Essential oil of buds of Betula pendula of Yakutia

Chemistry of Natural Compounds - The quantitative amounts of the essential oil of the European white birch of the Yakut population in the annual cycle and its component composition have been...     

A one-parameter formula for estimating the Λ well depth

A one parameter, semi-empirical formula for Λ-binding energy of heavy hypernuclei in the inverse powers of core mass number (A _c) has been developed in the framework of the folding model. Unlike similar calculations reported by other authors (Deloff 1971; Daskaloyanniset al 1985), we are able to take into account the effect arising from the difference in the number of protons and neutrons of the core nuclei having same mass number. The radius and diffuseness are parametrized using the experimentally known charge density data of a fairly large number of medium and heavy nuclei. The well depth parameter (i.e. Λ-binding energy in infinite nuclear matter) in the formula is obtained from a fit to theB _Λ data of _Λ ²⁸ Si, _Λ ⁴⁰ Ca, _Λ ⁵¹ V and _Λ ³⁹ Y. Using the original Λ-nucleus potential, theB _Λ of ground and the experimentally known excited states of these hypernuclei have also been calculated by solving numerically the two-body Schrödinger equation. The agreement with the experimental data is satisfactory.     

Antimicrobial indole alkaloids with adductive C9 aromatic unit from Gelsemium elegans

Gelselegandines A-C (1–3), three unprecedented gelsedines incorporating additional C₉ aromatic unit as side chain, were isolated from Gelsemium elegans. Their structures were elucidated by means of spectroscopic techniques and electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculation. Additionally, gelselegandines A–C showed moderate antimicrobial activities against four bacterial strains and two fungi.     

Advancements in biocatalysis: From computational to metabolic engineering

Through several waves of technological research and un-matched innovation strategies, bio-catalysis has been widely used at the industrial level. Because of the value of enzymes, methods for producing value-added compounds and industrially-relevant fine chemicals through biological methods have been developed. A broad spectrum of numerous biochemical pathways is catalyzed by enzymes, including enzymes that have not been identified. However, low catalytic efficacy, low stability, inhibition by non-cognate substrates, and intolerance to the harsh reaction conditions required for some chemical processes are considered as major limitations in applied bio-catalysis. Thus, the development of green catalysts with multi-catalytic features along with higher efficacy and induced stability are important for bio-catalysis. Implementation of computational science with metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and machine learning routes offers novel alternatives for engineering novel catalysts. Here, we describe the role of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering in catalysis. Machine learning algorithms for catalysis and the choice of an algorithm for predicting protein-ligand interactions are discussed. The importance of molecular docking in predicting binding and catalytic functions is reviewed. Finally, we describe future challenges and perspectives.     

Composite liquid crystal-polymer electrolytes in dye-sensitised solar cells: effects of mesophase alkyl chain length

The doping of polymer electrolytes (PEs) with liquid crystal (LC) materials has been shown to improve the performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). This is achieved by promoting ionic conduction and increasing optical path length through multiple-light scattering within the photovoltaic devices. In LCs, it is well known that the length of the alkyl chain plays an important role since the LC morphology and mesophase stabilisation depend strongly on the alkyl group. In this work, liquid crystal-polymer composite electrolytes (LC-PEs) are prepared using nematic LCs with different alkyl chain lengths. The morphology of the LC-PEs is investigated and correlated with their electrical properties. Subsequently, DSSCs are prepared using the LC-PEs as a direct example of its application. It is shown that increasing the alkyl chain length of the LCs reduces the efficiency of the solar devices. The longer alkyl chains are speculated to intertwine, thus trapping the mobile ions and reducing the bulk ionic conductivity. For the same reason, longer alkyl chain LCs are thought to be unable to passivate the TiO₂ surface through the adsorption of cyanobiphenyl groups and hence the higher probability of back recombination reaction between the electrons in TiO₂ and PE.     

One-step,stereoselective synthesis of octahydrochromanes via the Prins reaction and their cannabinoid activities

Novel, functionalized octahydrochromane derivatives were synthesized in a single step via the Prins reaction. Enantiomerically pure (+)-isopulegol was reacted with benzaldehyde to stereoselectively yield the corresponding octahydro-2H-chromen-4-ol derivative containing five stereocenters. A total of 10 compounds were synthesized by altering the enantiomer of isopulegol and the substituted benzaldehyde, and the resulting enantiopure octahydrochromanes were screened in vitro against the cannabinoid receptor isoforms CB1 and CB2. Compounds containing an olefin at the C4 position [(+)-3c, (?)-3c, (?)-7c, (?)-9c and (?)-11c] of the octahydrochromane scaffold were found to exhibit reasonable displacement of [³H] CP55,940 from the CB receptors, whereas the corresponding hydroxy analogs [(+)-3a, (+)-3b, (?)-3a, (?)-3b and (+)-5a] had very little or no effect.     

One pot low temperature synthesis of graphene coupled Gd-doped ZnFe<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript> nanocomposite for effective removal of antibiotic levofloxacin drug

Nanocomposites of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coupled gadolinium doped ZnFe₂O₄ (GZFG) have been successfully one pot in-situ synthesized adopting low temperature solution process from zinc nitrate, iron nitrate, gadolinium acetate and graphene oxide with varying concentrations of gadolinium (upto 10% Gd with respect to Zn) in the precursor medium. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy studies confirm the presence of single phase cubic spinel structure of ZnFe₂O₄ that uniformly distributed over the rGO layers. With increasing Gd doping concentration in precursor medium, the average crystallite size of ZnFe₂O₄ diminishes gradually from ~11 to ~5.5?nm. Raman and X-ray photoelectron spectral analyses confirm an existence of interaction between rGO and ZnFe₂O₄ in GZFG samples. Using antibiotic levofloxacin in water, the drug removal capacity (DRC) of GZFG has been performed by optimization of parameters such as gadolinium doping concentration in precursor medium, solution pH, etc. However, the gadolinium doping leads to an improvement in DRC of the nanocomposite and the 5% Gd doped sample shows about 86% DRC at the optimized condition. This simple strategy can be utilized in the synthesis of rGO coupled Gd doped other metal oxide nanocomposites for DRC application.

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Chemoenzymatic Assembly of Mammalian O‐Mannose Glycans

O‐Mannose glycans account up to 30 % of total O‐glycans in the brain. Previous synthesis and functional studies have only focused on the core M3 O‐mannose glycans of α‐dystroglycan, which are a causative factor for various muscular diseases. In this study, a highly efficient chemoenzymatic strategy was developed that enabled the first collective synthesis of 63 core M1 and core M2 O‐mannose glycans. This chemoenzymatic strategy features the gram‐scale chemical synthesis of five judiciously designed core structures, and the diversity‐oriented modification of the core structures with three enzyme modules to provide 58 complex O‐mannose glycans in a linear sequence that does not exceed four steps. The binding profiles of synthetic O‐mannose glycans with a panel of lectins, antibodies, and brain proteins were also explored by using a printed O‐mannose glycan array.     

Polyphenolic compounds from Malus hupehensis and their free radical scavenging effects

One new 4-chromanone glycoside, 5-O-β-d-glucopyranoside-4-chromanone (1), together with 21 known polyphenols, was isolated from the leaves of Malus hupehensis. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive spectroscopic methods including NMR (1D and 2D), mass (ESIMS and HRESIMS), IR, and by comparison with the data reported in the literature. Some of the isolated compounds were screened for antioxidant activity. Compounds 18 and 14 exhibited significant antioxidant activities with SC₅₀ values 2.73 and 2.91 μg/mL, respectively, while 17, 19, 11, 7, 20, 22, 12 and 13 exhibited moderate activities with SC₅₀ values ranging from 5.24–11.86 μg/mL. The HPLC fingerprint profiles of the leaves and fruits extracts were also analysed, which showed that the constituents were almost the same in both the extracts except for the content of phlorizin which was present in higher amount in the leaves.     

Cytotoxicity,In vitro anti-Leishmanial and fingerprint HPLC- photodiode array analysis of the roots of Trillium govanianum

Trillium govanianum Wall. ex D. Don (Melanthiaceae alt. Trilliaceae), commonly known as ‘nagchhatry’ or ‘teen patra’, distributed from Pakistan to Bhutan about 2500–3800 m altitude is indigenous to Himalayas region. In folk medicine the plant has been reported for the treatment of wound healing, sepsis and in various sexual disorders. This paper reports, for the first time, to evaluate the cytotoxicity, in vitro anti-leishmanial (promastigotes) and fingerprint HPLC-photodiode array analysis of the MeOH extract of the roots of T. govanianum and its solid phase extraction fractions. Reverse phase HPLC-PDA based quantification revealed the presence of significant amount of quercetin, myrecetin and kaemferol ranging from 0.221to 0.528 μg/mg DW. MeOH extract revealed distinguishable protein kinase inhibitory activity against Streptomyces 85E strain with 18 mm bald phenotype. The remarkable toxicity profile against brine shrimps and leishmanial was manifested by MeOH extract with LC₅₀ 10 and 38.5 μg/mL, respectively.