Chemically characterised Pimenta dioica (L.) Merr. essential oil as a novel plant based antimicrobial against fungal and aflatoxin B1 contamination of stored maize and its possible mode of action

Abstract

The chemical characterisation of Pimenta dioica essential oil (PDEO) revealed the presence of 50 components, amongst which α-Terpineol (30.31%) was the major component followed by β-Linalool (6.75%) and γ-Terpinene (4.64%). The oil completely inhibited the growth of aflatoxin B₁ secreting strain Aspergillus flavus LHP-VS-8 and aflatoxin B₁ production at 2.5?µL/mL and 1.5?µL/mL, respectively. The oil caused dose dependent reduction of methylglyoxal (an AFB₁ inducer), enhanced leakage of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ and K⁺ ions and significantly reduced ergosterol content of fungal plasma membrane. During in situ experiments, PDEO exhibited complete protection of fumigated maize cob slices from fungal infestation without affecting seed germination. The chemically characterised PDEO is recommended as a plant based preservative and shelf life enhancer of food commodities by preventing fungal growth, AFB₁ production and lipid peroxidation. This is the first report on PDEO as inhibitor of AFB₁ secretion and methylglyoxal biosynthesis.     

Nonlinear Dynamics of a Cantilever Beam Carrying an Attached Mass with 1:3:9 Internal Resonances

In this paper the nonlinear response of a base-excited slender beam carrying an attached mass is investigated with 1:3:9 internal resonances for principal and combinationparametric resonances. Here the method of normal forms is used to reduce the second order nonlinear temporal differential equation of motion of the system to a set offirst order nonlinear differential equations which are used to find the fixed-point, periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic responses of the system.Stability and bifurcation analysis of the responses are carried out and bifurcation sets are plotted. Many chaotic phenomena are reported in this paper.     

Simultaneous combination and 1:3:5 internal resonances in a parametrically excited beam-mass system

The nonlinear dynamics of a base-excited slender beam carrying a lumped mass subjected to simultaneous combination parametric resonance of sum and difference type along with 1:3:5 internal resonances is investigated. Method of normal form is applied to the governing nonlinear temporal differential equation of motion to obtain a set of first-order differential equations which are used to obtain the steady-state, periodic, quasi-periodic and chaotic responses for different control parameters viz., amplitude and frequency of external excitation and damping. Frequency response, phase portraits, time spectra and bifurcation diagram are plotted to visualize the system behaviour with variation in the control parameters. Here, two distinct zones of trivial instability, blue sky catastrophe phenomena, jump down phenomena, simultaneous occurrence of periodic and chaotic orbits, period doubling of the mixed-mode periodic orbits leading to chaos, attractor merging crisis, boundary crisis, type II and on-off intermittencies are observed. Bifurcation diagram is plotted to facilitate the designer to choose a safe operating zone.     

Intramolecular Cyclization of 9,11‐Seco‐Estrane under Friedel–Crafts Reaction Conditions

An intramolecular cyclization of 17β‐acetoxy‐3‐methoxy‐9,11‐seco‐1,3,5(10)‐estratriene‐11‐oic acid under different Friedel–Crafts reaction conditions is described.     

Assessment of chemically characterised Myristica fragrans essential oil against fungi contaminating stored scented rice and its mode of action as novel aflatoxin inhibitor

Abstract

The study reports chemically characterised Myristica fragrans essential oil (MFEO) as plant based food preservative against fungal and aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) contamination of scented rice varieties. The chemical profile of MFEO revealed elemicin (27.08%), myristicine (21.29%) and thujanol (18.55%) as major components. The minimum inhibitory and minimum aflatoxin inhibitory concentrations of MFEO were 2.75 and 1.5?mg/ml, respectively. The MFEO was efficacious against a broad spectrum of food deteriorating fungi. MFEO caused decrease in ergosterol content of fungal plasma membrane and enhanced leakage of cellular ions, depicting plasma membrane as the site of action. The MFEO caused reduction in cellular methylglyoxal content, the aflatoxin inducer. This is the first report on MFEO as aflatoxin suppressor. The essential oil may be recommended as plant based food preservative after large scale trials and reduction in methylglyoxal suggests its application for development of aflatoxin resistant varieties through green transgenics.     

Stability analysis of a thin-walled cylinder in turning operation using the semi-discretization method

In this work, the stability of a flexible thin cylindrical workpiece in turning is analyzed. A process model is derived based on a finite element representation of the workpiece flexibility and a nonlinear cutting force law. Repeated cutting of the same surface due to overlapping cuts is modeled with the help of a time delay. The stability of the so obtained system of periodic delay differential equations is then determined using an approximation as a time-discrete system and Floquet theory. The time-discrete system is obtained using the semi-discretization method. The method is implemented to analyze the stability of two different workpiece models of different thicknesses for different tool positions with respect to the jaw end. It is shown that the stability chart depends on the tool position as well as on the thickness.     

Dynamic analysis of piezoelectric energy harvester under combination parametric and internal resonance: a theoretical and experimental study

In this work, theoretical and experimental analysis of a piezoelectric energy harvester with parametric base excitation is presented under combination parametric resonance condition. The harvester consists of a cantilever beam with a piezoelectric patch and an attached mass, which is positioned in such a way that the system exhibits 1:3 internal resonance. The generalized Galerkin’s method up to two modes is used to obtain the temporal form of the nonlinear electromechanical governing equation of motion. The method of multiple scales is used to reduce the equations of motion into a set of first-order differential equations. The fixed-point response and the stability of the system under combination parametric resonance are studied. The multi-branched non-trivial response exhibits bifurcations such as turning point and Hopf bifurcations. Experiments are performed under various resonance conditions. This study on the parametric excitation along with combination and internal resonances will help to harvest energy for a wider frequency range from ambient vibrations.

     

Nonlinear Response of a Parametrically Excited System Using Higher-Order Method of Multiple Scales

Two fundamentally different versions of the method of multiple scales (MMS) are currently in use in the study of nonlinear resonance phenomena. While the first version is the widely used reconstitution method, the second version is proposed by Rahman and Burton [1]. Both versions of the second-order MMS are applied to the differential equation obtained for a parametrically excited cantilever beam with a lumped mass at an arbitrary position. The bifurcation and stability of the obtained response show the difference between the two versions. While the Hopf bifurcation phenomena with no jump is found in the case of second-order MMS version I, both jump-up and jump-down phenomena are observed in second-order MMS version II, which closely agree with the experimental findings. The results are compared with those obtained by numerically integrating the original temporal equation.