Influence of environmental conditions on the production of nutraceuticals in Italian edible plant landraces.

Autochthonous plant varieties, also referred to as landraces, represent an important genetic resource, being well-adapted to the environment in which they have been selected. Landraces usually show profiles rich in nutraceuticals, making them an effective and valuable alternative to commercial agri-products, as well as potential candidates for crop improvement programs. Basilicata region is recognized as an Italian hotspot for agrobiodiversity, due to its complex orography.

Stability and removal of atorvastatin, rosuvastatin and simvastatin from wastewater.

Atorvastatin (ATO), rosuvastatin (RST) and simvastatin (SIM) are commonly used drugs that belong to the statin family (lowering human blood cholesterol levels) and have been detected as contaminants in natural waters. Stability and removal of ATO, RST and SIM from spiked wastewater produced at the Al-Quds University campus were investigated. All three statins were found to undergo degradation in wastewater (activated sludge).

Efficiency of membrane technology, activated charcoal, and a micelle-clay complex for removal of the acidic pharmaceutical mefenamic acid.

The efficiency of sequential advanced membrane technology wastewater treatment plant towards removal of a widely used non-steroid anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) mefenamic acid was investigated. The sequential system included activated sludge, ultrafiltration by hollow fibre membranes with 100 kDa cutoff, and spiral wound membranes with 20 kDa cutoff, activated carbon and a reverse osmosis (RO) unit. The performance of the integrated plant showed complete removal of mefenamic acid from spiked wastewater samples.

Design, synthesis and in vitro kinetic study of tranexamic acid prodrugs for the treatment of bleeding conditions.

Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations for the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of several maleamic acid amide derivatives four tranexamic acid prodrugs were designed. The DFT results on the acid catalyzed hydrolysis revealed that the reaction rate-limiting step is determined on the nature of the amine leaving group. When the amine leaving group was a primary amine or tranexamic acid moiety, the tetrahedral intermediate collapse was the rate-limiting step, whereas in the cases by which the amine leaving group was aciclovir or cefuroxime the rate-limiting step was the tetrahedral intermediate formation.

Computationally designed prodrugs of statins based on Kirby's enzyme model.

DFT calculations at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) for intramolecular proton transfer in Kirby's enzyme models 1-7 demonstrated that the reaction rate is dependent on the distance between the two reacting centers, rGM, and the hydrogen bonding angle, α, and the rate of the reaction is linearly correlated with rGM and α. Based on these calculation results three simvastatin prodrugs were designed with the potential to provide simvastatin with higher bioavailability. For example, based on the calculated log EM for the three proposed prodrugs, the interconversion of simvastatin prodrug ProD 3 to simvastatin is predicted to be about 10 times faster than that of either simvastatin prodrug ProD 1 or simvastatin ProD 2.

Inland treatment of the brine generated from reverse osmosis advanced membrane wastewater treatment plant using epuvalisation system.

The reverse osmosis (RO) brine generated from the Al-Quds University wastewater treatment plant was treated using an epuvalisation system. The advanced integrated wastewater treatment plant included an activated sludge unit, two consecutive ultrafiltration (UF) membrane filters (20 kD and 100 kD cutoffs) followed by an activated carbon filter and a reverse osmosis membrane. The epuvalisation system consisted of salt tolerant plants grown in hydroponic channels under continuous water flowing in a closed loop system, and placed in a greenhouse at Al-Quds University.