A Comprehensive Review of Rosmarinic Acid: From Phytochemistry to Pharmacology and Its New Insight

Polyphenolic acids are the widely occurring natural products in almost each herbal plant, among which rosmarinic acid (RA, C₁₈H₁₆O₈) is well-known, and is present in over 160 species belonging to many families, especially the Lamiaceae. Aside from this herbal ingredient, dozens of its natural derivatives have also been isolated and characterized from many natural plants. In recent years, with the increasing focus on the natural products as alternative treatments, a large number of pharmacological studies have been carried out to demonstrate the various biological activities of RA such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-diabetes, anti-virus, anti-tumor, neuroprotection, hepatoprotection, etc. In addition, investigations concerning its biosynthesis, extraction, analysis, clinical applications, and pharmacokinetics have also been performed. Although many achievements have been made in various research aspects, there still exist some problems or issues to be answered, especially its toxicity and bioavailability. Thus, we hope that in the case of natural products, the present review can not only provide a comprehensive understanding on RA covering its miscellaneous research fields, but also highlight some of the present issues and future perspectives worth investigating later, in order to help us utilize this polyphenolic acid more efficiently, widely, and safely.     

Non-covalent reconfigurable microgel colloidosomes with a well-defined bilayer shell

Microgels are extremely interfacially active and are widely used to stabilize emulsions. However, they are commonly used to stabilize oil-in-water emulsions due to their intrinsic hydrophilicity and initially dispersed in water. In addition, there have been no attempts to control microgel structural layers that are formed at the interface and as a result it limits applications of microgel in advanced materials. Here, we show that by introducing octanol into poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-methacrylic acid) (PNIPAM-co-MAA) microgels, octanol-swollen microgels can rapidly diffuse from the initially dispersed oil phase onto the water droplet surface. This facilitates the formation of microgel-laden interfacial layers with strong elastic responses and also generates stable inverse water-in-oil Pickering emulsions. These emulsions can be used as templates to produce microgel colloidosomes, herein termed ‘microgelsomes’, with shells that can be fine-tuned from a particle monolayer to a well-defined bilayer. The microgelsomes can then be used to encapsulate and/or anchor nanoparticles, proteins, vitamin C, bio-based nanocrystals or enzymes. Moreover, the programmed release of these substances can be achieved by using ethanol as a trigger to mediate shell permeability. Thus, these reconfigurable microgelsomes with a microgel-bilayer shell can respond to external stimuli and demonstrate tailored properties, which offers novel insights into microgels and promise wider application of Pickering emulsions stabilized by soft colloids.

Inverse W/O Pickering emulsions and reconfigurable microgelsomes with a well-defined bilayer structure are prepared from octanol-swollen PNIPAM-co-MAA microgels and the combination of binary microgels, which promise wider application of soft colloids.     

太空育种射干的X射线荧光及X射线衍射分析和表征

联用X射线荧光光谱(XRF)和粉末X射线衍射(PXRD)方法,对我国独创的第4代太空诱变育种射干中多种元素种类和含量及晶态物质进行了研究。结果表明:太空组射干K元素含量比地面组、对照品分别提高了1.03和0.31倍,Mg元素分别提高了1.44和0.06倍,Ca,Mn和Fe元素含量比地面组分别提高了0.95,0.30和0.29倍,Al元素比地面组、对照组分别降低了38.5%和85.5%,并在射干中鉴别出一水草酸钙(CaC2O4.H2O)晶体,晶体含量是地面组<太空组<对照品。从而可得出结论:太空射干中人体必需的矿质元素比地面组都更接近或优于对照品。文章研究结果和方法对筛选品质优良的太空药材籽种和推广种植太空药材以及建立中药材质量评价标准,有积极的作用和重要意义。     

基准试剂BaCl2纯度的测定

采用EDTA络合滴定法对BaCl2基准试剂的纯度进行测定.在滴定过程中加入EDTA-Mg,通过置换反应,以EDTA滴定Mg2 指示滴定终点,用ICP-MS法对该试剂中主要杂质如Fe、Eu、Yb、Lu等元素进行测定.EDTA络合滴定法结果与ICP-MS、GDMS杂质扣除法测定结果基本一致.该方法操作简单、快速,滴定时变色灵敏,测定结果精确度高.     

Multi-focus optical fiber lens based on all-dielectric metasurface

A multi-focus optical fiber lens is numerically demonstrated based on an all-dielectric metasurface structure. The metasurface consists of an array of rectangular silicon resonators with varying widths in order to obtain the required phase distribution. The core diameter of the multimode fiber is large enough to contain sufficient resonance units. The spatial distribution of the dielectric resonators is dictated by spatial multiplexing, including interleaving meta-atoms and lens aperture division, to achieve multi-focus properties. The proposed optical fiber metalens can produce two or three focal points along the longitudinal direction with high focusing efficiency. The size of every focal point is close to the diffraction limit, and the relative intensity on each focus can be controlled by adjusting the number of the respective resonators. The proposed optical fiber lens will have a great potential in the fields of integrated optics and multifunctional micro/nano devices.     

Mitochondrial citrate accumulation drives alveolar epithelial cell necroptosis in lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury

Necroptosis is the major cause of death in alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) during acute lung injury (ALI). Here, we report a previously unrecognized mechanism for necroptosis. We found an accumulation of mitochondrial citrate (citrate^mt) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated AECs because of the downregulation of Idh3α and citrate carrier (CIC, also known as Slc25a1). shRNA- or inhibitor–mediated inhibition of Idh3α and Slc25a1 induced citrate^mt accumulation and necroptosis in vitro. Mice with AEC-specific Idh3α and Slc25a1 deficiency exhibited exacerbated lung injury and AEC necroptosis. Interestingly, the overexpression of Idh3α and Slc25a1 decreased citrate^mt levels and rescued AECs from necroptosis. Mechanistically, citrate^mt accumulation induced mitochondrial fission and excessive mitophagy in AECs. Furthermore, citrate^mt directly interacted with FUN14 domain-containing protein 1 (FUNDC1) and promoted the interaction of FUNDC1 with dynamin-related protein 1 (DRP1), leading to excessive mitophagy-mediated necroptosis and thereby initiating and promoting ALI. Importantly, necroptosis induced by citrate^mt accumulation was inhibited in FUNDC1-knockout AECs. We show that citrate^mt accumulation is a novel target for protection against ALI involving necroptosis.Subject terms: Infection, Respiratory tract diseases     

Effect of Co-Existing Cations and Anions on the Adsorption of Antibiotics on Iron-Containing Minerals

The adsorption of antibiotics on minerals is an important process in their environment behavior. The adsorption behavior of antibiotics on iron-containing minerals and the effect of co-existing cations and anions were studied in this work. Magnetite, hematite, goethite and kaolin were selected as the representative minerals and characterized by SEM, XRD and BET. A total of eight antibiotics, including three quinolones, three sulfonamides and two mycins were chosen as the research targets. Results showed a higher adsorption amount of quinolones than that of sulfonamides and mycins on the surface of iron-containing minerals in most mineral systems. The adsorption isotherms of quinolones can be well fitted using the Freundlich models. The effects of five cations and five anions on the adsorption of quinolones were investigated, among which Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, HCO₃⁻ and H₂PO₄⁻ mainly showed significant inhibition on the adsorption, while the effects of K⁺, Na⁺, NH₄⁺, Cl⁻, NO₃⁻ and SO₄²⁻ showed less. Natural surface water samples were also collected and used as media to investigate the adsorption behavior of quinolones on iron-containing minerals. The buffering capacity of the natural water kept the reaction solution at circumneutral conditions, and the adsorption amount was mostly promoted in the goethite system (from 0.56~0.78 μmol/g to 0.52~1.43 μmol/g), but was inhibited in the other systems (magnetite: from 1.13~1.33 μmol/g to 0.45~0.76 μmol/g; hematite: from 0.52~0.65 μmol/g to 0.02~0.18 μmol/g; kaolin: from 1.98~1.99 μmol/g to 0.90~1.40 μmol/g). The results in this work help to further understand the transportation and fate of antibiotics in an aqueous environment.     

Metabolomics analysis of the therapeutic mechanism of Semen Descurainiae Oil on hyperlipidemia rats using 1H‐NMR and LC–MS

Semen descurainiae oil (SDO) is an important traditional Chinese medicine that was recently discovered to have the function of reducing blood lipids. Metabolomics analyses of plasma, liver and kidney in rats were performed using ¹H‐NMR and LC–MS to illuminate the lower blood lipid concentration effect of SDO, and niacin was considered as the active control. The measure of total cholesterol (TC) and low‐density‐lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C) in plasma showed that SDO treatment decreased significantly the content of TC and LDL‐C. An orthogonal partial least squares–discriminant analysis approach was applied to identify the different metabolic profiles of plasma, liver and kidney in rats and to detect related potential biomarkers. The results suggested that the metabolic profiles of the control group and hyperlipidemia group showed significant difference and the SDO and niacin group had effective anti‐hyperlipidemia function. The biomarkers primarily concern lipid metabolism, amino acid metabolism and glycometabolism, and the change in biomarkers indicated that hyperlipidemia could cause the unbalance of these metabolic pathways in vivo. SDO reduced blood lipids by repairing amino acid and lipid metabolism.     

Preparation of Tetraethylenepentamine-Functionalized 4A Zeolite for effective removal of phosphate in water

Recently, the high-concentration phosphorus-containing wastewater has been caused lots of negative influences on aquatic environment and thus driven people to develop some effective methods to remove excess of phosphate in water. In order to solve these environmental problem, in this work, a tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) modified 4A zeolite has been prepared and used for removing phosphate. Removal of phosphate by precipitation of 4A zeolite and electrostatic action of TEPA with phosphate were determined by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction and Fourier infrared spectrum, and morphology and characteristic peak of TEPA-4A zeolite before and after adsorption changed significantly. In addition, the results of batch adsorption studies showed that the pH of the solution have a significant influence on the adsorption of TEPA-4A and the biggest adsorption capacity was 23 mg/g at pH = 2.3 ± 0.2. Adsorption isotherms results showed that the process was consistent with Langmuir model and the maximum adsorption capacity could reach to 28 mg/g at 25 °C. TEPA-4A adsorption processes were spontaneous endothermic reaction, and elevated temperatures were conducive to the adsorption process through kinetics and thermodynamics results. The research of TEPA modified 4A zeolite and raw 4A zeolite provides technical support for the development of 4A zeolite instead of sodium tripolyphosphate as a new type of detergent ingredient.