A comparative study of structural, thermal and electrical properties of undoped and doped with dodecylbenzenesulphonic acid polypyrrole

Polypyrrole was synthesized and doped with dodecylbenzenesulphonic acid; the latter was confirmed by means of FTIR spectroscopy. The percentage of crystallinity of synthesized polymers was estimated from X-rays diffraction studies. The formation of flaky structure in doped polypyrrole was observed by means of SEM. DC conductivity was found to be influenced by dopant dodecylbenzenesulphonic acid. Temperature dependant DC shows three dimensional variable ranges hopping (3D VRH). Activation energy, density of states and hopping length were calculated and found to be influenced by adding dopant to polypyrrole. The doped polypyrrole was found to be more thermally stable as compared to that of pristine polypyrrole.     

A new compound, jolynamine, from marine brown alga Jolyna laminarioides

A new compound, jolynamine (1), was isolated from the marine brown alga Jolyna laminarioides collected from the coast of Karachi, Pakistan. In addition, four known compounds, namely saringosterol (2), loliolide (3), methyl-4-hydroxybenzoate (4) and propyl-4-hydroxybenzoate (5), were isolated for the first time from the marine brown alga Iyengaria stellata, and two known compounds, namely 3,4,5-trimethylaniline (6) and harmine (7), were isolated for the first time from the marine brown alga Melanothamnus afaqhusainii. Compound 6 is synthetically known but was isolated for the first time from a natural source. The structures of these compounds were elucidated with the help of powerful spectroscopic techniques. Furthermore, the methanolic extracts of both algae showed anti-microbial activities against various bacteria and fungi.     

Development and Validation of a Liquid Chromatographic Method for the Determination of Leflunomide: Application to in vitro Drug Metal Interactions

Leflunomide is a leading drug for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. The principle aim of this study was to develop and validate an RP‐HPLC method for the determination of leflunomide in bulk and pharmaceutical dosage form using diclofenac sodium as an internal standard. For this purpose, chromatography was accomplished on a Purospher Start, C₁₈ (5 (m, 12.5 cm×0.46 cm) column at ambient temperature. Methanol:water (80:20, V/V) solvent system was selected as mobile phase, the pH of which was adjusted to 3.4 by ortho‐phosphoric acid and delivered at a flow rate of 1.2 mL·min⁻¹. Seperation of leflunomide and diclofenac sodium was carried out on a Purospher Start, C₁₈ equipped with a UV‐visible detector at 248 nm. The suitability of the method for the quantitative determination of the drugs is proven by validation in accordance with the requirements laid down by the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines. The method was accurate (99.55%–100.03%), specific, linear (R²>0.999) and precise (intra‐day precision 0.023%–0.93% and inter‐day precision 0.26%–0.944%) in the range of 0.5–20 (g·mL⁻¹. The minimum limit of detection and quantification in pharmaceutical formulation were 0.05 and 0.15 (g·mL⁻¹, respectively. Thus the proposed method is simple, accurate, reproducible and suitable for the routine analysis of leflunomide in pharmaceutical formulations and was applied to study in vitro drug‐metal interactions.     

A Stability-Indicating Assay of Brimonidine Tartrate Ophthalmic Solution and Stress Testing Using HILIC

A stability-indicating hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) method has been developed and validated for the quantitative determination of Brimonidine tartrate (BT) formulated as an ophthalmic solution. Isocratic separation was achieved using an acetonitrile-buffer mixture (92:8, v/v) at pH 7.1 on an unmodified silica column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 μm). The drug was subjected to oxidative, hydrolytic, photolytic and thermal stress conditions and complete separation was achieved for the parent compound and degradation products. The influence of acetonitrile, pH and ionic strength of the buffer was studied. Linearity range and recoveries for BT were 100–400 μg mL^?1 and 100.12%, respectively. The method was validated for BT and indicated that the method was sufficiently sensitive with a limit of detection at 0.005 μg mL^?1 and a limit of quantitation at 0.02 μg mL^?1, respectively.     

Voltammetric Determination of 4‐Nitrophenol Using a Novel Type of Silver Amalgam Paste Electrode

A differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) method was developed for the determination of 4‐nitrophenol (4‐NP) at a newly developed silver amalgam paste electrode (AgA‐PE) in Britton–Robinson buffer pH 3.0. The electrode is based on a disposable plastic pipette tip filled with paste amalgam based on a mixture of mercury and fine silver powder (9 : 1, w/w). The experimental parameters, such as pH of Britton–Robinson buffer and activation and regeneration potential of the electrode surface were optimized. The reduction peak current dependences were linear for the concentration of 4‐NP from 0.2 to 100 μM. The method showed reproducible results with RSD (n=45) of 1.7%. The limit of determination (LOD) was 0.3 μM. The method was successfully applied for the direct determination of 4‐NP in drinking water.     

Dielectric properties of polypyrrole/pillared clay nanocomposites

Dielectric constant ??? and loss factor ??? were measured in intercalated polypyrrole/aluminum pillared montmorillonite (PPy/Al-PMMT) clay nanocomposites in the frequency range 100 Hz to 1 MHz. The PPy/Al-PMMT nanocomposites were prepared by in situ polymerization of pyrrole in aqueous dispersion of varying amounts of (Al-PMMT) clay from 0.2 to 10%, using FeCl₃ · 6H₂O as an oxidant. Formation of the nanocomposite was studied by FTIR and intercalation of PPy in the clay galleries was confirmed by XRD. The nanocomposites exhibited very large values of ??? and ??? at low frequency which decreased with frequency and increased with the clay content in the samples. Electric modulus formalism exhibited a peak in the frequency dependence curves of imaginary part of the electric modulus due to conductivity relaxation process. The peak of conductivity relaxation shifted towards higher frequencies and the magnitude of relaxation decreased with the increase of MMT content in the composites.     

Optimization and validation of a gas chromatographic method for analysis of (RS,SR)-diastereoisomeric impurity in formoterol fumarate

The levels of 2-amino-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole (AalphaC or 2-amino-alpha-carboline), 2-amino-3-methyl-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole (MeAalphaC or 2-amino-3-methyl-alpha-carboline), 9H-pyrido[3,4-b]indole (norharman), and 1-methyl-pyrido[3,4-b]indole (harman) have been determined in the mainstream smoke condensate from three reference cigarettes, namely Kentucky reference 1R5F, Kentucky reference 2R4F, and CORESTA CM4. The amino-alpha-carbolines, and norharman and harman (beta-carbolines) can be classified as heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) and are listed as biologically active agents in the mainstream smoke of cigarettes. For the analysis, the mainstream smoke condensate from cigarettes was collected on a filter pad, the analytes were isolated using solid-phase extraction (SPE), and quantified without derivatization on a GC-MS. Total amounts of carbolines found in the condensate increased from ultralight 1R5F to full-flavor CM4 cigarettes. The level of harman was about 250 ng/cigarette for the 1R5F cigarette and about 1025 ng/cigarette for the CM4 cigarette. Norharman was typically three times more abundant than harman. The AalphaC was found at about 10 times lower level compared to harman, and MeAalphaC was about 50 times lower than harman. The use of reference cigarettes can provide a common measure for laboratories to assess carboline amounts among cigarette brands.     

Alpha-glucosidase inhibitory constituents from Duranta repens

Three C-alkylated flavonoids 7-O-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-3,5-dihydroxy-3'-(4"-acetoxyl-3"-methylbutyl)-6,4'-dimethoxyflavone (1), 7-O-alpha-D-glucopyranosyl-3,4'-dihydroxy-3'-(4"-acetoxyl-3"-methylbutyl)-5,6-dimethoxyflavone (2), 3,7,4'-trihydroxy-3'-(8"-acetoxy-7"-methyloctyl)-5,6-dimethoxyflavone (3) and a trans-clerodane type diterpenoid (-)-6beta-hydroxy-5beta,8beta,9beta,10alpha-cleroda-3,13-dien-16,15-olid-18-oic acid (4) are reported from Duranta repens along with (+)-hardwickiic acid (5) and (+)-3,13-clerodadien-16,15-olid-18-oic acid (6), isolated for the first time from this species. Their structures were established on the basis of the spectral methods, especially two dimensional (2D) NMR spectroscopy.     

Enzyme inhibiting lignans from Vitex negundo

Two new lignans trivially named negundins A (1) and B (2), were isolated along with (+)-diasyringaresinol (3), (+)-lyoniresinol (4), vitrofolal E (5) and vitrofolal F (6), reported for the first time from this species. The structures of the new compounds were established through spectral studies. Compound 2 showed potent inhibitory activity against lipoxygenase enzyme, while 5 showed moderate activity against butyryl-cholinesterase.