Essential oil extracted from nutmeg seeds (Myristica fragrans Houtt.) by hydrodistillation was subjected to GC/MS and GC analysis. A total of 27 constituents were identified, of which eugenol ...(19.9%), methylisoeugenol (16.8%), methyleugenol (16.7%), sabinene (11.8%), and terpinen‐4‐ol (8.5%) were the major components. The essential oil was tested against Lasioderma serricorne for insecticidal and repellent activity, the LD50 value at the end of 24 h exposure period was 19.3 μg/adult. Six active compounds were isolated by bioassay‐guided fractionation. They were identified as eugenol (1), methyleugenol (2), methylisoeugenol (3), elemicin (4), myristicin (5), and safrole (6). Among these isolates, 4 showed the strongest contact toxicity against L. serricorne adults with an LD50 value of 9.8 μg/adult. Repellency of crude oil and active compounds were also determined. Compounds 1, 2, 4, and 5 were strongly repellent against the cigarette beetle and exhibited the same level of repellency compared with the positive control, DEET. The results indicate that the essential oil of M. fragrans and its active constituents have potential for development as natural insecticides and repellents to control L. serricorne.
The screening for bioactive principles from several Chinese medicinal herbs showed that the essential oil of Cymbopogon distans aerial parts possessed strong repellency against the booklouse, ...Liposcelis bostrychophila, and the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. A total of 36 components of the essential oil were identified by GC and GC-MS. trans-Geraniol (16.54%), (R)-citronellal (15.44%), (+)-citronellol (11.51%), and α-elemol (9.06%) were the main components of the essential oil followed by β-eudesmol (5.71%) and (+)-limonene (5.05%). From the essential oil, four monoterpenes were isolated by bioassay-guided fractionation. The compounds were identified as limonene, citronellol, citronellal, and trans-geraniol. Geraniol and citronellol were strongly repellent against the booklouse, L. bostrychophila, whereas citronellal and limonene exhibited weak repellency against the booklouse. Geraniol and citronellol exhibited comparable repellency against the booklouse relative to the positive control, DEET. Moreover, geraniol and citronellol exhibited stronger repellency against the red flour beetle than DEET, whereas the two other compounds showed the same level of repellency against the red flour beetle compared with DEET.
This study aimed to investigate the effect of hematoporphyrin dimethylether (HDME)-mediated photodynamic therapy for laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in adult Brown Norway rats. HDME ...was administered via tail vein at 14 d after the laser photocoagulation, and the rats received irradiance with a laser light at 570 nm at 15 min after injection. CNV was evaluated by fundus photography, fundus fluorescein angiography, optical coherence tomography, and hematoxylin and eosin staining. We found that CNV was occurred at 7 d after photocoagulation and reaching peak activity at 14 d after photocoagulation. There is a significant reduction in the total area of the fluorescein leakage and the number of strong fluorescein leakage spots on 7 d after HDME-mediated photodynamic therapy (PDT). The results suggest that HDME-mediated PDT inhibits laser-induced CNV in rats, representing a promising therapy for wet age-related macular degeneration.
Chloroplasts are typically inherited from the female parent and are haploid in most angiosperms, but rare intra-individual heteroplasmy in plastid genomes has been reported in plants. Here, we report ...an example of plastome heteroplasmy and its characteristics in
Gentiana tongolensis
(Gentianaceae). The plastid genome of
G. tongolensis
is 145,757 bp in size and is missing parts of
petD
gene when compared with other
Gentiana
species. A total of 112 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 31 indels with frequencies of more than 2% were detected in the plastid genome, and most were located in protein coding regions. Most sites with SNP frequencies of more than 10% were located in six genes in the LSC region. After verification via cloning and Sanger sequencing at three loci, heteroplasmy was identified in different individuals. The cause of heteroplasmy at the nucleotide level in plastome of
G. tongolensis
is unclear from the present data, although biparental plastid inheritance and transfer of plastid DNA seem to be most likely. This study implies that botanists should reconsider the heredity and evolution of chloroplasts and be cautious with using chloroplasts as genetic markers, especially in
Gentiana
.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with its high elevation and extreme climate, is a transport artery for a crude oil-importation pipeline in China. However, limited information is available regarding the ...effect of petroleum hydrocarbon (PH) contamination on soil bacterial diversity. Variations in the bacterial structure and composition after PH pollution were investigated by a combination of artificial simulated pollution and high-throughput DNA sequencing. The results demonstrated that the biodiversity of engine oil-contaminated soil samples was higher than that of diesel oil-contaminated soil samples, and 7 genera were identified from indigenous bacteria as potential oil degraders, including Sulfuritalea, Sphingomonas, Alkanindiges, Rhodococcus, Nocardioides, Rhodoplanes, and Actinobacteria_norank. We present a detailed profile of soil bacteria succession under different oil-pollution conditions, which may help in future studies of in-situ bioremediation in this region.
During our screening program for agrochemicals from Chinese medicinal herbs and wild plants, the essential oil of Litsea cubeba fruits was found to possess strong contact toxicity against the ...cigarette beetle Lasioderma serricorne adults and the booklouse Liposcelis bostrychophila, with LD50 values of 27.33μg/adult and 71.56μg/cm2, respectively, and also showed strong fumigant toxicity against the two stored product insects with LC50 values of 22.97 and 0.73mg/L, respectively. The essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation was investigated by GC MS. The main components of the essential oil were identified to be E-citral (geranial) (27.49%), Z-citral (neral) (23.57%) and d-limonene (18.82%) followed by β-thujene (3.34%), β-pinene (2.85%), α-pinene (2.57%), 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (2.40%) and linalool (2.36%). Citral (Z/E-citral), d-limonene, β-pinene, α-pinene and linalool were separated and purified by silica gel column chromatography and preparative thin layer chromatography, and further identified by means of physicochemical and spectrometric analysis. Citral and linalool showed strong contact toxicity against L. serricorne and L. bostrychophila (LD50=11.76, 12.74μg/adult and 20.15, 99.97μg/cm2, respectively) and fumigant toxicity against L. serricorne and L. bostrychophila (16.54, 18.04mg/L air and 0.14, 0.71mg/L air, respectively). Otherwise, citral, d-limonene and linalool were strongly repellent against the cigarette beetle L. serricorne as the essential oil whereas β-pinene and α-pinene exhibited weaker repellency against the cigarette beetle compared with the positive control, DEET. Moreover, except α-pinene and linalool, the other three compounds as well as the essential oil exhibited comparable repellency against the booklouse relative to DEET.
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•Five constituents were separated from Litsea cubeba essential oil for the first time.•Strong contact and fumigant toxicities were possessed.•They showed strong repellence against the two stored product insects.
This study aimed to identify the incidence rate of Acute kidney injury (AKI) in our center and predict in-hospital mortality and long-term survival after heart transplantation (HTx).
This ...single-center, retrospective study from October 2009 and March 2020 analyzed the pre-, intra-, and postoperative characteristics of 95 patients who underwent HTx. AKI was defined according to the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria. Risk factors were analyzed by multivariable logistic regression models. The log-rank test was used to compare long-term survival.
Thirty-three (34.7%) patients developed AKI. The mortality in hospital in HTx patients with and without AKI were 21.21 and 6.45%, respectively (P < 0.05). Recipients in AKI who required renal replacement therapy (RRT) had a hospital mortality rate of 43.75% compared to 6.45% in those without AKI or RRT (P < 0.0001). A long cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) time (OR:11.393, 95% CI: 2.183 to 59.465, P = 0.0039) was positively related to the occurrence of AKI. A high intraoperative urine volume (OR: 0.031, 95% CI: 0.005 to 0.212, P = 0.0004) was negatively correlated with AKI. AKI requiring RRT (OR, 11.348; 95% CI, 2.418-53.267, P = 0.002) was a risk factor for mortality in hospital. Overall survival in patients without AKI at 1 and 3 years was not different from that in patients with AKI (P = 0.096).
AKI is common after HTx. AKI requiring RRT could contribute powerful prognostic information to predict mortality in hospital. A long CPB time and low intraoperative urine volume are associated with the occurrence of AKI.
The Luxi Terrane (eastern China) exposes widespread Early Cretaceous alkaline rocks, whereas their petrogenesis remains controversial, including fractional crystallization, partial melting and ...crustal contamination regime. Here, we present petrology, geochemistry, sphene U-Pb geochronology and trace element data from the syenogranite, quartz syenite and quartz monzonite of the Guandimiao alkaline complex rocks to investigate their petrogenesis. Geochemical data suggest that these alkaline rocks show alkalic and peralkaline characters, and high Ga/Al ratios, SiO2, light rare-earth element (LREE), Zr and Nb, and low MgO, CaO, Eu contents, corresponding to A-type granites. Sphene trace elements in syenogranite and quartz monzonite show obvious fractionation between LREE and heavy rare-earth element (HREE) and high Th/U ratios, indicating a magmatic origin. They yield U-Pb lower intercept ages of 128 ± 2.3 Ma and 127 ± 1.3 Ma, representing the crystallization ages of these alkaline rocks. The negative correlations between CaO, Fe2O3 (Total), MgO, P2O5, TiO2, MnO and the pronounced depletion in Nb, Ta and Ti suggest that the alkaline rocks were formed by fractional crystallization. Additionally, the positive correlation between La/Hf and La, Th and Th/V, Ce/Yb and K2O, and Tb/Yb and Yb suggest that the alkaline melts are generated by partial melting. Such high Rb/Nb, (Th/Nb)N and Nb/Th ratios indicate crustal contamination during the magma emplacement. We, therefore, propose the magma source of the alkaline rocks in the Guandimiao complex originated by partial melting of lithospheric mantle, which experienced fractional crystallization and crustal contamination processes during its emplacement. Such complex alkaline rocks were probably formed in an extensional back-arc setting induced by the retreat of the subducting Izanagi plate.
The alkaline complex in the southwest region of Luxi Terrane of the North China Craton is spatially correlated with the newly discovered Longbaoshan REE deposit. Its petrogenesis, however, remains ...ambiguous. In this study, we present an integrated petrology, whole-rock geochemistry, sphene U-Pb and rare earth element data from the Longbaoshan alkaline complex to investigate the petrogenesis, magma source and tectonic evolution. The Longbaoshan alkaline complex consists of mafic to intermediate rocks of hornblende diorite and alkaline hornblende syenite porphyry, biotite monzonite porphyry and aegirine diorite porphyrite. The hornblende diorites show a composition of low SiO2, high MgO, Fe2O3 and moderate Na2O, CaO and are metaluminous and medium-to-high-K calc-alkaline. The hornblende syenite porphyries, biotite monzonites and argirine diorite porphyrites display a relatively higher content of SiO2, Na2O, K2O and Al2O3 and lower contents of MgO, Fe2O3 and CaO and are metaluminous, peralkaline, high-K calcic-alkaline and shoshonite. The sphene U-Pb data shows that the parent magma of the hornblende diorite was emplaced at ca. 120 Ma. All these samples show a common depletion in Th, Nb-Ta and Zr-Hf and enrichment in large ion lithophile elements (e.g., Pb, Ba, Sr) and Light Rare Earth Elements. The magma may have experienced fractionation of pyroxene, amphibole, sphene, apatite and zircon during its evolution. The variable La content, La/Sm, Rb/Sr and (Ta/Th) N ratios indicate that the parent magma may produce by partial melting of a mantle source that was interacted with sediment-derived melts in a subduction setting. Therefore, we propose that the parent magma of the Longbaoshan alkaline complex was derived from a lithospheric mantle which was metasomatized by sediment-derived melt in a prior subduction process. The enriched magma was emplaced through an extension process and experienced subsequent fractionation and assimilation with the continental crust during the rollback of the Paleo Pacific Ocean plate.
A potentially functional yogurt co-fermentation with Gnaphalium affine was prepared and its quality and antioxidant properties were investigated. According to the classic procedure, a novel yogurt ...was successfully prepared with Gnaphalium affine extract (EGA). During the storage period, the pH value and titratable acidity of yogurt showed no obvious changes compared with control. However, the texture properties of yogurt, such as firmness, adhesiveness, cohesiveness and springiness, could be effectively improved. Moreover, the yogurt possessed the lower syneresis susceptibility and higher viability of Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus than the control. Furthermore, the yogurt showed remarkable antioxidant potential to scavenge 2, 2′-azinobis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulphonate (ABTS), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. Meanwhile, the yogurt could enhance the activities of antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), and it could also lead to a significant decrease of malondialdehyde (MDA) level in animal serums. The current results suggest that the yogurt co-fermentation with EGA possesses high quality properties and remarkable antioxidant potential, and thus has the great potential to be used as a novel functional food product in food industry.
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•A novel functional yogurt was co-fermented with Gnaphalium affine extract (EGA).•The yogurt co-fermented with EGA exhibited the remarkable quality.•The yogurt showed strong ability to enhance the activities of antioxidant enzymes.•The yogurt could decrease the malondialdehyde level in animal serums effectively.
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