Rapid identification of volatile compounds in aromatic plants by automatic thermal desorption — GC-MS

Summary Thermal desorption is a valuable method for the fractionation of plant volatile components, which can be carried out on-line with GC analysis. The use of coupled GC-MS affords additional qualitative information, of special interest for plant species whose composition has not been previously studied. Some examples of the application of automatic thermal desorption, coupled to GC-MS to the identification and characterization of volatile components of plants of different families are given.     

THE PHOTODYNAMIC EFFECT OF ROSE BENGAL ON PROTEINS OF THE MITOCHONDRIAL INNER MEMBRANE

Photodynamic action promoted by Rose Bengal was evaluated in solutions of unsaturated fatty acids or histidine, and on beef heart submitochondrial particles. Rose Bengal-promoted photooxidation of histidine was mainly due to the opening up of the imidazole ring by singlet oxygen. Photosensitization of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) resulted in oxygen consumption and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) formation, the extent of which was linearly related to the increasing degree of unsaturation. Photosensitization of submitochondrial particles caused oxygen consumption and TBARS production. These processes involved two different reaction components: during the first, most of the mitochondrial proteins were inactivated, the most sensitive being succinate dehydrogenase and cytochrome c. The values for the rate ratios of [TBARS] formation/[O2] consumption for the first and second phase were 0.36 and 1.32%, respectively, pointing to a larger contribution of lipid peroxidation during the second phase. The calculation of the rate constants for reaction of singlet oxygen with mitochondrial proteins suggests that singlet oxygen is more reactive towards proteins than to PUFA. The biological role of this selectivity is discussed in terms of the mitochondria as one of the first targets for photosensitized reactions.     

Full-wave analysis of stripping chronopotentiograms at scanned deposition potential (SSCP) as a tool for heavy metal speciation: Theoretical development and application to Cd(II)-phthalate and Cd(II)-iodide systems

A new mathematical treatment has been developed and implemented in an EXCEL spreadsheet in order to determine average equilibrium functions from the full set of data measured by scanning stripping chronopotentiometry (SSCP) in solutions containing different proportions of heavy metal ions and small-sized ligands. It has been applied to the experimental systems Cd(II)-phthalate and Cd(II)-iodide as models of complexation in the absence and in the presence of electrodic adsorption, respectively. The good agreement between the complexation parameters determined in this way, those predicted from literature data and those obtained using a cadmium ion selective electrode (ISE) confirms the validity of the proposed methodology and encourages its further refining for the analysis of macromolecular and heterogeneous systems.     

Approach to the Dynamic of Carbamazepine and its Main Metabolites in Soil Contamination through the Reuse of Wastewater and Sewage Sludge

The release of pharmaceutically active compounds to the soils through the application of sewage sludge and the irrigation with wastewater, or even with surface water, is constant. The adsorption of these compounds onto the soil is one of the key factors affecting their fate in the environment and their potential environmental risks. In this work, the adsorption of carbamazepine (CBZ) and its metabolites, 3-hydroxy-carbamazepine (3OH-CBZ), carbamazepine-10,11-dihydro-10,11-epoxide (EP-CBZ), and 10,11-dihydro-10-hydroxycarbamazepine (10OH-CBZ), in three Mediterranean soils was evaluated using single-solute and four-solute experiments. The highest adsorptions were measured for 3OH-CBZ, followed by CBZ, EP-CBZ, and 10OH-CBZ, in that order. A high influence of the physicochemical characteristics of the compounds, pH, and soil characteristics in the adsorption of the studied compounds was observed and corroborated by the statistical analysis of the results. Moreover, a good fit was observed in the three isotherm models evaluated (linear, Freundlich, and Langmuir) in single-solute experiments (R² > 0.90). However, a decrease of the measured adsorptions and a worse fit to the isotherm models were observed in the case of multiple-solute experiments. This could be mainly due to the competition established between the studied compounds for the active sites of the soils.     

An efficient approach to homochiral indane nucleosides

A series of new chiral 6-substituted purinyl and 8-aza-purinyl carbonucleosides based on indanol were synthesized from the commercially available (1R,2S)-1-amino-2-indanol and (1S,2R)-1-amino-2-indanol based on a well-known methodology.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-additive games: a class of totally balanced games arising from inventory situations with temporary discounts

We introduce a new class of totally balanced cooperative TU games, namely p-additive games. It is inspired by the class of inventory games that arises from inventory situations with temporary discounts (Toledo Ph.D. thesis, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, 2002) and contains the class of inventory cost games (Meca et al. Math. Methods Oper. Res. 57:481–493, 2003). It is shown that every p-additive game and its corresponding subgames have a nonempty core. We also focus on studying the character of concave or convex and monotone p-additive games. In addition, the modified SOC-rule is proposed as a solution for p-additive games. This solution is suitable for p-additive games, since it is a core-allocation which can be reached through a population monotonic allocation scheme. Moreover, two characterizations of the modified SOC-rule are provided. This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and Generalitat Valenciana (grants MTM2005-09184-C02-02, ACOMP06/040, CSD2006-00032). Authors acknowledge valuable comments made by the Editor and the referee.     

Computational study of the hydrogen peroxide scavenging mechanism of allyl methyl disulfide,an antioxidant compound from garlic

Molecular Diversity - Although many sulfur containing garlic compounds present antioxidant activity, little is known about molecular mechanisms through which these compounds react with reactive...