Optimization of process parameters by response surface methodology to develop a more bioefficacious nanosuspension of Silybum marianum seed extract

Purpose: To develop a nanosuspension drug delivery system to enhance the dissolution rate of Silybum marianum seeds extract. Methods: Central composite design was used to study the effect of the input variables (stabilizer to plant extract ratio, antisolvent to solvent ratio, stirring time) on the dependent variables (mean particle size, polydispersity index (PDI) and zeta potential). The optimized formulation was characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Fourier Transformed Infrared Microscopy (FT-IR) and in vitro dissolution testing. Results: The optimized nanosuspension with mean particle size of 137 nm, PDI of 0.327 and zeta potential of -37 mV was obtained. SEM studies revealed irregular shaped particles. AFM studies showed nanosized particles with good surface characteristics. The optimized formulation showed faster dissolution rate than coarse suspension. Conclusion: Results suggested that nanosuspension has remarkable potential for enhancement of the dissolution properties of poorly soluble S. marianum seed extract. Keywords: Silybum marianum; Nanosuspension; Optimization; Dissolution rat

Effects of extraction system on antioxidant attributes of mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]

The effects of three extraction techniques (shaking, soaking, and stirring) and two solvents (80% methanol and 80% ethanol) on the antioxidant attributes of extracts from seeds of mungbean have been investigated. The yield of mungbean extracts varied between 6.90 and 9.65 g/100 g of dry matter. Mungbean extracts contained a considerable amount of phenolics (0.78–1.12 g GAE/100 g) and flavonoids (1.23–1.78 g CE/100 g). An appreciable level of reducing power (1.46–2.18) at 10 mg/mL extract concentration, inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation (85.2–90.4%), and DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC50 value 16.4–42.9 μg/mL) were also documented. Overall, the efficacy of an extraction system in isolating potent antioxidant components from mungbean seeds followed the order: shaking, 80% methanol > shaking, 80% ethanol > stirring, 80% methanol > stirring, 80% ethanol > soaking, 80% ethanol > soaking, 80% methanol. The yield and antioxidant activity of the mungbean extracts varied significantly (p < 0.05) as function of extraction techniques and solvents employed

Potencial antioxidante de extractos de residuos agroalimentarios: estabilización de aceite de maíz

The antioxidant potential of 80% methanolic extracts of some agro wastes (pomegranate peel, apple peel, banana peel, citrus peel, corncob, wheat husk, wheat bran, rice bran, and rice hull) was assessed. The yields of the extracts varied over a wide range (8.83 to 29.9 g/100g of dry weight). TPC, TFC, total flavonols (kaempeferol, quercetin, myricetin; HPLC method), DPPH. radical scavenging and inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation for the extracts varied significantly (P < 0.05) ranging from 0.16-36.40, 0.026-4.89 g/100g of dry matter, 1.06-2622.41 mg/Kg of dry matter, 11.2-52.6, and 64.8-96.4%, respectively. Pomegranate peel extract, offering the highest TPC, TFC, and total flavonols exhibited superior antioxidant activity followed by apple peel, citrus peel, banana peel, corncob, wheat bran, rice bran, wheat husk, and rice hull. Furthermore, the antioxidant effectiveness of the extracts was assessed using corn oil (CO) as the oxidation substrate. CO samples stabilized with extracts at a concentration of 600 ppm (w/w) were subjected to accelerated aging (60 ºC, oven heating, 30 days; 8 h heating cycle per day), and analyzed periodically for the extent of oxidative alterations following the measurement of conjugated dienes (CD), conjugated trienes (CT), p-anisidine and peroxide values. The correlation between the results of different antioxidant assays and oxidation parameters investigated in the present study indicated that fruit peel extracts, exhibiting higher TPC, TFC, flavonol and scavenging power, were also more potent for enhancing the oxidative stability of corn oil.En este studio se determinó el potencial antioxidante de extractos de methanol al 80%, de distintos resíduos de granada, manzana, frutos cítricos, maíz, trigo y arroz. Los rendimientos de los extractos variaron en un amplio rango (8.89 a 29.9 g/100 g de materia seca). La cantidad total de compuestos fenólicos, de flavonoides y de flavonoles, así como la capacidad para secuestrar radicales y la inhibición de la oxidación del ácido linoleico varió significativamente (P < 0.05). El extracto de piel de granada contenía las cantidades más elevadas de compuestos fenólicos, de flavonoides y de flavonoles y exhibió la capacidad antioxidante más elevada, seguido del de piel de manzana, piel de cítricos, piel de plátano, mazorca de maíz, salvado de trigo, salvado de arroz, cáscara de trigo y cáscara de arroz. Igualmente, se estableció la actividad antioxidante de los extractos usando aceite de maíz como sustrato. Muestras de aceite estabilizadas con los distintos extractos (600 mg/kg) fueron sometidas a oxidación acelerada (60 °C en horno durante 30 días con ciclos de calentamiento de 8 h/día) y periódicamente se determinaron los siguientes índices: dienos y trienos conjugados, índice de panisidina e índice de peróxidos. Finalmente, se estudiaron las correlaciones entre los resultados de los distintos ensayos y los niveles de compuestos con acción antioxidante, destacando los extractos de pieles de fruta por su mayor contenido en compuestos fenólicos, flavonoides y flavonoles, e igualmente por su potencia para aumentar la estabilidad oxidativa del aceite de maíz

Antioxidant and genoprotective activity of selected cucurbitaceae seed extracts and LC–ESIMS/MS identification of phenolic components

Cucurbitaceae are one of most widely used plant species for human food but lesser known members have not been examined for bioactive components. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antioxidant and genoprotective activities from three cucurbitaceae seeds extracts and to identify phenolic components by LC–ESIMS/MS analysis. From the results, the yield of seeds extract was 20–41% (w/w) and samples had 16–40% total phenols as gallic acid equivalents (GAE). Compared with methanol solvent, using acidified methanol led to increased extraction yield by 1.4 to 10-fold, higher phenolic content (149.5 ± 1.2 to 396.4 ± 1.9 mg GAE/g), higher DPPH radical quenching and enhanced enoprotective activity using the pBR322 plasmid assay. LC–ESI-MS/MS analysis led to identification of 14–17 components, based on authentic standards and comparison with literature reports, as mainly phenolic acids and esters, flavonol glycosides. This may be the first mass spectrometric profiling of polyphenol components from cucurbitaceae seeds

VR-ZYCAP: A versatile resourse-level ICAP controller for ZYNQ SOC

This article belongs to the Special Issue Architecture and CAD for Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs)Hybrid architectures integrating a processor with an SRAM-based FPGA fabric—for example, Xilinx ZynQ SoC—are increasingly being used as a single-chip solution in several market segments to replace multi-chip designs. These devices not only provide advantages in terms of logic density, cost and integration, but also provide run-time in-field reconfiguration capabilities. However, the current reconfiguration capabilities provided by vendor tools are limited to the module level. Therefore, incremental run-time configuration memory changes require a lengthy compilation time for off-line bitstream generation along with storage and reconfiguration time overheads with traditional vendor methodologies. In this paper, an internal configuration access port (ICAP) controller that provides a versatile fine-grain resource-level incremental reconfiguration of the programmable logic (PL) resources in ZynQ SoC is presented. The proposed controller implemented in PL, called VR-ZyCAP, can reconfigure look-up tables (LUTs) and Flip-Flops (FF). The run-time reconfiguration of FF is achieved through a reset after reconfiguration (RAR)-featured partial bitstream to avoid the unintended state corruption of other memory elements. Along with versatility, our proposed controller improves the reconfiguration time by 30 times for FFs compared to state-of-the-art works while achieving a nearly 400-fold increase in speed for LUTs when compared to vendor-supported software approaches. In addition, it achieves competitive resource utilization when compared to existing approaches.This research was funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the ACHILLES project, grant number PID2019-104207RB-I00 and by Taif University Researchers Supporting fund, grant number (TURSP-2020/144), Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia

Comparison of Iron (III) Reducing Antioxidant Capacity (iRAC) and ABTS Radical Quenching Assays for Estimating Antioxidant Activity of Pomegranate

Pomegranate juice (PJ) has total antioxidant capacity which is reportedly higher compared to other common beverages. This short study aimed to assess the total antioxidant capacity of commercial PJ and pomegranate fruit using a newly described method for iron (III) reducing antioxidant capacity (iRAC) and to compare with the ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid)) and Folin–Ciocalteu assays. Commercial PJ, freeze-dried pomegranate, and oven-dried pomegranate were analyzed. The calibration results for iRAC were comparable to ABTS and Folin–Ciocalteu methods in terms of linearity (R2 > 0.99), sensitivity and precision. The total antioxidant capacity for PJ expressed as trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) was 33.4 ± 0.5 mM with the iRAC method and 36.3 ± 2.1 mM using the ABTS method. For dried pomegranates, total antioxidant capacity on a dry weight basis (DB) was 89–110 mmol/100 g DB or 76.0 ± 4.3 mmol/100 g DB using iRAC and ABTS methods, respectively. Freeze-dried pomegranate had 15% higher total antioxidant capacity compared with oven-dried pomegranate. In conclusion, pomegranate has high total antioxidant capacity as evaluated by the iRAC and ABTS methods, though variations occur due to the type of cultivar, geographic origin, processing and other factors. The study is relevant for attempts to refine food composition data for pomegranate and other functional food

HPLC-PDA-ESI-MSn profiling of polyphenolics in different parts of Capparis spinosa and Capparis decidua as function of harvesting seasons

HPLC-PDA-ESI-MSn analysis of different parts such as stem bark, shoot, flower, fruit and root of Capparis spinosa (C. spinosa) and Capparis decidua (C. decidua), collected in rainy and dry seasons from the Cholistan desert of Pakistan, depicted the occurrence of a wide array of phenolics with quercetin, apigenin and kaempferol derivatives along with dicaffeoylquinic acid, caffeoylquinic acid and feruloylquinic acid as the main compounds. Kaempferol-3-glucoside (28.02-167.21 μg g-1dw) was found to be the principal component in all tested parts of both species while dicaffeoylquinic acid was detected only in the flowers and roots. The roots exhibited maximum contents of flavonoids and hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives. The harvesting period significantly (p<0.05) affected the concentration of phenolics wherein the samples collected in rainy season offered greater levels of phenolics than their counterpart. The roots and fruits of both species were found to be rich sources of phenolics. The findings of this research suggest the harvesting of the selected wild Capparis species in rainy season to maximize their antioxidant and nutraceutical benefits

Incidence and prevalence of drug-resistant epilepsy : a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective To evaluate the incidence and prevalence of drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) as well as its predictors and correlates, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Methods Our protocol was registered with PROSPERO, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses and Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology reporting standards were followed. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and Web of Science. We used a double arcsine transformation and random-effects models to perform our meta-analyses. We performed random-effects meta-regressions using study-level data. Results Our search strategy identified 10,794 abstracts. Of these, 103 articles met our eligibility criteria. There was high interstudy heterogeneity and risk of bias. The cumulative incidence of DRE was 25.0% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 16.8–34.3) in child studies but 14.6% (95% CI: 8.8–21.6) in adult/mixed age studies. The prevalence of DRE was 13.7% (95% CI: 9.2–19.0) in population/community-based populations but 36.3% (95% CI: 30.4–42.4) in clinic-based cohorts. Meta-regression confirmed that the prevalence of DRE was higher in clinic-based populations and in focal epilepsy. Multiple predictors and correlates of DRE were identified. The most reported of these were having a neurologic deficit, an abnormal EEG, and symptomatic epilepsy. The most reported genetic predictors of DRE were polymorphisms of the ABCB1 gene. Conclusions Our observations provide a basis for estimating the incidence and prevalence of DRE, which vary between populations. We identified numerous putative DRE predictors and correlates. These findings are important to plan epilepsy services, including epilepsy surgery, a crucial treatment option for people with disabling seizures and DRE