Biomass energy consumption and sustainable development: empirical evidence from Asian economies.

Biomass energy is an important source of energy consumption. It is a renewable, abundant, and easily produced energy source. Its usage supports economies in reducing their dependence on fossil fuels and safeguards national energy security.

Industrialization, Freight Transport and Environmental Quality: Evidence from Belt and Road Initiative Economies.

Belt and Road initiative has been proposed by China to initiate the cooperation among relevant countries in sector of energy and Trade. The study investigate highlighting the relationship between industrial value added per capita, transport freight and CO emission among the partner countries of Belt and Road initiatives by using panel of 33 economies from 1986-2017. Study includes panel autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) to estimate the long-run relationship among variables.

Agricultural practices and quality of environment: evidence for global perspective.

The study emphasizes to examine the causal relationship among CO emission, agricultural value added, industrial production, urbanization, nuclear energy consumption, and economic growth across the panel of 59 countries. The data is collected from World Bank database over the period of 1982-2015. For econometric estimations, we have divided the sample into different income groups: low income, lower middle income, upper middle income, and higher income.

Antimicrobial garlic-derived diallyl polysulfanes: Interactions with biological thiols in Bacillus subtilis.

Background: Diallylpolysulfanes are the key constituents of garlic oils, known to exhibit broad spectrum anticancer and antimicrobial activity. Studies in vitro, and in mammalian cells, have shown they react, via thiol-polysulfane exchange, with their major low molecular weight thiol, glutathione. However, there are no detailed reports of diallylpolysulfane effects on other common thiol metabolites (cysteine and coenzyme A) or major thiol cofactors (e.

Redox Modulation at Work: Natural Phytoprotective Polysulfanes From Based on Redox-Active Sulfur.

Purpose Of Review: This article provides a brief overview of natural phytoprotective products of with a special focus on the therapeutic potential of diallyl polysulfanes from garlic, their molecular targets and their fate in the living organisms. A comprehensive overview of antimicrobial and anticancer properties of published literature is presented for the reader to understand the effective concentrations of polysulfanes and their sensitivity towards different human pathogenic microbes, fungi, and cancer cell lines.

Recent Findings: The article finds polysulfanes potentials as new generation novel antibiotics and chemo preventive agent.

Think Yellow and Keep Green-Role of Sulfanes from Garlic in Agriculture.

Reactive sulfur species from garlic have long been renowned for their health benefits and antimicrobial properties. In agriculture the subject matter is now gathering momentum in the search for new bio-pesticides to addressing emerging environmental concerns and tighter restrictions on the use of many conventional chemical pesticides. Although the precise modes of action of these garlic-derived bioactives is complex, recent research has provided a number of new insights that deepen our understanding of garlic-derived products, such as garlic extracts and oils.

The natural organosulfur compound dipropyltetrasulfide prevents HOCl-induced systemic sclerosis in the mouse.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to test the naturally occurring organosulfur compound dipropyltetrasulfide (DPTTS), found in plants, which has antibiotic and anticancer properties, as a treatment for HOCl-induced systemic sclerosis in the mouse.

Methods: The prooxidative, antiproliferative, and cytotoxic effects of DPTTS were evaluated ex vivo on fibroblasts from normal and HOCl mice. In vivo, the antifibrotic and immunomodulating properties of DPTTS were evaluated in the skin and lungs of HOCl mice.

Antiproliferative effect of natural tetrasulfides in human breast cancer cells is mediated through the inhibition of the cell division cycle 25 phosphatases.

For many years, in vitro and in vivo studies have reported that organosulfur compounds (OSCs), naturally found in Allium vegetables, are able to suppress the proliferation of various tumor cells. In spite of recent advances, the specific molecular mechanisms involved in OSC activity are still unclear. Considering the antiproliferative effects observed in cancer cells, we postulated that OSCs might target the cell division cycle (Cdc) 25 phosphatases which are crucial enzymes of the cell cycle.

Allicin disrupts the cell's electrochemical potential and induces apoptosis in yeast.

The volatile substance allicin gives crushed garlic (Allium sativum) its characteristic odor and is a pro-oxidant that undergoes thiol-disulfide exchange reactions with -SH groups in proteins and glutathione. The antimicrobial activity of allicin is suspected to be due to the oxidative inactivation of essential thiol-containing enzymes. We investigated the hypothesis that at threshold inhibitory levels allicin can shunt yeast cells into apoptosis by altering their overall redox status.

Diallylpolysulfides induce growth arrest and apoptosis.

Garlic-derived organo sulphur compounds such as diallylsulfides provide a significant protection against carcinogenesis. Chemically synthesized, and highly pure diallylsulfides with a chain of 1-4 sulphur atoms, as well as a range of control compounds, were employed to investigate the influence of these agents on cell viability, cell cycle arrest and induction of apoptosis in HCT116 human colon cancer cells. Diallyltrisulfide, and even more efficiently diallyltetrasulfide treatment of HCT116 cells led to a reduced cell viability, cell cycle arrest and apoptosis.

Cell cycle arrest in early mitosis and induction of caspase-dependent apoptosis in U937 cells by diallyltetrasulfide (Al2S4).

Naturally occurring organic sulfur compounds (OSCs), such as linear allylsulfides from Allium species, are attracting attention in cancer research, since several OSCs were shown to act beneficially both in chemoprevention and in chemotherapy, while hardly exerting any harmful side effects. Hence, we investigated the possible role of different OSCs in the treatment of leukemia. Thereby, we found that the compounds tested in this study induced apoptosis in U937 cells, with an efficiency depending on the number of sulfides, and selected the most promising candidate, diallyltetrasulfide (Al2S4), for detailed mechanistic studies.

Perspective on recent developments on sulfur-containing agents and hydrogen sulfide signaling.

The last couple of years have witnessed the coming together of several initially unconnected lines of investigation which now link natural sulfur products to hydrogen sulfide release and wide ranging cardiovascular protection. It has become apparent that sulfur compounds contained within garlic, onions, mushrooms and various edible beans and fruits may be transformed chemically or enzymatically in the human body with subsequent formation of hydrogen sulfide. The latter has emerged during the last decade from a shadowy existence as toxic gas to be recognized as the third gaseous transmitter besides nitric oxide ( (.

The chemistry behind redox regulation with a focus on sulphur redox systems.

Sulphur metabolism in plants provides a wealth of natural products, including several chemically unusual substances, such as thiosulphinates, polysulphides and isothiocyanates. Many of these reactive sulphur species (RSS) exhibit a distinct redox behaviour in vitro, which translates into a rather interesting biological activity in vivo, such as antibiotic, fungicidal, pesticidal or anticancer activity. While the molecular basis for such activity has long remained obscure, research into sulphur-based redox systems during the past 5-10 years has achieved a better knowledge of the in vitro properties of RSS and has led to an improved understanding of their impact on intracellular redox signalling and control pathways in living cells.

Polysulfides as biologically active ingredients of garlic.

Garlic has long been considered as a natural remedy against a range of human illnesses, including various bacterial, viral and fungal infections. This kind of antibiotic activity of garlic has mostly been associated with the thiosulfinate allicin. Even so, recent studies have pointed towards a significant biological activity of trisulfides and tetrasulfides found in various Allium species, including a wide range of antibiotic properties and the ability of polysulfides to cause the death of certain cancer cells.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of isomeric derivatives of naturally occurring spatozoate.

An isomer of the natural phthalate ester spatozoate (1), n-butyl 2-benzoyloxymethylbenzoate (2a) and a series of its new derivatives 2b-2s were synthesized and exposed to selected biological screening, as phthalates were reported to possess different biological activities. Compound 2g was found to be the most potent cytotoxic agent with a LD50 = 8.98 microg/ml.