Post-Harvest Operations to Generate High-Quality Medicinal Cannabis Products: A Systemic Review

The traditional Cannabis plant as a medicinal crop has been explored for many thousands of years. The Cannabis industry is rapidly growing; therefore, optimising drying methods and producing high-quality medical products have been a hot topic in recent years. We systemically analysed the current literature and drew a critical summary of the drying methods implemented thus far to preserve the quality of bioactive compounds from medicinal Cannabis. Different drying techniques have been one of the focal points during the post-harvesting operations, as drying preserves these Cannabis products with increased shelf life. We followed or even highlighted the most popular methods used. Drying methods have advanced from traditional hot air and oven drying methods to microwave-assisted hot air drying or freeze-drying. In this review, traditional and modern drying technologies are reviewed. Each technology will have different pros and cons of its own. Moreover, this review outlines the quality of the Cannabis plant component harvested plays a major role in drying efficiency and preserving the chemical constituents. The emergence of medical Cannabis, and cannabinoid research requires optimal post-harvesting processes for different Cannabis strains. We proposed the most suitable method for drying medicinal Cannabis to produce consistent, reliable and potent medicinal Cannabis. In addition, drying temperature, rate of drying, mode and storage conditions after drying influenced the Cannabis component retention and quality.     

Regularity of fractional maximal functions through Fourier multipliers

We prove endpoint bounds for derivatives of fractional maximal functions with either smooth convolution kernel or lacunary set of radii in dimensions $n\ge 2$. We also show that the spherical fractional maximal function maps $L^p$ into a first order Sobolev space in dimensions $n\ge 5$.     

Lipschitz Linearization of the Maximal Hyperbolic Cross Multiplier

Journal of Fourier Analysis and Applications - We study the linearized maximal operator associated with dilates of the hyperbolic cross multiplier in dimension two. Assuming a Lipschitz condition...     

Recent trends in ultra‐fast HPLC: New generation superficially porous silica columns

New generation columns, i.e. packed with superficially porous silica particles are available as trade names with following manufacturers: Halo, Ascentis Express, Proshell 120, Kinetex, Accucore, Sunshell, and Nucleoshell. These provide ultra‐fast HPLC separations for a variety of compounds with moderate sample loading capacity and low back pressure. Chemistries of these columns are C₈, C₁₈, RP‐Amide, hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography, penta fluorophenyl (PFP), F5, and RP‐aqua. Normally, the silica gel particles are of 2.7 and 1.7 μm as total and inner solid core diameters, respectively, with 0.5‐μm‐thick of outer porous layer having 90 Å pore sizes and 150 m²/g surface area. This article describes these new generation columns with special emphasis on their textures and chemistries, separations, optimization, and comparison (inter and intra stationary phases). Besides, future perspectives have also been discussed.     

Systematic study of the physicochemical properties of a homologous series of aminobisphosphonates

Aminobisphosphonates, e.g., alendronate and neridronate, are a well known class of molecules used as drugs for various bone diseases. Although these molecules have been available for decades, a detailed understanding of their most important physicochemical properties under comparable conditions is lacking. In this study, ten aminobisphosphonates, H₂N(CH₂)_nC(OH)[P(O)(OH)₂]₂, in which n = 2-5, 7-11 and 15 have been synthesized. Their aqueous solubility as a function of temperature and pH, pK_a-values, thermal stability, IR absorptions, and NMR spectral data for bothliquid (¹H, ¹³C, ³¹P-NMR) and solid state (¹³C, ¹⁵N and ³¹P-CPMAS NMR) were determined.     

Diffusion of dextran within poly(methacrylic acid) hydrogels

We describe an investigation of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy into the diffusion of fluorescein‐tagged dextran (FDEX) in a poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) hydrogel. The temperature dependence of FDEX diffusion is shown to follow Zimm behavior in pure water, and the decrease in the diffusion coefficient when in the PMAA hydrogel has been modeled. The addition of acid and alkali (HCl and NaOH, respectively) not only control the swelling and collapse of the hydrogel but also reveal a strong pH dependence of the dextran diffusion coefficient, which shows a (nonmonatonic) increase with pH. The addition of NaCl and CaCl₂ salts similarly showed evidence of network swelling, most notably at low salt concentration, but also that the diffusion coefficient within the gel at these low concentrations is larger than that in the equivalent solution without the hydrogel, indicating that the combination of hydrogel and salt works to increase the diffusion coefficient above that in pure water. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2012     

Airy pulse—A new member of family of localized waves

By making use of the recently found expression for finite-energy 2-dimensional paraxial Airy beam, three types of ultrashort Airy pulses have been derived and numerically simulated. They differ in frequency dependences of their parameters and exhibit different spatial profiles and propagation features. Some startling properties of the pulses and their physical nature are discussed.