Sustainability in Skin Care: Incorporation of Avocado Peel Extracts in Topical Formulations

The avocado peel is an agro-industrial by-product that has exhibited a massive increase in its production in the last few years. The reuse and valorisation of this by-product are essential since its disposal raises environmental concerns. In the present study, ethanolic extracts of avocado peels of the Hass variety were obtained, for three extraction times (1.5 h, 3 h and 4 h) and analysed for their antioxidant and antibacterial properties. Antioxidant evaluations of the extracts revealed that the extraction time of 1.5 h exhibited the best results amongst the three, with a DPPH inhibition percentage of 93.92 ± 1.29 and an IC₅₀ percentage, the necessary concentration of the extract to inhibit 50% of DPPH, of 37.30 ± 1.00. The antibacterial capacity of the extracts was evaluated and it was revealed that they were able to inhibit the growth and development of bacteria of the Staphylococcus family. The obtained extract was incorporated in two types of cosmetic formulations (oil-in-water and water-in-oil) and their stability was evaluated and compared with formulations containing synthetic preservatives (BHT and phenoxyethanol). The results of the stability evaluation suggest that the avocado peel extract has the potential to be incorporated in both types of emulsions, acting as an antioxidant and antibacterial agent, proving it to be a viable option to reduce/replace the use of synthetic preservatives. Furthermore, the avocado peel extract proved to be more effective and stable in oil-in-water emulsions. These results highlight the possibility of obtaining sustainable cosmetics, significantly reducing the negative impacts on the environment by the incorporation of extracts sourced from the avocado peel, an interesting source of phenolic compounds, an abundant and low-cost by-product.     

Complexation of small molecules by open-ended resorcarene hosts

[structure: see text] Sterically hindered tetraaminomethylated resorcarenes form inclusion complexes in CDCl(3) with acetonitrile and acetaldehyde, which are kinetically stable on the NMR time scale at 233 K.     

Phase separation and anisotropy in the electrical properties of weakly doped lanthanum manganites

Variations in the thermopower, electrical resistivity, magnetoresistance, thermal expansion coefficients, and their anisotropy with temperature were detected near room temperature in single crystals of weakly doped lanthanum manganites La_1?xA_xMnO₃ (A = Ca, Sr; x = 0.07–0.125) with orthorhombic structure. The results obtained are discussed in terms of a model of phase separation related to polaron anisotropy. Due to a gain in exchange and elastic energies in the lattice, small-radius magnetic polarons can merge to form polarons of a larger size, which would contain now not one but rather a few electrons (equal in number to the polarons in the cluster). As a result, short-range order in a cluster and phase separation set in at a temperature T_ps ≈ 250–300 K, which is approximately equal to the Curie temperature T_C of conducting manganites with x ≈ 0.2–0.3.     

Thermal electron capture by some chlorobromopropanes

Thermal electron attachment rate constants for CH₂ClCHBrCH₃ and CH₂ClCH₂CH₂Br have been measured using electron swarm method. Corresponding rate constants are equal to 3.5×10^-10 and 2.5×10^-10 cm³ molec^-1 s^-1, respectively. Parallely, negative ion mass spectra of these compounds as well as CH₂FCH₂Br, CH₂ClCH₂Br, CH₂BrCH₂Br and CF₃CHClBr has been measured with negative ion mass spectrometry method. The rate constants have been compared with the negative ion mass spectra.     

Nanostructuring of 1-butyl-4-methylpyridinium chloride in ionic liquid–iron oxide nanofluids

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Understanding the behavior of ionic liquids (ILs) in ionic liquid-based nanofluids has great significance for its proper application. The phase changes...     

Strong and weak modes in polytypes of SiC

The concept of an extended Brillouin zone is used to analyze the intensity of phonon modes observed in optical and Raman investigations of different polytypes of silicon carbide. It is shown that the relative intensity of these modes agrees with the magnitude of the splitting of the doublets, which are degenerate in the extended zone. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 69, No. 3, 247–250 (10 February 1999)     

Transition radiation of a charge in media with a nonuniform potential

The influence of a potential barrier on the transition radiation in the form of volume and surface electromagnetic waves emitted by a charged particle crossing an interface between media is investigated. It is shown that the volume-wave radiation field arises not only as a result of the jump in the dielectric constant at the boundary but also as a result of the velocity jump and the reflection of an electron induced by the presence of a nonuniform potential barrier. The angular distribution of the transition radiation intensity is obtained. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 11–14 (January 1998)     

Calculation of reactivities using ionization chamber currents with different sets of kinetic parameters for reduced scram system efficiency in the VVER-1000 of the third unit of the Kalinin nuclear power plant at the stage of physical start-up

The effectiveness of the VVER-1000 reactor scram system is analyzed using ionization chamber currents with different sets of kinetic parameters with allowance for the isotopic composition in the calculation of these parameters. The most “correct, aesthetically acceptable” results are obtained using the eight-group constants of the ROSFOND (BNAB-RF) library. The difference between the maximum and minimum values of the scram system effectiveness calculated with different sets of kinetic parameters slightly exceeds 2β. The problems of introducing corrections due to spatial effects are not considered in this study.     

Electric-dipole increase in NMR intensity in mixed-valence complexes

The possibility of a considerable increase in NMR intensity has been shown for absorption on mixed-valence 3d ions in magnetically ordered crystals. This effect is determined by the high intensity of electric dipole transitions between the ground and low excited levels of a mixed-valence complex, as well as by the existence of the unfrozen orbital angular momentum in such complexes, which mixes nuclear and electron states.