A validated high‑performance thin-layer chromatography method for the simultaneous determination of quercetin and gallic acid in Annona reticulata L.

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - A sensitive and reliable high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method has been developed to simultaneously estimate...     

Structural and spectroscopic evidence for the formation of trinuclear and tetranuclear vanadium(III)/carboxylate complexes of acetate and related derivatives in aqueous solution

The formation of vanadium(III) complexes with nuclearity greater than two is believed to occur in aqueous solution on the basis of potentiometric, electrochemical, and/or UV-vis spectroscopy titration measurements, although structural evidence for this is limited. Upon the addition of 1-2 equiv of acetate, propionate, chloroacetate, trifluoroacetate, or bromoacetate to an aqueous, acidic solution of vanadium(III), trinuclear and tetranuclear complexes are formed. The structures of [V4(mu-OH)4(mu-OOCCF3)4(OH2)8]Cl4.7.5H2O (1), [V4(mu-OH)4(mu-OOCCH3)4(OH2)8]Cl4.CH3COOH.12H2O (2), [V4(mu-OH)4(mu-OOCCH3)4(OH2)8]Cl4.3H2O (3), [V3(mu3-O)(mu-OOCCH2Br)6(OH2)3]CF3SO3.H2O (4), [V3(mu3-O)(mu-OOCCH2CH3)6(OH2)3]Cl.2H2O (5), [V3(mu3-O)(mu-OOCCH3)6(OH2)3]Cl.3.5H2O (6), and [V3(mu3-O)(mu-OOCCH2Cl)6(OH2)3]CF3SO3.H2O (7) have been determined by X-ray diffraction. Importantly, electrospray mass spectrometry and 1H NMR measurements suggest that these complexes are not purely solid-state phenomena but are also present in solution. For the vanadium(III)/acetate and vanadium(III)/propionate systems, two paramagnetic 1H NMR signals corresponding to two distinct complexes (species A and B) are observed in the 40-55 ppm region for 0.20 mol equiv of acetate or propionate, at pD 3.44. No corresponding signals are observed for the vanadium(III)/bromoacetate and vanadium(III)/chloroacetate systems under the same conditions or for the vanadium(III)/ trifluoroacetate system using 19F NMR spectroscopy. UV-vis spectra suggest that species B are structurally analogous for the vanadium(III)/acetate and vanadium(III)/propionate systems, whereas structurally different complexes are the major species for the other systems. Diffusion coefficients of species B for the vanadium(III)/acetate and vanadium(III)/propionate systems determined by pulsed-field-gradient spin-echo NMR spectroscopy measurements are (3.0 +/- 0.1) x 10-6 and (3.23 +/- 0.01) x 10-6 cm2 s-1, respectively, and are most consistent with species B being trimeric, rather than tetranuclear, complexes.     

The influence of stop consonants' perceptual features on the Articulation Index model

Studies on consonant perception under noise conditions typically describe the average consonant error as exponential in the Articulation Index (AI). While this AI formula nicely fits the average error over all consonants, it does not fit the error for any consonant at the utterance level. This study analyzes the error patterns of six stop consonants /p, t, k, b, d, g/ with four vowels (/α/, /ε/, /I/, /ae/), at the individual consonant (i.e., utterance) level. The findings include that the utterance error is essentially zero for signal to noise ratios (SNRs) at least -2 dB, for >78% of the stop consonant utterances. For these utterances, the error is essentially a step function in the SNR at the utterance's detection threshold. This binary error dependence is consistent with the audibility of a single binary defining acoustic feature, having zero error above the feature's detection threshold. Also 11% of the sounds have high error, defined as ≥ 20% for SNRs greater than or equal to -2 dB. A grand average across many such sounds, having a natural distribution in thresholds, results in the error being exponential in the AI measure, as observed. A detailed analysis of the variance from the AI error is provided along with a Bernoulli-trials analysis of the statistical significance.     

Studies on α-glucosidase,aldose reductase and glycation inhibitory properties of sesquiterpenes and flavonoids of Zingiber zerumbet Smith

Eight known phytochemicals, four sesquiterpenes and four flavonoids of Zingiber zerumbet were screened against α-glucosidase enzyme, aldose reductase enzyme and antiglycation property under in vitro conditions. The results established kaempferol-3-O-methylether as a potent inhibitor of α-glucosidase enzyme with an IC₅₀ value of 7.88 μM. In aldose reductase enzyme inhibition assay, all the compounds except zerumbone epoxide showed good to excellent inhibition properties. Among these, the flavonoid compounds were found to be potent aldose reductase inhibitors compared with the four sesquiterpenes. In addition, compounds such as α-humulene, kaempferol, kaempferol-3-O-methylether and 3″,4″-O-diacetylafzelin displayed potent antiglycation properties. From overall results, we found that kaempferol and kaempferol-3-O-methylether are potent inhibitors of α-glucosidase enzyme, aldose reductase enzyme and glycation reaction, the three main targets of drugs for the treatment of diabetes and its complications.