Effects of secondary cross-linking on the physicochemical properties of sodium alginate-hydrogel and in vitro release of anthocyanins.

To enhance the physicochemical properties and extend the release duration of sodium alginate (SA) hydrogels, this study explored the impact of acidifier type and the number of cross-linking on the physicochemical characteristics and in vitro anthocyanin release from SA hydrogels, utilizing calcium carbonate as the cross-linking agent. The findings revealed that the utilization of gluconolactone (GDL) as an acidifying agent in the preparation of SA hydrogels, as opposed to hydrochloric acid, resulted in a deceleration of the hydrolysis process of calcium carbonate. This deceleration led to the strengthening of hydrogen-bonding interactions and the development of a more compact network structure within the SA hydrogels. Consequently, there was a noticeable enhancement in the hardness, relaxation time, and anthocyanin encapsulation efficiency of the gels. Additionally, the release of anthocyanins in simulated intestinal fluid was delayed. Secondary cross-linking was found to facilitate ionic interactions between SA and Ca2+, further intensifying the denseness of the network structure and enhancing the physicochemical characteristics of the SA hydrogels. Overall, SA hydrogels processed with GDL as the acidifier and subjected to secondary cross-linking exhibited improved physicochemical properties, delayed release effects, and proved to be an efficient system for the delayed release of anthocyanins.

[Effect of heavy metals exposure on neurobehavioral function in welders].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between heavy metals exposure and neurobehavioral function impairment in welders. METHODS: The metals exposure in 82 welders and 51 operators were investigated with blood Pb, Cd and Mn via AAS, and the nervous impairment was evaluated with neurobehavioral core test battery (NCTB). RESULTS: Pb [(115.49 +/- 79.22) microg/L] and Cd [(3.67 +/- 3.19) microg/L] in welders were significantly higher than operators [(69.32 +/- 50.79) and (0.83 +/- 0.76) microg/L respectively] (P < 0.05). Welders had worse standard scores of NCTB 13 items such as depression-dejection than non-welders (P < 0.05). Significant difference of confusion-bewilderment and forward digit span in welders only existed in different groups of Pb and Mn, respectively. A dose-effect relationship was found between forward digit span and serum Mn level in welders. General linear regression analysis indicated that Pb exposure, Mn exposure and alcohol consume had negative relation with the loss of nervous system function. CONCLUSION: The nervous impairment in welders is attributed to occupational exposure to Pb and Mn, concomitantly.

[Determination of trace lead in traditional Chinese herbal medicine Astragalus by microwave digestion-CTAB enhancing-continual flow ingection hydride generation-ICP-AES].

A new method using microwave digestion technique was developed for the determination of lead in Astragalus by CTAB enhancing-continual flow hydride generation-inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (HG-ICP-AES). The experimental conditions of microwave digestion and hydride generation were optimized. This method shows a linear range of 0.23-800 microg x L(-1) and the correlation coefficient is 0.999 9. It is satisfactory to apply the microwave digestion procedure to the determination of Pb under the optimized conditions. The detection limit of the method is 0.23 microg x L(-1) and the RSD is 1.02%. The recovery obtained is 98.8%-100.1%. The results show that this method is rapid and simple with low environmental contamination and complete digestion of samples.

Isolation and quantitation of amygdalin in Apricot-kernel and Prunus Tomentosa Thunb. by HPLC with solid-phase extraction.

Apricot-kernel and Prunus Tomentosa Thunb. are traditional Chinese herb medicines that contain amygdalin as their major effective ingredient. In this report, three methods for the extraction of amygdalin from the medicinal materials are compared: ultrasonic extraction by methanol, Soxhlet extraction by methanol, and reflux extraction by water. The results show that reflux extraction water containing 0.1% citric acid is the best option. The optimal reflux is 2.5 h and water bath temperature is 60 degrees C. The solid-phase extraction method using C18 and multiwalled carbon nanotube as adsorbents is established the pretreatment of reflux extract, and the result shows that the two adsorbents have greater adsorptive capacity for amygdalin and good separation effect. In order to quantitate amygdalin in Apricot-kernel and Prunus Tomentosa Thunb., a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method using methanol-water (15:85, for 30 min and pure methanol after 30 min) as mobile phase is developed and a good result is obtained.

Phenolic acids analysis in ligusticum chuanxiong using HPLC.

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method with diode array UV detection is developed for the determination of five kinds of phenolic acids common in herbal medicines. Based on this method, ferulic acid and caffeic acid are found to be two main phenolic acids in Chuanxiong (one of the important crude drugs in traditional Chinese medicine). More important, ferulic acid is found to exist in free form, and caffeic acid--a previously unreported component--is found to exist in esterified or insoluble-bound form.

Dynamic coating ion-exchange chromatography of cations on an octadecyl-bonded silica stationary phase.

It was found that common cations (Na+, NH4+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+) could be strongly retained on an ODS stationary phase when aqueous solutions of carboxylic acids were used as eluents. The chromatographic conditions used in this work were the same as in common cation-exchange chromatography on a cation-exchange resin and the retention behavior of the above-mentioned cations on the ODS column was quite similar to that on a cation-exchange column. The retention behavior and mechanism have been investigated using a number of carboxylic acids as eluents. The retention mechanism of the cations in these experiments was considered to be a dynamic coating ion-exchange mechanism. The carboxylic acids in the mobile phase were coated onto the surface of the ODS stationary phase and formed a dynamic carboxylic acid functional layer which could act like the functional group layer of a carboxylic group cation exchanger.

Vacancy ion-exclusion chromatography of carboxylic acids on a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin.

In this preliminary study, a new approach to ion-exclusion chromatography is proposed to overcome the relatively poor conductivity detection response which occurs in ion-exclusion chromatography when acids are added to the eluent in order to improve peak shape. This approach, termed vacancy ion-exclusion chromatography, requires the sample to be used as eluent and a sample of water to be injected onto a weakly acidic cation-exchange column (TSKgel OApak-A). Vacancy peaks for each of the analytes appear at the retention times of these analytes. Highly sensitive conductivity detection is possible and sharp, well-shaped peaks are produced, leading to efficient separations. Retention times were found to be affected by the concentration of the analytes in the eluent, and also by the presence of an organic modifier such as methanol in the eluent. Detection limits for oxalic, formic, acetic, propionic, butyric and valeric acids were 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 microM, respectively, and linear ranges for some acids extended over two orders of magnitude. Precision values for retention times were 0.21% and for peak areas were <1.90%. The vacancy ion-exclusion chromatography method was found to give detection responses four to 10 times higher than conventional ion-exclusion chromatography using sulfuric acid eluent and two to five times higher than conventional ion-exclusion chromatography using benzoic acid eluent.

Vacancy ion-exclusion/adsorption chromatography of aliphatic amines on a polymethacrylate-based weakly basic anion-exchange column.

Vacancy ion-exclusion/adsorption chromatography has been applied to investigate the separation behavior of five aliphatic amines (ethylamine, propylamine, butylamine, pentylamine and hexylamine) on a polymethacrylate-based weakly basic anion-exchange column (Tosoh TSKgel DEAE-5PW). This system is consisted of analytes as a mobile phase and water as an injected sample. In the vacancy ion-exclusion/adsorption chromatography, the elution order was as follows: ethylamine < propylamine < butylamine < pentylamine < hexylamine, depending on their hydrophobicity. The retention times of the amines were decreased with decreasing their concentrations in the mobile phase. The retention times and resolutions of the amines were increased by adding a basic compound (e.g., lithium hydroxide or heptylamine) and by increasing the pH of mobile phase (pH > 11). This was because the dissociations of amine samples in the mobile phase were suppressed and thus the hydrophobic adsorption effects were enhanced. The linearity of calibration graphs could be obtained from the peak areas of the amine samples injected to the 0.05, 0.5 and 5 mM of amine mobile phase at pH 11 by heptylamine. The detection limits of aliphatic amines as injected samples were around 1 microM for five aliphatic amines at three different amine mobile phases. From these results, the retention behaviors of aliphatic amines on vacancy ion-exclusion/adsorption chromatography were concluded to be governed by the hydrophobic adsorption effect.

Vacancy ion-exclusion chromatography of haloacetic acids on a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin.

A new and simple approach is described for the determination of the haloacetic acids (such as mono-, di- and trichloroacetic acids) usually found in drinking water as chlorination by-products after disinfection processes and acetic acid. The new approach, termed vacancy ion-exclusion chromatography, is based on an ion-exclusion mechanism but using the sample solution as the mobile phase, pure water as the injected sample, and a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin column (TSKgel OApak-A) as the stationary phase. The addition of sulfuric acid to the mobile phase results in highly sensitive conductivity detection with sharp and well-shaped peaks, leading to excellent and efficient separations. The elution order was sulfuric acid, dichloroacetic acid, monochloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid, and acetic acid. The separation of these acids depends on their pKa values. Acids with lower pKa values were eluted earlier than those with higher pKa, except for trichloroacetic acid due to a hydrophobic-adsorption effect occurring as a side-effect of vacancy ion-exclusion chromatography. The detection limits of these acids in the present study with conductivity detection were 3.4 microM for monochloroacetic acid, 0.86 microM for dichloroacetic acid and 0.15 microM for trichloroacetic acid.

Vacancy ion-exclusion chromatography of aromatic carboxylic acids on a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin.

Determination of aromatic carboxylic acids by conventional ion-exclusion chromatography is relatively difficult and methods generally rely on hydrophobic interaction between the solute and the resin. To overcome the difficulties in determining aromatic carboxylic acids a new approach is presented, termed vacancy ion-exclusion chromatography, which is based on use of the sample as mobile phase and an injection of aqueous 10% methanol onto a weakly acidic cation-exchange column (TSKgel OApak-A). Highly sensitive conductivity detection occurred with sharp and well-shaped peaks, leading to very efficient separations. The effects of sulfuric acid concentration added to the mobile phase, flow-rate, and column temperature on the retention volume of tested aromatic carboxylic acids was investigated. Retention times were found to be affected by the concentration of the analytes in the mobile phase and to some extent also by the addition of an organic modifier such as methanol to the injected water sample. Separation of sulfuric acid (SA), naphthalenetetracarboxylic acid (NTCA), phthalic acid (PA) and benzoic acid (BA) was satisfactory using this new approach. Detection limits were 0.66, 0.67, 0.42 and 0.86 microM and detector responses were linear in the range 1-100, 1-80, 2.5-100 and 10-40 microM, for SA, NTCA, PA and BA, respectively. Precision for retention times was 0.36% and for peak areas was 1.5%.

Separation and identification of the phthalic anhydride derivatives of Liqusticum Chuanxiong Hort by GC-MS, TLC, HPLC-DAD, and HPLC-MS.

A simple, sensitive, and rapid method using gas chromatography (GC)-mass spectrometry (MS) is developed for the simultaneous separation and identification of the active ingredients of Liqusticum Chuanxiong Hort (Chuanxiong). Ten phthalic anhydride derivatives (PADs) are identified in Chuanxiong as 3-butylphthalide, 3-butylidenephthalide, 3-butylidene-4-hydroxyphthalide, senkyunolide A, neocnidilide, Z-ligustilide, E-ligustilide, senkyunolide F, senkyunolide-H, and senkyunolide-I. The existence of ferulic acid and vanillin in Chuanxiong extract is also demonstrated. Further identification of these compounds is performed by thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and HPLC-MS analysis. This is the first report of the separation and determination of the PADs in Chuanxiong by GC-MS.

Synthesis of highly dispersed mesostructured cellular foam silica sphere and its application in high-performance liquid chromatography.

Highly dispersed mesostructured cellular foam silica spheres of relatively uniform micrometer size (3.5-4.5 µm) were successfully prepared using a triblock copolymer EO(20)PO(70)EO(20) as the structure-directing agent accompanied by TMB and K(2)SO(4). Both two additives have effective influence and K(2)SO(4) have better performance than other inorganic salts such as KCl and NaCl. The pore size and surface area were tuned by TMB and NH(4)F. The resultant S-MCFs were modified with C(18) group before being used as the HPLC stationary phase for effective separation of aromatic compounds and phthalic acid esters. The perfect spherical morphology and large pore volume gave rise to low and stable back pressure. High surface area, ultralarge pore size and unique pore structure would permit high flow rates and afford the possibility for fast separation.

[Simultaneous analysis of aspartic acid and sorbitol in potassium magnesium aspartate and sorbitol injection by ion-exclusion chromatography with evaporative light-scattering detection].

An ion-exclusion chromatographic (IEC) method with evaporative light-scattering detector (ELSD) was established for the simultaneous analysis of the aspartic acid and sorbitol in Potassium Magnesium Aspartate and Sorbitol Injection. This procedure eliminates the need for complex derivatization schemes since ELSD can detect aspartic acid and sorbitol directly. An ion exclusion column (TSKgel OApak-A column, 7.8 mm i.d. x 300 mm, 5 microns, Tosho, Japan) was used for separation. The mobile phase was a mixture of aqueous solution (containing 0.1% (volume fraction) trifluoroacetic acid)-methanol (9:1, volume ratio). Under the above conditions aspartic acid and sorbitol were separated to baseline in 12 min. Regression equations revealed linear relationship (correlation coefficient: 0.999) between the concentrations of the analytes injected and the peak areas of the analytes detected by ELSD. The detection limits of ELSD (S/N = 3) were about 30 mg/L and 20 mg/L for aspartic acid and sorbitol, respectively.