VOLUME 40, NO4, AUG-2018

Corrosion–Occurrence & Prevention

This is a brief review of the problem of corrosion, the menace and its remedy. Corrosion costs not millions but billions of dollars in damages to equipment, accidents, failures of equipment, bridges, pipelines etc. Corrosion is the caustic attack by a metal/alloy by agents such as rain, polluted air, sea water or aggressive chemical agents. The process of corrosion and various methods of prevention have been discussed.read more

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Iqra Zubair Awan

Radiation Dosimetry by 4PNPAN/PVB Thin Films in High Dose Ranges

Poly (vinyl butyral) combined with 4-(p-nitrophenyl-azo)-1-naphthol has been examined to be a dosimeter suitable for applications in the high dose range. Different concentrations were prepared to obtain the suitability of the dosimeter in the dose range 5-100 kGy in which the yellow color of the dye was bleached. Magnesium chloride was then added and its effect on the response was studied. The response is independent on the variation of relative humidity during irradiation. The radiation chemical yield for the prepared films was calculated. Films reveal excellent stability before and after irradiation. Optical energy gap was determined and the effect of gamma radiation on its value was studied.read more

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Sayeda E Eid, Seif E Ebraheem and Asmaa Sobhy

Metallic Nanoparticles: Potential Ecofungicide for Controlling Growth of Plant-pathogenic Fungi

Development of nanoscience has provided several kinds of useful nanomaterials for biomedical applications such as drugs delivery systems, antibacterial or antifungal products and health care devices. Abundant studies of metallic nanoparticles have reported fortheir potential antibacterial property and exploited for practical applications. Moreover, several metallic nanoparticles have recently proven their strong inhibitory activity on plant-pathogenic growth. Thus, metallic nanoparticles could be utilized to develop a new generation of fungicides for agricultures inceusing of the chemical fungicides could pose some limitations such as harming to some beneficial microorganisms as well as human health.Moreover, accumulations of fungicide residues in agricultural products and underground water are also serious problems. Another drawback of fungicide usage is creating resistance of the harmful fungi which regenerates new strain of fungi without any known preventing approach. In the review, we focus on the effect of metallic nanoparticle on plant pathogenic microbes and the possibility of these nanoparticles in protecting plant thus providing currently knowledge of different metallic nanoparticles which have been reported their ability to control plant-fungal pathogens at laboratory scales and to treat fungi-infected plants.read more

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Phuong Doan, Van Du Cao, Dai Hai Nguyen, and Ngoc Quyen Tran

Surface Characterization of Ni-Mg-Al and Co-Mg-Al Hydrotalcites Investigated by Inverse Gas Chromatography

Carbonate pillared hydrotalcite-like compounds (NixMg3-xAl-LDHs and CoxMg3-xAl-LDHs) with different molar ratios were synthesized through co-precipitation, the samples were characterized by XRD, FTIR and Inverse gas chromatography (IGC) techniques. The surface properties were compared and verified by computer simulation. The results indicated that with the increasing of Ni2+ in NixMg3-xAl-LDHs, the surface adsorption free energy and the dispersive component of the surface energy decreased, while the stability increased gradually, which was contrary to the Co2+ in CoxMg3-xAl–LDHs. Besides, the surface free energy of Ni-Mg-Al hydrotalcites was smaller than Co-Mg-Al hydrotalicites when they were in the same molar ratio, and the stability of the former was stronger than the latter.read more

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Zhiyin Sun, Guanghua Xia, Wenyuan Tang and Wenchu Wang

Spectroscopic and Structural Study of the Zinc(II)-hesperidin Complexes and Its Analysis Application

The coordination mode of hesperidin with Zinc(II) was investigated by combined methods of Complete Neglect of Differential Overlap calculation (CNDO), continual variations of equimolar solutions, mole ratios, and IR spectra analysis. The results indicated that Zinc(II) ions and hesperidin form an ocher-yellow complex with an absorption maximum at 369 nm. Hesperidin can form a complex of 4:1 with Zinc(II) through its 4-carbonyl and 5-hydroxyl group. The relative stability constant of the complex, log β1 ranged from 2.79 at pH=8.50 to 4.48 at pH=10.50. The conditions for the spectrophotometric determination of hesperidin, by means of the complex formation reaction, were investigated. It was found that hesperidin can be determined in the concentration range from 2.00×10-4 to 2.00×10-3 mol/L. The application of the coordination reaction for determining the concentration of hesperidin in orange juice is demonstrated. All investigations were carried out in 70% methanol solutions at room temperature (28oC), constant values of pH (10.50), and ionic strength (0.01).read more

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Boru Chen and Siming Zhu

Synthesis, Characterization and Anticancer Activity of Pyrazine-2-Carboxamide Metal Complexes

We explore the synthesis of metal complexes of a renowned antituberculosis drug, pyrazinamide (PZ) with copper, ferrous, ferric, cobalt and manganese. A detailed characterization of the resulting complexes was performed for establishing their structures by using spectroscopic techniques like NMR, FTIR, PXRD and SEM. These compounds were also explored for anticancer activity on SNB-19, HCT-15, COLO-205, and KB-3-1 cell lines and were found to be non-or low toxicity as most of the tested compounds’ IC50 > 100 μM. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed marked changes in the morphology after complexation. Compared to the pure PZ, an abrupt change in the morphological features of the complexes was likely caused by the chelating of PZ molecules with the metals. The micrographs of complexes depict a uniform matrix which indicates complete complex formation of with the drug uniformly dispersed at the molecular level. X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data suggested crystalline nature for the pure ligand and its corresponding complexes and this observation is well supported by morphological characterizations performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy.read more

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Mohsin Ali, Zi-Ning Lei, Mansoor Ahmed, Syed Imran Ali, Konatsu Kojima, Pranav Gupta, Majid Mumtaz, Zhe-Sheng Chen, Syed Moazzam Haider, Muhammad Hanif, Ameer Hassan and Dong-Hua Yang

Phytochemical Screening and Anthelmintic Activity of Flueggea virosa

The present study involves the phytochemical screening and anthelmintic investigation of leaf and bark of plant Flueggea virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Voigt. The phytochemical analysis of leaf and bark of plant material showed the presence of reducing sugars, terpenoids, cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, saponins, anthraquinones and alkaloids. Anthelmintic activity of plant extract of F. virosa was carried out at four different concentrations 20, 50, 80, 100 mg/ml. Anthelmintic activity was evaluated in terms of time utilized for death and paralysis. All extracts showed significant anthelmintic potential which was dose dependent and compared to standard piperazine citrate.read more

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Muhammad Ajaib, Samdah Qayyum Wahla, Usman Ghani Wahla, Khalid Mohammed Khan Shahnaz Perveen and Shazia Shah

HPLC analysis and Antioxidant, Antibacterial and Cytotoxicity Activities of Various Solvent Extracts of Erysimum kotschyanum Gay. (Brassicaceae)

Erysimum is the second richest genus in Brassicaceae. Erysimum species have been used in some phytochemical and biological activities studies, as well as in the taxonomic, floristic and genetic works. In this study, some biological activities and phenolic contents of various solvents extracts (ethanol, acetone and distileted water) of Erysimum kotschyanum Gay. were evaluated..The antioxidant activity of the extracts was evaluated by β-carotene/linoleic acid, ferric reducing power assays (FRAP), radical scavenging assays of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2'-azino-bis-3-ethyl benzthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) and total phenolic and flavonoid contents in the extracts were determined. The brine shrimp lethality test was used to determine the cytotoxic activity of E. kotschyanum extracts and also, antibacterial potential of extracts obtained. Antioxidant activity was determined as β-carotene/linoleic acid (%80.47±1.83), DPPH (IC50: 0.29±0.03) and ABTS (IC50: 47.15±0.74), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) (IC50: 18.79±0.15), total phenolic and total flavonoid contents was found as (4.883±0.47 mgGAE/g) and (93.322±1.57 mgQE/g), respectively ,and then 9 different phenolic compounds in ethanol extracts was carried out by HPLC. Also, ethanol extract’s antimicrobial activity (17±1 zone diameter) and cytotoxic activity (Brine Shrimp LC50: 315.48) of extracts was calculated. According the results, the extract of E. kotschyanum may be considered as a potential source of biological agents.read more

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Ozge Kılınçarslan and Ramazan Mammadov

Synthesis and Cytotoxicity of New Stigmasterol Derivatives

This study identifies potential antitumor compounds from a series of new stigmasterol derivatives. Eleven stigmasterol derivatives were synthesized and their structures were confirmed by 1H NMR, MS, and elemental analyses. Their cytotoxicity in vitro against three human cancer cell lines (MCF-7, A549 and HepG2) were evaluated by the MTT assay. Among these compounds, AB-5 and AB-11 shows much better cytotoxicity against MCF-7, A549, and HepG2 cells, and AB-10 exhibits selective cytotoxicity against MCF-7. Their structure–activity relationships were also investigated. In conclusion, AB-5, AB-10 and AB-11 serve as potential compounds for the new generation of anticancer drugs.read more

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Yu Lu, Jizhi Hu, Zibin Wu, Li Zeng and Bo Yu

Nutrients Composition of Common Plant Species of Asteraceae in Quetta at Two Growth Stages

Wild plants play an important role in non-traditional fodder producing plants. Therefore, eight common plant species of Asteraceae were collected from four different localities of Quetta at two different growth stages viz., vegetative and flowering. The plant material (particularly leaf) was shade dried and ground them into fine powder. Thereafter they were analyzed for mineral nutrients viz., N, P, K, Na, Zn and Mn following standard procedures. Results showed that different plant species at both the growth stages did significantly produced different amount of total mineral nutrients viz. sum of N, P, K, Na, Zn, and Mn. Statistically maximum amount of total mineral nutrients (65.66 mg g-1) were produced by Seriphidium quettense (Podlech) Ling, Bull. Relatively minimum (45.02 mg g-1) amount of the total mineral nutrients was observed on Achillea wilhelmsii C. Koch. This amount for the remaining six plants was in an order of Hertia intermedia Boiss > Echinops griffithianus Boiss > Carthamus oxycantha M. Bieb > Centaurea iberica Trev.ex Spreng > Acroptilon repens (L.) Hidalgo > Conyza bonarensis (L.) Cronquist, respectively. Results also showed that generally vegetative growth stage produced 7.74% greater amount of total mineral nutrients overall in all the studied Asteraceae species [except Seriphidium quettense (Podlech) Ling, Bull] over than their respective reproductive growth stage. Statistically overall maximum increase (13.84%) in mineral nutrients was produced by Achillea wilhelmsii C. Koch. While minimum (1.81%) for the same is recorded for Centaurea iberica Trevir. ex Spreng. Therefore, based on the highest concentration of total mineral nutrients, Seriphidium quettense (Podlech) Ling, Bull; Hertia intermedia Boiss, and Echinops griffithianus Boiss of Asteraceae are respectively recommended as forage and fodder for feeding of ruminants particularly at their vegetative growth stage.read more

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Abdul Kabir Khan Achakzai, Ayeesha Masood, Rasool Bakhsh Tareen and Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman