Complex Natural Mixtures Research Articles

Innovative analytical methodology for skin anti-aging compounds discovery from plant extracts: Integration of High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography-in vitro spectrophotometry bioassays with multivariate modeling and molecular docking.

Skin aging, characterized by reduced elasticity, wrinkles, and changes in pigmentation, presents significant challenges in the cosmetics industry. Identifying compounds that can help mitigate these effects is crucial to developing effective anti-aging treatments and improving skin health. An advanced analytical approach for identifying skin anti-aging compounds within complex natural mixtures must be developed to achieve this. This study introduces a state-of-the-art methodology that combines High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography (HPTLC) and in vitro skin anti-aging spectrophotometry bioassays with regression multivariate analysis and molecular docking. The proposed methodology integrates spectrophotometric assays for tyrosinase inhibition (anti-pigmentation), elastase inhibition (anti-wrinkle), and radical scavenging capacity (DPPH•/ ABTS• assays) with analytical signals obtained from HPTLC chromatograms using Partial Least Squares models (PLS). The PLS models for predicting elastase inhibition and antioxidative capacity showed high accuracy with minimal errors. This study introduces an innovative approach combining HPTLC profiling and PLS regression to identify single phenolic compounds/bands responsible for anti-aging effects. In addition, identified bioactives were submitted to molecular docking studies to elucidate the enzyme inhibition mechanisms of elastase and confirm our approach. This integrated, simple, cost-effective, and high-throughput approach represents a significant advancement in the discovery of anti-aging compounds, with promising implications for future skincare and therapeutic applications.

Methane, Ethane, and Propane Detection Using a Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Sensor for Natural Gas Composition Analysis.

A compact and portable gas sensor based on quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) for the detection of methane (C1), ethane (C2), and propane (C3) in natural gas (NG)-like mixtures is reported. An interband cascade laser (ICL) emitting at 3367 nm is employed to target absorption features of the three alkanes, and partial least-squares regression analysis is employed to filter out spectral interferences and matrix effects characterizing the examined gas mixtures. Spectra of methane, ethane, and propane mixtures diluted in nitrogen are employed to train and test the regression algorithm, achieving a prediction accuracy of ∼98%, ∼96%, and ∼93% on C1, C2, and C3, respectively. With respect to previously reported QEPAS sensors for natural gas analysis, the high prediction accuracy as well as the capability to discriminate and detect C3 within natural gas-like complex mixtures provided by the employment of partial least-squares regression mark significant improvements. Furthermore, these results enable an improved performance of the sensor for in situ, real-time, and online natural gas composition analysis.

Neuroprotective effects of nutraceuticals and natural products in traumatic brain injury

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a global healthcare concern with considerable mortality and morbidity. Early diagnosis and timely treatment are critical for optimal clinical prognosis in TBI patients. Injury to the brain tissue following TBI is categorized into primary and secondary injury events, with the former being acute, while the latter evolves over a long period. Although surgical intervention is effective to treat primary injury, secondary injury events that could contribute to long term neurological deterioration, cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration do not have appropriate pharmacotherapy. To address this lacuna, studies based on modern medicine to explore novel drugs in TBI have met with limited success. This has led to focussed efforts to assess natural products capable of targeting multiple pathways in TBI. Complex natural mixtures and isolated phytochemicals capable of targeting redox mechanisms, neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, cell death pathways and other specific targets etc. have been characterized. However, the field has met with certain limitations and challenges with inadequate clinical studies and trials being the most important concern. The current review provides an overview of the dietary factors, nutraceuticals, natural extracts, and phytochemicals that could be potentially applied in neuroprotection, TBI therapy and long-term management of cognitive symptoms and other neurological deficits.

Current Uses of Bromelain in Children: A Narrative Review.

Bromelain is a complex natural mixture of sulfhydryl-containing proteolytic enzymes that can be extracted from the stem or fruit of the pineapple. This compound is considered a safe nutraceutical, has been used to treat various health problems, and is also popular as a health-promoting dietary supplement. There is continued interest in bromelain due to its remarkable therapeutic properties. The mechanism of action of bromelain appears to extend beyond its proteolytic activity as a digestive enzyme, encompassing a range of effects (mucolytic, anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, and antiedematous effects). Little is known about the clinical use of bromelain in pediatrics, as most of the available data come from in vitro and animal studies, as well as a few RCTs in adults. This narrative review was aimed at highlighting the main aspects of the use of bromelain in children, which still appears to be limited compared to its potential. Relevant articles were identified through searches in MEDLINE, PubMed, and EMBASE. There is no conclusive evidence to support the use of bromelain in children, but the limited literature data suggest that its addition to standard therapy may be beneficial in treating conditions such as upper respiratory tract infections, specific dental conditions, and burns. Further studies, including RCTs in pediatric settings, are needed to better elucidate the mechanism of action and properties of bromelain in various therapeutic areas.

Investigation of the Behavior of Hydrocarbons during Crude Oil Fouling by High-Resolution Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Crude oil is probably the most complex natural chemical mixture processed in various ways to make fuel and fine chemicals among a wide range of products in industrial processing. The conditions of those industrial processes often include high temperatures, which often cause undesired chemical reactions. One of those reaction sequences is crude oil fouling, which finally results in the formation of undesired solid deposits of carbon material, a calamity that costs millions of dollars worldwide each year and produces toxic waste. However, the compounds involved in fouling, let alone the underlying reaction mechanisms, are not understood to date. Here, in order to investigate chemical fouling, the process was simulated under laboratory conditions, focusing on hydrocarbons as the main constituents of crude oil. The results demonstrate large differences within the hydrocarbon class of compounds before and after thermal treatment, even for a very light crude oil fraction, which initially does not contain any bigger or heavier compounds. Here, the fouling reaction is simulated and studied on the molecular level using high-resolution mass spectrometry. After thermal treatment, new, higher molecular weight hydrocarbon compounds with high aromaticity were detected. Results indicate that a radical reaction leads to the formation of larger and more aromatic compounds. The findings were verified by the use of a model hydrocarbon compound to study the mechanism.

Structure Revision of Formyl Phloroglucinol Meroterpenoids: A Unified Approach Using NMR Fingerprinting and DFT NMR and ECD Analyses

NMR fingerprints are valuable tools for analyzing complex natural product mixtures and identifying incorrectly assigned structures in the literature. Our diagnostic NMR fingerprints for formyl phloroglucinol meroterpenoids revealed discrepancies in the structures reported for eucalyprobusal C (1a) and eucalypcamal K (2a). NMR fingerprinting PCA analyses identified 1a as an oxepine-diformyl phloroglucinol and 2a as an oxepine 3-acyl-1-formyl phloroglucinol, contrary to their initial assignments as pyrano-diformyl and pyrano 3-acyl-1-formyl phloroglucinols, respectively. Extensive reinterpretation of their reported one- and two-dimensional NMR data, coupled with GIAO DFT-calculated 1H and 13C NMR chemical shift and DP4+ analyses, supported the unequivocal reassignment of eucalyprobusal C to 1b and eucalypcamal K to 2b. The absolute configurations of the revised oxepine-containing phloroglucinol meroterpenoids were confirmed via the reinterpretation of their reported ROESY and NOESY NMR data, along with comparative TDDFT-calculated and experimental ECD spectra.

A Simple Chiral 1H NMR Method for the Discrimination of (R)- and (S)-Cannabichromene in Complex Natural Mixtures and Their Effects on TRPA1 Activity.

In recent years, the enantiomeric ratio of cannabichromene (CBC) within the cannabis plant has attracted significant attention. Cannabichromene is one of the well-known cannabinoids found in cannabis, along with THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol). Cannabichromene exists as a scalemic mixture, meaning it has two enantiomers, (S)-cannabichromene and (R)-cannabichromene, with the ratio between these enantiomers varying among different cannabis strains and even within individual plants. This study presents an accurate and robust chiral NMR method for analyzing cannabichromene's enantiomeric ratio, a well-investigated cannabinoid with numerous pharmacological targets. The use of Pirkle's alcohol as the chiral solvating agent (CSA) or, alternatively, the use of (S)-ibuprofen as a chiral derivatizing agent (CDA) facilitated this analysis. Moreover, the chiral NMR method proves to be a user-friendly tool, easily applicable within any NMR facility, and an expanded investigation of cannabichromene chirality may provide insights into the origin, cultivation, treatment, and processing of Cannabis sativa plants. This study also undertakes a pharmacological examination of the (R)- and (S)-cannabichromenes concerning their most extensively studied pharmacological target, the TRPA1 channels, with the two enantiomers showing the same strong agonistic effect as the racemic mixture.

The Oil Industry in Ecuador: History, Current Situation and Challenges

Etymologically, the word petroleum comes from the Latin words petro (rock) and oleum (oil): rock oil. Petroleum is a complex natural mixture of hydrocarbon compounds found in a rock. It originated from the decomposition of organic matter over long periods, when the Earth was very unstable and was populated by dinosaurs, dinosaurs populated by dinosaurs, plants and trees that were buried and transformed into hydrocarbon by pressure and heat. In more detail, hydrocarbon reservoirs are generally found in sands, sandstones, conglomerates, limestones and porous dolomites. The compaction of the sediments where the oil originates is in a sedimentary rock called source rock. After its formation, the migration of hydrocarbons takes place. This is a slow process, not known until now, where fluids seek lower pressures and migrate to the surface. For a reservoir to form, it is necessary for the oil to encounter some obstacle, formed by source rocks, which prevent it from continuing to migrate to the surface. The structures that fulfill this purpose are called oil traps and the rock where the oil finally accumulates is called reservoir rock and must have an adequate porosity to contain it. The largest oil reserves are concentrated in a few countries, while the largest consumers are almost devoid of the resource. This makes access to reserves an important factor in geopolitical terms. important factor in geopolitical terms. The oil exploration and production industry face numerous challenges as it addresses the world's growing demand for energy. Especially now, when there is a huge need for sustainable operations, declining production from older fields and the discovery of new resources in demanding environmental settings. In this sense, this study analyzed the history, current situation and challenges of the oil industry in Ecuador.

Cell-based screen identifies porphyrins as FGFR3 activity inhibitors with therapeutic potential for achondroplasia and cancer.

Overactive fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) signaling drives pathogenesis in a variety of cancers and a spectrum of short-limbed bone dysplasias, including the most common form of human dwarfism, achondroplasia (ACH). Targeting FGFR3 activity holds great promise as a therapeutic approach for treatment of these diseases. Here, we established a receptor/adaptor translocation assay system that can specifically monitor FGFR3 activation, and we applied it to identify FGFR3 modulators from complex natural mixtures. An FGFR3-suppressing plant extract of Amaranthus viridis was identified from the screen, and 2 bioactive porphyrins, pheophorbide a (Pa) and pyropheophorbide a, were sequentially isolated from the extract and functionally characterized. Further analysis showed that Pa reduced excessive FGFR3 signaling by decreasing its half-life in FGFR3-overactivated multiple myeloma cells and chondrocytes. In an ex vivo culture system, Pa alleviated defective long bone growth in humanized ACH mice (FGFR3ACH mice). Overall, our study presents an approach to discovery and validation of plant extracts or drug candidates that target FGFR3 activation. The compounds identified by this approach may have applications as therapeutics for FGFR3-associated cancers and skeletal dysplasias.

Molecular networking as a natural products discovery strategy

The rapid development of bioinformatics tools has recently broken through the bottleneck in natural products research. These advances have enabled natural products researchers to rapidly separate and efficiently target and discover previously undescribed molecules. Among these advances, tandem mass spectrometry molecular networking is a promising method for rapidly de-replicating complex natural mixtures, thus leading to an accelerated revolution in the “art of natural products isolation” field. In this review we describe the current molecular networking-based metabolite analysis methods that are widely applied or implementable in natural products discovery research, metabolomics, and related fields. The main objective of this review was to summarize strategies that can be rapidly implemented as alternative de-replication approaches for efficient natural products discovery and to list examples of successful applications that combine networking with other techniques.

Thymus vulgaris Essential Oil in Beta-Cyclodextrin for Solid-State Pharmaceutical Applications

Antimicrobial resistance related to the misuse of antibiotics is a well-known current topic. Their excessive use in several fields has led to enormous selective pressure on pathogenic and commensal bacteria, driving the evolution of antimicrobial resistance genes with severe impacts on human health. Among all the possible strategies, a viable one could be the development of medical features that employ essential oils (EOs), complex natural mixtures extracted from different plant organs, rich in organic compounds showing, among others, antiseptic properties. In this work, green extracted essential oil of Thymus vulgaris was included in cyclic oligosaccharides cyclodextrins (CD) and prepared in the form of tablets. This essential oil has been shown to have a strong transversal efficacy both as an antifungal and as an antibacterial agent. Its inclusion allows its effective use because an extension of the exposure time to the active compounds is obtained and, therefore, a more marked efficacy, especially against biofilm-producing microorganisms such as P. aeruginosa and S. aureus, was registered. The efficacy of the tablet against candidiasis opens their possible use as a chewable tablet against oral candidiasis and as a vaginal tablet against vaginal candidiasis. Moreover, the registered wide efficacy is even more positive since the proposed approach can be defined as effective, safe, and green. In fact, the natural mixture of the essential oil is produced by the steam current method; therefore, the manufacturer employs substances that are not harmful, with very low production and management costs.

Analytical Purity Determinations of Universal Food-Spice Curcuma longa through a QbD Validated HPLC Approach with Critical Parametric Predictors and Operable-Design’s Monte Carlo Simulations: Analysis of Extracts, Forced-Degradants, and Capsules and Tablets-Based Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms

Applications of analytical quality by design (QbD) approach for developing HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) methods for food components assays, and separations of complex natural product mixtures, are still limited. The current study developed and validated, for the first time, a stability-indicating HPLC method for simultaneous determinations of curcuminoids in Curcuma longa extracts, tablets, capsules, and curcuminoids' forced degradants under different experimental conditions. Towards separation strategy, critical method parameters (CMPs) were defined as the mobile phase solvents' percent-ratio, the pH of the mobile phase, and the stationary-phase column temperature, while the peaks resolution, retention time, and the number of theoretical plates were recognized as the critical method attributes (CMAs). Factorial experimental designs were used for method development, validation, and robustness evaluation of the procedure. The Monte Carlo simulation evaluated the developing method's operability, and that ensured the concurrent detections of curcuminoids in natural extracts, commercial-grade pharmaceutical dosage-forms, and the forced degradants of the curcuminoids in a single mixture. The optimum separations were accomplished using the mobile phase, consisting of an acetonitrile-phosphate buffer (54:46 v/v, 0.1 mM) with 1.0 mL/min flow rate, 33 °C column temperature, and 385 nm wavelength for UV (Ultra Violet) spectral detections. The method is specific, linear (R2 ≥ 0.999), precise (% RSD < 1.67%), and accurate (% recovery 98.76-99.89%), with LOD (Limit of Detection) and LOQ (Limit of Quantitation) at 0.024 and 0.075 µg/mL for the curcumin, 0.0105 µg/mL and 0.319 µg/mL for demethoxycurcumin, and 0.335 µg/mL and 1.015 µg/mL for the bisdemethoxycurcumin, respectively. The method is compatible, robust, precise, reproducible, and accurately quantifies the composition of the analyte mixture. It exemplifies the use of the QbD approach in acquiring design details for developing an improved analytical detection and quantification method.

Bioconversion of Floral Waste into Biocompost by using Microbial Consortium from Cow Dung

In the majority of the developing nations like India, the flower waste age happens to a great extent during capacities, loves, services, celebrations, and so on. Debasement of floral waste is an extremely sluggish interaction. Flower squander debasement likewise expands the interest for agro-based items. In India, a large amount of flowers are offered to sacred places, and many flowers are wasted. Abandoned sanctuaries are carried into the sea or dumped in accessible locations in the country, causing extreme environmental pollution and health hazards. Thus the current study was embraced to foster an effective microbial consortium from cow manure for degradation of blossom squander. Cow compost harbors a different gathering of microorganisms that might be useful to people because of their capacity to deliver a scope of metabolites. This assists with corrupting profoundly complex natural mixtures and converts it into straight forward stable final result Bio-Compost. Therefore, in the current work rather than individual disengages an endeavor is made to foster microbial consortium from cow dung for debasement of floral waste. Also in this research microbial consortia developed from cow dung which is very effective for degradation of floral waste within 45 days and helps to produce effective biocompost speedily from floral waste and this biocompost are much better than commercial available biocompost and chemical fertilizer.

MS/MS-Based Molecular Networking: An Efficient Approach for Natural Products Dereplication

Natural products (NPs) have historically played a primary role in the discovery of small-molecule drugs. However, due to the advent of other methodologies and the drawbacks of NPs, the pharmaceutical industry has largely declined in interest regarding the screening of new drugs from NPs since 2000. There are many technical bottlenecks to quickly obtaining new bioactive NPs on a large scale, which has made NP-based drug discovery very time-consuming, and the first thorny problem faced by researchers is how to dereplicate NPs from crude extracts. Remarkably, with the rapid development of omics, analytical instrumentation, and artificial intelligence technology, in 2012, an efficient approach, known as tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS)-based molecular networking (MN) analysis, was developed to avoid the rediscovery of known compounds from the complex natural mixtures. Then, in the past decade, based on the classical MN (CLMN), feature-based MN (FBMN), ion identity MN (IIMN), building blocks-based molecular network (BBMN), substructure-based MN (MS2LDA), and bioactivity-based MN (BMN) methods have been presented. In this paper, we review the basic principles, general workflow, and application examples of the methods mentioned above, to further the research and applications of these methods.

Computational Tools to Expedite the Identification of Potential PXR Modulators in Complex Natural Product Mixtures: A Case Study with Five Closely Related Licorice Species.

The genus Glycyrrhiza, comprising approximately 36 spp., possesses complex structural diversity and is documented to possess a wide spectrum of biological activities. Understanding and finding the mechanisms of efficacy or safety for a plant-based therapy is very challenging, yet it is crucial and necessary to understand the polypharmacology of traditional medicines. Licorice extract was shown to modulate the xenobiotic receptors, which might manifest as a potential route for natural product-induced drug interactions. However, different mechanisms could be involved in this phenomenon. Since the induced herb–drug interaction of licorice supplements via Pregnane X receptor (PXR) is understudied, we ventured out to analyze the potential modulators of PXR in complex mixtures such as whole extracts by applying computational mining tools. A total of 518 structures from five species of Glycyrrhiza: 183 (G. glabra), 180 (G. uralensis), 100 (G. inflata), 33 (G. echinata), and 22 (G. lepidota) were collected and post-processed to yield 387 unique compounds. Visual inspection of top candidates with favorable ligand–PXR interactions and the highest docking scores were identified. The in vitro testing revealed that glabridin (GG-14) is the most potent PXR activator among the tested compounds, followed by licoisoflavone A, licoisoflavanone, and glycycoumarin. A 200 ns molecular dynamics study with glabridin confirmed the stability of the glabridin-PXR complex, highlighting the importance of computational methods for rapid dereplication of potential xenobiotic modulators in a complex mixture instead of undertaking time-consuming classical biological testing of all compounds in a given botanical.

Mass Difference Matching Unfolds Hidden Molecular Structures of Dissolved Organic Matter.

Ultrahigh-resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometry (FTMS) has revealed unprecedented details of natural complex mixtures such as dissolved organic matter (DOM) on a molecular formula level, but we lack approaches to access the underlying structural complexity. We here explore the hypothesis that every DOM precursor ion is potentially linked with all emerging product ions in FTMS2 experiments. The resulting mass difference (Δm) matrix is deconvoluted to isolate individual precursor ion Δm profiles and matched with structural information, which was derived from 42 Δm features from 14 in-house reference compounds and a global set of 11 477 Δm features with assigned structure specificities, using a dataset of ∼18 000 unique structures. We show that Δm matching is highly sensitive in predicting potential precursor ion identities in terms of molecular and structural composition. Additionally, the approach identified unresolved precursor ions and missing elements in molecular formula annotation (P, Cl, F). Our study provides first results on how Δm matching refines structural annotations in van Krevelen space but simultaneously demonstrates the wide overlap between potential structural classes. We show that this effect is likely driven by chemodiversity and offers an explanation for the observed ubiquitous presence of molecules in the center of the van Krevelen space. Our promising first results suggest that Δm matching can both unfold the structural information encrypted in DOM and assess the quality of FTMS-derived molecular formulas of complex mixtures in general.

Direct Quantitation of Phytocannabinoids by One-Dimensional 1H qNMR and Two-Dimensional 1H-1H COSY qNMR in Complex Natural Mixtures.

The widespread use of phytocannabinoids or cannabis extracts as ingredients in numerous types of products, in combination with the legal restrictions on THC content, has created a need for the development of new, rapid, and universal analytical methods for their quantitation that ideally could be applied without separation and standards. Based on previously described qNMR studies, we developed an expanded 1H qNMR method and a novel 2D-COSY qNMR method for the rapid quantitation of ten major phytocannabinoids in cannabis plant extracts and cannabis-based products. The 1H qNMR method was successfully developed for the quantitation of cannabidiol (CBD), cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), cannabinol (CBN), cannabichromene (CBC), cannabichromenic acid (CBCA), cannabigerol (CBG), cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (Δ9-THCA), Δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ8-THC), cannabielsoin (CBE), and cannabidivarin (CBDV). Moreover, cannabidivarinic acid (CBDVA) and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabivarinic acid (Δ9-THCVA) can be distinguished from CBDA and Δ9-THCA respectively, while cannabigerovarin (CBGV) and Δ8-tetrahydrocannabivarin (Δ8-THCV) present the same 1H-spectra as CBG and Δ8-THC, respectively. The COSY qNMR method was applied for the quantitation of CBD, CBDA, CBN, CBG/CBGA, and THC/THCA. The two methods were applied for the analysis of hemp plants; cannabis extracts; edible cannabis medium-chain triglycerides (MCT); and hemp seed oils and cosmetic products with cannabinoids. The 1H-NMR method does not require the use of reference compounds, and it requires only a short time for analysis. However, complex extracts in 1H-NMR may have a lot of signals, and quantitation with this method is often hampered by peak overlap, with 2D NMR providing a solution to this obstacle. The most important advantage of the COSY NMR quantitation method was the determination of the legality of cannabis plants, extracts, and edible oils based on their THC/THCA content, particularly in the cases of some samples for which the determination of THC/THCA content by 1H qNMR was not feasible.

Development of an NMR-Based Platform for the Direct Structural Annotation of Complex Natural Products Mixtures.

The development of new "omics" platforms is having a significant impact on the landscape of natural products discovery. However, despite the advantages that such platforms bring to the field, there remains no straightforward method for characterizing the chemical landscape of natural products libraries using two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (2D-NMR) experiments. NMR analysis provides a powerful complement to mass spectrometric approaches, given the universal coverage of NMR experiments. However, the high degree of signal overlap, particularly in one-dimensional NMR spectra, has limited applications of this approach. To address this issue, we have developed a new data analysis platform for complex mixture analysis, termed MADByTE (Metabolomics and Dereplication by Two-Dimensional Experiments). This platform employs a combination of TOCSY and HSQC spectra to identify spin system features within complex mixtures and then matches spin system features between samples to create a chemical similarity network for a given sample set. In this report we describe the design and construction of the MADByTE platform and demonstrate the application of chemical similarity networks for both the dereplication of known compound scaffolds and the prioritization of bioactive metabolites from a bacterial prefractionated extract library.

An Integrated Strategy for the Detection, Dereplication, and Identification of DNA-Binding Biomolecules from Complex Natural Product Mixtures.

A fundamental factor in natural product drug discovery programs is the necessity to identify the active component(s) from complex chemical mixtures. Whereas this has traditionally been accomplished using bioassay-guided fractionation, we questioned whether alternative techniques could supplement and, in some cases, even supplant this approach. We speculated that a combination of ligand-fishing methods and modern analytical tools (e.g., LC-MS and online natural product databases) offered a route to enhance natural product drug discovery. Herein, a candidate solution referred to as the lickety-split ligand-affinity-based molecular angling system (LLAMAS) is described. This approach utilizes an ultrafiltration-based LC-PDA-MS/MS-guided DNA-binding assay in combination with the (i) Global Natural Products Social Molecular Networking, (ii) Dictionary of Natural Products, and (iii) SciFinder platforms to identify DNA binders in complex chemical mixtures. LLAMAS was initially vetted in tests using known small-molecule DNA binders and then optimized to a 96-well plate-based format. A set of 332 plant samples used in traditional Chinese medicine was screened for DNA-binding activity with LLAMAS, resulting in the identification of seven DNA-binding molecules, including berberine (12), palmatine (13), coptisine (14), fangchinoline (15), tetrandrine (16), daurisoline (17), and dauricine (18). These results demonstrate that LLAMAS is an effective natural product discovery platform for the efficient identification and dereplication of DNA-binding molecules from complex mixtures.

Management Evaluate and Review Solutions to Reduce Soil Pollution

Crude oil is a complex natural mixture that is one of the main sources of energy for life. Oil pollution has unpleasant effects on the environment that can cause many problems for human beings, since the toxicity and carcinogenesis of oil compounds for living creatures and humans are obvious and proven. The oil-contaminated soils and waters are one of the most important environmental issues. Scientists have proved different ways to clean up oil pollution throughout history. In this research, ways to reduce and eliminate pollution of crude oil in the soil are going to be studied. The following methods are suggested : The use of electrochemical methods for reducing the aromatic contamination of crude oil, The use of biodegradable and synthetic detergents for the removal of oil hydrocarbons, bioremediation of soil contaminated with plants. Finally, by reviewing the results obtained, solutions can be found to clean up the pollution of crude oil from the soil, Because cleaning up crude from soil reduces environmental degradation.