RNA extractions of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) pericarps for sequencing

This study employed several RNA extraction methods for mangosteen pericarps prior to RNA sequencing. The sequencing platform heavily relies on a high quality RNA yield. However, pericarp tissues contain a lot of phenolic compounds that results in low RNA quality. Hence, we studied several RNA extraction methods to obtain the most suitable method for the best RNA quality from the pericarps of mangosteen. Five different methods including Lopez and Gomez, modified hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method, several commercial kits from TranszolUP, Favorgen and Qiagen RNeasy were compared. By optimising the CTAB method, it was found to be the best method to obtain pure RNA (high A260/A280 ratio) with the highest yields (up to approximately 600-800 ng/μL concentration). The QC control of these samples using bioanalyzer validated their suitability for the downstream RNA sequencing. This report details the method for extracting high quality and high yield RNA samples from fruit that are rich in polyphenolic compounds such as mangosteen

Decolorization of Reactive Black 5 dye using gel combustion synthesized LaFeO3 nanoparticles

Lanthanum orthoferrite (LaFeO3) nanoparticles was prepared via gel combustion method with fixed reaction temperature at 200°C, but different reaction time of (t) 2 hours (t=2h) and 24 hours (t=24h), respectively. Physicochemical properties' characterization was performed to compare both samples. UV-Vis spectroscopy analysis was done to determine the photocatalytic performance on Reactive Black 5 (RB5) dye. LaFeO3(t=24h) possessed a high crystallinity structure with specific surface area (SSA) of 28.037 m2g-1, while LaFeO3(t=2h) had a mixture of crystalline and amorphous structures with SSA of 40.952 m2g-1. The catalysts’ loading was also varied in a few conditions to elucidate the optimum loading that maximize the dye removal by mean of adsorption-photocatalytic action. Up to 94% of RB5 dye was successfully removed within 6h by LaFeO3(t=2h) samples, and this enhanced synergistic activity of LaFeO3 is promising for the further application of visible light driven photocatalyst in polluted water treatment

Improved gel-enhanced liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry by chemometrics for halal proteomics

Numerous analytical methods for the authentication of halal meat are now well established, with gel-enhanced liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (GeLCMS) being a popular approach. However, the selection of potential protein markers on 1-dimensional gel electrophoresis (1DE) prior to LCMS is considered problematic, because using the optical density for the selection process could introduce human error. In this study, an improved GeLCMS method assisted by multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) was developed to identify the potential protein markers for non-halal pork among halal beef and chicken. The improved GeLCMS technique allowed for the confident excising of identified protein bands prior to in-gel tryptic digestion. The inferential protein markers (myofibrillar proteins), which might be present in the samples, were determined based on the identified sequence of peptides. This chemometric-assisted GeLCMS could potentially be used as a guideline to assist chemists in analysis of any gel-based separation of biomolecules, regardless of the field of stud

Robust hotelling's T2 statistic based on M-estimator

Hotelling’s T2 statistic is the multivariate generalization of the student’s t statistic. Hotelling’s T2 statistic is a method for testing hypotheses about multidimensional means. However, the classical Hotelling’s T2 statistic is very sensitive to the presence of outliers. In order to overcome this limitation, a modification is needed so that Hotelling’s T2 is robust. In this paper, classical Hotelling’s T2 statistic has been modified by substituting mean vector and covariance matrix with a robust estimator. M-estimator has been used for this modification. The performance of modified Hotelling’s T2 statistic has been compared with the classical Hotelling’s T 2 statistic and discussed in this paper to illustrate the advantage of modified Hotelling’s T2 statistic towards outliers. The performance of modified Hotelling’s T 2 statistic is better than classical Hotelling’s T2 when number of sample, n and dimension, p is small

Rafflesia tuanku-halimii (Rafflesiaceae), a new species from Peninsular Malaysia

Rafflesia tuanku-halimii, a new species from Peninsular Malaysia, is herewith described and illustrated. It is related to R. azlanii and R. sharifah-hapsahiae by coalesced warts on it lobes. Rafflesia tuanku-halimii is different from them in having window covered by almost united rings and these rings almost wholly covering the window

Recent updates on metabolite composition and medicinal benefits of mangosteen plant

Background Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) fruit has a unique sweet-sour taste and rich in beneficial compounds such as xanthones. Mangosteen has been originally used in various folk medicines to treat diarrhea, wound, and fever. More recently, it has been used as a major component in health supplement products for weight loss and promoting general health. This is perhaps due to its known medicinal benefits including as anti-oxidant and anti-inflammation. Interestingly, the publications related to mangosteen has surged in recent years suggesting its popularity and usefulness in research laboratories. However, there is still no updated reviews (up to 2018) in this booming research area, particularly on its metabolite composition and medicinal benefits. Method In this review, we have covered recent articles within the year of 2016 to 2018, which focuses on several aspects including the latest findings on compound composition from mangosteen fruit as well as its medicinal usages. Result Mangosteen has been vastly used in medicinal areas including as anti-cancer, anti-microbial, and anti-diabetes treatments. Furthermore, we have also described the benefits of mangosteen extract in protecting various human organs such as liver, skin, joint, eye, neuron, bowel, and cardiovascular tissues against disorders and diseases. Conclusion All in all, this review describes the numerous manipulations of mangosteen extracted compounds in medicinal areas and highlights the current trend of its research. This will be important for future directed research and may allow researchers to tackle the next big challenge in mangosteen study; drug development and human applications

Water quality index of selected station at Rasau River, Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, Puchong, Selangor

The effect of soil acidity, human activities and other development are often related with the changes of aquatic ecosystem water quality. Rasau River in the forest was acidic though no hazard activities were existed there. A study was carried out at Rasau River catchment, Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve to determine its water quality status and the relationship between soil pH and water pH of the river. Eight sampling stations had been chosen along the Rasau River. Sampling was done using grab sampling on a weekly basis for duration of seven weeks. BOD, COD, pH, Ammonical Nitrogen, TSS and DO were chosen as indicators for the water quality status based on Department of Environment-Water Quality Index (2009. Four samples of soil were also collected on a weekly basis for duration of seven weeks. The soils were sampled at depth of 20cm from the soil surface by using an auger located 5m from the river to avoid additional sediment from river reserve. The results indicated that, the water quality index of Rasau River ranged between 74.72 to 79.36, falls under Class II and class III. For class II, the water is suitable for recreational activity but need water treatment for water supply and for the class III, extensive treatment is required for water supply but it is still suitable for livestock drinking. Results from regression analysis shows that soil pH relates with the acidity level of the river in the form of power function with the equation (ln (Water pH) = 1.084 (Soil pH), R² =0.995. The results also indicated that there was a decreased in water quality index when the river approached recreational area

Rafflesia tunku-azizahiae (Rafflesiaceae), a new species from Pahang, Malaysia

A new species of Rafflesia (Rafflesiaceae) from Mt. Benom Forest Reserve, Ulu Dong, Raub, Pahang, Rafflesia tunku-azizahiae Adam, Aizat-Juhari & Wan is described and illustrated. Cluster analysis and principal component analysis showed that R. tunku-azizahiae and R. tuanku-halimii are closely related morphologically, characterized by perigone lobes covered by rows of very closely spaced coalesced white warts, and windows wholly covered by very closely rings of coalesced white warts. Score plot and bi-plot showed that R. tunku-azizahiae differs from R. tuanku-halimii by larger flower diameter, broader diaphragm and disc diameter, larger aperture diameter and longer ramenta

Proteomic analysis of stored core oil palm trunk (COPT) sap identifying proteins related to stress, disease resistance and differential gene/protein expression

Oil palm is the major crop grown and cultivated in various Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The core of oil palm trunk (COPT) consists of high sugar content, hence suitable for synthesis of fine chemicals and biofuels. Increase of sugar content was reported previously during prolonged COPT storage. However, until now, there has been no report on protein profiles during storage. Therefore, in this study, protein expression of the COPT during the storage period of one to six weeks was investigated using sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) coupled with optical density quantification and multivariate analyses for measuring differentially expressed proteins. Accordingly, protein bands were subjected to tryptic digestion followed by tandem mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS/MS) protein identification. The results from SDS-PAGE showed consistent protein bands appearing across the biological replicates ranging from 10.455 to 202.92 kDa molecular weight (MW) regions. The findings from the principal component analysis (PCA) plot illustrated the separation pattern of the proteins at weeks 4 and 5 of storage, which was influenced mainly by the molecular weights of 14.283, 25.543, 29.757, 30.549, 31.511, 34.585 and 84.395 kDa, respectively. The majority of these proteins are identified as those involved in stress- and defense-related, disease resistance, as well as gene/protein expression processes. Indeed, these proteins were mostly upregulated during the later storage period suggesting that long-term storage may influence the molecular regulation of COPT sap