<em>Cassia spectabilis </em>(DC) Irwin et Barn: A Promising Traditional Herb in Health Improvement

The genus Cassia, comprising about 600 species widely distributed worldwide is well known for its diverse biological and pharmacological properties. Cassia spectabilis (sin Senna spectabilis) (DC) Irwin et Barn (Fabaceae) is widely grown as an ornamental plant in tropical and subtropical areas. C. spectabilis has been commonly used in traditional medicine for many years. Information in the biomedical literature has indicated the presence of a variety of medicinally-important chemical constituents in C. spectabilis. Pharmacological studies by various groups of investigators have shown that C. spectabilis possesses significant biological activity, such as antibacterial, antibiofilm, antifungal and antioxidant properties. Beside this, toxicity studies of this plant have revealed no toxic effect on mice. In view of the immense medicinal importance of C. spectabilis, this review aimed at compiling all currently available information on C. spectabilis's botany, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and mechanism of actions, toxicology and its ethnomedicinal uses.     

Tailoring the structural and magnetic properties of sol-gel derived Sm-Co nanogranular films

In this study, we investigated the microstructure, phase evolution and magnetic properties of nanogranular films of Sm-Co compounds processed by the sol-gel method. By controlling the compositional ratio of Sm:Co precursor concentration, nanogranular films consisting of three distinct hard magnetic phases namely, Sm₂Co₇, SmCo₅ and Sm₂Co₁₇ with coercivity values of 1.78, 2.94 and 2.12 kOe, respectively, were obtained through this technique.     

Charge transfer in CdTe at 200 and 300 K

Using a perfect single crystal sample of CdTe grown using PVT method, the electronic charge transfer in the II–VI compound semiconductor CdTe at 200 and 300 K has been evaluated using two different approaches: (1) by solving a quadratic equation involving the observed structure factors of h+k+l=4n+2 type reflections; and (2) by a graphical approach in which the observed and calculated atomic form factors are extrapolated to sinθ/λ=0, to determine the transferred charge. Precise X-ray structure factors collected using MoK radiation have been used for the analysis. The results obtained are reasonable and clearly indicate the ionicity by which charge is transferred from Cd to Te in CdTe.     

Engineered C–N Lyase: Enantioselective Synthesis of Chiral Synthons for Artificial Dipeptide Sweeteners

Aspartic acid derivatives with branched N-alkyl or N-arylalkyl substituents are valuable precursors to artificial dipeptide sweeteners such as neotame and advantame. The development of a biocatalyst to synthesize these compounds in a single asymmetric step is an as yet unmet challenge. Reported here is an enantioselective biocatalytic synthesis of various difficult N-substituted aspartic acids, including N-(3,3-dimethylbutyl)-l -aspartic acid and N-[3-(3-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)propyl]-l -aspartic acid, precursors to neotame and advantame, respectively, using an engineered variant of ethylenediamine-N,N′-disuccinic acid (EDDS) lyase from Chelativorans sp. BNC1. This engineered C–N lyase (mutant D290M/Y320M) displayed a remarkable 1140-fold increase in activity for the selective hydroamination of fumarate compared to that of the wild-type enzyme. These results present new opportunities to develop practical multienzymatic processes for the more sustainable and step-economic synthesis of an important class of food additives.     

C4 Cumulene and the Corresponding Air‐Stable Radical Cation and Dication

A neutral C₄ cumulene 1 that includes a cyclic alkyl(amino) carbene (cAAC), its air‐stable radical cation 1 ^.+, and dication 1 ²⁺ have been synthesized. The redox property of 1 ^.+ was studied by cyclic voltammetry. EPR and theoretical calculations show that the unpaired electron in 1 ^.+ is mainly delocalized over the central C₄ backbone. The commercially available CBr₄ is utilized as a source of dicarbon in the cumulene synthesis.     

Chemoselective Selenium Dioxide Oxidation of 1,4-Adducts Derived from Substituted Arylidene Acetophenones

The chemoselective reactions of selenium dioxide with differently substituted adducts generated by 1,4-addition on benzylidene acetophenone are described. This reaction has been shown to be dependent on the nature of the substituent present, leading to different products by α-oxidation/α-oxidation followed by dehydrogenation/dehydrogenation, enolization, and cyclization.     

Enantiocomplementary Epoxidation Reactions Catalyzed by an Engineered Cofactor-Independent Non-natural Peroxygenase

Peroxygenases are heme-dependent enzymes that use peroxide-borne oxygen to catalyze a wide range of oxyfunctionalization reactions. Herein, we report the engineering of an unusual cofactor-independent peroxygenase based on a promiscuous tautomerase that accepts different hydroperoxides (t-BuOOH and H₂O₂) to accomplish enantiocomplementary epoxidations of various α,β-unsaturated aldehydes (citral and substituted cinnamaldehydes), providing access to both enantiomers of the corresponding α,β-epoxy-aldehydes. High conversions (up to 98 %), high enantioselectivity (up to 98 % ee), and good product yields (50–80 %) were achieved. The reactions likely proceed via a reactive enzyme-bound iminium ion intermediate, allowing tweaking of the enzyme's activity and selectivity by protein engineering. Our results underscore the potential of catalytic promiscuity for the engineering of new cofactor-independent oxidative enzymes.     

Microfluidics for food, agriculture and biosystems industries

Microfluidics, a rapidly emerging enabling technology has the potential to revolutionize food, agriculture and biosystems industries. Examples of potential applications of microfluidics in food industry include nano-particle encapsulation of fish oil, monitoring pathogens and toxins in food and water supplies, micro-nano-filtration for improving food quality, detection of antibiotics in dairy food products, and generation of novel food structures. In addition, microfluidics enables applications in agriculture and animal sciences such as nutrients monitoring and plant cells sorting for improving crop quality and production, effective delivery of biopesticides, simplified in vitro fertilization for animal breeding, animal health monitoring, vaccination and therapeutics. Lastly, microfluidics provides new approaches for bioenergy research. This paper synthesizes information of selected microfluidics-based applications for food, agriculture and biosystems industries.     

Synthesis and Photophysics of Some Novel Imidazole Derivatives Used as Sensitive Fluorescent Chemisensors

Some novel imidazole derivatives were developed for highly sensitive chemisensors for transition metal ions. Since these compounds are sensitive to different external stimulations such as UV irradiation, heat, increasing pressure and changing the environmental pH causing colour change and so they can be used as a ??multi-way?? optically switchable material. A prominent fluorescence enhancement was found in the presence of transition metal ions such as Hg²⁺, Pb²⁺ and Cu²⁺ and this was suggested to result from the suppression of radiationless transitions from the n-??* state in the chemisensors. The existence of C-H??.O intramolecular hydrogen bonding in dmphnpi is confirmed by the Natural Bond Orbital analysis (NBO). The Mulliken, NBO charge analysis and the HOMO-LUMO energies were also calculated. The electric dipole moment (??) and the first-hyperpolarisability (??) value of the investigated molecules have been studied both experimentally and theoretically which reveal that the synthesized molecules have microscopic non-linear optical (NLO) behaviour with non-zero values. Ground and excited state DFT calculation were carried out in order to find out dipole moment and energy.