VOLUME 43, NO4, AUG-2021

Evaluating the Effect of Sewage Sludge on Bioactive Components of Momordicacharantia

Momordicacharantia L. belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae. This plant has widely been reported for use in traditional medical systems for the treatment of diabetes, rheumatism, intestinal gas and malaria. The ethnicity of M. charantiais Asia, Africa and some parts of Europe where it is considered edible. Sewage sludge, a by-product of waste water treatment plant, contains several nutrients. These nutrients are known as beneficial for the better growth and good yield of the plants. The objective of this study is to optimize soil with different ratios of sewage sludge for increased growth of bioactive components in M. charantia. The plant was grown at six places; in soil containing 20%, 40%, 60% and 80% sewage sludge ratio as well as in pure soil and in pure sewage sludge. Fruit harvesting was carried out after 75 days. Methanol extract of M. charantia (Fruit) was subjected to analysis using GC-MS. Comparative quantification of 7,11-hexadecadienal, oleic Acid and stigmasterol were carried out. It has been found that the soil containing 60% sewage sludge yielded maximum quantity of 7,11-hexadecadienal, oleic Acid and stigmasterol. Therefore, optimization of soil with different ratios of sewage sludge is carried out and 60% ratio of sewage sludge in soil is recommended for the promising growth of Momordicacharantia.read more

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Zohaib Saeed, Ikram Ahmad, Shahid Iqbal, Umer Younas, Muhammad Pervaiz, Rana Rashad Mahmood Khan, Shahzad Sharif, Abdullah M. Asiri, Sher Bahadar Khan and Tahseen Kamal

Ultrasonic Powered Hydrothermal Modification of Coal Fly Ash to Cost-Effective Zeolites

Coal fly ash (CFA) waste is one of the anthropogenic materials having detrimental impact as particulate and leachate contaminant. Dumping of such solid waste into landfills and other improper waste management conduct can be lethal for environment. In this work CFA waste was attempted to modify into zeolites using ultrasonic assisted hydrothermal and conventional heating approaches. The conventional and ultrasonic assisted synthesized zeolites showed entirely different cation exchange capacity (CEC) and morphology. However, FTIR and XRD patterns of zeolites synthesized by both of techniques were almost similar. However, a better crystalline structure, functionality and morphology of Na-X, NaP1 and hydroxy sodalite (SOD) classes of zeolites synthesized in ultrasonic (USZ-8) and hydrothermal (HT-48) curing modes were observed. Hydrothermally treated (HT-8) material was found with a lower porosity and low CEC (109 meq/100g) in contrast to USZ-8 with high porosity and CEC (390 meq/100g) for the same reaction time. ICP-OES analysis demonstrated that ultrasonic cavitation was more appropriate way to convert coal fly ash based aluminosilicates into active zeolites, economically. It can be concluded reasonably that ultrasonic modification of coal fly ash into valuable zeolites is a constructive approach and a step to gear up greener innovation.read more

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Tabassum Hussain, Abdullah Ijaz Hussain, Shahzad Ali Shahid Chatha, Nosheen Aslam, Tanveer Hussain Bokhari and Muhammad Asrar

Lithium Recovery from Water Resources by Ion Exchange and Sorption Method

Demand to lithium rising swiftly as increasing due to its rapidly increasing dosages diverse applications such as rechargeable batteries, light aircraft alloys, and nuclear fusion. Lithium demand is expected to triple by 2025 driven by battery applications, specifically electric vehicles. To ensure the growing consumption of lithium, it is necessary to increase the production of lithium from different resources. Natural lithium resources mainly associate within granite pegmatite type deposit (spodumene and petalite ores), salt lake brines, seawater, and geothermal water. Among them, the reserves of lithium resources in salt lake brine, seawater, and geothermal water are in 70–80% of the total, which are excellent raw materials for lithium extraction. Compared to the minerals, the extraction of lithium from water resources is promising because this aqueous lithium recovery is more abundant, more environmentally friendly, and cost-effective. There are many ways to recover lithium from water resources. Among existing methods, the adsorption method is more promising on the way of manufacture. Therefore, the important progress on ion-exchange adsorption methods for lithium recovery from water resources searched ways, were summarized in detail, and the new trends in the future were also carried out.read more

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Murodjon Samadiy and Tianlong Deng

Utility of Spectroscopic Studies for Quantification of Cefditoren Pivoxil in Commercial Samples

The current study is devoted to suggest new simple spectrophotometric probes for the estimation and quantification of cefditoren pivoxil (CFP) either in authentic or in commercial samples. Three simple kinetic and derivatize sensitive spectrophotometric methods were established. Two kinetic techniques (method A) and (method B) were based on the estimation of CFP using the oxidation properties of alkaline potassium permanganate at ambient temperature and the relation between the reduction in the absorbance of KMnO4 and the added CFP were also investigated. The intensity of absorbance (A) of the colored MnO4- ions were recorded at wavelengths 610 and 525 NM for the two methods, respectively. Method C was based on derivatization of CFP with 1,2-naphthoquinone-4-sulphonate reagent in a basic solution (pH=11) to produce an orange red colored solution exhibited the highest absorption peak (λmax) at 411 nm. The proposed systems displayed linearity over the concentration ranges of 1.0-16.0, 1.0-10.0 and 0.5-7.0 µg mL-1.The suggested systems were validated obeying analytical methodology guidelines and the acceptance criteria for accuracy, precision, linearity, selectivity, and robustness were met in all cases.read more

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Salma Ali Al-Tamimi, Norah Sultan Abdulaziz Al-Motlaq and Fatma Ahmed Aly

Theoretical Study of the Complexation of Lidocaine by α- and β-Cyclodextrins

Structure and stability of an eventual inclusion complex formed by Lidocaine and two cyclodextrins (α- and β-CD) were investigated using molecular mechanics and quantum-chemical methods in the gas phase and in water. The molecular docking and quantum chemical calculations results show that no inclusion complex is formed between α-CD and Lidocaine molecule, while the conformational research allowed observing two minimum-energy structures between this molecule and β-CD. From a potential energy scan, a partial inclusion of the two ends of Lidocaine by the secondary face of the cavity of β-CD is observed with a better stability for the complex including the ((-N(C2H5)2) group in it. The minimum energy conformers, obtained by semi empirical method (PM3), have been exposed to fully geometry optimization employing ONIOM2 calculations by combining PM3 method with B3LYP, M06-HF and WB97XD functionals at 6-311G (d,p) basis set. The results show that complexation reactions are thermodynamically favored (G° ˂ 0) and the inclusion complexes are energetically stables and well structured (S° ˂ 0). According to the analysis of natural bond orbitals, the Van der Waals interactions are the sole driving forces that ensure the stability of the formed complexes.read more

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Nourredine Meddah-Araibi, Teffaha Fergoug, Mansour Azayez, Cherifa Zelmat, Jendara Ali Cherif and Youcef Bouhadda

Selective Removal of Hg2+ Ions from Water Using New Functionalized Silica Resin: Equilibrium, Thermodynamics and Kinetic Modeling Studies

In current study, the diphenylaminomethylcalix[4]arene (3) was synthesized and immobilized onto silica surface to prepare a selective, regenerable and stable resin-4. The synthesized resin-4 has been characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) techniques. To check the adsorption capacity of resin-4, the batch and column adsorption methodology were applied and it has observed that the resin-4 was selectively removed Hg2+ ions under the optimized parameters. The maximum adsorption capacity was obtained at pH 9 using 25 mg/L of resin-4. Under the optimal conditions, different equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic models were applied to experimental data. The results show that adsorption mechanism is chemical in nature following Langmuir model with good correlation coefficient (R2=0.999) and having 712.098 (mmol/g) adsorption capacity. The energy of calculated from D-R model suggests the ion exchange nature of the adsorption phenomenon. Dynamic adsorption experiments were conducted using Thomas model. The maximum solid phase concentration (qo) was 7.5 and rate constant was found to be 0.176 with (R2=0.938) for Hg2+ ions. The kinetic study describes that the adsorption mechanism follows pseudo second order (R2=0.999). The thermodynamic parameters such as ∆H (0.032 KJ/mol) and ∆S (0.127 KJ/mol /K) and ∆G (-5.747,-6.306, -7.027 KJ/mol) shows that the adsorption of Hg2+ ion is endothermic and spontaneous. The reusability of resin-4 was also checked and it has observed that the after 15 cycle only 1.2 % adsorption reduces. Moreover, the resin-4 was applied on real wastewater samples obtained from local industrial zone of Karachi, Sindh-Pakistan.read more

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Nida Shams Jalbani, Amber R Solangi, Shahabuddin Memon, Ranjhan Junejo, Asif Ali Bhatti

High Sensitivity Sulphite Membrane Selective Electrode and its Application

In this study, the new sulphite sensitive ion-selective electrode (ISE) was prepared. The ISE was prepared from a combination of 5% perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), 40% PVC and 55% dibutylphthalate (DBF).The sensitivity of the ISE to 1.0x10- 7-1.0x10-1 M sulphite concentration was 58 ± 4 mV. Electrode sensitivity was characterized. The response time of this electrode is short and 30 s. The lifetime of ISE was approximately 210 days when used five times a day. It was determined that it can work at any pH value. It is not sensitive to anions and cations that may be present in the determination medium. The detection limit of the electrode against the sulfide concentration was measured as 1.2x10-8 M. The amount of sulfites in dried apricots in Turkey, was measured with electrodes. Sulfite amount in dried apricot was determined as 2.328 ± 0.2417 mg / kg according to the average of 5 experiments and 95% confidence interval. The same sample was measured with DPP as 2.521 ± 0.2785.The validation of the obtained results in each case was proved by statistical “t” and “F” tests.read more

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Sukru Kalayci

A Novel Magnetic Nanocatalyst Fe3O4@TiO2-H5IO6 for the Green Synthesis of 4-Substituted-1,5-benzodiazepine Derivatives

In this study, periodic acid-functionalized magnetic support (Fe3O4@TiO2-H5IO6) as a new, benign and recyclable nanocatalyst was prepared by anchoring / periodic acid onto TiO2-coated nano-Fe3O4. This catalyst was applied to achieve a high-efficiency, low-cost and eco-friendly approach for synthesizing 4-substituted-1,5-benzodiazepines with the multicomponent reactions of aromatic aldehydes, o-phenylenediamine, and dimedone. The / periodic acid group on Fe3O4@TiO2 possesses both Lewis and Brønsted acidity, which is responsible for the high catalyst activity. The obtained results show that the catalyst performance has been acceptable in the presented research. / The catalyst could be recovered and reused up to six times without any notable decrease in its activity.read more

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Fatemeh Ahmadzadeh, Bahador Karami, Mahnaz Farahi and Jamileh Etemad

Synthesis, Crystal Structure and Anticancer Activity of Substituted Quinazoline Derivatives

News series of substituted quinazoline derivatives has been synthesized from 3,4-dihydro-7-methoxy-4-oxoquinazoline-6-yl acetate (1) by five-step procedures including chlorination, amination, hydrolysis and etherification. The structures of target compounds were confirmed by IR, 1H-NMR, element analysis and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The results showed that the compound 8c exhibited remarkable inhibitory activity against MCF-7 cell lines with inhibition rate value of 38.45 %, which was comparable to that of the positive control Gefitinib (inhibition rate = 13.25 % for MCF-7). The initial relationship between structure and activity was worth further exploration.read more

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Bo Wang, Zhi-qiang Cai, Xiao-yu Shi, Xiang Li, Shuai Li, and Ji-xin Li

Synthesis, Characterization and antioxidant activities of Semicarbazide and Thiosemicarbazide Derivatives

In this research work Semicarbazide, thiosemicarbazide derivatives 3 to 25 were synthesized by conventional methods with high percentage yield and reaction rate. 1H-NMR and EIMS spectroscopic techniques were used to elucidate the structure of the synthesized compounds. The effect of thiosemicarbazide and semicarbazide derivatives as an antioxidant agents were studied by DPPH free radical scavenging, ferric ion reducing, ferrous ion chelating assays. Higher DDPH radical scavenging activity exhibited by most of the compounds as compared to standard vitamin C. Excellent ferric ion reducing activity was indicated by compounds of theseriesas compared to standard vitamin C. However most of the compounds generally showed average ferrous ion chelating activity than standard EDTA.read more

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Abdul Manaf, Momin Khan, Khair Zaman, Mahboob Ali, Faima Alam, Khalid Mohammed Khan and Basharat Ali