Field measurement of nitrate in marine and estuarine waters with a flow analysis system utilizing on-line zinc reduction

A sensitive reagent-injection flow analysis method for the spectrophotometric determination of nitrate in marine, estuarine and fresh water samples is described. The method is based on the reduction of nitrate in a micro column containing zinc granules at pH 6.5. The nitrite formed is reacted with sulfanilamide and N-(1-naphthyl)ethylene diamine (Griess reagent), and the resulting azo compound is quantified spectrophotometrically at 520 nm. Water samples in the range of 3-700 μg L⁻¹ NO₃⁻-N can be processed with a throughput of up to 40 samples per hour, a detection limit of 1.3 μg L⁻¹ and reproducibility of 1.2% RSD (50 μg L⁻¹ NO₃⁻-N, n = 10). The proposed method was successfully applied for the determination of nitrate in estuarine waters and the reliability was assessed by the analyses of certified reference materials and recovery experiments. The method is suitable for waters with a wide range of salinities, and was successfully used for more than 3200 underway nitrate measurements aboard SV Pelican1 in the “Two Bays” cruise in January 2010.     

Selective and Sensitive Fluorometric Determination of Piroxicam Based on Nitrogen-doped Graphene Quantum Dots and Gold Nanoparticles Coated with Phenylalanine

Journal of Fluorescence - In this study, a sensitive fluorimetric method is proposed for the determination of piroxicam using nitrogen graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) and gold nanoparticles coated...     

新型一枝蒿酮酸异噁唑衍生物的合成及其抗A,B型流感病毒活性研究

为了提高一枝蒿酮酸的生物活性,以一枝蒿酮酸和3-取代苯基-5-氨甲基-异噁唑为原料,在偶合试剂DCC,HOBt/DMAP的作用下,合成了6个未见文献报道的含异噁唑的一枝蒿酮酸酰胺衍生物3a～3f.所合成的化合物均经过IR,1H NMR,13C NMR,ESI-MS等分析方法表征及初步体外抗A(H3N2,H1N1)型和B型流感病毒活性研究.初步实验结果表明:化合物3c同时具有抗A(H3N2)型和B型流感病毒活性,化合物3c和3e表现出比母体化合物强的抗B型流感病毒活性.     

Rupestines F-M, new guaipyridine sesquiterpene alkaloids from Artemisia rupestris

Eight new guaipyridine sesquiterpene alkaloids, rupestines F-M (1-8) were isolated from the leaves of Artemisia rupestris and their structures were elucidated on the basis of 2D-NMR data. The absolute configurations of 1-8 have been assigned by comparison of their experimental and calculated circular dichroism (CD) spectra.     

Separation and Purification of Three Flavonoids from Helichrysum arenarium (L.) Moench by HSCCC

Following an initial clean-up step on a Sephadex LH-20 column, high-speed countercurrent chromatography was successfully applied to the isolation and purification of three flavonoids from a crude sample of Helichrysum arenarium (L.) Moench. HSCCC was performed with a two-phase solvent system composed of ethyl acetate–water (1:1, v/v). Naringenin-7-O-β-d-glycoside (2.3 mg), isoquercitrin (3.5 mg), and astragalin (6.7 mg), with purities of 96.05%, 93.63%, 95.23%, respectively, were separated from 160 mg of crude sample in a one-step separation. The structure identification was by ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR.     

Green Regioselective Azidolysis of Epoxides Catalyzed by Multi‐Site Phase‐Transfer Catalyst

A facile synthesis of 1,2‐azidoalcohols from their epoxides using α,α',α”‐N‐hexakis(triethylammoniummethylene chloride)‐melamine as a multi‐site phase‐transfer catalyst in water was developed. By this eco‐friendly and highly atom‐economic method, a variety of 1,2‐azidoalcohols was obtained in high yields with excellent regioselectivity and in short reaction times. Application of this six‐site PTC in the ring opening of epoxides by cyanide, acetate and chloride anions was also studied. The catalyst can be recovered after completion of the reaction and can be recycled without affecting the catalytic property.     

Flat-twisted tubing: Novel column design for spiral high-speed counter-current chromatography

The original spiral tube assembly for high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) is further improved by a new tube configuration called “flat-twisted tubing” which was made by extruding the tube (1.6 mm I.D.) through a narrow slot followed by twisting along its axis forming about 1 cm twisted screw pitch. This modification interrupts the laminar flow of the mobile phase through the tube and continuously mixes the two phases through the column. The performance of this spiral tube assembly was tested by three types of two-phase solvent systems with different polarities each with a set of suitable test samples such as DNP-amino acids, dipeptides and proteins at the optimal elution modes. In general all these test samples yielded higher resolution with the lower mobile phase than the upper mobile phase. In the most hydrophobic two-phase solvent system composed of hexane–ethyl acetate–methanol–0.1 M hydrochloric acid (1:1:1:1, v/v/v/v), DNP–amino acids were separated with Rs-a (peak resolution based on the same column capacity adjusted for comparison) at 4.40 and 73% of stationary phase retention at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/min with the lower mobile phase. In the polar solvent system composed of 1-butanol–acetic acid–water (4:1:5, v/v/v), dipeptide samples were resolved with Rs-a at 4.06, compared to 2.79 with the cross-pressed tube assembly at 45% stationary phase retention, each at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. Finally in the aqueous–aqueous polymer phase systems composed of polyethylene glycol 1000 – dibasic potassium phosphate each 12.5% (w/w) in water, protein samples were resolved with Rs-a at 2.53 compared to 1.10 with the cross-pressed tube assembly at 52% of stationary phase retention, each at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. These results indicate that the present system substantially improves the partition efficiency with a satisfactory level of stationary phase retention by the lower mobile phase.     

A new fatty acid ester from Nigella sativa var. hispidula Boiss showing potent anti-protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B activity

A new fatty acid ester (1) and seven known phenolic compounds, i.e. salfredin B₁₁ (2), nigephenol C (3), nigephenol B (4), acetovanillion (5), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (6), p-hydroxy-acetophenone (7) and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde (8), were isolated from the seeds of Nigella sativa var. hispidula. Among them, compounds 5, 7 and 8 were isolated from Nigella for the first time. Their structures were elucidated with HR-ESI-MS, 1D and 2D NMR spectra. Evaluation of the isolated compounds on protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP1B) assay indicated that although compounds 2–8 show no promising anti-PTP1B activities, compound 1 possess anti-PTP1B activity with an IC₅₀ value of 7.38 ± 0.14 μM in vitro.     

Effect of Shear Flow on Nanoparticles Migration near Liquid Interfaces

The effect of shear flow on spherical nanoparticles (NPs) migration near a liquid–liquid interface is studied by numerical simulation. We have implemented a compact model through which we use the diffuse interface method for modeling the two fluids and the molecular dynamics method for the simulation of the motion of NPs. Two different cases regarding the state of the two fluids when introducing the NPs are investigated. First, we introduce the NPs randomly into the medium of the two immiscible liquids that are already separated, and the interface is formed between them. For this case, it is shown that before applying any shear flow, 30% of NPs are driven to the interface under the effect of the drag force resulting from the composition gradient between the two fluids at the interface. However, this percentage is increased to reach 66% under the effect of shear defined by a Péclet number Pe = 0.316. In this study, different shear rates are investigated in addition to different shearing times, and we show that both factors have a crucial effect regarding the migration of the NPs toward the interfacial region. In particular, a small shear rate applied for a long time will have approximately the same effect as a greater shear rate applied for a shorter time. In the second studied case, we introduce the NPs into the mixture of two fluids that are already mixed and before phase separation so that the NPs are introduced into the homogenous medium of the two fluids. For this case, we show that in the absence of shear, almost all NPs migrate to the interface during phase separation, whereas shearing has a negative result, mainly because it affects the phase separation.