Determination of aristolochic acid by capillary zone electrophoresis

A simple and rapid capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method for the determination of aristolochic acid (AA) in dietary supplements and selected herbs is described. A clear separation of AA from other sample constituents was achieved within 5 minutes without any sample clean up. A mixture of 20 mM-morpholinethanesulphonic acid+10 mM-BisTrisPropane+0.2% hydroxyethylcelullose in 10% methanol serves as a background electrolyte. The linearity, accuracy, intra-assay and detection limit of the developed method are 200–6000 ng/mL, 95–103%, 3.5%, and 50 ng/ml, respectively. Ease of use, sufficient sensitivity and low running cost are the most important attributes of the CZE method. The proposed CZE method was compared with HPLC.     

An experimental and theoretical study of the Cp2VO2CO: use of 13CO3(2-) for structure investigation of d1-metallocene complexes

EPR study has shown that the anticancer agent vanadocene dichloride (Cp2VCl2) interacts with carbonate contained in physiological solutions. Chelate complex Cp2VO2CO (|A(iso)(51V)| = 175.1 MHz, g(iso) = 1.9861) is the only paramagnetic species formed in the range about the physiological pH (5.5-11.0). The super-hyperfine coupling (|a(iso)(13C)| = 24.1 MHz) was evidenced at measurements using 13C labelled carbonate. The structure of carbonate complex was validated by comparison of observed and theoretical calculated HFC tensors (at the density functional level of theory).     

Determination of pesticides in waters by capillary gas chromatography with atomic emission detection

Capillary gas chromatography with atomic emission detection (GC-AED) was successfully used to separate and quantify 14 pesticides (organochlorines, organophosphorus compounds and pyrethrins) in water samples after liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate. Monitoring the emission lines for elements such as chlorine, bromine and sulfur ensures nearly specific chromatograms for these elements, and markedly increases selectivity. Calibration curves were obtained by plotting peak area versus concentration and the correlation coefficients relating to linearity were at least 0.999. Each chromatographic separation takes 21 min and, since two injections are necessary, it requires approximately 1 h to analyze one sample. The method shows a precision of 4.3-8.2% (RSD), depending on the compound. The application of liquid-liquid extraction with ethyl acetate led to recoveries from spiked samples ranging from 76 to 113%. The sensitivity and linearity for the elements chlorine, sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorus were checked under the optimized conditions at their customary emission wavelength. The sensitivity and linearity for these compounds decreased in the order (atom and emission wavelength) Cl (479 nm)>S (181 nm)>P (178 nm)>N (174 nm). A study of the GC-AED system's response to chlorine concentration in eight pesticide molecules was performed and a linear relationship was found with a correlation coefficient of 0.987.     

Diorganotin(IV) derivatives of substituted benzohydroxamic acids with high antitumor activity

A series of diorganotin(IV) and dichlorotin(IV) derivatives of 4-X-benzohydroxamic acids, [HL(1) (X = Cl) or HL(2) (X = OCH(3))] formulated as [R(2)SnL(2)] (R = Me, Et, nBu, Ph or Cl; L = L(1) or L(2)), along with their corresponding mixed-ligand complexes [R(2)Sn(L(1))(L(2))] have been prepared and characterized by FT-IR, (1)H, (13)C, and (119)Sn NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, elemental analysis, and melting points. In addition, single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses were carried out for [Me(2)SnL(2)] (L = L(1) or L(2)), which show coordination structures intermediate between distorted octahedra and bicapped tetrahedra. The hydroxamate ligands are asymmetrically coordinated by the oxygen atoms, the carbonyl oxygen atom is further away from the metal center than the other oxygen atom. The complexes are stable monomeric species; most of them are soluble not only in chlorohydrocarbon solvents, but also in alcohols and hydroalcoholic solutions. In polar solvents, the mixed-ligand complexes gradually decompose into the corresponding single-ligand complex couples. The complexes exhibit in vitro antitumor activities (against a series of human tumor cell lines) which, in some cases, are identical to, or even higher than, that of cisplatin. For the dialkyltin complexes, the activity increases with the length of the carbon chain of the alkyl ligand and is higher in the case of the chloro-substituted benzohydroxamato ligand. The [nBu(2)Sn(L(1))(2)] complex displays a high in vivo activity against H22 liver and BGC-823 gastric tumors, and has a relatively low toxicity.     

Parallelization of three-center electron repulsion integrals

The parallelization of the three-center electron repulsion integrals arising from the variational fitting of the Coulomb potential is presented. A scheme for dynamical load balancing of the corresponding loop structure is discussed. The implementation in the density functional theory program deMon using the message passing interface is described. The efficiency of the parallelization is analyzed by selected benchmark calculations     

Synthesis of novel tryptamine and β-carboline derivatives via palladium-catalyzed reaction of bromotryptamine with organic boronic acids

New tryptamine 5, 7 and β-carboline derivatives 3 were preparated by palladium-catalyzed coupling reaction of 5-bromotryptamine 1 with aryl boronic acids. Dedicated to Professor András Lipták on his 70^th birthday.     

Stability of Suspensions of Bioactive Particles Using Hybrid Organic–Inorganic Solutions as Dispersing Media

Functional coatings incorporating different types of particles developed by the sol–gel method have been proposed in the last few years for diverse applications. This work focuses on the preparation of homogeneous coatings prepared from stable suspensions with 10 wt% of glass and glass ceramic particles in a hybrid organic–inorganic solution as dispersing media. For this purpose, the pH was shifted up to 6–7 by adding tetrapropylammonium hydroxide (TPAH) which behaves as a cationic surfactant being probably adsorbed on the particles surface, while the sol maintains stable. Rheological measurements were performed to study the stability of the suspensions prepared at different conditions such as the kind and concentration of dispersant and the pH conditions. After sintering at 450^∘C/30 min, coatings around 2 μ m in thickness were obtained.     

Selective liquid adsorption and structural properties of montmorillonite and its hexadecylpyridinium derivatives

Summary An X-ray diffraction method was used to study the structures of montmorillonites, the surfaces of which were covered to a systematically increasing extent with hexadecylpyridinium (HDP) cations. It was found that, depending on the degree of cover of the surface, the HDP cations form a mono- or bimolecular layer in the interlayer space. A detailed investigation was made of the selective sorption of binary mixtures on montmorillonite and on HDP-montmorillonites with different surface coverages. The adsorption excess isotherms were determined, as were the adsorption capacities from analysis of the isotherms, and also the equivalent specific surface areas.It was established that from benzene-n-heptane mixtures the benzene is adsorbed only on the external surface of montmorillonite, while in the case of organocomplexes it causes moderate disaggregation.From benzene, alcohols with different numbers of carbon atoms are also preferentially adsorbed on the internal surfaces of montmorillonite; with the rise in the number of carbon atoms, the extent of interlamellar adsorption decreases. In the case of HDP-montmorillonites in methanol-benzene mixtures, the adsorption capacity exhibits a monotonous increase with the degree of organopbility in the range under consideration. In the event of optimum organophility the disaggregation of the organocomplex is complete, and the equivalent specific surface area is 764-778 m² · g^–1. The swelling of the organocomplex, which can be characterized by X-ray diffraction measurement, is in close correlation with the interlamellar liquid adsorption. The results show modification of the surface of montmorillonite with HDP cations fundamentally determines the nature and extent of the selective liquid adsorption.

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Zusammenfassung Die Struktur von mit Hexadecyl-pyridinium(HDP)-Kationen im systematisch gesteigerten Maße bedeckten Montmorilloniten wurde mit der Röntgendiffraktions-Methode untersucht. Es wurde festgestellt, daß die HDP-Kationen, von der Bedeckung der Oberfläche abhängend, im Schichtzwischenraum eine mono- bzw. bimolekulare Schicht bilden. Die selektive Sorption binärer Gemische wurde an Montmorilloniten und an HDP-Montmorilloniten verschiedener Bedeckung eingehend untersucht. Es wurden die Adsorptionsisothermen von Flüssigkeitsgemischen und aus deren Analyse die Adsorptionskapazitäten und die äquivalenten spezifischen Oberflächen bestimmt.Es wurde festgestellt, daß aus Benzol-n-Heptan-Gemischen das Benzol nur an der äußeren Montmorillonite-Oberfläche adsorbiert wird, während es bei Organokomplexen eine mäßige Desaggregation verursacht. Die Adsorption von Alkoholen verschiedener Kohlenstoffzahl aus Benzol erscheint auch an inneren Montmorillonit-Oberflächen bevorzugt; mit zunehmender Kohlenstoffzahl nimmt das Ausmaß der interlamellaren Adsorption ab. Bei HDP-Montmorilloniten zeigt die Adsorptionskapazität aus Methanol-Benzol-Gemischen mit zunehmender Organophilität im untersuchten Gebiet eine monotone Steigerung. Im Falle optimaler Organophilität ist die Desaggregation vollständig, die äquivalente spezifische Oberfläche beträgt 764-778 m²/g. Die durch Röntgenn-diffraktionsmessung charakterisierbare Quellung des Organokomplexes steht mit der interlamellaren Flüssig-keitsadsorption in engern Zusammenhang. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, daß Charakter und Ausmaß der selektiven Flüssigkeitsadsorption durch die Modifizierung der Montmorillonit-Oberfläche mit HDP-Kationen grundlegend verändert wird.

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With 14 figures and 4 tables     

Improved quantification limits in chiral capillary electrochromatography by peak compression effects

The peak compression effect has been applied to improve quantification limits in chiral capillary electrochromatography (CEC). A stationary phase based on the chiral selector vancomycin (Chirobiotic V) was used for separations of the enantiomers of mianserin. By adding solvents with a low dielectric constant, e.g. 2-propanol or tetrahydrofuran, to the sample solution, peak compression could be induced. The plate numbers for the minor enantiomer increased from approximately 100,000 to 1.4-1.6 million plates/m, when the composition of the mobile phase was adjusted so that the analyte eluted within either one of two system zones originating from the sample solution. A 10-fold improvement in the quantification limit for the minor enantiomer was obtained compared to elution under non-focused conditions.