Journal of Chemical Health Risks
Year:2017 | Volume:7 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

The nutraceutical potential of Tetracarpidium conophorum and Buccholzia coriacea in diet-induced hyperlipidemia in male Wistar rats were investigated at the Plant Science and Biotechnology department, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria in 2016. Diet-induced type II A hyperlipidemia in rat model was achieved by oral administration of egg yolk and groundnut oil formulations for 2 wk. Rats fed with normal diet and diet formulations constituted the negative control and test control in that order for comparison. The hyperlipidemic rats were subsequently treated with normal feed supplemented with 500 mgkg-1 and 1000 mgkg-1 of T. conophorum and B. coriacea for two weeks. In comparison to test control animals, administration of tried samples markedly lowered weight gain by experimental animals, total cholesterol, triglycerides, AST, ALT ALP, plasma contents of LDL, VLDL, Non-HDL and atherogenic indices in a dose- dependent fashion. Their administration also produced significantly higher (P<0.05) plasma HDL cholesterol levels indicating recovery. These findings underscore the nutraceutical potentials of T. conophorum and B. coriacea and suggest their possible use in management of hyperlipidemia and other related diseases.

Irisin, a novel myokine secreted from skeletal muscles, has an important relationship with physical activity and health. However, it has been reported as a therapeutic target for metabolic diseases. The purpose of this study was to measure both acute and chronic effects of combined training on serum Irisin levels and the relationship between Irisin and anthropometric variables such as weight, body mass index (BMI) and fat percentage in overweight young men. İn 2016 in Gonbnad City, Golestan Privince, northern Iran, 20 overweight men aging 20-25 yr with BMI of 25-30 were randomly selected and equally divided into control and experimental groups. Fasting blood samples were collected three times, before the start of training, after the first session of training (acute), and 48 h after the end of the eight-week training (chronic). Combined training (endurance and strength) was done 3 times/week for eight weeks, as training in first session started at 50% of intensity and it was progressively increased 5% each week. Serum Irisin levels increased significantly when its levels were compared before training and after the completion of combined training (P£0.05). However, no significant correlation was observed between the concentration of serum Irisin levels and anthropometric characteristics of the subjects both before and after the training. Eight weeks of combined training could be an efficient exercise type in increasing serum Irisin levels in overweight men. Irisin may causes metabolic and physiological changes within the body and play a protective role against overweightness and obesity associated with inactivity.

Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spectabilis L.) is an evergreen, difficult-to-root ornamental plant with plentiful applications in green spaces. One of the effective methods in plants propagation is the use of hormonal compounds such as indole butyric acid. Despite the positive effects of these hormones on rooting process, their chemical nature causing environmental risks. Thus, the use of alternative natural compounds with favorable influence to create environmental health and living creatures is important. This experiment was conducted to examine the impact of natural carbohydrate compounds and chemical hormonal compounds on the rooting traits of bougainvillea in the research greenhouse of Gorgan Agricultural Research Center and in the Horticulture Laboratory of Department of Plant Production, Gorgan University of Agriculture Science and Natural Resources, Iran in 2015-2016. The study was based on a Completely Randomized Design with six treatments (indole butyric acid (IBA), aspirin pills, LD pills, natural honey, grape syrup, and gum Arabic), each at four rates, and a control with five replications, each one including five cuttings. The natural and chemical treatments influenced rooting traits including rooting percentage, the number of primary and secondary roots, primary root length, root fresh and dry weight, and survival rate of the cuttings significantly at the 1% level. The treatments of 4000 ppm IBA and 10% grape syrup exhibited significant differences with other studied treatments, control, and displayed the best quantity and quality of the rooting. However, 20% gum Arabic and honey, 4 pills L-1 (320 mg L-1) aspirin, and 4 pills L-1 (0.72 mg L-1) LD were related to the best rooting of the cuttings as compared to other treatments and control. Given the effectiveness of natural compounds like grape syrup on the rooting of bougainvillea cuttings, because of the natural and non-chemical nature, their cost-effectiveness, organic and friendly environmentally it is recommended to use them.

As more people live in cities and urban areas, evaluation of urban environmental quality is nowadays an unavoidable necessity. Urbanization gives off heavy metals into urban soils and threatens the human health. In this study, urban soil samples were acquired from different locations (Public parks, streets, and squares) from Borujerd, Iran. The levels of Cd and Pb in the soils, along with soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and particle size distribution (texture), were analyzed. Kriging method by Surfer software was employed to create the spatial distribution maps of Cd, Pb, and geoaccumulation index (Igeo). The average Cd and Pb concentrations in the surface soil samples were 2.50±1.14, and 50.37±34.77 mg/kg dry weight, respectively. The highest mean concentration of Cd was found in street soils and as for Pb in square soils. The interpolation maps illustrated the same behavior for Cd and Pb with elevated concentrations located in the southeast. The mean values of geoaccumulation index (Igeo) showed that soils are moderately/strongly contaminated with Cd and moderately contaminated with Pb. In this study, traffic emission, textile industries and probably released untreated municipal wastewater into the soil are anthropogenic sources of Pb and Cd.

Nowadays, groundwater resources play a vital role as a source of drinking water in arid and semiarid regions and forecasting of pollutants content in these resources is very important. Therefore, this study aimed to compare two soft computing methods for modeling Cd, Pb and Zn concentration in groundwater resources of Asadabad Plain, Western Iran. The relative accuracy of several soft computing models, namely multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function (RBF) for forecasting of heavy metals concentration have been investigated. In addition, Leven-berg-Marquardt, gradient descent and conjugate gradient training algorithms were utilized for the MLP models. The ANN models for this study were developed using MATLAB R 2014 Software program. The MLP performs better than the other models for heavy metals concentration estimation. The simulation results revealed that MLP model was able to model heavy metals concentration in groundwater resources favorably. It generally is effectively utilized in environmental applications and in the water quality estimations. In addition, out of three algorithms, Levenberg-Marquardt was better than the others were. This study proposed soft computing modeling techniques for the prediction and estimation of heavy metals concentration in groundwater resources of Asadabad Plain. Based on collected data from the plain, MLP and RBF models were developed for each heavy metal. MLP can be utilized effectively in applications of prediction of heavy metals concentration in groundwater resources of Asadabad Plain.

In this study, the essential oil obtained by hydrodistillation of the seeds of Vitex pseudo-negundo (Verbenaceae), growing wild in Sabzevar, Khorasan Razavi Province, Iran, were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The yield of total volatiles was 0.8% (w/w). Thirty-seven compounds representing 92.4% of the seed oil were identified. The main components of the oil were hexadecanoic acid (8.0%), elemol (7.0%) and a-bisabolol (6.1%). The oil was rich in sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (51.2%). The total flavonoids of different extracts of the plant were found the range 56-195 mg/g, with the maximum amount being in the methanol extract. In addition, the antioxidant activities of the extracts were measured by radical scavenging activity of antioxidants against the free radical 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). The antioxidant activities of the extracts of V. pseudo-negundo seed were higher than those of the standard synthetic antioxidants, BHT, ascorbic acid and gallic acid.

In this study, for the analysis of human urine samples, a novel method ex-plained for the determination of celecoxib, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), using molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction (MISPE) coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The synthesis of the MIP was performed by precipitation polymerization in methacrylic acid (MAA), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), chloroform, 2, 2′-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) and celecoxib as the functional monomer, cross-linker monomer, solvent, initiator and target drug, respectively. The celecoxib imprinted polymer was utilized as a specific sorbent for the solid phase extraction (SPE) of celecoxib from samples. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) performance was compared with the synthesized non-molecularly imprinted polymer (NIP). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FT-IR spectroscopy, UV-VIS spectrophotometry and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA/DTG) were used for characterizing the synthesized polymers. Moreover, the MISPE procedure parameters such as pH, eluent solvent flow rate, eluent volume and sorbent mass that probably influence the extraction process have been optimized to achieve the highest celecoxib extraction efficiency. The relative standard deviation (RSD %), recovery percent, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of this proposed method were 1.12%, 96%, 8 mg L-1 and 26.7 mg L-1, respectively. The proposed MISPE-HPLC-UV method can be used for the separation and enrichment of trace amounts of celecoxib in human urine and biological samples.

In this study, the effect of Mentha piperita essence (MPE) incorporation into cassava films on the hydrophilic and physicochemical properties of the resulting biodegradable films was investigated. The properties included solubility, moisture uptake and contact angle. MPE was added into biodegradable films at different amounts (1, 2 and 3%, w/w total solid). All biofilms were plasticized with 40 % (w/w total solid) combination of glycerol / sorbitol at 1: 3 ratio. The incorporation of MPE into cassava films decreased solubility. The moisture uptake of the edible films was found to decrease by MPE reinforcement, and hydrophilic property of biofilms was decreed by increasing MPE.