A review on toxicity of heavy metals due to intake of contaminated bovine milk

Environmental pollution is a grievous problem that people on the earth encounter. Anthropogenic activities such as industrialization, urbanization and especially agricultural activities have made a substantial contribution causing the deteriorations of land resources, atmosphere and hydrosphere. Heavy metals being a noticeable pollutant in the environmental pollution have already caused direct and indirect toxicities to human beings. These heavy metals tend to accumulate through food chains and food webs in human and animal tissues leading them to suffer from variety of health problems. Milk and other dairy products have played a significant route of heavy metal exposure to humans since they are largely being consumed at present. This review provides a snapshot about the threats associated with ingestion of toxic heavy metals through milk and other dairy products as to be vigilant in order to ensure the food safety

A review of ecological agricultural practices as an important component of climate resilient management

The pressing need to systematically redirect agricultural practices, towards sustainable, biodiversity based eco-agriculture and the basic agro-ecological principles cannot be overemphasized, especially in this era of threat to food and livelihood security caused by climate change in several developing countries of the world is evident. This is on account that the ecological aspect of agricultural production, which is resilient to climate and productive is based on principles that create biological diversity and build healthy soils, which also prioritizes indigenous and farmers’ knowledge. Ecological agricultural techniques are the foundations for the adaptation strategies needed urgently by the farmers in various developing countries, who will suffer greater from the climate change effects. Many answers lie in farmers’ farms and knowledge. Thus, this review is focused on how to improve the biodiversity of the agricultural system, build better healthy soils that will be drought tolerant and also to add social resilience required to face the increased uncertainty in weather patterns

Application of a Universal Calibration Method for True Molar Mass Determination of Fluoro-Derivatized Technical Lignins by Size-Exclusion Chromatography

The determination of the true molar mass distribution (MMD) of lignin is highly important to understand the physicochemical characteristics for lignin-based value-added applications. It is imperative to develop a universal method to quantify accurate MMD of lignin using size exclusion chromatography (SEC), as the conventional method with polymer standards provides irregular MMD results. This work aims to evaluate the MMD of five lignin samples (Protobind 1000, Organosolv, Indulin, Pine Kraft and Eucalyptus Kraft) in THF. Different derivatization methods (acetylation, fluorobenzylation and fluorobenzoylation) were performed. FTIR and 19F NMR analyses were used to follow derivatization. The MMDs of derivatized and underivatized lignins were determined by the conventional method and compared with the universal calibration method developed using intrinsic viscosity. The 19F NMR spectra provided the information to quantify the degree of substitution of lignin hydroxyl groups, to calculate the true molar mass of the derivatives of lignin monomers. The obtained MMDs values for all the derivatized lignin by universal calibration were found to be three to five times higher than that of the conventional calibration. The polydispersity values obtained with the acetylation method were higher than the fluoro-derivatives. The results demonstrated that fluoro-derivatization is an appropriate method to apply to higher molar mass technical lignins and lacks solubility and aggregation issues

Study of new chemical derivatization techniques for lignin analysis by size exclusion chromatography

La lignine, deuxième biopolymère le plus abondant sur Terre, possède une structure aromatique tridimensionnelle hautement ramifiée, porteuse de différents groupements fonctionnels, principalement alcooliques et phénoliques. Le travail de recherche a porté sur les méthodes de dérivation chimique de la lignine permettant de quantifier les hydroxyles et de déterminer les distributions de masses molaires des lignines par chromatographie d’exclusion stérique et multi-détection. Cinq lignines techniques ont été étudiées : Protobind 1000, Organosolv (CIMV), lignine Kraft de pin, lignine Kraft d’Eucalyptus et lignine Indulin. L’acétylation, méthode classique de dérivation des hydroxyles, a été comparée aux nouvelles méthodes de fluoro-dérivation développées durant l’étude (fluorobenzylation et fluorobenzoylation). Les fonctions hydroxyle ont été quantifiées par titrages conductimétriques et potentiométriques, aminolyse-GC, spectrométries IR et UV- différentielle, et spectrométrie RMN (1H, 13C, 19F et 31P). La distribution des masses molaires des lignines dérivées a été déterminée en utilisant différentes colonnes et solvants (DMAc et THF). La méthode d’étalonnage standard, utilisant différents polymères standards de calibration, et la méthode dite “d’étalonnage universel”, utilisant la détection viscosimétrique couplée à la réfractométrie, ont été comparées. La fluoro-dérivation augmente la solubilité de la lignine dans le THF et améliore les résultats chromatographiques. L'étalonnage universel conduit à environ trois fois les valeurs de masses molaires calculées par étalonnage standard.Lignin is the second most abundant biopolymer on earth and it consists of highly-branched, three dimensional aromatic structures with variety of functional groups, mainly phenolic and alcoholic functions. This research work was focused on derivatization methods to quantify hydroxyl groups in lignins and to determine lignin molar mass distribution by size-exclusion chromatography coupled to multi-detectors. Five different technical lignins were studied: Protobind 1000, Organosolv (CIMV), Pine Kraft, Eucalyptus Kraft and Indulin. Lignin samples were washed and derivatized by classical acetylation, which was compared to fluoro-derivatization using the new methods developed in this work, such as fluorobenzylation and fluorobenzoylation. Hydroxyl groups present in the lignin samples were quantified by potentiometric and conductometric titrations, GC-aminolysis, IR and differential UV spectroscopies and NMR spectroscopy (1H, 13C, 19F and 31P). Molar mass distributions of derivatized lignins were calculated using different columns and solvents (DMAc and THF). Conventional calibration, using different standard polymers as calibrants, was compared to the so-called “universal calibration method”, which uses viscometric and refractometric detectors. Fluoro-derivatization enhanced lignin solubility in THF and improved chromatographic results. Universal calibration led to about three times higher molar mass values than by conventional calibration