Effective sequestration of Congo red dye with ZnO/cotton stalks biochar nanocomposite: MODELING,reusability and stability

Widespread application of dyes and disposal of their untreated effluents into water bodies adversely affect the ecosystem due to their complex aromatic structures and persistent nature. The present study aims to utilize the cotton stalks biochar (CSB) and its composite with zinc oxide nanoparticles (CSB/ZnONPs) to evaluate for the decontamination their batch scale potential of Congo red dye from wastewater. The characterization of CSB and CSB/ZnONPs was performed with Fourier-transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) and point of zero charge (PZC) to get insight of their potential for the decontamination of CR. The effects of initial CR concentration (25–500 mg/L), dosage of CSB and CSB/ZnONPs (0.5–2 g/L), solution pH (2–10) and contact time (0–180 min) were evaluated on CR removal at temperature (25 ± 1.5 °C). The results disclosed that CSB/ZnONPs showed excellent adsorption potential (556.6 mg/g) in comparison with CSB (250 mg/g) and most of the other adsorbents previously studies in the literature. The equilibrium experimental data were equally explained with Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models (R² > 0.98) while kinetic data demonstrated the best fit with pseudo second order model. The CSB/ZnONPs composite exhibited excellent reusability (89.65%) after five adsorption/desorption cycles for the sequestration of CR from contaminated systems. The present study demonstrated that metallic nanocomposite of CSB (CSB/ZnONPs) is an excellent candidate for the cost effective and environment friendly decontamination of CR from industrial wastewater and is suggested to be considered for the decontamination of other pollutants from the wastewater.     

Protective Effect of Thymus serrulatus Essential Oil on Cadmium-Induced Nephrotoxicity in Rats,through Suppression of Oxidative Stress and Downregulation of NF-κB,iNOS, and Smad2 mRNA Expression

The purpose of the research was to examine the protective effect of essential oil from Thymus serrulatus Hochst. ex Benth. (TSA oil) against cadmium (Cd)-induced renal toxicity. The experimental protocol was designed using 30 healthy adult Wistar albino rats allocated into five groups containing six animals in each group. Group 1 was treated as normal control and groups 2, 3, 4, and 5 were treated with cadmium chloride (CdCl₂, 3 mg/kg, IP) for 7 days. Group 3 was also treated with silymarin (100 mg/kg, PO) as a standard group, while groups 4 and 5 were administered with TSA oil at doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg PO, respectively. The nephrotoxicity was measured with various parameters such as kidney function markers, oxidative stress markers (glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA)), and messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression levels of inflammatory factors. The histological studies were also evaluated in the experimental protocol. The CdCl₂-treated groups showed a significant increase in the levels of serum kidney function markers along with MDA levels in kidney homogenate. However, renal GSH level was found to be reduced significantly. It was found that CdCl₂ significantly upregulated the nuclear factor levels of kappaB (NF-κB p65), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and small mothers against decapentaplegic (Smad2) as compared to the normal control group. On the other hand, TSA oil significantly improved the increased levels of serum kidney function markers, non-enzymatic antioxidants, and lipid peroxidation. In addition, TSA oil significantly downregulated the increased expression of NF-κB p65, iNOS, and Smad2 in Cd-intoxicated rats. Moreover, the histological changes in the tissue samples of the kidney of Cd-treated groups were significantly ameliorated in the silymarin- and TSA-oil-treated groups. The present study reveals that TSA oil ameliorates Cd-induced renal injury, and it is also proposed that the observed nephroprotective effect could be due to the antioxidant potential of TSA oil and healing due to its anti-inflammatory action.     

Box–Behnken Design (BBD)-Based Optimization of Microwave-Assisted Extraction of Parthenolide from the Stems of Tarconanthus camphoratus and Cytotoxic Analysis

Parthenolide, a strong cytotoxic compound found in different parts of Tarchonanthus camphoratus which motivated the authors to develop an optimized microwave-assisted extraction (MEA) method using Box–Behnken design (BBD) for efficient extraction of parthenolide from the stem of T. camphoratus and its validation by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) and cytotoxic analysis. The optimized parameters for microwave extraction were determined as: 51.5 °C extraction temperature, 50.8 min extraction time, and 211 W microwave power. A quadratic polynomial model was found the most suitable model with R² of 0.9989 and coefficient of variation (CV) of 0.2898%. The high values of adjusted R² (0.9974), predicted R² (0.9945), and signal-to-noise ratio (74.23) indicated a good correlation and adequate signal, respectively. HPTLC analyzed the parthenolide (R_f = 0.16) content in T. camphoratus methanol extract (TCME) at λ_max = 575 nm and found it as 0.9273% ± 0.0487% w/w, which was a higher than expected yield (0.9157% w/w). The TCME exhibited good cytotoxicity against HepG2 and MCF-7 cell lines (IC₅₀ = 30.87 and 35.41 µg/mL, respectively), which further supported our findings of high parthenolide content in TCME. This optimized MAE method can be further applied to efficiently extract parthenolide from marketed herbal supplements containing different Tarconanthus species.     

Key Electronic,Linear and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Designed Disubstituted Quinoline with Carbazole Compounds

Organic materials development, especially in terms of nonlinear optical (NLO) performance, has become progressively more significant owing to their rising and promising applications in potential photonic devices. Organic moieties such as carbazole and quinoline play a vital role in charge transfer applications in optoelectronics. This study reports and characterizes the donor–acceptor–donor–π–acceptor (D–A–D–π–A) configured novel designed compounds, namely, Q3D1–Q3D3, Q4D1–Q1D2, and Q5D1. We further analyze the structure–property relationship between the quinoline–carbazole compounds for which density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) calculations were performed at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level to obtain the optimized geometries, natural bonding orbital (NBO), NLO analysis, electronic properties, and absorption spectra of all mentioned compounds. The computed values of λ_max, 364, 360, and 361 nm for Q3, Q4, and Q5 show good agreement of their experimental values: 349, 347, and 323 nm, respectively. The designed compounds (Q3D1–Q5D1) exhibited a smaller energy gap with a maximum redshift than the reference molecules (Q3–Q5), which govern their promising NLO behavior. The NBO evaluation revealed that the extended hyperconjugation stabilizes these systems and caused a promising NLO response. The dipole polarizabilities and hyperpolarizability (β) values of Q3D1–Q3D3, Q4D1-Q1D2, and Q5D1 exceed those of the reference Q3, Q4, and Q5 molecules. These data suggest that the NLO active compounds, Q3D1–Q3D3, Q4D1–Q1D2, and Q5D1, may find their place in future hi-tech optical devices.     

Optical emission spectroscopy of Ar-N2 mixture plasma

Optical emission spectroscopy measurements are presented to characterize the different excitation and ionization processes of both atomic and molecular species in Ar-N₂ mixture plasma under different discharge conditions. Particularly, the emission intensities of nitrogen (0-0) band of second positive system at 337.1 nm and (0-0) band of first negative systems at 391.4 nm are used to determine the dependence of their radiative states on argon fraction in the mixture. It is observed that the addition of argon gas influences the radiative states differently due to their different populating mechanisms. The results demonstrate that the addition of argon to nitrogen plasma remarkably enhance the population of N₂(C³Π_u) radiative state through Penning excitation involving argon metastable states. The electron temperature is determined from Ar-I spectral line intensities, using Boltzmann's plot method and is found to depend on argon fraction in the mixture.     

A New Indole Alkaloid from Cleome droserifolia

The phytochemical investigations on Cleome droserifolia resulted in the isolation and characterization of a new indole alkaloid, 5‐hydroxy‐2‐methoxy‐1‐methyl‐1H‐indole‐3‐carbaldehyde ( 1 ). The structure elucidation was carried out on the basis of 1D‐ and 2D‐NMR techniques. In addition to 1 , two known aromatic derivatives, veratrol ( 2 ) and 2‐methoxy‐4‐methylacetophenone ( 3 ), were also obtained. All these compounds were purified by repeated column chromatography of the CH₂Cl₂ fraction obtained from MeOH extract of Cleome droserifolia. The structure of the new compound 1 was finally confirmed by the combined 1D (¹H‐ and ¹³C‐) and 2D (H? C correlations; HMBC and HSQC) NMR and IR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (MS), and UV absorption spectroscopy techniques. The comparison of the physical and spectroscopic data with those in the literature provided evidence for the structure confirmation of known compounds. All the purified compounds were subjected to urease and α‐glucosidase enzymes inhibition. The results showed that compound 1 was more potent with an IC₅₀ value 11.97±2.067 μg/ml towards urease inhibition, while the activity of α‐glucosidase enzyme was marginal.     

Convergent synthesis,free radical scavenging,Lineweaver-Burk plot exploration,hemolysis and in silico study of novel indole-phenyltriazole hybrid bearing acetamides as potent urease inhibitors

In the current paper, through a convergent multi-step approach, a library of novel indole-phenyltriazole hybrids containing an amide moiety ( 9a-k) was synthesized. The structural verification of all synthesized molecules was accomplished by CHN and spectral analyses data. These synthesized bi-heterocyclic derivatives ( 9a-k ) were evaluated for their anti-ulcer potential by inhibitory action against Jack bean urease enzyme and subsequently their structure-activity relationship was perceived. Moreover, these compounds were inspected for cytotoxic profile by hemolytic activity and it was professed that nearly all the synthesized compounds showed low cytotoxicity. In addition, free radical scavenging activity and kinetic analysis were also carried out for these compounds to understand their mode of inhibition. So, it was summated that these derivatives might lead to further research gateways for obtaining better and safe anti-ulcer agents.     

Generalized Jordan derivations on Lie ideals associate with Hochschild 2-cocycles of rings

Let R be a 2-torsion free ring and L be a Lie ideal of R. In this paper we initiate the study of generalized derivations on Lie ideals associate with Hochschild 2-cocycles and prove that every generalized derivation associate with a Hochschild 2-cocycle on L is a generalized derivation on L under certain conditions.     

On <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-commuting and <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-skew-commuting maps with generalized derivations in prime and semiprime rings

Let R be a ring with center Z(R), let n be a fixed positive integer, and let I be a nonzero ideal of R. A mapping h: R → R is called n-centralizing (n-commuting) on a subset S of R if [h(x),x ⁿ ] ∈ Z(R) ([h(x),x ⁿ ] = 0 respectively) for all x ∈ S. The following are proved: