Phytochemical Profiling of Lavandula coronopifolia Poir. Aerial Parts Extract and Its Larvicidal,Antibacterial, and Antibiofilm Activity Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Infections associated with the emergence of multidrug resistance and mosquito-borne diseases have resulted in serious crises associated with high mortality and left behind a huge socioeconomic burden. The chemical investigation of Lavandula coronopifolia aerial parts extract using HPLC–MS/MS led to the tentative identification of 46 compounds belonging to phenolic acids, flavonoids and their glycosides, and biflavonoids. The extract displayed larvicidal activity against Culex pipiens larvae (LC₅₀ = 29.08 µg/mL at 72 h). It significantly inhibited cytochrome P-450 monooxygenase (CYP450), acetylcholinesterase (AChE), and carboxylesterase (CarE) enzymes with the comparable pattern to the control group, which could explain the mode of larvae toxification. The extract also inhibited the biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by 17–38% at different Minimum Inhibitory Concentrations (MICs) (0.5–0.125 mg/mL) while the activity was doubled when combined with ciprofloxacin (ratio = 1:1 v:v). In conclusion, the wild plant, L. coronopifolia, can be considered a promising natural source against resistant bacteria and infectious carriers.     

Optimization,Validation and Application of HPLC-PDA Methods for Quantification of Triterpenoids in Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.

Triterpenoids have regained much attention as promising multi-targeting bioactive agents of natural origin in the treatment of numerous disorders. Due to the high potential for phytopharmaceutical development, accurate qualitative and quantitative analysis of triterpenoids for screening and quality control is required. Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. (lingonberry) raw materials have aroused interest as a rich source of triterpenoids. However, currently, no validated, rapid, and easy-to-perform quantification method is available for the routine control of these compounds in lingonberries. This research aimed at developing and validating HPLC-PDA methods for the determination and screening of triterpenoids in extracts of lingonberry leaves, fruits, and flowers. The developed methods were deemed satisfactory by validation, which revealed acceptable analytical specificity, linearity (r² > 0.9999), precision (RSD < 2%), trueness (94.70–105.81%), and sensitivity (LOD: 0.08–0.65 µg/mL). The real sample analysis demonstrated established methods applicability for quantification of 13 triterpenoids in lingonberries and emphasized differences between raw materials. Lingonberry fruits were distinguished by the richness of ursolic acid; lingonberry flowers by similar profile to fruits, but low content of neutral triterpenoids; whereas lingonberry leaves by the particularly high level of α-amyrin. Thus, the proposed methods proved to be reliable and applicable for quantification and routine analysis of triterpenoids in lingonberry samples.     

A ratiometric near-infrared naphthalimide-based fluorescent probe with high sensitivity for detecting Fe2+ in vivo

Iron is one of the essential trace elements in the human body. It plays an important role in human biology and pathology. Deregulation of iron levels in cells is associated with disease development. In this work, we synthesized a novel near-infrared intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) based ratiometric fluorescent probe to detect Fe²⁺, by using naphthalimide and indole moieties as building blocks. Our work showed that the radiometric probe has excellent selectivity, sensitivity and rapid response. Moreover, we could successfully perform real-time monitoring of Fe²⁺ in HeLa cells and C. elegans.     

水相合成CdTe量子点测定海藻中微量碲

以亚碲酸钠(Na2TeO3)为Te源,CdCl2为Cd源,水合肼(SHJ)为还原剂,3-巯基丙酸(3-MPA)为稳定剂,制得λEX=380 nm和λEM=608 nm的CdTe量子点(CdTe QDs),该量子点的荧光强度与合成前Na2TeO3浓度呈线性关系.在n(Cd)/n(SHJ)=1∶0.04,n(Cd)/n(3-MPA)=1∶2.7,温度为100℃,反应时间为120m in,溶液pH 10.5的最佳条件下,可制备荧光量子产率为65％的CdTe QDs,该量子点的荧光强度与含碲物质的浓度符合较宽的线性范围(1.0～300 μmol/L),相关系数为0.9982,检测限为38 nmol/L.方法 用于测定微波消解下的海藻样品,加标回收率为106.0％ ～ 112.0％,RSD为5.4％ ～6.1％.     

Recent advances in bismuth vanadate-based photocatalysts for photoelectrochemical water splitting

Photoelectrochemical(PEC) technology is considered to be a promising approach for solar-driven hydrogen production with zero emissions. Bismuth vanadate(BiVO_4) is a kind of photocatalytic material with strong photoactivity in the visible light region and appropriate band gap for PEC water splitting.However, the solar-to-hydrogen efficiency(STH) of BiVO_4 is far away from the 10% target needed for practical application due to its poor charge separation ability. Therefore, this review attempts to summarize the strategies for improving the photocurrent density and especially hydrogen production of BiVO_4 materials through PEC techniques in the last three years, such as doping nonmetal and metal elements, depositing noble metals, constructing heterojunctions, coupling with carbon and metalorganic framework(MOF) materials to further enhance the PEC performance of BiVO_4 photoanode. This review aims to serve as a general guideline to fabricate highly efficient BiVO_4-based materials for PEC water splitting.     

Dissolution of cellulose in aqueous NaOH/urea solution: role of urea

Urea can improve the solubility and stability of cellulose in aqueous alkali solution, while its role has not come to a conclusion. To reveal the role of urea in solution, NMR was introduced to investigate the interaction between urea and the other components in solution. Results from chemical shifts and longitudinal relaxation times show that: (1) urea has no strong direct interaction with cellulose as well as NaOH; (2) urea does not have much influence on the structural dynamics of water. Urea may play its role through van der Waals force. It may accumulate on the cellulose hydrophobic region to prevent dissolved cellulose molecules from re-gathering. The driving force for the self-assembly of cellulose and urea molecules might be hydrophobic interaction. In the process of cellulose dissolution, OH^? breaks the hydrogen bonds, Na⁺ hydrations stabilize the hydrophilic hydroxyl groups and urea stabilizes the hydrophobic part of cellulose.     

Study on the interaction between urea and cellulose by combining solid-state 13C CP/MAS NMR and extended Hückel charges

In this article, solid-state ¹³C CP/MAS NMR combined with extended Hückel charges was applied to investigate the interaction between urea and cellulose in the NaOH/urea aqueous solvent system. Direct experimental evidence was provided to support the interaction between urea and cellulose. The solid-state ¹³C CP/MAS NMR results revealed that complicated complexes are formed by urea, NaOH and cellulose in the solution. Excess urea exists in a free state, which explains why 7 wt% NaOH/12 wt% urea/81 wt% H₂O is the optimal ratio selection to dissolve cellulose. Based on the correlation in which the computed extended Hückel charge on carbon of urea is approximately inversely proportional to its ¹³C chemical shift, a possible interaction model of cellulose, NaOH and urea was proposed. Interactions exist between any two of urea, NaOH and cellulose, which results in the cellulose chain being surrounded by NaOH and urea molecules. NaOH and urea may be in the same surface layer of cellulose chains.     

Anisotropic charge carrier transport of optoelectronic functional selenium-containing organic semiconductor materials

Organic semiconductors (OSCs) materials are currently under intense investigation because of their potential applications such as organic field-effect transistors, organic photovoltaic devices, and organic light-emitting diodes. Inspired by the selenization strategy can promote anisotropic charge carrier migration, and selenium-containing compounds have been proved to be promising materials as OSCs both for hole and electron transfer. Herein, we now explore the anisotropic transport properties of the series of selenium-containing compounds. For the compound containing Se Se bond, the Se Se bond will break when attaching an electron, thus those compounds cannot act as n-type OSCs. About the different isomer compounds with conjugated structure, the charge transfer will be affected by the stacking of the conjugated structures. The analysis of chemical structure and charge transfer property indicates that Se-containing materials are promising high-performance OSCs and might be used as p-type, n-type, or ambipolar OSCs. Furthermore, the symmetry of the selenium-containing OSCs will affect the type of OSCs. In addition, there is no direct relationship between the R groups with their performance, whether it or not as p-type OSCs or n-types. This work demonstrates the relationship between the optoelectronic function and structure of selenium-containing OSCs materials and hence paves the way to design and improve optoelectronic function of OSCs materials.     

电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法测定铜矿中砷的含量

近年来,对于铜精矿中有害杂质元素的要求越来越严格,其中杂质元素砷的测定是进出口铜精矿的常规检定项目之一[1-2]。铜矿样中砷的含量直接影响到电解铜的质量,因此准确、快速测定铜矿样中砷的含量就显得特别重要[3]。     

Evaluation of Redox Activity of Human Myocardium‐derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy

In this study the redox activity of human myocardium‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (hmMSC) were investigated by redox‐competition (RC‐SECM) and generation‐collection (GC‐SECM) modes of scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), using 2‐methylnaphthalene‐1,4‐dione (menadione, MD) as a redox mediator. The redox activity of human healthy and dilated hmMSCs was evaluated by measuring reduction of MD. Measurements were performed by approaching and retracting the UME from the surface of growing hmMSC cells. The current study shows that the RC‐SECM mode can be applied to investigate integrity of cell membranes, whereas the most promising results were observed by using the GC‐SECM mode and applying the Hill's equation for the calculation/fitting of dependencies of electrical current vs menadione concentration. The calculated apparent Michaelis constant (K_M) for the production of menadiol (MDH₂) in the pathological hmMSC cells was 14.4 folds higher compared to that of the healthy hmMSC revealing the lover redox activity of pathological cells. Moreover, the calculated Hill's coefficient n shows a negative cooperative binding between MD and healthy hmMSC and positive cooperative binding between MD and pathological hmMSC. It means that healthy hmMSC is of lower affinity to MD, which is also related to the better membrane integrity of healthy cells. Data of this study demonstrate that SECM can be applied to investigate intracellular redox and membrane changes ongoing in human dilated myocardium‐derived hmMSC in order to improve their functioning and further regenerative potential.