Homarine Alkyl Ester Derivatives as Promising Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors.

Reversible acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors are key therapeutic tools to modulate the cholinergic connectivity compromised in several degenerative pathologies. In this work, four alkyl esters of homarine were synthesized and screened by using Electrophorus electricus AChE and rat brain AChE-rich fraction. Results showed that all homarine alkyl esters are able to inhibit AChE by a competitive inhibition mode.

Poly(ionic liquid)s as phase splitting promoters in aqueous biphasic systems.

Aqueous biphasic systems (ABSs) provide a sustainable and efficient alternative to conventional liquid-liquid extraction techniques with volatile organic solvents, and can be used for the extraction, recovery, and purification of diverse solutes. In this work, and for the first time, ABSs composed of poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) and inorganic salts were measured at 25 °C and atmospheric pressure. New PILs having pyrrolidinium polycations combined with different counter-anions, namely acetate [Ac](-), trifluoroacetate [TFAc](-), hexanoate [Hex](-), adipate [Adi](-), and citrate [Cit](-) were synthesized, by a simple and environmentally-friendly procedure, and characterized.

Pretreatment and fractionation of wheat straw using various ionic liquids.

Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass with ionic liquids (ILs) is a promising and challenging process for an alternative method of biomass processing. The present work emphasizes the examination of wheat straw pretreatment using ILs, namely, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogensulfate ([bmim][HSO4]), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate ([bmim][SCN]), and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide ([bmim][N(CN)2]). Only [bmim][HSO4] was found to achieve a macroscopic complete dissolution of wheat straw during pretreatment.

Pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass using ionic liquids: wheat straw fractionation.

This work is devoted to study pre-treatment methodologies of wheat straw with 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([emim][CH3COO]) and subsequent fractionation to cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The method developed and described here allows the separation into high purity carbohydrate and lignin fractions and permits an efficient IL recovery. A versatility of the established method was confirmed by the IL reuse.