Comprehensive quality assessment of peppermint oils and commercial products: An integrated approach involving conventional and chiral GC/MS coupled with chemometrics.

Peppermint essential oil (EO) has a multitude of applications, such as a fragrance in cosmetics, personal care and industrial products, or as a flavoring ingredient in food and beverages. Despite its popularity and economic significance, peppermint EO is often adulterated to reduce production costs and to increase profits. Although the ISO standard for peppermint EO exists, detecting sophisticated forms of adulteration remains challenging.

Discovery, Synthesis, and Optimization of 1,2,4-Triazolyl Pyridines Targeting .

The rise in multidrug resistant tuberculosis cases underscores the urgent need to develop new treatment strategies for tuberculosis. Herein, we report the discovery and synthesis of a new series of compounds containing a 3-thio-1,2,4-triazole moiety that show inhibition of () growth and survival. Structure-activity relationship studies led us to identify several potent analogs displaying low micromolar to nanomolar inhibitory activity, specifically against .

Identification of potential non-nucleoside MraY inhibitors for tuberculosis chemotherapy using structure-based virtual screening.

The efforts to limit the spread of the tuberculosis epidemic have been challenged by the rise of drug-resistant strains of (), the causative agent of tuberculosis. It is critical to discover new chemical scaffolds acting on novel or unexploited targets to beat this drug-resistant pathogen. MraY (phospho-MurNAc-pentapeptide translocase or translocase I) is an validated target for antibacterials-discovery.

Total Synthesis of Cytospolide Q.

A flexible and convergent strategy for the stereoselective total synthesis of bioactive marine natural product cytospolide Q has been developed. The key features of this synthesis include Evans anti-aldol reaction for the installation of C-2 and C-3 stereocenters and cycloetherification via epoxide opening followed by concomitant lactonization for the construction of tetrahydrofuran and γ-butyrolactone scaffolds. This synthetic study also revealed that protected oxygenated functionality (methyl ester or benzyl ether) at C-1 position participated readily in epoxide opening.

Total Synthesis of Reported Structure of Baulamycin A and Its Congeners.

A convergent and flexible strategy for the stereoselective total synthesis of the reported structure of baulamycin A and its congeners has been developed for the first time. Synthetic highlights include a Crimmins aldol reaction to construct the C-1' and C-14 centers, a Crimmins acetate aldol reaction to generate the hydroxy group at the C-13 position, Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons olefination to form the C-C bond, and Evans methylation to install the C-8 center. This synthetic study disclosed that the reported structure of baulamycin A needs to be revised, as its spectroscopic data are not identical with those of the synthetic baulamycin A.

Production and estimation of alkaline protease by immobilized Bacillus licheniformis isolated from poultry farm soil of 24 Parganas and its reusability.

Microbial alkaline protease has become an important industrial and commercial biotech product in the recent years and exerts major applications in food, textile, detergent, and pharmaceutical industries. By immobilization of microbes in different entrapment matrices, the enzyme produced can be more stable, pure, continuous, and can be reused which in turn modulates the enzyme production in an economical manner. There have been reports in support of calcium alginate and corn cab as excellent matrices for immobilization of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis, respectively.

Stereoselective total synthesis of cytospolide P.

A short and convergent stereoselective total synthesis of biologically potent cytospolide P has been accomplished from acrolein. The salient features of our synthetic strategy include modified Crimmins aldols, Yamaguchi esterification, and Grubbs ring-closing metathesis reaction.

Progesterone receptor agonists and antagonists as anticancer agents.

Progesterone is a major female steroid hormone produced by the ovarian corpus luteum and by the placental syncytiotrophoblast during the second trimester. The biological effects of this steroid hormone are mediated by the ubiquitously expressed progesterone receptor. The exact link between progesterone and female reproductive organ cancer is a controversial issue with various cross-talks.

Anti-androgenic endocrine disrupting activities of chlorpyrifos and piperophos.

The present work describes the screening and characterization of some common endocrine disrupting chemicals for their (anti)androgenic activities. Various chemicals (mostly pesticides and pharmaceuticals) were screened with the NIH3T3 cell line stably expressing human androgen receptor (hAR) and luciferase reporter gene for their ability to stimulate luciferase activity or inhibit the response that was evoked by 0.4nM testosterone.

Biodegradation of pyridine by the new bacterial isolates S. putrefaciens and B. sphaericus.

In this study, two bacterial strains capable of utilizing pyridine as a sole carbon source were isolated from biofilters. Based on the biochemical test, the organisms were identified as Shewanella putrefaciens and Bacillus sphaericus. In liquid cultures, S.

Screening of some anti-progestin endocrine disruptors using a recombinant yeast based in vitro bioassay.

The present study was aimed to develop a sensitive, fast and user friendly progesterone receptor transactivation assay using recombinant yeast cells, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, modified to express human progesterone receptor (PR) and progesterone response element (PRE) driving the expression of green fluorescent protein. Stimulation of cells with increasing concentrations of progesterone resulted in significant elevation in fluorescence activity, with the minimum effective dose of progesterone being 0.1 nM.

Development of a yeast-based assay to determine the (anti)androgenic contaminants from pulp and paper mill effluents in India.

We have constructed an efficient and reliable yeast-based detection system to evaluate the androgenic activity of endocrine disruptors from pulp and paper mill effluents (PPME). This system consists of human androgen receptor and androgen response elements driven β-galactosidase genes transformed in yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The transcriptional activation by known androgens, correlated with androgenic activities as measured by other assay systems.

Combined removal of BTEX in air stream by using mixture of sugar cane bagasse, compost and GAC as biofilter media.

Biofiltration of air stream containing mixture of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and o-xylene (BTEX) has been studied in a lab-scale biofilter packed with a mixture of compost, sugar cane bagasse and granulated activated carbon (GAC) in the ratio 55:30:15 by weight. Microbial acclimation was achieved in 30 days by exposing the system to average BTEX inlet concentration of 0.4194 gm(-3) at an empty bed residence time (EBRT) of 2.

Higher prevalence of OCA1 in an ethnic group of eastern India is due to a founder mutation in the tyrosinase gene.

Purpose: Oculocutaneous albinism (OCA) is a group of autosomal recessive disorders characterized by deficient synthesis of melanin pigment and associated with common developmental abnormalities of the eye. It is one of the major causes of childhood blindness in India. The disease is common among an ethnic group (Tili) of Eastern India, which represents about 12.