Physicochemical Properties, Cytotoxicity, and Antioxidative Activity of Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents Containing Organic Acid

Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) may be considered ‘designer solvents’ due to their numerous structural variations and the possibility of tailoring their physicochemical properties. Prior to their industrial application, characterization of NADES is essential, including determination of their physicochemical properties, cytotoxicity, and antioxidative activity. The most important physicochemical properties of eight prepared NADES (choline chloride:malic acid, proline:malic acid, choline chloride:proline:malic acid, betaine:malic acid, malic acid:glucose, malic acid:glucose:glycerol, choline chloride:citric acid, and betaine:citric acid) were measured as functions of temperature and water content. In general, the structure of prepared NADES greatly influences their physical properties, which could be successfully modified and adjusted by addition of water. All tested NADES were absolutely benign and noncorrosive for investigated steel X6CrNiTi18-10. Furthermore, cytotoxicity of prepared solvents was assessed toward three human cell lines (HEK-293T, HeLa, and MCF-7 cells), and antioxidative activity was measured by the Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) method. With regard to cell viability, all tested NADES containing carboxylic acid could be classified as practically harmless and considered environmentally safe. The ORAC values indicated that the tested NADES displayed antioxidative activity

Development of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Models for Quantitative Prediction of the Content of Bioactive Compounds in Olive Leaves

The objective of this work was to evaluate the ability of artificial neural networks (ANN) in near infrared (NIR) spectra calibration models to predict the total polyphenolic content, antioxidant activity, and extraction yield of the olive leaves aqueous extracts prepared with three extraction procedures (conventional extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, and microwave-ultrasound-assisted extraction). Partial least squares (PLS) models were developed from principal component analyses (PCA) scores of NIR spectra of olive leaf aqueous extracts in terms of total polyphenols concentration, antioxidant activity, and extraction yield for each extraction procedure. PLS models were used to view which PCA scores are the best suited as input for ANN based on three output variables. ANN showed very good correlation of NIRs and all tested variables, especially in the case of total polyphenolic content (TPC). Therefore, ANN can be used for the prediction of total polyphenol concentrations, antioxidant activity, and extraction yield of plant extracts based on the NIR spectra

Green technology meets ecotoxicology

By applying concept and principles of green chemistry into different technological processes, green technologies are developed. The environmental and economic benefits of “green” approach is achieved through several directions, such as the use of renewable raw materials, creation of economic efficiency, the use of alternative reaction conditions, as well as the application of non-conventional solvents. From the point view of green chemistry, alternative solvents, in order to be a “green“ substitution to hazardous organic solvents, should be: non-volatile, non-flammable, stabile, synthesized by an environmentally friendly procedure, nontoxic and biodegradable. The toxic impact of all newly synthesized chemicals, such as alternative solvents, could be determined by methods and techniques of ecotoxicology. Ecotoxicology, an interdisciplinary scientific field, can serve as a way of monitoring the greenness of the processes. In vivo and in vitro experiments are used to study the effects of chemicals on different levels of organizations, from molecules to communities and ecosystem. The usage of in vitro methods is encouraged by a scientific community and regulatory agencies as an alternative to in vivo studies in order to reduce the number of laboratory animals used in the toxicological studies. Therefore, in this paper we gave a brief overview on the usage of animal cell cultures within the field of green chemistry and technology

Distribution of glucosinolates in some raw and processed Brassica vegetables grown in Croatia

The interest in food with chemoprotective properties has been steadily increasing due to many epidemiological studies indicating the lower probability of acquiring some kinds of cancer (e.g. colon, prostate, breast, cervical) in populations, whose diet includes large quantities of Brassica vegetables. The biologically active compounds in Brassica vegetables are the breakdown products of glucosinolates, including isothiocyanates, nitriles, thiocyanates, indoles and oxazolidinethiones from which indoles and isothiocyanates in particular have been implicated to have anticarcinogenic properties. The object of the present study was to investigate glucosinolates distribution as well as their losses during blanching and cooking in edible parts of white cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi and collard. In all vegetable, only indole glucosinolates as precursors of anticarcinogenic compounds were identified, while glucoraphane was not detected. In cauliflower and collard, proportion of indole glucosinolates was more then 90%, followed by kohlrabi (>70%) and white cabbage (>50%). Analysis of glucosinolates losses during blanching and cooking showed substantial decrease in all vegetables. The major losses were observed for cauliflower, around 60%, for cooked vegetable, followed by white cabbage (55%), kohlrabi (53%) and collard (44%). The losses after blanching were approximately 15% less then in cooked vegetables

Expression of mitochondrial TSPO and FAM173B is associated with inflammation and symptoms in patients with painful knee osteoarthritis

Objectives: To characterize the expression profiles of two nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes previously associated with chronic pain, the translocator protein (TSPO) and family with sequence similarity 173B (FAM173B), in different knee compartments from patients with painful knee OA. Also, to examine their association with the joint expression of inflammatory cytokines/chemokines and clinical symptoms. Methods: The study was performed on 40 knee OA patients and 19 postmortem (PM) controls from which we collected the knee tissues: articular cartilage (AC), synovial membrane (SM) and subchondral bone (SB). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the relative mRNA levels of TSPO, FAM173B, and inflammatory mediators IL6, IL8, IL10, IL12, MCP1, CCL11 and CCL17. OA patients rated their pain intensity (visual analogue scale), severity of knee-related outcomes (KOOS) and pain sensitivity assessed by pressure algometry. Results: The gene expression of TSPO in SM was elevated in OA patients compared with control subjects while there were no group differences in AC and SB. Expression of FAM173B was reduced in SM but elevated in SB in OA patients compared with controls. The expression of TSPO and FAM173B in SM and SB was associated with the expression of inflammatory substances, but not in AC. Synovial expression of TSPO correlated with lower pain intensity and FAM173B with increased pressure pain sensitivity in OA. Conclusion: Our results suggest that altered expression of TSPO and FAM173B is associated with joint expression of inflammatory mediators and with clinical symptoms indicating the relevance for the pathophysiology of knee OA

Ionske kapljevine – razvoj i izazovi industrijske primjene

Establishment of novel, highly productive, and sustainable processes for the production of industrially important compounds is becoming a growing area of research. Due to non-volatility, inflammability, great thermal, chemical and electrochemical stability and also recyclability, ionic liquids are extensively studied as possible green replacement for widely used conventional molecular solvents. Due to the extremely large number of possible chemical structures of ionic liquids, the ability to design ionic liquids for specific applications makes them unique solvents in electrochemistry, analytical chemistry, organic synthesis and (bio)catalysis, separation processes, as well as functional fluids (lubricants, heat transfer fluids, corrosion inhibitors etc.). This paper presents a review of the scientific and technical literature related to ionic liquids, their basic properties, preparation and application, as well as the challenges of their application on an industrial scale.Uspostavljanje novih visokoučinkovitih i održivih procesa proizvodnje industrijski važnih kemikalija predmet je brojnih znanstvenih istraživanja. Stoga se ionske kapljevine, zbog neznatne hlapljivosti, nezapaljivosti, velike toplinske, kemijske i elektrokemijske stabilnosti, te posebice mogućnosti regeneracije, posljednjih godina intenzivno proučavaju kao zelena zamjena za sveprisutna tradicionalna škodljiva otapala. Budući da je broj mogućih kemijskih struktura ionskih kapljevina iznimno velik, mogućnost dizajniranja ionskih kapljevina za specifične namjene čini ih jedinstvenim otapalima za raznovrsnu uporabu u elekrokemiji, organskoj sintezi i (bio)katalizi, analitici, separacijskim postupcima, ali i kao funkcionalnih kapljevina (sredstva za podmazivanje, akumulatori topline, inhibitori korozije i dr.). U ovom je radu dat pregled znanstvene i stručne literature vezane uz ionske kapljevine, njihova karakteristična svojstva, pripravu i primjenu, ali i izazove njihove primjene u industrijskom mjerilu

Comparison of selected bioactive compounds and antioxidative capacity in different broccoli cultivars

Numerous recent publications have compared different cultivars of broccoli and different cultivation conditions suggesting that great variations in the content of phytochemicals among cultivars are due to genetic, and many environmental factors. The purpose of the present work was the quantification of glucosinolates, phenolic compounds, carotenoids, and antioxidant capacity in the florescences of 13 genotypes from freshly harvested broccoli grown under uniform agroecological practices. The present results showed a significant variation in the level of bioactive compounds and consequently potential health benefits of broccoli (total glucosinolates 12.04–22.48 μmol g−1 d.w., the total phenolic content 15.54–26.92 mg g−1 d.w., total carotenoid content 0.19 mg g−1–0.46 mg g−1 d.w.). Studied cultivars were different in the level of the individual bioactive compounds, although some cultivars had higher content of all three analysed bioactive compounds such as Marathon, Ironman and General cultivar. In addition, these three cultivars showed excellent marketable properties and we choose them for the further breeding program in order to study variation among bioactive compounds in more details

Biomarker of extracellular matrix remodelling C1M and proinflammatory cytokine interleukin 6 are related to synovitis and pain in end-stage knee osteoarthritis patients

Little is known about local and systemic biomarkers in relation to synovitis and pain in end-stage osteoarthritis (OA) patients. We investigated the associations between the novel extracellular matrix biomarker, C1M, and local and systemic interleukin 6 (IL-6) with synovitis and pain. Serum C1M, plasma, and synovial fluid IL-6 (p-IL-6, sf-IL-6) were measured in 104 end-stage knee OA patients. Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging was used to semiquantitatively assess an 11-point synovitis score; pain was assessed by the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and the Neuropathic Pain Questionnaire (NPQ). Linear regression was used to investigate associations between biomarkers and synovitis, and biomarkers and pain while controlling for age, sex, and body mass index. We also tested whether associations between biomarkers and pain were confounded by synovitis. We found sf-IL-6 was associated with synovitis in the parapatellar subregion (B = 0.006; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.003-0.010), and no association between p-IL-6 and synovitis. We also observed an association between C1M and synovitis in the periligamentous subregion (B = 0.013; 95% CI 0.003-0.023). Furthermore, sf-IL-6, but not p-IL-6, was significantly associated with pain, WOMAC (B = 0.022; 95% CI 0.004-0.040), and NPQ (B = 0.043; 95% CI 0.005-0.082). There was no association between C1M and WOMAC pain, but we did find an association between C1M and NPQ (B = 0.229; 95% CI 0.036-0.422). Lastly, synovitis explained both biomarker-NPQ associations, but not the biomarker-WOMAC association. These results suggest that C1M and IL-6 are associated with synovitis and pain, and synovitis is an important confounding variable when studying biomarkers and neuropathic features in OA patients