Chemical Constituent of Murraya Paniculata (Rutaceae) and Their Biological Activities

An investigation on the plant of Murraya paniculata, employing extraction of the leaves and stem barks and various chromatographic isolation techniques have been used. The structure of the compounds were elucidated by using spectroscopic techniques such as IR, NMR, MS and also by comparison with the previous work. Extraction and isolation work of the leaves and stem barks of Murraya paniculata collected from Lenggong, Perak yielded gardenin E (28), 3',4',5,5', 7-pentamethoxyflavone (29), 3',4',5,5', 7,8-hexamethoxyflavone (30), gardenin A (31), sterol mixtures (32), 3',4',5,5',7-pentamethoxyflavanone (33) and gardenin C (34). Further study on the leaves of the same plant collected from different location in lpoh, Perak afforded four known coumarins ; auraptene (36), gleinadiene (37), 5,7-dimethoxy-8-(3-methyl-2-oxo-butyl)coumalin (38) and toddalenone (39). The antibacterial and antifungi activities test were also carried out on elUde PE, CHCh and MeOH extracts of the leaves and stem barks and also towards pure compounds. This antibacterial activity was tested using the 'disk Diffusion' method. One gram positive bacteria (Baccilus cereus) and four fungi (Aspergillus ochraceous, Saccharomyces lipolytica, Saccharomyces cerevisiae dan Candida lipolytica) were selected for this test. Chloroform extract of Murraya paniculata gave the highest average zone of inhibition, indicating the degree of its sensitivity. Meanwhile compound (37) showed moderate degree of toxicity towards the bacteria

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: characteristics and its degradation by biocatalysis remediation

An excessive released of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to surroundings is one of the major factors that cause environmental pollution to increase globally. This issue had gained scientist’s attention to study PAHs biodegradation pathways and their toxicity towards humans and the environment. They found that the major mechanism responsible for the ecological recovery of PAH-contaminated sites happened to be from the microbial degradation process. However, there are a few limitations faced by the PAHs degrading bacteria where the bacteria die due to extremely polluted areas. This leads the researchers to utilize genetic engineering to produce enzymes that can withstand and survive in extreme environments. Recent information and technology such as path sources, properties and biochemical pathways by means to produce the simplest and less harmful components in polluted ecosystems are discussed in this review. In-depth studies in regards to bacteria biocatalysis involving bacterialproduced-enzymes to degrade PAHs help develop new methods to enhance the bioremediation effectiveness in the future