Traffic influences nutritional quality of roadside plants for monarch caterpillars.

Roadside habitats are increasingly being targeted for restoration and conservation. Roadside habitats often exhibit altered soil and plant chemistry due to pollution from maintenance (e.g. de-icing salt), car deterioration, and exhaust. Roadside plants may attract animals due to elevated levels of sodium or nitrogen, but high concentrations of heavy metals and sodium can be toxic, potentially setting an ecological trap. In this study, we determine how roads influence the chemistry of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) as it is the primary roadside host plant for the declining monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) in the eastern United States. Even though road salt is applied during the winter, we detect enhanced sodium along roads the following growing season. Road salts increase soil sodium, which in turn elevates host-plant foliar sodium (occasionally to toxic levels in <10% of plants) and sodium content in monarch caterpillars feeding on these plants. Sodium levels of milkweed leaves are highest close to the edge of busy roads. Some heavy metals (lead, zinc) are also elevated in roadside soils or plants. Nitrogen content was affected by adjacent agricultural use, but not traffic volume or proximity to a road. Other potential road pollutants (e.g. nickel) were not elevated in soil or plants. Despite a clear signature of road pollution in the chemistry of milkweed, most plants are likely still suitable for developing monarchs. Nonetheless, restoration investments in snowy regions should prioritize sites with lower-traffic density that are further from the road edge to minimize toxic impacts of high sodium. To extend this research to other insects of conservation concern, future work should characterize the nutritional quality of nectar, pollen, and other species of host-plants in roadside habitats.

Process Design and Optimization in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Suzuki-Miyaura Procedure for the Synthesis of Savolitinib.

A multidisciplinary approach covering synthetic, physical, and analytical chemistry, high-throughput experimentation and experimental design, process engineering, and solid-state chemistry is used to develop a large-scale (kilomole) Suzuki-Miyaura process. Working against clear criteria and targets, a full process investigation and optimization package is described highlighting how and why key decisions are made in the development of large-scale pharmaceutical processes.

Controlled production of the elusive metastable form II of acetaminophen (paracetamol): a fully scalable templating approach in a cooling environment.

A scalable, transferable, cooling crystallisation route to the elusive, metastable, form II of the API acetaminophen (paracetamol) has been developed using a multicomponent "templating" approach, delivering 100% polymorphic phase pure form II at scales up to 120 g. Favourable solubility and stability properties are found for the form II samples.