Effect of drying methods on phenolic contents of neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf powder

The medicinal quality of plant parts is affected due to the thermal decomposition of the active ingredients during the drying process. Additional processing such as grinding will also influence the composition and extraction of active ingredients. Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves dried under shade, oven-dried at 45°C and at 70°C varied in final moisture content, color, and crispness and in their phenolic contents. Grinding depended upon the crispness of the dried leaves, where finer particle sizes were obtained from crisper leaves. The phenolics contents were higher in powder obtained from shade-dried leaves compared to the oven-dried leaves at 45°C or at 70°C. There was no difference in total phenolics in extracts from finer-sized (250 μm) particles in the case of oven-dried leaves at 45°C. However, the extracts from finer particle sizes (250 μm) from oven-dried leaves at 70°C and shade-dried leaves respectively

Compatibilized PP/EPDM-kenaf fibre composite using melt blending method

Thermoplastic Elastomer (TPE) composite reinforced with Hibiscus cannabinus, L fiber (kenaf fiber, KF) was prepared via melt blending method using internal mixer at temperature 18

Compressibility and permeability of solidified dredged marine soils (DMS) with the addition of cement andor waste granular materials (WGM)

Dredged marine soils that obtained from dredging work were characterize as geo-waste, which is prone to be dumped rather than to be reused. This type of soil is high in compressibility and low in load bearing capacity. The engineering properties of this soft soil can be improve via soil solidification method. Cement is the common hydraulic binder used in soil solidification, were found to generate the emission of greenhouse gasses (GHG), particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) which also had affected the earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, there has been an increasing interest in using alternate pozzolanic materials such as waste granular materials (WGM) to fully or partially substituted the use of cement in soil solidification. WGM such as coal bottom ash (BA) and palm oil clinker (POC) were opted due to its pozzolanic properties. Prior to the planning of reclamation work using DMS admixed with conventional and/or alternate pozzolanic materials, the consolidation characteristics of the admixed materials must be acknowledged. Hence, the present study will examine the amount of settlement and coefficient of permeability (k) of DMS treated with cement and/or WGM in laboratory-scale experiments. Samples were prepared in various proportion in order to examine the individual effect of the cement and/or alternate pozzolanic materials on compressibility and permeability. For cement-admixed DMS, sample with 20 % of cement have significantly reduced the settlement than untreated and 10 % cemented DMS. For WGM-admixed DMS, the initial void ratio is low as compared to the untreated DMS due to the rearrangement of soil particles, which is densely packed. For cement-WGM-admixed DMS, samples of 15C50BA and 15C50POC displayed significant settlement reduction than 10C100BA, 10C100POC and untreated samples

Modeling of Single Bay Precast Residential House Using Ruaumoko 2D Program

Precast residential houses are normally constructed in Malaysia using precast shear-key wall panel and precast wall panel are designed using BS8110 where there is no provision for earthquake. However, the safety of this house under moderate and strong earthquake is still questionable. Consequently, the full-scale of residential house are designed, constructed, tested and analyzed under in-plane lateral cyclic loading. Hysteresis loops are plotted based on the experimental work and compared with modeling of hysteresis loops using HYSTERES in RUAUMOKO 2D program. Modified Takeda hysteresis model is chosen to behave a similar pattern with experimental work. This program will display the earthquake excitations, spectral displacements, pseudo spectral acceleration, and deformation shape of the structure. It can be concluded that this building is suffering severe cracks and damage under moderate and severe earthquake

Development and evaluation of polyherbal formulation for memory enhancement: study on its antioxidant properties and synergistic effects

Centella asiatica, Piper sarmentosum and Morinda citrifolia is well-known for their memory enhancement contribution from traditional practices as well as recent researches. However, all three herbs are utilized individually and never mixed together. The nutrient data on the synergistic effect on all three herbs remain scarce. The aims of this research project were to apply Simplex-centroid mixture design in describing the study for the effect of polyherbal formulation on antioxidants properties and its synergistic effects. Based on results obtained, there was a significant difference in antioxidant properties of the polyherbal formulation. The results show the polyherbal formulation 3 and 13 (M. citrifolia only) has the highest antioxidant capacity when being tested with total phenolic content (TPC) (210.10 and 209.12 μg GAE/mL respectively) and 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) (42.94 and 37.77%) assays. Contradict to this result, the highest in total flavonoid content (TFC) and 2,2-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) for describing antioxidant properties are formulations 1 and 11 (C. asiatica only). The TPC for formulation 1 and 11 are 479.8 μg RE/mL and 470 μg RE/mL respectively while ABTS radical inhibition for formulation 1 and 11 are 64.53% and 60% respectively. For ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) assay, formulation 7 (2.11 μg FSE/mL) is the highest which have 1:1:1 ratio of each herb. In addition, TPC, TFC, and DPPH assays showed high antioxidant activities when only single herbs were added into the formulation. Meanwhile, ABTS and FRAP are prone to binary polyherbal formulation. Hence, this study showed an antagonism effect instead of synergistic effect since single formulation exhibited the highest for TPC, TFC and DPPH. All tests gave the lowest antioxidant properties when the mix was ternary polyherbal formulation

Compressibility and Permeability of Solidified Dredged Marine Soils (DMS) with the Addition of Cement and/or Waste Granular Materials (WGM)

Dredged marine soils that obtained from dredging work were characterize as geo-waste, which is prone to be dumped rather than to be reused. This type of soil is high in compressibility and low in load bearing capacity. The engineering properties of this soft soil can be improve via soil solidification method. Cement is the common hydraulic binder used in soil solidification, were found to generate the emission of greenhouse gasses (GHG), particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) which also had affected the earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, there has been an increasing interest in using alternate pozzolanic materials such as waste granular materials (WGM) to fully or partially substituted the use of cement in soil solidification. WGM such as coal bottom ash (BA) and palm oil clinker (POC) were opted due to its pozzolanic properties. Prior to the planning of reclamation work using DMS admixed with conventional and/or alternate pozzolanic materials, the consolidation characteristics of the admixed materials must be acknowledged. Hence, the present study will examine the amount of settlement and coefficient of permeability (k) of DMS treated with cement and/or WGM in laboratory-scale experiments. Samples were prepared in various proportion in order to examine the individual effect of the cement and/or alternate pozzolanic materials on compressibility and permeability. For cement-admixed DMS, sample with 20 % of cement have significantly reduced the settlement than untreated and 10 % cemented DMS. For WGM-admixed DMS, the initial void ratio is low as compared to the untreated DMS due to the rearrangement of soil particles, which is densely packed. For cement-WGM-admixed DMS, samples of 15C50BA and 15C50POC displayed significant settlement reduction than 10C100BA, 10C100POC and untreated samples

Chemical Precipitation and Coatings of Tin Selenide

Tin selenide were prepared chemically in alkaline aqueous solution. The crystalline powder was coated onto microscope glass slides using polyvinyl alcohol solution. The coatings were subjected to annealing at various temperatures to study the effect towards the structure, morphology and composition of the material. The product prepared was characterised using various techniques. The photoresponse for the samples were also studied. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell configuration was p-SnSe | (0.01 M K4Fe(CN)6¾0.01 M K3Fe(CN)6.3H2O¾0.1 M Na2SO4| Pt)

Public attitude towards modern biotechnology

This article reviews the literature related to the main idea of the study, rooting from the definition of biotechnology, global status of commercialized biotechnology products, and global and local public attitudes towards modern biotechnology and past models for attitude towards modern biotechnology. The first section of the review will be the in-depth-discussion regarding the definition of modern biotechnology according to several established international organizations, followed by global status of commercialized biotechnology products which will emphasize on how modern biotechnology is classified and which area are being focused more by the stakeholders, and global and local public attitudes towards modern biotechnology based on previous studies. Last but not least, the final section is credited to past studies related to attitudes and past models of public attitudes towards biotechnology, both globally and locally. A developing country like Malaysia was chosen in this article as an example of the case study related to local situation of modern biotechnology.Key words: Modern biotechnology, genetically modified (GM), public attitude, Malaysi