Neurodegenerative diseases commonly affect elderly population and are characterised by progressive neuronal loss. Oxidative stress is highly associated with neurodegeneration. The targeted herbal plant in this review, Ocimum basilicum (O. basilicum), is typically used in Indochina and Italian cuisine. Pharmacological studies on O. basilicum have demonstrated potent antioxidant activities with some reports of neuroprotective actions. This brief review highlights the potential neuroprotective roles of O. basilicum by discussing previously documented antioxidative actions of the plant extract, essential oils and its phytochemical compounds on the nervous system based on in vitro and in vivo studies. Accumulating evidence on the neuroprotective action of O. basilicum points to a notion that neuroprotection is made possible by way of its antioxidant properties and largely due to the presence of polyphenol compounds such as rosmarinic acid which has been identified as the major constituent. Although the mechanisms of O. basilicum antioxidant action have been proposed, further studies are required for better understanding of its antioxidant action leading to neuroprotective roles. It is also possible that the antioxidant actions of O. basilicum are mediated through synergism of a mixture of various naturally-occurring bioactive compounds in the plant, as is with many other plant-based food supplements, to produce the putative effects instead of a single bioactive compound from the plant. Therefore, specific targeting of neuroprotection by means of antioxidant actions warrants further preclinical and clinical studies investigating the therapeutic potentials of O. basilicum particularly in view of the prevention of neurodegenerative processes.
Polygonum minus is a plant rich with bioactive components that contribute to food, pharmaceutical, and perfume industries. However, high moisture content in fresh plants will allow
microbial activity that leads to the degradation of plant quality. This can be prevented by
drying the fresh plants to preserve the characteristics of their bioactive components. The
present work was conducted to determine the effect of different drying methods such as
air-drying, oven-drying (40 and 60°C), and freeze-drying on essential oil (EO) yield and
chemical compounds of P. minus roots. For comparison purposes, all samples were extracted
by maceration with n-hexane at room temperature. Then, the samples were analysed and
identified by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The highest EO yield
extract was obtained from freeze-drying (4.15 ± 0.5), followed by air-drying (3.79 ± 0.19). EO
yield from oven-drying at 40 and 60°C was 3.4 ± 0.14 and 0.86 ± 0.04, respectively. Results
showed that by increasing the drying temperature, the EO yield would decrease and cause a
loss of major chemical compounds in the P. minus root. Air-drying was found to be the best
method in preserving the presence of important chemical compound in P. minus roots such as
β-caryophyllene (1.43%), pentadecane (4.34%), hexadecanoic acid (3.91%) and oleic acid
(3.97%).
Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is a very important food additive as well as for its therapeutic and cosmetic potential. The composition of essential oils in plants is affected by genetics and environmental conditions, which is determined by growth region and harvesting time in terms of ontogenetical variability. This study was carried out to assess the effect of plant ontogeny (pre-flowering, at flowering, fruiting) on essential oil content and chemical constituents for four sweet basil cultivated under irrigation conditions in the experimental farm of the National Oilseed Processing Research Institute (NOPRI), University of Gezira, Sudan. The essential oils were hydro-distilled from the leaves using Clevenger apparatus and the chemical constituents were determined by GC-MS. The results reveal that the essential oil yield content ranged from 0.1% to 0.2% at pre-flowering stage, whereas the oil content obtained at post-flowering stage was 0.1% for the investigated accessions. The highest essential oil content was recorded at flowering stage (0.2-0.5%), where the two Sudanese accessions had the maximum content (0.5%). The major chemical constituents, linalool, citral, methyleugenol, and eucalyptol reported at different developmental stages, punctuated between 5.73% and 32.93% in the four investigated accessions.
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of different ratios of low protein flour to oyster mushroom (Pleurotus sajor-caju) powder on the physicochemical properties and sensory acceptability of edible tablespoon. Fresh grey oyster mushroom was dried in a convection oven at temperature of 55.0˚C ± 2.0˚C for 20 h prior to the grinding process. The low protein flour (LPF) was then incorporated with oyster mushroom powder (OMP) at different ratios of 100:0, 96:4, 92:8, 88:12 and 84:16, before being with vegetable oil, sugar, egg white and water in formulating the edible tablespoon. The proximate analyses were carried out in triplicate for calorie content, colour profile, hardness value and morphological structure of edible tablespoon. This study revealed that with decreasing LPF and increasing OMP in the formulation, the ash content (1.24% to 1.92%), crude fat content (8.98% to 10.40%) and fiber content (0.13% to 1.24%) were observed to have increased as well as the hardness value (2042.03g to 2844.57g) and pore’s size of the morphological structure of edible tablespoon. However, the carbohydrate content (78.64% to 75.56%) significantly decreased (p>0.05) together with L* value (from 68.47 to 61.71) when the decrease was in the the percentage of LPF and an increase the percentage of OMP. The calorie content, moisture content and protein content of edible tablespoon were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by different ratios of LPF to OMP. The edible tablespoon formulated with up to 8% of OMP was accepted by the sensory panelists but further increase in OMP addition significantly decreased the degree of likeness in terms of colour, odour, taste and overall acceptability of edible tablespoon. This study suggested that oyster mushroom edible tablespoon could be potential alternative disposable cutlery which will help to reduce the use of huge amount of non-biodegradable materials for environmental conservation.
Aflatoxins (AFs) are secondary metabolites toxic to humans as well as animals. The environmental conditions, conventional agricultural practices, and illiteracy are the main factors which favor the production of AFs in food and feed. In the current study 744 samples of vegetable seeds and oils (soybean, sunflower, canola, olive, corn, and mustard) were collected and tested for the presence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and total AFs. Liquid-liquid extraction was employed for the extraction of AFs from seeds and oil samples. Reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography equipped with fluorescence detection was used for the analysis. The results have shown that 92 (56.7%) samples of imported and 108 (57.0%) samples of local edible seeds were observed to be contaminated with AFs. All samples of edible seeds have AFB1 levels greater than the proposed limit set by the European Union (EU, 2 µg/kg) and 12 (7.40%) samples of imported seeds and 14 (7.40%) samples of local seeds were found in the range ≥ 50 µg/kg. About 78 (43.3%) samples of imported edible oil and 103 (48.3%) sample of local edible oil were observed to be positive for AFs. Furthermore, 16 (8.88%) and six (3.33%) samples of imported vegetable oil have levels of total AFs in a range (21-50 µg/kg) and greater than 50 µg/kg, respectively. The findings indicate significant differences in AFs levels between imported and local vegetable oil samples (t = 22.27 and p = 0.009) at α = 0.05 and a significant difference in AFs levels were found between vegetable seeds and oil samples (t = -17.75, p = 0.009) at α = 0.05. The highest dietary intake was found for a local sunflower oil sample (0.90 µg/kg/day) in female individuals (16-22 age group). The results have shown considerably high levels of AFB1 and total AFs in seeds and oil samples and emphasise the need to monitor carefully the levels of these toxic substances in food and feed on regular basis.
The effect of incorporating different loadings of oil palm bio-ash nanoparticles from agriculture waste on the properties of phenol-formaldehyde resin was investigated in this study. The bio-ash filler was used to enhance the performance of phenol-formaldehyde nanocomposites. Phenol-formaldehyde resin filled with oil palm bio-ash nanoparticles was prepared via the in-situ polymerization process to produce nanocomposites. The transmission electron microscope and particle size analyzer result revealed that oil palm bio-ash nanoparticles had a spherical geometry of 90 nm. Furthermore, X-ray diffraction results confirmed the formation of crystalline structure in oil palm bio-ash nanoparticles and phenol-formaldehyde nanocomposites. The thermogravimetric analysis indicated that the presence of oil palm bio-ash nanoparticles enhanced the thermal stability of the nanocomposites. The presence of oil palm bio-ash nanoparticles with 1% loading in phenol-formaldehyde resin enhanced the internal bonding strength of plywood composites. The scanning electron microscope image revealed that phenol-formaldehyde nanocomposites morphology had better uniform distribution and dispersion with 1% oil palm bio-ash nanoparticle loading than other phenol-formaldehyde nanocomposites produced. The nanocomposite has potential use in the development of particle and panel board for industrial applications.
Conventional thermal fluids with suspended nanoparticles, known as nanofluids, have been developed for heat transfer applications. Heat transfer loss could be reduced significantly if the thermophysical properties of the heat transfer fluid are improved, which to some extent, could reduce the present global environmental challenges associated with energy utilization, such as climate change and global warming. In this work, the role of the concentration of sodium dodecyl-benzene sulfonate (SDBS) in the stability of Al₂O₃/bio-oil nanofluid is investigated the zeta potential value, and its implications to the viscosity and thermal conductivity of the nanofluid are explored. The bio-oil based nanofluid is fixed using a two-step method in which the prepared base fluid is added with 13-nm alumina nanoparticles powder. Various weight fractions of SDBS (0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 1.0 wt%) are used for both 0.1 and 0.2 wt% Al₂O₃ to investigate the significance of the stability of a nanofluid on its thermal conductivity and viscosity. Results indicate that a stable nanofluid has reduced viscosity and increased thermal conductivity.
The present work highlights the facile synthesis of hydrophobic palm fatty acid functionalized Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNP-FA) for the efficient removal of oils from the surface of water. An intense hydrophobic layer was introduced on the surface of Fe3O4 nanoparticles functionalized by the palm fatty acid obtained from the hydrolysis of palm olein. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and water contact angle analysis (WCA) measurements were used to characterize the newly fabricated palm fatty acid adorned magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNP-FA). The obtained results confirmed the successful synthesis of palm fatty acid-functionalized magnetic nanoparticles. Oil removal tests performed with MNP-FA revealed that this newly prepared material could selectively adsorb lubricating oil up to 3.5 times of the particles' weight while completely repelling water. The main parameters affecting the adsorption of oil i.e., sorption time, mass of sorbent and pH of water were optimized.
Recently, the graphite based materials have gained interest as excellent platforms to remove aqueous pollutants via adsorption routes. This is given that such materials possess large specific surface area and low density. In the present work, a comparative study of two facile and effective approaches is conventional thermal heating and microwave irradiation methods to fabricate expanded graphite from available flake graphite sources of Vietnam for oil-contaminated water purification. The as-prepared expanded graphite was characterized by using FT-IR, SEM, XRD and BET analysis. The results exhibited that expanded graphite has multilevel pore structures and the surface area of expanded graphite obtained from microwave irradiation and conventional heating was 147.5 (m²/g) and 100.97 (m²/g) under optimal processing conditions. The as-synthesized expanded graphite from the microwave irradiation method was found to have higher adsorption capacities for diesel oil, crude oil, and fuel oil compared to conventional heating method.
The oil palm mesocarp contains an endogenous lipase which is strongly activated at low temperature. Lipase activity is thus very conveniently assayed by prior exposure of the fruits to low temperature. More than 100 oil palm samples from the germplasm collection of the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia (now known as the Malaysian Palm Oil Board) were screened for non-esterified fatty acid activity using both the low-temperature activation assay and a radioactivity assay. The results showed good correlation between assay procedures. The different samples had a very wide range of lipase activity. Elaeis oleifera samples had significantly lower lipase activity compared with E. guineensis (var. tenera) samples. Even within E. guineensis (var. tenera), there was a wide range of activity. The results confirmed that lipase activity is genotype-dependent. Selection for lipase genotypes is thus possible and this will have obvious commercial value.
Coccidiosis is one of the most dangerous diseases that affect poultry, resulting in worldwide economic losses. Plant extracts and essential oils have been used as potential alternatives for chemotherapeutics, because they don't have the negative consequence of creating tissue residue and drug resistance. Therefore, this study had been conducted to determine the efficacy of artemisinin liquid extract, cinnamon essential oil and clove essential oil against Eimeria stiedae in rabbits. Sixty New Zealand white rabbits were divided into six equal groups, where group 1 and group 2 represented the negative and the positive controls, respectively, and groups 3-6 were infected with Eimeria stiedae and received 15 ppm toltrazuril, 200 ppm artemisinin, 100 mg/kg cinnamon oil, and 100 mg/kg clove oil, respectively. The results showed that artemisinin had a significant beneficial role in protection against hepatic coccidiosis: it mitigated the clinical symptoms, reduced the mortality rates, improved body weight and feed conversion, decreased the oocyst output, prevented oxidative stress, improved biochemical parameters, and decreased the lesion formation. Moreover, it has been found that cinnamon and clove essential oils induced partial protection against hepatic coccidiosis. Our findings suggested that artemisinin liquid extract and cinnamon and clove essential oils could be used for protection against hepatic coccidiosis. However, further investigations are needed in order to elucidate the active components, optimal doses, and mode of action of these extracts and essential oils before their clinical applications.
Palm pressed fiber (PPF) is a by-product from oil extraction of oil palm fruits. It has unique characteristics resulting from the combination of palm mesocarp fiber, kernel shell and crushed kernel. The present study on different extraction methods for PPF indicated that conventional hexane cold extraction would be the more preferable method compared to soxhlet and reflux method due to the yield recovered (4.35%) and diacylglycerol (19.93% ± 0.07) obtained. Acylglycerol composition using cold extraction gave high Diaclyglycerol and Triacylglycerol (67.04% ± 0.05) with reasonable amount of Monoaclyglycerol / Free Fatty Acid (13.02% ± 0.02). Lauric acid which was not present in crude palm oil were found to be significant in PPF (5.89 to 9.09%), thus making this oil suitable for application in the food industry in products such as shortening and margarine.
Diseases such as diabetes mellitus and gout are among the chronic diseases affecting worldwide population. Investigation is required to find the alternative approaches to treat these chronic diseases, such as plant based medicine. In this study, lemongrass (Cymbopogan citratus) was chosen and examined on the basis of their usage in traditional medicines throughout Southeast Asia. GCMS analysis revealed the major constituents of the lemongrass essential oil which compromise 67.769% and 67.328% of the total oil respectively. Total phenolic content of the essential oil was analyzed by Folin Ciocalteau method and the results indicated that highest amount of phenolic content was obtained from essential oil extracted from lemongrasses stalk, with phenolic concentration of 2100.769 mg/l GAE. Anti oxidant activity was examined by DPPH scavenging test and the highest inhibition was obtained by essential oil extracted from lemongrass stalk (89.5%). β-glucosidase inhibition assay was carried out using an in-vitro model for anti diabetic test and lemongrass stalk essential oil showed highest degree of inhibitory activity (89.63%). Anti gout test was examined by xanthine oxidase inhibition (XOI) assay with the maximum percentage of xanthine oxidase inhibition of 81.34% obtained from lemongrass stalk essential oil.
The present study was carried out to characterize red fruit (Pandanus conoideus Lam) oil (RFO) in term of FTIR spectra, fatty acid composition, and volatile compounds. FTIR spectrum of RFO was slightly
different from other common vegetable oils and animal fats, in which in the frequency range of 1750 – 1700 cm-1, RFO appear two bands. The main fatty acid composition of RFO is oleic acid accounting for 68.80% followed by linoleic acid with the concentration of 8.49%. The main volatile compounds of RFO as determined using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and headspace analyser are 1,3-dimethylbenzene (27.46%), N-glycyl- L-alanine (17.36%), trichloromethane (15.22%), and ethane (11.43%).
A study was carried out to compare the composition and thermal profiles of the fat component of six brands of commercial biscuits (BA, BB, BC, BD, BE & BF) with those of lard and palm oil. Extraction of fat from biscuit samples was done using petroleum ether according to the soxhlet extraction procedure. The isolated fat samples along with lard and palm oil were analyzed using gas liquid chromatography (GLC), reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). According to GLC analysis, palm oil, lard and all six biscuit brands had either palmitic or oleic acid as major fatty acids. Sn-2 positional analysis of fatty acids showed that oleic (> 60%) as the most dominant fatty acid of palm oil and biscuit brands BA, BB, BC, and BD while palmitic (> 60%) as the most dominant fatty acid of lard and biscuit brands BE and BF. RP-HPLC analysis showed that the triacylglycerol (TAG) profiles of lard and biscuit brands BE and BF were closely similar while those of brands BA, BB, BC, and BD and palm oil were similar. DSC analysis showed that the cooling and heating profiles of lard and brands BE and BF were similar, while those of palm oil and brands BA, BB, BC, and BD were similar. Hence, this study concluded that biscuit brands BE and BF are not suitable for consumers whose religious restriction prohibit the use of lard as food ingredient.
The use of herbal preparations remained the main approach of folk medicine to the treatment of ailments and debilitating diseases. Initial intensive researches conducted on Lemongrass extracts (tea) may have showed conflicting evidences, however the resurgence in claims of folk medicine practitioners necessitated further inquiry into the efficacy of the tea. Lemongrass tea contains several biocompounds in its decoction, infusion and essential oil extracts. Anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-obesity, antinociceptive, anxiolytic and antihypertensive evidences of lemongrass tea were clearly elucidated to support initial pharmacological claims. Lemongrass tea was non-toxic, non-mutagenic and receives wide acceptance among alternative medicine practitioners in several developing countries. This review therefore presents previous research activities, technologies and information surrounding bioactivities of lemongrass tea. Areas of future researches which may elucidate mechanisms of the biological properties of lemongrass extracts were highlighted.
The acrylated palm oil (APO) nanoparticle is a potential product that can be used as carriers in
medical field. The main focus of the present study was to study the potential of the APO
nanoparticles for used in a controlled drug delivery system. The microemulsion system is used as a
medium to incorporate an active substance such as Thymoquinone (TQ) into the APO polymeric
micelle and then the radiation technique is used as a tool for the synthesis of TQ-loaded APO
nanoparticle. The nano-size TQ-loaded APO particles resulted the particle size of less than 150 nm
with spherical in shape. The TQ release profile was carried out in potassium buffer saline (PBS)
solutions (pH 7.4) at 37
oC. And, the zero-order model has been used to determine the mechanism
of the drug release from the corresponding nanoparticles, respectively. The TQ release was found
to be sustained and controlled in pH 7.4. At pH 7.4, the release of TQ followed the zero-order
model. The in-vitro drug release study showed a good prospect of the APO nanoparticle on being a
potential drug carrier as there are toxic against colon cancer cells and not toxic towards normal
cells. This suggested that the APO product produce using this radiation technique can be
developed into different type of carrier systems for controlled drug release applications.
Chumphon Horticultural Research Centre (CHRC) is Thailand’s main coconut research unit. CHRC has developed three coconut cultivars: Sawi Hybrid No. 1 (Malayan Yellow Dwarf x West African Tall: MYD x WAT), Chumphon Hybrid No. 60 (Thai Tall: THT x WAT) and Chumphon Hybrid No. 2 (MYD x THT). This study compared some chemical components in virgin coconut oil (VCO) from coconut hybrids with their parents. The VCO was extracted by cold pressing and fermentation methods, and was analyzed for fatty acid profiles, triacylglycerol profile, acid value, tocopherol content, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activity against DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) radicals. The findings showed that hybrids contained lauric acid ranging from 46.63 to 48.34% of total fatty acid. Chumphon 60 had the highest lauric acid content, 48.34% of total fatty acids, which was not significantly different (p > 0.05) from that of the parents. In contrast, the cultivars from MYD, Sawi 1 and Chumphon 2, had significantly greater lauric acid content than the parent MYD (p ≤ 0.05). Cold pressing and fermentation provided an oil extraction yield of 25 and 20%, respectively. The proportions of lauric acid in VCO from these two methods were not significantly different (p > 0.05), but the cold pressing method resulted in higher tocopherol content (p ≤ 0.05). The VCO of Chumphon 60 from the cold pressed method had tocopherol content close to that of the parent WAT (p > 0.05) but significantly higher than that of the other parent THT (p ≤ 0.05). In addition, it contained the highest total phenolic contents among the three cultivars, 57.89 mg GAE/100 g oil, leading to antioxidant activity with a low EC50 of 0.53 mg GAE/ml. Overall, the hybrid of WAT x THT, Chumphon 60, was outstanding among the cultivars; it had the highest levels of lauric acid, total phenolic compounds, and antioxidant activity.
UV-curable hyperbranched urethane acrylate (HBPUA) from oleic acid of palm oil has been synthesized through a medium aided by p-toluene sulfonic acid as a catalyst. This mixture was then used as the core (HBP) and reacted with palm oil oleic acid to form the hyperbranched polyol (HBP-1). HBPUA was prepared by reacting HBP-1 resin with diisocyanate and hydroxyl-containing acrylate monomer with the presence of 0.1-2 wt% dibutyltin dilaurate as a catalyst. The reaction was confirmed by several analytical data i.e. hydroxyl value (OHV), Fourier Transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy analyses. The HBPUA was easily curable when subjected to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)-based nanocomposites filled with graphene nanoplatelets (xGnP) that contains epoxidized palm oil (EPO) as plasticizer were prepared by melt blending method. PLA was first plasticized by EPO to improve its flexibility and thereby overcome its problem of brittleness. Then, xGnP was incoporated into plasticized PLA to enhance its mechanical properties. Plasticized and nanofilled PLA nanocomposites (PLA/EPO/xGnP) showed improvement in the elongation at break by 3322% and 61% compared to pristine PLA and PLA/EPO, respectively. The use of EPO and xGnP increases the mobility of the polymeric chains, thereby improving the flexibility and plastic deformation of PLA. The nanocomposites also resulted in an increase of up to 26.5% in the tensile strength compared with PLA/EPO blend. XRD pattern showed the presence of peak around 26.5° in PLA/EPO/xGnP nanocomposites which corresponds to characteristic peak of graphene nanoplatelets. Plasticized PLA reinforced with xGnP showed that increasing the xGnP content triggers a substantial increase in thermal stability. Crystallinity of the nanocomposites as well as cold crystallization and melting temperature did not show any significant changes upon addition of xGnP. However, there was a significant decrease of glass transition temperature up to 0.3wt% of xGnP incorporation. The TEM micrograph of PLA/EPO/xGnP shows that the xGnP was uniformly dispersed in the PLA matrix and no obvious aggregation was observed.