Phylattrin, a new cytotoxic xanthone from Calophyllum soulattri

Our continuing studies on secondary metabolites from the stem bark of Calophyllum soulattri has led to the isolation of another new diprenylated xanthone, phylattrin (1), in addition to five other xanthones and two common sterols. The xanthones are soulattrin (2), caloxanthone C (3), macluraxanthone (4), brasixanthone B (5) and trapezifolixanthone (6) while the sterols are stigmasterol (7) and β-sitosterol (8). The structures of these compounds were determined on the basis of spectroscopic analyses such as 1D and 2D-NMR, HRESIMS, IR and UV. Compounds 1-7 exhibited moderate cytotoxic activities against SNU-1, HeLa, Hep G2, NCI-H23, K562, Raji, LS174T, IMR-32 and SK-MEL-28 cells.     

The Coupling of Topology and Inflation in Noncommutative Cosmology

We show that, in a model of modified gravity based on the spectral action functional, there is a nontrivial coupling between cosmic topology and inflation, in the sense that the shape of the possible slow-roll inflation potentials obtained in the model from the nonperturbative form of the spectral action is sensitive not only to the geometry (flat or positively curved) of the universe, but also to the different possible non-simply connected topologies. We show this by explicitly computing the nonperturbative spectral action for some candidate flat cosmic topologies given by Bieberbach manifolds and showing that the resulting inflation potential differs from that of the flat torus by a multiplicative factor, similarly to what happens in the case of the spectral action of the spherical forms in relation to the case of the 3-sphere. We then show that, while the slow-roll parameters differ between the spherical and flat manifolds but do not distinguish different topologies within each class, the power spectra detect the different scalings of the slow-roll potential and therefore distinguish between the various topologies, both in the spherical and in the flat case.     

Effects of Sonication and Thermal Pasteurization on the Nutritional,Antioxidant, and Microbial Properties of Noni Juice

Sonication is recognized as a potential food processing method to improve the functional properties of fruit juice. This study evaluated the effects of different sonication durations (20, 40, and 60 min) and thermal pasteurization on the nutritional, antioxidant, and microbial properties of noni juice. Fresh noni juice served as the control. The main organic acids detected were malic (57.54–89.31 mg/100 mL) and ascorbic (17.15–31.55 mg/100 mL) acids. Compared with the fresh sample, the concentrations of these compounds were significantly improved (p < 0.05) in the 60 min sonicated sample but reduced (p < 0.05) in the pasteurized sample. Moreover, sonication for 60 min resulted in increments of scopoletin, rutin, and vanillic acid compared to the fresh sample. The antioxidant activity of the juice sample was improved in the sample sonicated for 60 min. Irrespective of juice processing method, the level of microbial counts in noni juice was within the satisfactory level over the 8 weeks of refrigerated (4 °C) storage. This study highlights the feasibility of using ultrasound processing to enhance the quality of noni juice on the industrial scale.