Boosting Fennel Plant yield and Components using Combination of Manure, Compost and Biofertilizers

Field experiments were conducted during the two successive seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 to investigate the response of Fennel plants to manure, compost and biofertilizers.  Thus, natural possible alternatives to highly soluble fertilizers had been used as manure and compost mixture with and without biofertilizers (two bacterial strains) inoculation on fennel plants yield, essential oil production and constituents in comparison with recommended dose of chemical fertilizers (NPK) as control. The results revealed that manure and compost mixture with biofertilizers gave significant increases over control plants in all growth and chemical parameters. Where, the maximum value of fruit yield was recorded for plants received manure+compost +biofertilizers treatment in both seasons. The combined treatment of manure + compost + biofertilizers significantly increased the essential oil percentage as compared with the other treatments .The highest content of anethole  as well as fenchone was obtained from NPK treatment. On the other hand, limonene resulted from the manure+ compost +biofertilizers treatment was higher than control. Myrcene compound was increased with manure + compost treatment in comparison with control.  The highest value of estragole resulted from control plants, while the lowest amount of this compound was recorded from the treatment with manure+ compost +biofertilizers

Preparation and Characterization of Various Interstitial N-Doped TiO2 Catalysts from Different Nitrogen Dopants for the Treatment of Polluted Water

In this work N-doped TiO2 nano particle photocatalysts were prepared through a sol-gel procedure using three different types of nitrogen dopants urea, diethanolamine (DEA) and triethylamine (TEN). Multiple techniques (XRD, TEM, SEM, EDX, BET, Raman and UV-Visible absorption) were commanded to characterize the crystal structure of N-doped TiO2. The catalytic activity of the N-doped TiO2 under ultraviolet (UV) and visible light irradiation is evidenced by the decomposition of 2-chlorophenol, showing that nitrogen atoms in the N-doped TiO2 are responsible for the visible light catalytic activity. It is suggested that doped nitrogen here is located at the interstitial site of TiO2 lattice. Amongst investigated nitrogen precursors diethanolamine provided the highest visible light absorption ability of interstitial N-doped TiO2 with the smallest energy band gap and the smallest anatase crystal size, resulting in the highest efficiency in 2-cholorophenol degradation. The photocatalytic activity and 2-CP mineralization ability of all N-doped TiO2 can be arranged in the following order:  TiO2/DEA > TiO2/TEN > TiO2/UREA > un-doped TiO2. Keywords: 2-chlorophenol, Photocatalytic degradation, N-doped TiO2, Different Nitrogen Dopants, urea, diethanolamine (DEA), triethylamine (TEN) and Catalytic Activity

Hydrogels and Their Combination with Liposomes, Niosomes, or Transfersomes for Dermal and Transdermal Drug Delivery

Polymeric networks that retain and absorb substantial amount of water or biological fluids and resemble as a biological tissue are defined as hydrogels. On the other hand, liposomes, transfersomes and niosomes are lipid carriers, which represent one of the major research and development focus areas of the pharmaceutical industry. They have great potential as lipid vehicles that are able to enhance permeation of drugs across the intact skin and can act as local depot for the drug to sustain and control its delivery. Lipid carrier and hydrogel combinations offer transdermal drug delivery of great potential to enhance systemic effects of both hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs. Also, lipid carriers can target drugs to skin appendages and improve transdermal delivery. Lipid carrier proform systems in the form of gelly liquid crystals can also be used transdermally for better drug absorption enhancement. This review highlights the potential of hydrogels and emulgels with or without lipid nanocarriers for dermal and transdermal application

Development of two reference materials for all trans-retinol, retinyl palmitate, α- and γ-tocopherol in milk powder and infant formula

AbstractVitamins are important food constituents that can be present in almost every foodstuff. Food quality and safety depends on food surveillance by reliable quantitative analysis enabled by appropriate quality control. Certified matrix reference materials are versatile tools to support quality assurance and control. However, in the case of vitamins, which are important in various foods, there is a lack of matrix reference materials. Two certified reference materials for the determination of all–trans-retinol, retinyl palmitate, and α- and γ-tocopherol in milk powder and infant formula have been developed by the National Institute of Standards, Egypt. This article presents the preparation, characterization, homogeneity, and stability testing as well as statistical treatment of data and certified value assignment. The assignment of the certified values and associated uncertainties in the prepared natural-matrix reference materials were based on the widely used approach of combining data from independent and reliable analytical methods

Design, synthesis and cytotoxic evaluation of 2-amino-4- aryl-6-substituted pyridine-3,5-dicarbonitrile derivatives

Purpose: To synthesize novel pyridine derivatives and evaluate their efficiency as potent inhibitors of cyclin dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) enzyme for cancer therapy.Methods: Pyridine scaffold were synthesized using one-pot multicomponent condensation reaction of arylidine with different primary amines. The cytotoxic potential of the new compounds was assessed using various cell lines. Furthermore, molecular docking studies based on the crystal structure of CDK2 was carried out to determine the possible binding modes that influence the anticancer activities.Results: The results indicate that one-pot multicomponent reaction generated a series of functionalized pyridines with good yield. In vitro cytotoxicity study revealed superior cytotoxicity of the designed compounds against prostate and cervical cancer cell lines compared to 5-fluorouracil (standard anticancer compound) with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 0.1 – 0.85 and 1.2 –74.1 μM, respectively. Finally, molecular modeling simulation of the newly synthesized compounds showed that they fit well and are stabilized into CDK2 active site via hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions.Conclusion: The results indicate that the newly synthesized pyridine can exert potent anticancer activity presumably via inhibition of CDK2. However, this will need to be confirmed in in vivo studies

Effects of Foliar Nutrition on Onion Seed Storage under Modified Atmosphere Packages

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Foliar Nutrition and Post-Harvest of Onion Seed: effects of storage temperatures, storage period and foliar nutrition

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Effects of Foliar Nutrition on Onion Seed Storage under Controlled Atmosphere

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