In vitro antioxidant,antifungal and antibacterial activities of five international Calibrachoa cultivars

The total phenolic, flavonoid and tannin contents in leaf extracts of Calibrachoa x hybrida (C.h.) (Solanaceae) international cultivars, as well as their overall antioxidant activities using DPPH and linoleic acid assays, were investigated. Furthermore, the antifungal and the antibacterial activities were examined against a wide spectrum of micro-organisms. DPPH and linoleic acid assays ranged from 62.1 to 80.1% and of 74.1–93.4%, respectively. C.h. Superbells® Trailing Rose (CHST), C.h. Superbells® Frost Fire, C.h. Superbells® Strawberry Punch, C.h. Superbells® Dreamsicle and C.h. Superbells® Plum (CHSP) varied in their antifungal and the antibacterial activities against a wide spectrum of micro-organisms. CHSP exhibited the highest antioxidant, antifungal and antibacterial activities followed by CHST. These activities might be attributed to the presence of phenolic, flavonoid and tannin compounds, indicating that these cultivars might be potential sources of therapeutic substances.     

Numerical study of the mixed spin-1 and spin-5/2 BEG model on the Bethe lattice

The mixed spin-1 and spin- \frac52\frac{5}{2} ferromagnetic Ising model with bilinear (J) and biquadratic (K) nearest-neighbor exchange interactions and a single-ion potential or crystal-field interaction (D) is studied on the Bethe lattice by means of exact recursion equations. First, the phase diagram of the system at zero temperature is obtained in the (D/Jq, K/Jq) plane, where q denotes the coordination number of the lattice. Second, the sublattice magnetizations as functions of the temperature, the crystal-field and the biquadratic interaction strengths are thoroughly investigated. For q = 3, the resulting phase diagrams show first and second order phase transitions as well as compensation points where the net magnetization of the whole lattice should vanish in the antiferromagnetic version of the model. One interesting feature of the model concerns the presence of tricritical points. Our calculations show that at non-zero temperature, none of the sublattice can order separately. However, under an external magnetic field, some interesting phase diagrams with partially ordered phases arise.     

Magnetic properties of the mixed spin-5/2 and spin-3/2 Blume-Capel Ising system on the two-fold Cayley tree

We use exact recursion relations to study the magnetic properties of the half-integer mixed spin-5/2 and spin-3/2 Blume-Capel Ising ferromagnetic system on the two-fold Cayley tree that consists of two sublattices A and B. Two positive crystal-field interactions Δ₁ and Δ₂ are considered for the sublattice with spin-5/2 and spin-3/2 respectively. For different coordination numbers q of the Cayley tree sites, the phase diagrams of the model are presented with a special emphasis on the case q = 3, since other values of q reproduce similar results. First, the T = 0 phase diagram is illustrated in the (D _A = Δ₁/J,D _B = Δ₂/J) plane of reduced crystal-field interactions. This diagram shows triple points and coexistence lines between thermodynamically stable phases. Secondly, the thermal variation of the magnetization belonging to each sublattice for some coordination numbers q are investigated as well as the Helmoltz free energy of the system. First-order and second-order phase transitions are found. The second-order phase transitions become sharper and sharper when D _A or D _B increases. The first-order transitions only exist for some appropriate non-zero values of D _A and/or D _B . The corresponding transition lines never connect to the second-order transition lines. Thus, the non-existence of tricritical points remains one of the key features of the present model. The magnetic exponent β ₀ of the model is estimated and found to be ¼ at small values of D _A = D _B = D and β ₀ = ½ at large values of D. At intermediate values of D, there is a crossover region where the magnetic exponent displays interesting behaviours.