Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
October 2024
The excessive use of herbicides has caused a series of problems related to human health, environmental pollution, and an increase in the resistance of plants to commercial herbicides. As an alternative, natural compounds and their semisynthetic derivatives have been widely studied to obtain environmentally friendly and more effective herbicides than the usual ones. In view of these factors, the aim of this work was to synthesize new molecules with herbicidal potential using thymol as a starting material, a natural phenol that has a pronounced phytotoxic effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFoods
December 2023
The Amazon rainforest and the biodiversity hotspot of the Atlantic Forest are home to fruit trees that produce functional foods, which are still underutilized. The present study aimed to select potential functional nut donor trees from two Brazilian chestnuts, by evaluating the nutritional and antioxidant composition of the nuts and the fatty acid profile of the oil. The nutritional characteristics, antioxidants, oil fatty acid profile, and X-ray densitometry of the nuts were evaluated, as well as the characterization of leaf and soil nutrients for each parent tree.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerbicides are commonly used to control weed. However, some plants are resistant to such products. To identify less harmful herbicides, it is crucial to search for different mechanisms of action.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHops' (Humulus lupulus L.) phytochemicals are well known for their bioactivity. In the present study, the functional properties of hop extract rich in β-acids, as potassium-salts structures (KBA), were investigated to develop a sustainable active food packaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEssential oils from plants have remarkable biological properties, for example as insecticides and acaricides. Here we provide chemical analysis and evaluate the toxicity of the essential oil of Mentha piperita (Lamiaceae) and its main constituent menthol against Tetranychus urticae Kogan 1836 (Acari: Tetranychidae), a polyphagous pest present in agricultural landscapes. The essential oil was obtained from M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHerbicides are agrochemicals applied in the control of weeds. With the frequent and repetitive use of these substances, serious problems have been reported. Compounds of natural origin and their derivatives are attractive options to obtain new compounds with herbicidal properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe objective of the present work was the molecular characterization of 11 parents and 101 hybrid progenies of conilon coffee, obtained through diallel crosses from the breeding program of the Instituto Capixaba de Pesquisa, Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural (Incaper, ES, Brazil). The analyses were performed with 18 Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) molecular markers, obtaining a total of 32 alleles. SSR markers were classified as moderately informative (PIC = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe chemical complexity of coffee influences the sensory evaluation of the beverage, the main method used to define the quality of the coffee. In view of the subjectivity that method offers, we propose the association of an instrumental method with multivariate calibration (PLS and GA-SVR) to predict the quality of arabica coffee as support for sensory analysis. Arabica coffee samples were submitted to sensory evaluation using the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) protocol and HS-SPME-GC/MS analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis work aimed to evaluate Coffea canephora's microbiological, chemical, and sensory characteristics at 300 and 600 m elevation plantations processed by the natural method inoculated with yeasts. The coffee was spread on suspended terraces and sprayed with approximately 10 cfu/mL of Meyerozyma caribbica CCMA 1738 or Pichia kluyveri CCMA 1743, separately. Cherries containing bark and parchment were collected during fermentation for microbial groups counting, qPCR, quantification of organic acids, and sugars (HPLC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDue to rising concerns for environmental and human health, many toxic compounds, such as auxin-based herbicides, have been tested in relation their toxicity effect. Especially cyto- and phytotoxic assays have been performed on a number monocot and eudicot plant species. In these approaches the toxicity level of the auxin is compared to a positive control - usually a commercial compound with known effects and chemical similarity to the target compound.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe antimicrobial activity of essential oils (EO) is associated with the presence of secondary metabolites synthesized by plants. Its mechanism of action involves the interaction of its hydrophobic components with the lipids present in the cell membrane of microorganism, resulting in metabolic damages and cell death. Spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms are contaminants in meat and meat products with considerable impacts on food quality and safety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe interactions between edaphoclimatic factors, forms of processing, drying, storage and roasting, directly affect the sensorial results. This study applied four forms of wet-processing in six different altitude strata, aiming to potentiate the final quality of the drink. The final quality of the coffees was measured using the sensory technique and HS-SPME-GC/MS analyses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Pollut Res Int
September 2019
The use of allelopathic compounds is an alternative for weeds control, since they present low toxicity when compared with the synthetic herbicides, that may cause several damages, as the contamination of the environment. Our objective was to determine the chemical composition and allelopathic properties of the essential oils of Psidium cattleianum, P. myrtoides, P.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFood Res Int
May 2019
The current study aimed obtaining antimicrobial sachets that could be used as preservatives for foods. Basil (BEO) and Pimenta dioica (PDEO) essential oils (EOs) were analyzed by GC-FID and GC-MS and tested against the foodborne bacteria S. aureus, E.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemisynthetic phenol derivatives were obtained from the natural phenols: thymol, carvacrol, eugenol, and guaiacol through catalytic oxychlorination, Williamson synthesis, and aromatic Claisen rearrangement. The compounds characterization was carried out by H NMR, C NMR, and mass spectrometry. The natural phenols and their semisynthetic derivatives were tested for their antimicrobial activity against the bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Listeria innocua, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica Typhimurium, Salmonella enterica ssp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecules
October 2017
The synthesis of a series of 1,2,3-triazoles using glycerol as starting material is described. The key step in the preparation of these triazolic derivatives is the copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), also known as click reaction, between 4-(azidomethyl)-2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolane () and different terminal alkynes. The eight prepared derivatives were evaluated with regard to their fungicide, phytotoxic and cytotoxic activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngiogenesis is a hallmark of ovarian cancer (OC); the ingrowth of blood vessels promotes rapid cell growth and the associated metastasis. Melatonin is a well-characterized indoleamine that possesses important anti-angiogenic properties in a set of aggressive solid tumors. Herein, we evaluated the role of melatonin therapy on the angiogenic signaling pathway in OC of an ethanol-preferring rat model that mimics the same pathophysiological conditions occurring in women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCytomorphological changes, by means of ultrastructural analyses, have been used to determine the effects of the biopesticide neem oil on the muscle fibers of the midgut of the predator Ceraeochrysa claveri. Insects, throughout the larval period, were fed eggs of Diatraea saccharalis treated with neem oil at a concentration of 0.5%, 1% or 2%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo obtain more information into the molecular mechanisms underlying ovarian cancer (OC), we proposed a comparative proteomic analysis in animals receiving long-term melatonin as therapy or only vehicle using multidimensional protein identification combined with mass spectrometry. To induce tumor, a single dose of 100 μg 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) dissolved in 10 μL of sesame oil was injected under the left ovarian bursa of 20 Fischer 344 rats. The right ovaries were injected with sesame oil only.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: A balanced maternal diet is a determining factor in normal fetal development. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of maternal protein restriction during pregnancy and lactation on muscle fiber and neuromuscular junction (NMJ) morphology of rat offspring at 21 days of age.
Methods: Wistar rats were divided into a control group (CG), offspring of mothers fed a normal protein diet (17%), and a restricted group (RG), offspring of mothers fed a low-protein diet (6%).
Apoptosis plays an important role in the treatment of cancer, and targeting apoptosis-related molecules in ovarian cancer (OC) is of great therapeutic value. Melatonin (Mel) is an indoleamine displaying several anti-cancer properties and has been reported to modulate apoptosis signaling in multiple tumor subtypes. We investigated OC and the role of Mel therapy on the pro-apoptotic (p53, BAX, caspase-3, and cleaved caspase-3) and anti-apoptotic (Bcl-2 and survivin) proteins in an ethanol (EtOH)-preferring rat model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudies of morphological and ultrastructural alterations in target organs have been useful for evaluating the sublethal effects of biopesticides regarded as safe for non-target organisms in ecotoxicological analyses. One of the most widely used biopesticides is neem oil, and its safety and compatibility with natural enemies have been further clarified through bioassays performed to analyze the effects of indirect exposure by the intake of poisoned prey. Thus, this study examined the cellular response of midgut epithelial cells of the adult lacewing, Ceraeochrysa claveri, to neem oil exposure via intake of neem oil-contaminated prey during the larval stage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe essential oil of Plectranthus amboinicus and its chemotypes, carvacrol and thymol, were evaluated on the germination and root and aerial growth of Lactuca sativa and Sorghum bicolor and in acting on the cell cycle of meristematic root cells of L. sativa. The main component found in the oil by analysis in gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography flame ionization detection was carvacrol (88.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated whether chronic ethanol intake is capable of altering the MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities and TIMP-2 and TIMP-1 expression in the dorsal and lateral prostatic lobes of low (UChA) and high (UChB) ethanol-preferring rats. MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities and TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 expression were significantly reduced in the lateral prostatic lobe of the ethanol drinking animals. Dorsal prostatic lobe was less affected showing no significant alterations in these proteins, except for a reduction in the TIMP-1 expression in UChA rats.
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