Microstructure and chemical composition of giant avian eggshells

The microstructure and composition of the layers of two giant avian eggshells were investigated using a combination of scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalyses, and X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy (XANES). The two species have some similarities and differences in their microstructure and composition; the composition is not homogeneous throughout the eggshell thickness. XANES studies show that sulfur is associated with amino acids in the inner organic membranes, whereas in the mineralised layers the sulfur is mainly associated with sulfated polysaccharides. These results are similar to those obtained on chicken eggshells, and confirm the active role of sulfated acidic polysaccharides in biomineralisation processes of carbonate skeletons.     

Comparison of the NCI open database with seven large chemical structural databases.

Eight large chemical databases have been analyzed and compared to each other. Central to this comparison is the open National Cancer Institute (NCI) database, consisting of approximately 250 000 structures. The other databases analyzed are the Available Chemicals Directory ("ACD," from MDL, release 1.99, 3D-version); the ChemACX ("ACX," from CamSoft, Version 4.5); the Maybridge Catalog and the Asinex database (both as distributed by CamSoft as part of ChemInfo 4.5); the Sigma-Aldrich Catalog (CD-ROM, 1999 Version); the World Drug Index ("WDI," Derwent, version 1999.03); and the organic part of the Cambridge Crystallographic Database ("CSD," from Cambridge Crystallographic Data Center, 1999 Version 5.18). The database properties analyzed are internal duplication rates; compounds unique to each database; cumulative occurrence of compounds in an increasing number of databases; overlap of identical compounds between two databases; similarity overlap; diversity; and others. The crystallographic database CSD and the WDI show somewhat less overlap with the other databases than those with each other. In particular the collections of commercial compounds and compilations of vendor catalogs have a substantial degree of overlap among each other. Still, no database is completely a subset of any other, and each appears to have its own niche and thus "raison d'être". The NCI database has by far the highest number of compounds that are unique to it. Approximately 200 000 of the NCI structures were not found in any of the other analyzed databases.     

Isolation, chemical composition, and structural features of polysaccharides fromLupinus species

Polysaccharides ofLupinus angustifolius (Bryansk 123 and Krystall varieties) andLupinus luteus (SG-91 variety) are extracted and hydrolyzed. Their chemical composition and structural features are studied. Optimal conditions for extraction, hydrolysis, and purification of the lupine polysaccharides are found. Structural features of the isolated pectins are determined based on¹³C NMR and IR spectroscopy.Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 32–34, January–February, 2000.     

不同种类生物油化学组成结构的对比研究

利用气质联用和核磁共振光谱对不同种类生物油的化学组成结构进行了对比分析.气质联用分析表明,由于不同种类生物质原料化学组成的差异,导致不同种类生物油主要类别物质含量存在较大差别,有机酸含量较高的是蔗渣热解油,醛酮类物质含量较高的是蔗渣和稻草热解油,芳香类物质含量较高的是玉米芯和松木热解油,而脱水糖含量较高的是稻草和松木热...     

Comparison of structural and chemical properties of black and red human hair melanosomes

Melanosomes in black and red human hair are isolated and characterized by various chemical and physical techniques. Different yields of 4-amino-hydroxyphenolanaline by HI hydrolysis (a marker for pheomelanin) and pyrrole-2,3,5-tricarboxylic acid by KMnO(4)/H(+) oxidation (a marker for eumelanin) indicate that the melanosomes in black hair are eumelanosomes, whereas those in red hair are mainly pheomelanosomes. Atomic force microscopy reveals that eumelanosomes and pheomelanosomes have ellipsoidal and spherical shapes, respectively. Eumelanosomes maintain structural integrity upon extraction from the keratin matrix, whereas pheomelanosomes tend to fall apart. The black-hair eumelanosomes have an average of 14.6 +/- 0.5% amino acids content, which is attributed to the internal proteins entrapped in the melanosomes granules. The red-hair melanosomes contain more than 44% of amino acid content even after extensive proteolytic digestion. This high content of amino acids and the poorly reserved integrity of red-hair melanosomes suggest that some proteins are possibly covalently bonded with the melanin constituents in addition to those that are entrapped inside the melanin species. Soluene solubilization assay indicates the absorbance of melanin per gram of sample, adjusted for the amino acid content, is a factor of 2.9 greater for the black-hair melanosomes than the red-hair melanosomes. Metal analysis reveals significant amounts of diverse heavy metal ions bound to the two types of melanosomes. The amount of Cu(II) and Zn(II) are similar but Fe(III) content is four times higher in the red-hair melanosomes. (13)C solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectra and infrared spectra are presented and are shown to be powerful techniques for discerning differences in the amino acid contents, the 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid:5,6-dihydroxyindole ratio, and the degree of cross-linking in the pigment. Excellent agreement is observed between these spectral results and the chemical degradation data.     

Size-dependent structural evolution and chemical reactivity of gold clusters.

Ground-state structures and other experimentally relevant isomers of Au(15) (-) to Au(24) (-) clusters are determined through joint first-principles density functional theory and photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. Subsequent calculations of molecular O(2) adsorption to the optimal cluster structures reveal a size-dependent reactivity pattern that agrees well with earlier experiments. A detailed analysis of the underlying electronic structure shows that the chemical reactivity of the gold cluster anions can be elucidated in terms of a partial-jellium picture, where delocalized electrons occupying electronic shells move over the ionic skeleton, whose geometric structure is strongly influenced by the directional bonding associated with the highly localized "d-band" electrons.     

Polarizabilities of solvents from the chemical composition

From the experimental polarizability values, alpha, of a large set of solvents containing 426 compounds with very different chemical characteristics, an additive model for the estimation of the polarizability is proposed. The derived average atomic polarizability of 10 elements, C, H, O, N, S, P, F, Cl, Br, and I, allows the calculation of the molecular polarizability of solvents from their chemical composition alone, without any other structural consideration. The average errors are 2.31% and 1.93% for the working set of 340 solvents and the prediction set of 86 solvents, respectively. Semiempirical quantum methods, such as, AM1, PM3, and MNDO, gave errors of about 35%. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations give better results than the semiempirical ones but poorer results than those obtained by the additive approach.     

Investigation of the chemical composition ofSaussurea frolovii, Ldb.

Summary A new triterpene alcohol saussurol and its O-acetate have been isolated fromSaussurea frolovii Lbd.Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 256–262, 1965     

Mechanism and structural aspects of thermal Curtius rearrangement. Quantum chemical study

The electronic and geometric structures of formyl, acetyl, and benzoyl azides were studied and fragments of the potential surfaces for the thermal Curtius rearrangement of these azides into the corresponding isocyanates were calculated by density functional theory at the PBE/TZ2P level. Acyl azides adopt two stable, conformations syn and anti, with respect to the C-N bond. The syn conformers are more stable than their anti analogs. The activation energies of the syn-anti isomerization in the series under study are 9.4, 7.0, and 9.2 kcal mol⁻¹, respectively, and the activation energies of the reverse reaction are 8.5, 6.1, and 2.5 kcal mol⁻¹. The rearrangement of syn-acyl azides is a one-step process, in which elimination of N₂ occurs synchronously with the rearrangement of atoms and bonds to form isocyanates. The activation energies of the rearrangements of syn-HC(O)N₃, syn-MeC(O)N₃, and syn-PhC(O)N₃ are 28.0, 32.9, and 34.5 kcal mol⁻¹, respectively. The rearrangement of the anti conformers of the above-mentioned azides involves the formation of singlet acylnitrene. The activation energies of the latter process are 34.6, 32.9, and 32.3 kcal mol⁻¹, respectively. The activation energies of the rearrangement of acylnitrenes into isocyanates are 20.9, 18.9, and 13.6 kcal mol⁻¹, respectively. The energy characteristics of the process and the structural data for the starting compounds, final products, and transition states provide evidence that the thermal Curtius rearrangement occurs predominantly by a concerted mechanism. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 10, pp. 2200–2209, October, 2005.     

Chemical composition and in vitro antimicrobial activity of the essential oils of flower heads and leaves of Santolina rosmarinifolia L. from Romania

The essential oils of the flower heads and leaves of Santolina rosmarinifolia L. (Compositae) cultivated in Romania were obtained through hydrodistillation and analysed by GC-MS. Forty-two components were identified, representing 92.3-94.0% of the whole composition of the samples. Their in vitro antimicrobial activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria strains and the fungus Candida albicans was determined using the agar-diffusion method and the broth dilution method.     

石斛属植物化学成分研究概况

石斛作为我国传统中药材,有着悠久的应用历史.随着现代科技的发展,人们对于石斛的研究更加深入.论文在石斛种质资源、有效化学成分、栽培方式与化学成分等方面综述国内石斛属植物的研究现状,重点阐述国内对石斛属植物化学成分方面的研究概况,指出不同品种石斛属植物化学成分的差异分析和药理活性研究是当今研究重点,提出未来应在植物分子水平上对石斛属植物进行更多的研究,为国内石斛属植物资源的保护、利用和可持续发展提供科学依据.     

Comparison of different sampling heads applied for investigation of welding fume

Welding fume samples were collected in two Hungarian welding plants, where different types of steels were welded with metal active gas (MAG) welding. Welding fumes were sampled with “fixed point” and personal sampling techniques applying different sampling heads: Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) sampler and conical inhalable sampler (CIS) for the inhalable aerosol fraction and the Higgins-Dewell (HD) cyclone for the respirable fraction. When sampled, the welding fume samples were digested with the mixture of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide in a closed vessel microwave digestion system. The Cr, Mn, Ni and Co contents of the solutions were determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Iron was analysed only by the ICP-AES method. Metal concentrations of the workplace air were calculated for the three samplers, and the results were compared to each other. The differences of the metal concentrations determined by the different inhalable sampling heads, which were paired during the sampling, proved not to be significant. Therefore, the IOM and CIS heads can be equally used for the sampling of welding fume. Finally, the distributions of metals were determined between the inhalable and respirable fractions. Metal concentrations in the respirable aerosol fraction were 57-98% of the concentrations in the inhalable fraction. These high rates of metals in the respirable aerosol call the attention to the increased health risk of the welding fume.