Application crude multienzyme extract from Aspergillus niger as a pretreatment for the extraction of essential oil from Croton argyrophyllus leaves.

Leaves of Croton argyrophyllus contain essential oil with promising active components for the development of drugs and botanical insecticides. In this study, we evaluated the enzymatic pretreatment process to increase the extraction of essential oil from fresh and dried leaves of C. argyrophyllus. Pretreatment was carried out using a crude multienzymatic extract obtained via solid-state fermentation of forage palm by Aspergillus niger, and the extraction was performed by hydrodistillation. A Doehlert matrix was used to optimize the enzymatic pretreatment variables temperature and enzymatic extract. The effect of pretreatment time was also investigated. At optimum experimental conditions, 41.34°C, 140 min, and 130.73 mL of enzyme in 369.27 mL of water, the essential oil yield from fresh leaves subjected to enzymatic pretreatment increased by 9.35% and that from dry leaves by 6.77%. Based on chromatographic analysis (GC-MS), no compound was degraded in the extraction process. Micromorphological analysis confirmed the rupture of the glandular trichomes, favoring essential oil release. Therefore, enzymatic pretreatment associated with hydrodistillation increased the essential oil yield and is a promising application to obtain essential oil for therapeutic purposes without altering its composition.

Determination and multivariate evaluation of the mineral composition of red jambo (Syzygium malaccense (L.)).

This work aimed to evaluate the mineral composition of twelve samples of red jambo (Syzygium malaccensis) collected in 10 cities in the state of Bahia. The samples were digested in a digester block with a reflux system and cold finger, and the analytes were determined by optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma. The accuracy of the method was confirmed by analyzing NIST 1570a certified reference material (spinach leaves) at a 95% confidence level. The results were evaluated through Principal Component Analysis and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, which allowed the identification of outliers in the results of the city of Jaguaquara. The analyte concentrations in the samples (mg 100 g -1) comprised a range of: Ca (3.0-28.9), Fe (0.035-0.125), K (134.8-197.5), Mg (2.7-19.8), Mn (0.012-0.131), Na (0.5-10.8), P (0.24-13.5), Sr (0.010-0.314), and Zn (0.026-0.129). This demonstrates that the fruit can be indicated as a potential nutritional supplement in human nutrition.

Homogeneity study of a corn flour laboratory reference material candidate for inorganic analysis.

In this work, a homogeneity study of a corn flour reference material candidate for inorganic analysis is presented. Seven kilograms of corn flour were used to prepare the material, which was distributed among 100 bottles. The elements Ca, K, Mg, P, Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn and Mo were quantified by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES) after acid digestion procedure. The method accuracy was confirmed by analyzing the rice flour certified reference material, NIST 1568a. All results were evaluated by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and principal component analysis (PCA). In the study, a sample mass of 400mg was established as the minimum mass required for analysis, according to the PCA. The between-bottle test was performed by analyzing 9 bottles of the material. Subsamples of a single bottle were analyzed for the within-bottle test. No significant differences were observed for the results obtained through the application of both statistical methods. This fact demonstrates that the material is homogeneous for use as a laboratory reference material.

Speciation analysis of inorganic antimony in sediment samples from São Paulo Estuary, Bahia State, Brazil.

This paper proposes an extraction procedure for the speciation analysis of inorganic antimony in sediment samples using slurry sampling and hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry. The optimization step of extraction of the species was performed employing a full two-level factorial design (2(3)) and a Box-Behnken matrix where the studied factors in both experiments were: extraction temperature, ultrasonic radiation time, and hydrochloric acid concentration. Using the optimized conditions, antimony species can be extracted in closed system using a 6.0 M hydrochloric acid solution at temperature of 70 °C and an ultrasonic radiation time of 20 min. The determination of antimony is performed in presence of 2.0 M hydrochloric acid solution using HG AAS by external calibration technique with limits of detection and quantification of 5.6 and 19.0 ng L(-1) and a precision expressed as relative standard deviation of 5.6 % for an antimony solution with concentration of 6.0 µg L(-1). The accuracy of the method was confirmed by analysis of two certified reference materials of sediments. For a sample mass of sediment of 0.20 g, the limits of detection and quantification obtained were 0.70 and 2.34 ng g(-1), respectively. During speciation analysis, antimony(III) is determined in presence of citrate, while total antimony is quantified after reduction of antimony(V) to antimony(III) using potassium iodide and ascorbic acid. The method was applied for analysis of six sediment samples collected in São Paulo Estuary (Bahia State, Brazil). The antimony contents obtained varied from 45.3 to 89.1 ng g(-1) for total antimony and of 17.7 to 31.4 ng g(-1) for antimony(III). These values are agreeing with other data reported by the literature for this element in uncontaminated sediment samples.