Australian Honeypot Ant (Camponotus inflatus) Honey—A Comprehensive Analysis of the Physiochemical Characteristics,Bioactivity, and HPTLC Profile of a Traditional Indigenous Australian Food

Despite its cultural and nutritional importance for local Aboriginal people, the unusual insect honey produced by Western Australian honeypot ant (Camponotus inflatus) has to date been rarely investigated. This study reports on the honey’s physicochemical properties, its total phenolic, major sugars and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural contents, and its antioxidant activities. The honey’s color value is 467.63 mAU/63.39 mm Pfund, it has a pH of 3.85, and its electric conductivity is 449.71 µSiemens/cm. Its Brix value is 67.00, corresponding to a 33% moisture content. The total phenolics content is 19.62 mg gallic acid equivalent/100 g honey. Its antioxidant activity measured using the DPPH* (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) and FRAP (ferric reducing–antioxidant power) assays is 1367.67 µmol Trolox/kg and 3.52 mmol Fe⁺²/kg honey, respectively. Major sugars in the honey are glucose and fructose, with a fructose-to-glucose ratio of 0.85. Additionally, unidentified sugar was found in minor quantities.     

The Utilization of Algae and Seaweed Biomass for Bioremediation of Heavy Metal-Contaminated Wastewater

The presence of heavy metals in water bodies is linked to the increasing number of industries and populations. This has serious consequences for the quality of human health and the environment. In accordance with this issue, water and wastewater treatment technologies including ion exchange, chemical extraction, and hydrolysis should be conducted as a first water purification stage. However, the sequestration of these toxic substances tends to be expensive, especially for large scale treatment methods that require tedious control and have limited efficiency. Therefore, adsorption methods using adsorbents derived from biomass represent a promising alternative due to their great efficiency and abundance. Algal and seaweed biomass has appeared as a sustainable solution for environmentally friendly adsorbent production. This review further discusses recent developments in the use of algal and seaweed biomass as potential sorbent for heavy metal bioremediation. In addition, relevant aspects like metal toxicity, adsorption mechanism, and parameters affecting the completion of adsorption process are also highlighted. Overall, the critical conclusion drawn is that algae and seaweed biomass can be used to sustainably eliminate heavy metals from wastewater.     

The Multifunctional Role of Herbal Products in the Management of Diabetes and Obesity: A Comprehensive Review

Obesity and diabetes are the most demanding health problems today, and their prevalence, as well as comorbidities, is on the rise all over the world. As time goes on, both are becoming big issues that have a big impact on people’s lives. Diabetes is a metabolic and endocrine illness set apart by hyperglycemia and glucose narrow-mindedness because of insulin opposition. Heftiness is a typical, complex, and developing overall wellbeing worry that has for quite some time been connected to significant medical issues in individuals, all things considered. Because of the wide variety and low adverse effects, herbal products are an important hotspot for drug development. Synthetic compounds are not structurally diverse and lack drug-likeness properties. Thus, it is basic to keep on exploring herbal products as possible wellsprings of novel drugs. We conducted this review of the literature by searching Scopus, Science Direct, Elsevier, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. From 1990 until October 2021, research reports, review articles, and original research articles in English are presented. It provides top to bottom data and an examination of plant-inferred compounds that might be utilized against heftiness or potentially hostile to diabetes treatments. Our expanded comprehension of the systems of activity of phytogenic compounds, as an extra examination, could prompt the advancement of remedial methodologies for metabolic diseases. In clinical trials, a huge number of these food kinds or restorative plants, as well as their bioactive compounds, have been shown to be beneficial in the treatment of obesity.     

Isolation and Identification of Bioactive Compounds from Bidens spp. Using HPLC-DAD and GC-MS Analysis and Their Biological Activity as Anticancer Molecules

The genus Bidens a member of family Compositae, is widely documented as an ethno-medicinally important genus of plants. In the present study, anticancer potential of three ethno-medicinally important species i.e., B. bipinnata, B. biternata and B. pilosa were tested. For in-vitro evaluation, an MTT (Thiazolyl blue tetrazolium bromide) assay was performed against cervical cancer cells (HeLa), hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG), and adenocarcinoma human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549). For in vivo evaluation, Artemia salina, Danio rerio, and Caenorhabditis elegans were used. Among all the tested extracts, the ethanol extract of B. biternata appeared to have highest anticancer activity, and the compounds responsible for this activity were identified to be Tris (2,4-di-tert-butylphenyl), 4-hydroxy-2,4′-dimethoxychalcone, and 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol. This is the first report of the isolation of Tris (2,4-di-tert-butylphenyl) phosphate from the genus Bidens and the first report of 4-hydroxy-2,4′-dimethoxychalcone and 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol from B. biternata. Among the isolated compounds, 4-hydroxy-2,4′-dimethoxychalcone showed the highest anticancer activity with an LD50 value of 236.7 µg/mL. Therefore, this compound carries promising potential for being established as a pharmaceutical for chemoprevention and chemotherapy.     

Doping radius effects on an erbium-doped fiber amplifier

In an erbium-doped fiber amplifier(EDFA), erbium ions act as a three-level system. Therefore, much higher pump energy is required to achieve the population inversion in an erbium-doped fiber(EDF). This higher pump energy requirement complicates the efficient design of an EDFA. However, efficient use of the pump power can improve the EDFA performance. The improved performance of an EDFA can be obtained by reducing the doping radius of the EDF. A smaller doping radius increases pump–dopant interactions and subsequently increases the pump–photon conversion efficiency. Decreasing the doping radius allows a larger proportion of dopant ions,which are concentrated near the core, to interact with the highest pump intensity. However, decreasing the doping radius beyond a certain limit will bring the dopant ions much closer and introduce detrimental ion–ion interaction effects. In this Letter, we show that an optimal doping radius in an EDF can provide the best gain performance. Moreover, we have simulated the well-known numerical aperture effects on EDFA gain performance to support our claim.     

Adaptation of dynamical properties of time series data and its applications in deep brain stimulation

Nonlinear Dynamics - The chaotic nature of the brain can be observed by electroencephalogram signals. This chaotic behavior can be affected by the progressive nature of neurodegenerative disorders...     

Spectroscopic and theoretical optical properties of indoleninyl-substituted dibenzotetraaza[14]annulenes

Two new macrocyclic dibenzotetraaza[14]annulene (DBTAA) compounds with indolenine ( 5 ) and pyridoindolenine ( 6 ) moieties were synthesized and characterized by spectroscopy. Both DBTAAs exhibit strong UV-Vis absorption properties in the Soret band region. The theoretical second-order nonlinear optical property, electric dipole moment (μ), dispersion-free dipole polarizability (α) and first hyper-polarizability values were calculated by density functional theory and time dependent density functional theory. The ab-initio quantum mechanical calculation by time-dependent Hartree-Fock method was utilized to investigate the dynamic dipole polarizabilities, dynamic second-order, static, and dynamic third-order (γ) hyper-polarizabilities of the DBTAAs. The configuration interaction technique of all doubly occupied molecular orbitals possesses theoretically defined single-photon absorption (OPA) specifications for the examined structures. The computed maximum OPA wavelengths on both macrocyclic compounds coincide with the preceding measurement outcomes.