Identification of anti-inflammatory compound/compounds in hexane fraction of Jatropha curcas root extract

Jatropha curcas is a medicinal plant with many therapeutic properties such as anti-inflammatory, anti-malaria, anti-cancer and antioxidant. The root extract has been shown to possess high anti-inflammatory activity. Previously, the compounds responsible for this activity have not been fully elucidated. Two fractions (Fraction 1 and Fraction 2) obtained from a preparative HPLC of the root extract showed significant anti-inflammatory and cytotoxic activities in RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cells with Fraction 1 giving higher nitric oxide (NO) inhibition compared to Fraction 2 and L-NAME. Further purification steps involving column chromatography, thin layer chromatography and analytical HPLC of Fraction 1 produced two fractions labeled as Fraction A and Fraction B. Both fractions showed anti-inflammatory activity without cytotoxic activity in RAW 264.7 cells. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis showed that Fraction A contained a group of 18 carbon fatty acid compounds consisting of 2 oxooctadecanoic acids; 15, 16 dihydroxy 9Z, 12Z octadecadienoic acid; octadecadienoic isomer and 15,16 dihydroxy 9Z, 12Z octadecadienoic acid, 15S, 16S. The 18-carbon fatty acid structure was confirmed by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectral data. The IC₅₀ value of compounds in Fraction A for anti-inflammatory activity in RAW 264.7 cell line was 434.8±0.75 µg/mL. From the analysis, it can be concluded that Fraction A can be classified under 18 carbon long chain fatty acid group based on LC MS/MS and NMR analysis. This active compound shows an inhibition towards NO activity

Anti-inflammatory activity of Jatropha curcas extracts

The Jatropha curcas plant or locally known as “pokok jarak” has been widely used as remedies for various conditions including arthritis, gout, jaundice, wound and inflammation. In this study, the seed, leaves, stem and root of J. curcas plant were screened for anti-inflammatory (nitric oxide inhibition) and cytotoxic activities (MTT assay) by using RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cells. The highest anti-inflammatory activity was observed in the methanolic extract of root. However, root extract showed high inhibition towards RAW 264.7 cells growth due to it cytotoxicity. Further extraction procedure by using four solvents (hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and water) with different polarities was conducted on the root sample. The hexane partition showed high anti-inflammatory activity, at the same time high cytotoxicity towards RAW 264.7 cells at 1 mg/mL. Analysis of this extract by GCMS showed the presence of high levels of terpenes and diterpenes which are known to possess cytotoxic activity. Fractionation process of the hexane partition using column chromatography gave five spots, where two spots (H-4 and H-5) showed anti-inflammatory activity and low cytotoxicity. The two spots showed the presence of hexadecanoic acid and octadecanoic acid by GCMS analysis. This finding suggests that these two compounds are responsible for producing the anti-inflammatory activity of the J. curcas root

Fuel Subsidies, Fuel Consumption, and Road Transport Emissions: A systematic review

The growing clamor about the climate crisis has brought into focus the need for action to drastically reduce CO2 emissions, particularly from the road transport sector. This systematic literature review examines the nexus between fossil fuel subsidies, fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions from the road transport sector. Despite numerous research contributions that provide the foundation on this topic, the body of research appears to be quite fragmented with regard to the stated nexus. This systematic literature review consolidates currently available research and provides the basis for further research on the connection between fuel subsidy, fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions. Keywords: Fossil Fuel Subsidy; Transport Emissions; Subsidy Reform; Systematic Literature Review eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6i16.272

Development of an inhibitive enzyme assay for copper

In this work the development of an inhibitive assay for copper using the molybdenum-reducing enzyme assay is presented. The enzyme is assayed using 12-molybdophosphoric acid at pH 5.0 as an electron acceptor substrate and NADH as the electron donor substrate. The enzyme converts the yellowish solution into a deep blue solution. The assay is based on the ability of copper to inhibit the molybdenum-reducing enzyme from the molybdate-reducing Serratia sp. Strain DRY5. Other heavy metals tested did not inhibit the enzyme at 10 mg l(-1). The best model with high regression coefficient to measure copper inhibition is one-phase binding. The calculated IC50 (concentration causing 50% inhibition) is 0.099 mg l(-1) and the regression coefficient is 0.98. The comparative LC50, EC50 and IC50 data for copper in different toxicity tests show that the IC50 value for copper in this study is lower than those for immobilized urease, bromelain, Rainbow trout, R. meliloti, Baker's Yeast dehydrogenase activity Spirillum volutans, P. fluorescens, Aeromonas hydrophilia and synthetic activated sludge assays. However the IC50 value is higher than those for Ulva pertusa and papain assays, but within the reported range for Daphnia magna and Microtox assays

Isolation and characterization of a molybdenum-reducing and Orange G-decolorizing Enterobacter sp. strain Zeid-6 in soils from Sudan

Chemical toxins and organic contaminants such as hydrocarbons and dyes are major global contaminants with countless tones of those chemicals are created yearly with a significant amount release to the environment. In this work we screen the ability of a molybdenum-reducing bacterium isolated from contaminated soil to decolorize various azo and triphenyl methane dyes independent of molybdenum reduction. Biochemical analysis resulted in a tentative identification of the bacterium as Enterobacter sp. strain Zeid-6. The bacterium was able to decolorize the azo dye Orange G. The bacterium reduces molybdate to Mo-blue optimally at pH between 5.5 and 8.0 and temperatures of between 30 and 37 °C. Other requirements include a phosphate concentration of 5 mM and a molybdate concentration of 20 mM. The absorption spectrum of the Mo-blue produced was similar to previous Mo-reducing bacterium, and closely resembles a reduced phosphomolybdate. Molybdenum reduction was inhibited by copper, lead, mercury and silver which showed 36.8, 16.9, 64.9 and 67.6% inhibition to Mo-reducing activity of Enterobacter sp. strain Zeid-6, respectively. The resultant molybdenum blue spectrum closely resembles the spectrum of molybdenum blue from the phosphate determination method. The ability of this bacterium to detoxify molybdenum and decolorize azo dye makes this bacterium an important tool for bioremediation

Estimation of LC50 and its confidence interval for the effect of ferrous sulphate on Catla catla

Probit analysis is generally employed in the studies of toxicology, to determine the concentration of toxicant causing 50% mortality or LC50 value. The response of an organism is generally binomial and is typically sigmoidal in property. The Probit value can be calculated by hand or can be calculated through the use of a computer via software, the latter utilising the maximum likelihood method which is a more precise estimation of the parameters. When a published result failed to produce the 95% confidence interval, the results can be re-evaluated using software including SPSS. In this study, the LC50 value of the effect of ferrous sulphate to the fish Catla catla is re-evaluated using the Probit modelling exercise via the SPSS software, which gave an LC50 value of 8.271 p.p.m., with a 95% confidence interval from 7.353 to 9.189 p.p.m. The sub lethal concentration (SLC) for ferrous sulphate, which is one fourth of the LC50 value was 2.06 p.p.m

Modelling the effect of heavy metal on the growth rate of an SDS-degrading pseudomonas sp. strain DRY15 from antarctic soil

The SDS-degrading bacterium Pseudomonas sp. strain DRY15 was strongly inhibited by heavy metals especially mercury. Growth of the SDS-degrading bacterium at various concentrations of mercury shows a sigmoidal pattern with lag periods ranging from 7 to 10 h. As the concentration of mercury was increased, the overall growth was inhibited with 1.0 g/L causing an almost cessation of bacterial growth. The modified Gompertz model was utilized to obtain growth rates at different concentrations of mercury. The growth rates obtained from the modified Gompertz model was then modelled according to the modified Han-Levenspiel, Wang, Liu, modified Andrews, the Amor and Shukor models. Out of the five models, only the Shukor, Wang, modified Han-Levenspiel and the Liu models were able to fit the curve, whilst the modified Andrews and Amor models were unable to fit the curves. The best model was Shukor based on the lowest values for RMSE and AICc, highest adjusted correlation coefficient (adR2) and values of AF and BF closest to unity. The parameters obtained from the Shukor model, which are Sm, max and n which represent critical heavy metal ion concentration (mg/L), maximum growth rate (h-1) and empirical constant values were 6.0 (95%, confidence interval from 5.87 to 6.14), 0.09 (95%, confidence interval of 0.086 to 0.096) and 4.2 (95%, confidence interval from 3.1 to 5.2), respectively

Kinetic analysis of the adsorption of lead (II) onto an antarctic sea-ice bacterial exopolysaccharide

Hypertension and kidney impairment are two of the many adult health problems that have been related to lead exposure. Women who are expecting a child are especially susceptible to the dangers of lead since it can have devastating consequences on the developing embryo. Existing techniques for the remediation of lead pollutant include membrane separation, ion exchange, precipitation and biosorption. Of all of this technology, biosorption has several positive aspects which include low operating expenses, very efficient detoxification of toxicants at low concentrations and low amount of disposal materials. The biosorption of the biosorption of lead(II) onto an Antarctic sea-ice bacterial exopolysaccharide is remodeled using nonlinear regression and the optimal mode was determined by a series of error function assessments. Statistical analysis showed that the best kinetic model for adsorption in salt-free water was pseudo-1st order while the best kinetic model for adsorption in seawater was pseudo-2nd order model. All error function analyses also supported these two best models. The kinetic constants values for salt-free water and seawater shows large difference in terms of adsorption in salt-free water and seawater. A higher equilibrium biosorption capacity for lead (II) or qe values were exhibited for both k1 and k2 rate constants in sea water indicating a more efficient adsorption in seawater. Adsorption in seawater increased the qe values from 51.11 (mg/g) (95% confidence interval from 49.75 to 52.44) to 92.98 (mg/g) (95% C.I. from 91.01 to 94.95) In addition, the h value, (mg/g.min) indicates a stronger driving force to accelerate the diffusion of adsorbate from seawater onto the adsorbent. The results suggest fundamental difference of sorption mechanism and functional groups are involved in salt-free and seawater

Mathematical modeling of molybdenum blue production from Serratia marcescens strain DR.Y10

The pollution of heavy metals and toxic xenobiotics has become a central issue worldwide. Bioremediation of these toxicants are being constantly carried out using novel microbes. Molybdenum reduction to molybdenum blue is a detoxification process and mathematical modelling of the reduction process can reveal important parameters such as specific reduction rate, theoretical maximum reduction and whether reduction at high molybdenum concentration affected the lag period of reduction. The used of linearization method through the use of natural logarithm transformation, although popular, is inaccurate and can only give an approximate value for the sole parameter measured; the specific growth rate. In this work, a variety of models for such as logistic, Gompertz, Richards, Schnute, Baranyi-Roberts, Von Bertalanffy, Buchanan three-phase and more recently Huang were utilized for the first time to obtain values for the above parameters or constants. The modified Gompertz model was the best model in modelling the Mo-blue production curve from Serratia marcescens strain DR.Y10 based on statistical tests such as root-mean-square error (RMSE), adjusted coefficient of determination (R2), bias factor (BF), accuracy factor (AF) and corrected AICc (Akaike Information Criterion). Parameters obtained from the fitting exercise were maximum Mo-blue production rate (um), lag time (l) and maximal Mo-blue production (Ymax) of X (h-1), Y (h) and Z (nmole Mo-blue), respectively. The application of primary population growth models in modelling the Mo-blue production rate from this bacterium has become a successful undertaking. The model may also be used in other heavy metals detoxification processes. The parameters constants extracted from this work will be a substantial help for the future development of further secondary models