LC–MS Based Workflows for Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis for Homeopathic Preparation of Hydrastis canadensis

Hydrastis canadensis L. is one of the important herbal medicinal plants, which is used for homeopathic preparations. It contains berberine, hydrastine as major and canadine, hydrastinine, berberastine and canadaline as minor bioactive compounds. The aim was to develop (I) a sensitive mass spectrometric-based quantitative/qualitative method for berberine in homeopathic dilutions of H. canadensis, (II) with identification of berberine and its structurally related compound present in the homeopathic preparation of H. canadensis using predictive MRM workflow, (III) confirmatory analysis for the structurally related compound in homeopathic dilutions of H. canadensis using high-resolution mass spectrometer. Different mass spectrometric-based workflows (MRM to EPI; pMRM to EPI and IDA-DBS) were used to develop the method to analyze the homeopathic dilutions of H. canadensis. A high-throughput liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method using MRM to EPI workflow was developed to analyze berberine in homeopathic preparation of H. canadensis. Multiple reaction monitoring transitions of 336.0/292.08 and 336.0/277.9 were selected for developing the quantitation method of berberine. The method was linear from 5.0 to 2000.0 pg/mL. The validated method has been successfully applied for the analysis of different potencies of homeopathic preparation of H. canadensis. Predictive MRM to enhanced product ion workflows was used to identify and confirm the structurally related molecules of berberine. Non targeted information dependent acquisition-DBS method was developed to identify the compounds in H. canadensis mother tincture using high-resolution mass spectrometry. The established method using different mass spectrometric workflows facilitates the convenient and fast quality control analysis for the herbal preparation of H. canadensis.     

Thermodynamic, transport, and spectroscopic studies for mixtures of isomeric butanediol and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone

The thermodynamic parameters viz. excess molar volume V^E and speed of sound u, transport parameter viscosity η, and spectroscopic parameters viz. IR, ¹H, ¹³C NMR have been measured for the mixtures of isomeric butanediol (1,2-, 1,3-, 1,4-, and 2,3-butanediol) and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone over the whole composition range at 308.15 K. The partial molar quantities , isentropic compressibility , viscosity deviation Δη, deviation in Gibbs free energies of activation for viscous flow g(x), and excess NMR chemical shift δ^E have been estimated and analyzed. Results show that the interaction between unlike molecules takes place through hydroxyl groups of isomeric butanediol and CO group of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone. Excellent agreement between thermodynamic and spectroscopic measurements is observed.     

Efimov states and their Fano resonances in a neutron-rich nucleus

Asymmetric resonances in elastic n+19C scattering are attributed to Efimov states of such neutron-rich nuclei, that is, three-body bound states of the n+n+18C system when none of the pairs is bound or some of them are only weakly bound. By fitting to the general resonance shape described by Fano, we extract the resonance position, width, and the "Fano profile index." While Efimov states have been discussed extensively in many areas of physics, there is only one very recent experimental observation in trimers of cesium atoms. The conjunction that we present of the Efimov and Fano phenomena may lead to experimental realization in nuclei.     

Propagation distance of surface electromagnetic waves on two metal-oxide-air systems

The propagation distance of surface electromagnetic waves on a copper-cuprous oxide-air system was measured using two prism couplers, for oxide thickness between 20 A and 2000 A, and wavelengths from 9.2 μm to 10.8 μm. The copper sample consisted of an evaporated copper film on glass, with an oxide film overlayer grown by heating in air. The measured values of propagation distance agree well with computer-calculated solutions of the three-media dispersion relation. Similar measurements made on a polished surface of rolled titanium, oxidized by heating in air, give agreement only to within 50%. Auger analysis indicated that a carbide impurity on the highly reactive titanium surface and a variation of the titanium oxide composition with thickness both contributed to the disagreement between measured and calculated values of propagation distance.     

Isobar exchange effects in p-d backward inelastic scattering

We study the effects due to nucleon and isobar exchanges in the inelastic contribution to p-d backward scattering at 1.0 GeV. The results are sensitive to the details of the model and will provide a test of assumptions used in the corresponding elastic scattering theory.     

Fabrication of polystyrene hollow microspheres as laser fusion targets by optimized density-matched emulsion technique and characterization

Inertial confinement fusion, frequently referred to as ICF, inertial fusion, or laser fusion, is a means of producing energy by imploding small hollow microspheres containing thermonuclear fusion fuel. Polymer microspheres, which are used as fuel containers, can be produced by solution-based micro-encapsulation technique better known as density-matched emulsion technique. The specifications of these microspheres are very rigorous, and various aspects of the emulsion hydrodynamics associated with their production are important in controlling the final product. This paper describes about the optimization of various parameters associated with density-matched emulsion method in order to improve the surface smoothness, wall thickness uniformity and sphericity of hollow polymer microspheres. These polymer microshells have been successfully fabricated in our lab, with 3–30 μm wall thickness and 50–1600 μm diameters. The sphericity and wall thickness uniformity are better than 99%. Elimination of vacuoles and high yield rate has been achieved by adopting the step-wise heating of W₁/O/W₂ emulsion for solvent removal.     

Coherent pion-photoproduction by deuterons at intermediate energies

Non-relativistically exact single scattering calculations for coherent pion photoproduction by deuterons at intermediate photon energies (200 MeV to 500 MeV) are presented. For the two-bodyγN→πN process we use the well-known dispersion theoretic model by Chewet al and for the deuteron wave-functions we employ the Yamaguchi and the two term Gaussian wave-function. We find that while both the wavefunctions reproduce the deuteron e.m. form factor reasonably well, the results for the pion photoproduction cross-section show, however, a sensitive dependence on their detailed forms. The angular distributions at various energies are found to have considerable variations from the usual impulse approximation calculations but tend to improve the agreement with the data in a large kinematical region.     

A study of angular correlations of projectile and target fragments in 1.4 A GeV Kr+Ag(Br) collisions

A sample of high multiplicity quasi-central Kr⁸⁴+Ag(Br) interactions has been'analysed in terms of angular correlations between projectile and target fragments. The azimuthal correlation of PFs and TFs suggests the presence of a weak collective (bounce-off) effect. Other observations like, target recoil velocity,F/B ratio of TFs with respect to direction of their source etc. are interpreted in terms of a simple two body quasi-elastic scattering and a modified Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.     

A convenient synthesis of some symmetrical and unsymmetrical diarylmethyl sulfur and selenium compounds: X-ray crystal structure of diphenylmethylseleno-2-propene and bis[p-chlorophenyl(phenyl)methyl] diselenide

A number of novel and synthetically important symmetrical and unsymmetrical diarylmethyl sulfur and selenium compounds have been synthesized and characterized with the help of elemental analysis and various spectroscopic techniques. The methodology employs sodium borohydride in ethanol-DMF for E-E bond cleavage (where E = S, Se) at room temperature and gives satisfactory yield of the titled compounds. Molecular structure of bis[p-chlorophenyl(phenyl)methyl] diselenide (3) and diphenylmethylseleno-2-propene 7 has been established with the help of single crystal X-ray analysis. The compound (3) is triclinic and crystallizes into space group, whereas the compound 7 is monoclinic with P2₁/C space group.