like plant gums, animal glues or drying oils, even when these media are present in excess. Colophony was identified as resinous constituent of a modelling mass for gilded frames originating from the 19th century.     

Quantitative GC–MS Analysis of Artificially Aged Paints with Variable Pigment and Linseed Oil Ratios

In this study, quantitative gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis was used to evaluate the influence of pigment concentration on the drying of oil paints. Seven sets of artificially aged self-made paints with different pigments (yellow ochre, red ochre, natural cinnabar, zinc white, Prussian blue, chrome oxide green, hematite + kaolinite) and linseed oil mixtures were analysed. In the pigment + linseed oil mixtures, linseed oil concentration varied in the range of 10 to 95 g/100 g. The results demonstrate that the commonly used palmitic acid to stearic acid ratio (P/S) to distinguish between drying oils varied in a vast range (from especially low 0.6 to a common 1.6) even though the paints contained the same linseed oil. Therefore, the P/S ratio is an unreliable parameter, and other criteria should be included for confirmation. The pigment concentration had a substantial effect on the values used to characterise the degree of drying (azelaic acid to palmitic acid ratio (A/P) and the relative content of dicarboxylic acids (∑D)). The absolute quantification showed that almost all oil paint mock-ups were influenced by pigment concentration. Therefore, pigment concentration needs to be considered as another factor when characterising oil-based paint samples based on the lipid profile.     

A novel class of chemically modified iodo-containing resins: design, synthesis and application to mass spectrometry-based proteome analysis

A novel class of chemically modified iodo-containing resins with isotope-labeled tagging for mass spectrometry-based proteome analysis is described. This iodo-containing resin contains a thiol-reactive group that is used to capture the cysteine (Cys)-containing peptides from peptide mixtures, one 'tag' amino acid, and an aminomethyl polystyrene resin with Rink Amide Linker. The 'tag' amino acid is synthesized in both heavy and light isotope-coded forms and therefore permits the direct relative quantification of peptides/proteins through mass spectrometric analysis. In the iodo-containing resin strategy, the Cys-containing peptides of two samples covalently captured by either light or heavy iodo-containing resin were mixed and washed extensively under stringent conditions. Then the Cys-containing peptides were retrieved by acid-catalyzed elution. Finally, the eluted peptides were directly analyzed by micro liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry for identification and relative quantification. The iodo-containing resins were synthesized by a simple but effective method. Their abilities to identify and quantify the Cys-containing part in two samples were proved by the analysis of mixtures of amino acids, peptides and proteins.     

GC-MS characterisation and identification of natural terpenic resins employed in works of art

Natural resins were frequently employed in the past as adhesives or as components of oleo-resinous media in paintings. The identification of vegetable resins is still an open problem. The aim of this paper is to analyse by GC-MS some vegetable resins frequently employed in paintings, such as Venice turpentine, dammar, copal, elemi, in order to identify their main components in samples both raw and aged. Some molecules are proposed as chemical markers to identify these natural resins. Two samples scraped off from XV and XVII century paintings were used to test the reliability of proposed method.     

The use of microspectrofluorimetry for the characterization of lake pigments

In this paper, the potential of confocal microfluorescence spectroscopy is explored for the characterization of selected red lake pigments and paints based on alizarin, purpurin and eosin (weak, medium and strong emitters). The anthraquinone pigments have been used since ancient times by artists, and eosin lakes were used by impressionist painters. Reconstructions of artists paints based on 19th century recipes are examined. The paints were made using the lake pigments bound in a range of binding media including gum arabic, collagen, a vinyl emulsion and linseed oil. The acquisition of the spectra is rapid, with high spatial resolution and the data reliable and reproducible. Together with full emission spectra, it was possible to acquire well-resolved excitation spectra for purpurin, alizarin and eosin based colors. The present investigation suggests that micro-emission fluorescence can also be used as a semi-quantitative method for madder lake pigments, enabling the determination of purpurin lake ratio in a mixture of purpurin and alizarin, which is important for provenance studies. The data obtained with microfluorescence emission with those acquired with fiber-optic fluorimetry are compared. The spatial resolution used, 8microm, is appropriate for the analysis of individual pigments particles or aggregates in a paint film. Micro-emission molecular fluorescence proved to be a promising analytical tool to identify the presence of selected red lake pigments combined with a range of binding media.     

Identification of diterpenes in canvas painting varnishes by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with combined derivatisation

A derivatisation method that combines the formation of ethyl esters from the carboxylic groups and trimethylsilyl ethers from hydroxyl groups of the components of diterpenic resins is presented in this paper. This methodology involves two experimental steps: (1) formation of ethyl esters using ethyl chloroformate; and (2) the esterified compounds are lead to react with trimethylsilylimidazole to form the corresponding trimethylsilyl ethers. The main advantage of the proposed method is the possibility of performing simultaneously the analysis of amino acids from proteins, fatty acids from drying oils, and diterpenic compounds from natural resins usually found in works of art. This methodology is of considerable interest due to the requirements of minimum sampling that usually involves the analysis of works of art. A chemometric study has been developed to adjust the optimal working conditions of the proposed derivatisation method in which chromatographic peak areas of the larixyl acetate derivative and the abietic acid derivative referred to n-hexadecane as internal standard have been compared. Samples of Venetian turpentine naturally aged have been used in this study. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed derivatisation method has been tested on other diterpenic resins and pigments commonly used in fine arts such as Strasbourg turpentine, Canada balsam, colophony, copper resinate and a sample from a Renaissance Altarpiece.     

Creating functional artificial proteins

Much is now known about how protein folding occurs, through the sequence analysis of proteins of known folding geometry and the sequence/structural analysis of proteins and their mutants. This has allowed not only the modification of natural proteins but also the construction of de novo polypeptides with predictable folding patterns. Structure/function analysis of natural proteins is used to construct derived versions that retain a degree of biological activity. The constructed versions made of either natural or artificial sequences contain critical residues for activity such as receptor binding. In some cases, the functionality is introduced by incorporating binding sites for other elements, such as organic cofactors or transition metals, into the protein scaffold. While these modified proteins can mimic the function of natural proteins, they can also be constructed to have novel activities. Recently engineered photoactive proteins are good examples of such systems in which a light-induced electron transfer can be established in normally light-insensitive proteins. The present review covers some aspects of protein design that have been used to investigate protein receptor binding, cofactor binding and biological electron transfer.     

Adhesives and coatings based on phenolic/epoxy resins

Low molecular weight epoxy resin based on bis (4‐hydroxy phenyl) 1,1 cyclohexane was prepared and modified with various types of the prepared phenolic resins. Phenol–, cresol–, resorcinol–and salicylic acid–formaldehyde resins were used. The optimum conditions of formulation and curing process were studied to obtain modified wood adhesives characterized by high tensile shear strength values. This study indicated that the more suitable conditions are 1:2 weight ratio of phenol–or cresol–formaldehyde to epoxy resin in the presence of phthalic anhydride (20 wt%) of the resin content as a curing agent at 150°C for 80 min. Resorcinol–or salicylic acid–formaldehyde/epoxy resins formulated at 1:2 weight ratio were cured in the presence of paraformaldehyde (20 wt%) at 150°C for 60 min. The effect of the structure of phenolic resins on the tensile shear strength values of formulated resin samples, when mixed with the epoxy resins and cured under the previously mentioned optimum conditions for different times, was investigated. Metallic and glass coatings from the previous resins were also prepared and evaluated as varnishes or paints. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

食品中芳香族氨基酸的分离分析技术研究进展北大核心CSCD

苯丙酮尿症等代谢病患者因基因缺陷无法正常代谢食物中的芳香族氨基酸(aromatic amino acids,AAA),常规饮食可能会造成永久性生理损伤,低AAA肽是其重要的蛋白质等同物来源。AAA分离分析技术对低AAA肽的制备和检测至关重要。该领域研究者探索了多种高效的吸附、分离材料,从复杂的蛋白质水解液中选择性吸附脱除AAA以制备符合特定氨基酸限量的低AAA肽类食品,或者建立对AAA特异性提取富集的分离分析策略。该文分析了AAA的结构特点与理化性质,总结了近年来基于活性炭、树脂等吸附材料脱除AAA的技术进展,并从样品前处理、手性分离和吸附-传感3个维度综述了二维纳米材料、分子印迹、环糊精、金属有机骨架等材料在AAA分离分析中的应用。通过探讨各类技术的优缺点,为AAA吸附脱除和分离分析技术的进步提供支撑。     

Fatty Acid Composition of Tobacco Seed Oil and Synthesis of Alkyd Resin

The fatty acid composition of tobacco seed oil revealed that the oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, having linoleic acid （71.63%）, oleic acid （13.46%） and palmitic acid （8.72%） as the most abundant unsaturated and saturated fatty acids respectively. So the tobacco oil was characterized as semi-drying type on the basis of fatty acid composition. The synthesis of alkyd resin was carried out by alcoholysis or monoglyceride process using an alkali refined tobacco seed oil, pentaerythritol, cis-1,2,3,6-tetrahydrophthalic anhydride along with lithium hydroxide as catalyst. The alkyd resin so prepared was found to be bright and of low color with high gloss. The drying and hardness properties and adhesion of the tobacco seed oil derived alkyd resin were also found a bit superior to those of other alkyd resins of the same oil length. In addition, the water and acid resistance of the said alkyd was also found comparable to the other alkyds.     

Solubilization chromatography: Ethers,carboxylic acids,and hydrocarbons

Synthetic mixtures of aliphatic and aromatic ethers, satmated fatty acids, and substituted benzenes and naphthalenes were separated by elution through columns of ion-exchange resins with aqueous solutions of acetic acid as eluent An attempt was made to use a resin of low capacity for the separation of such mixtures, and the results of this attempt are used to help elucidate the theory of solubilization chromatography     

Differential isotope dansylation labeling combined with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry for quantification of intact and N-terminal truncated proteins

The N-terminal amino acids of proteins are important structure units for maintaining the biological function, localization, and interaction networks of proteins. Under different biological conditions, one or several N-terminal amino acids could be cleaved from an intact protein due to processes, such as proteolysis, resulting in the change of protein properties. Thus, the ability to quantify the N-terminal truncated forms of proteins is of great importance, particularly in the area of development and production of protein-based drugs where the relative quantity of the intact protein and its truncated form needs to be monitored. In this work, we describe a rapid method for absolute quantification of protein mixtures containing intact and N-terminal truncated proteins. This method is based on dansylation labeling of the N-terminal amino acids of proteins, followed by microwave-assisted acid hydrolysis of the proteins into amino acids. It is shown that dansyl labeled amino acids are stable in acidic conditions and can be quantified by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS) with the use of isotope analog standards.     

Quantitative analysis of immobilized proteins and protein mixtures by amino acid analysis

Biomolecular surface engineering of materials often requires precise, versatile and efficient quantification of immobilized proteins at solid surfaces. Acidic hydrolysis of surface-bound proteins and subsequent HPLC analysis of fluorescence-derivatized amino acids were adapted and critically evaluated for that purpose. Contaminations and concentration-dependent amino acid retrieval during HPLC were found to influence the accuracy of the method. In addition to the choice of adequate conditions for hydrolysis, derivatization and chromatographic separation extensions of the data evaluation were suggested to improve the accuracy of the approach when applied to single protein systems: comparing the experimentally obtained amino acid ratio to the protein constitution enabled to identify the properly separated and detected amino acids. Those amino acids were selected for a more precise calculation of the amount of immobilized protein. To further increase the accuracy of the method, the retrieval of amino acids corresponding to protein amounts in the range between 0.5 and 4.0 microg was analyzed for a variety of proteins of interest to derive protein-specific correction factors. The evaluation of amino acid data was furthermore applied to quantify binary protein mixtures at similar settings. This method was proven useful to detect the composition of protein mixtures throughout a wide range of absolute and relative concentrations.     

TG–DSC analysis applied to contemporary oil paints

Thermogravimetry coupled with differential scanning calorimetry (TG–DSC) has been commonly used in the field of conservation of Cultural Heritage for the study of art objects, especially for the characterisation of inorganic matrixes. In recent years, thermal analyses have been applied to the study of organic painting materials. The advantages of performing TG–DSC are linked to the fact that it is micro-destructive technique which does not require any treatment prior the analysis and provide useful information in relatively short time. The aim of this study is to describe the application of TG–DSC on the study of oil binders used in contemporary paints. Even if synthetic binders have become increasingly popular in the 20th century, many contemporary artists still prefer the more traditional media: drying oils. Although the wish of recalling traditional methods, much practical knowledge in paint preparation by mixing drying oil and pigments and in the behaviour of the mixture has been lost. This is mainly due to the different composition of contemporary materials in comparison with the traditional ones and may sometimes lead to different drying properties of the oil paint formulations and consequent problems in the art creation and conservation. For answer to this artistic need and in particular to the difficulties outlined by artists themselves in producing and employing oil paints, unpigmented and pigmented oil films were studied after a week, 1 and 2 years of natural drying under laboratory conditions. Thermal analyses were performed in air flow: the focus of this research was, in fact, to study the thermal and oxidative behaviours of young films for better understanding the very first processes leading to the formation of the film.     

Fracture behavior of triglyceride‐based adhesives

The use of natural plant oils in the production of adhesives has been the focus of much research because natural oils are a renewable resource which have environmental and economic advantages over the petroleum‐derived chemicals used in traditional adhesives. The network formation and the stress–strain behavior of these plant oil–based adhesives is studied using a combination of simulation techniques. An off‐lattice Monte Carlo simulation has been developed to model the formation of these networks via the free‐radical copolymerization of the triglycerides present in natural oils. Networks of systems representing the triglycerides found in soybean oil, linseed oil, and olive oil are generated, as are networks made from other “theoretical” natural oils. The structure of the networks is characterized by percolation analysis. The stress–strain behavior of these networks is studied using large‐scale molecular dynamics simulations. Tensile strains are applied to the networks and it is observed that with increasing n the failure stress increases but the failure strain decreases. Also, for systems with low values of n, large voids form while the system is strained and then the system fails cohesively. However, for large n, no significant voiding is observed and the system fails close to the interface. The simulation results are shown to be consistent with the vector percolation theoretical prediction for how the failure stress relates to n. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3333–3343, 2004     

Ultrasound-Assisted Microencapsulation of Soybean Oil and Vitamin D Using Bare Glycogen Nanoparticles

Ultrasonically synthesized core-shell microcapsules can be made of synthetic polymers or natural biopolymers, such as proteins and polysaccharides, and have found applications in food, drug delivery and cosmetics. This study reports on the ultrasonic synthesis of microcapsules using unmodified (natural) and biodegradable glycogen nanoparticles derived from various sources, such as rabbit and bovine liver, oyster and sweet corn, for the encapsulation of soybean oil and vitamin D. Depending on their source, glycogen nanoparticles exhibited differences in size and ‘bound’ proteins. We optimized various synthetic parameters, such as ultrasonic power, time and concentration of glycogens and the oil phase to obtain stable core-shell microcapsules. Particularly, under ultrasound-induced emulsification conditions (sonication time 45 s and sonication power 160 W), native glycogens formed microcapsules with diameter between 0.3 μm and 8 μm. It was found that the size of glycogen as well as the protein component play an important role in stabilizing the Pickering emulsion and the microcapsules shell. This study highlights that native glycogen nanoparticles without any further tedious chemical modification steps can be successfully used for the encapsulation of nutrients.     

Efficient purification of recombinant proteins fused to maltose-binding protein by mixed-mode chromatography

Two mixed-mode resins were evaluated as an alternative to conventional affinity resins for the purification of recombinant proteins fused to maltose-binding protein (MPB). We purified recombinant MBP, MBP-LacZ and MBP-Leap2 from crude Escherichia coli extracts. Mixed-mode resins allowed the efficient purification of MBP-fused proteins. Indeed, the quantity of purified proteins was significantly higher with mixed-mode resins, and their purity was equivalent to that obtained with affinity resins. By using purified MBP, MBP-LacZ and MBP-Leap2, the dynamic binding capacity of mixed-mode resins was 5-fold higher than that of affinity resins. Moreover, the recovery for the three proteins studied was in the 50–60% range for affinity resins, and in the 80–85% range for mixed-mode resins. Mixed-mode resins thus represent a powerful alternative to the classical amylose or dextrin resins for the purification of recombinant proteins fused to maltose-binding protein.     

Identification of drying oils in mixtures of natural binding media used for artistic and historic works by capillary electrophoresis

To characterise the technologies and to find the appropriate treatments, the identification of the binding media of artistic and historic objects is of high importance for the restorer and conservator. Often applied together with other binders, in the present paper, the applicability of a CZE method was ascertained for the identification of the constituents of drying oils in mixtures with animal glues and/or plant gums. The drying oils are identified after alkaline hydrolysis due to their content of long‐chain saturated and unsaturated fatty acids (palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic) and shorter‐chain dicarboxylic acids (pimelic, suberic, azelaic, sebacic). The dicarboxylic acids occur as products of the unsaturated acids by oxidative degradation during the drying process. The possible interferences in CE caused by the other binders are amino acids and/or monosaccharides. Such interferences could be expected as indirect UV detection has to be used, which is highly unspecific. It was found that none of the constituents of the animal glues or plant gums migrate in the time window of the analytes, thus not obstructing the identification of the analytes in any of the oil mixtures with one binder, or with a combination of both. No interference is observed even in excess of the glues. The method was applied for the identification of a drying oil in a paint layer from a ceremonial mask originating from Papua New Guinea. There is evidence that the oil is most probably from candlenut tree (Aleurites moluccana).