Nano-Enriched Self-Powered Wireless Body Area Network for Sustainable Health Monitoring Services.

Advances in nanotechnology have enabled the creation of novel materials with specific electrical and physical characteristics. This leads to a significant development in the industry of electronics that can be applied in various fields. In this paper, we propose a fabrication of nanotechnology-based materials that can be used to design stretchy piezoelectric nanofibers for energy harvesting to power connected bio-nanosensors in a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). The bio-nanosensors are powered based on harvested energy from mechanical movements of the body, specifically the arms, joints, and heartbeats. A suite of these nano-enriched bio-nanosensors can be used to form microgrids for a self-powered wireless body area network (SpWBAN), which can be used in various sustainable health monitoring services. A system model for an SpWBAN with an energy harvesting-based medium access control protocol is presented and analyzed based on fabricated nanofibers with specific characteristics. The simulation results show that the SpWBAN outperforms and has a longer lifetime than contemporary WBAN system designs without self-powering capability.

LC-MS/MS approach for simultaneous assessment of hyoscine N-butyl bromide and ketoprofen in biological fluids and pharmaceuticals.

The mixture of hyoscine N-butyl bromide (HBB) and ketoprofen (KTP) is commonly used for the handling of abdominal spasms and pain relief. There are two challenges that restrict the simultaneous assessment of HBB and KTP in biological fluids and pharmaceuticals. The first issue is the difficulty of elution of HBB and the second one is the presence of KTP as a racemic mixture in all pharmaceutical formulations, which obscures its appearance as a single peak. An ultrasensitive and highly efficient liquid chromatography-mass/mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method is designed and validated for the first concurrent assessment of HBB and KTP in spiked human serum and urine, and pharmaceutical formulations. The estimated linearity ranges for HBB and KTP were respectively, 0.5-500 and 0.05-500 ng/ml, with excellent correlation coefficients. Validation results showed that the value of relative standard deviations were <2% for HBB and KTP. The mean extraction recoveries for HBB and KTP were, respectively, 91.04 and 97.83% in Spasmofen® ampoules; 95.89 and 97.00% in spiked serum; and 97.31 and 95.63% in spiked urine. The presented innovative chromatographic approach was utilized for the measurement of trace amounts of coexisting pharmaceuticals in pharmacokinetics studies and routine therapeutic medication monitoring.

A new green approach for the reduction of consumed solvents and simultaneous quality control analysis of several pharmaceuticals using a fast and economic RP-HPLC method; a case study for a mixture of piracetam, ketoprofen and omeprazole drugs.

One of the main aims of green analytical chemistry (GAC) is the reduction of solvents and chemicals consumed. Recycling the mobile phase in chromatographic techniques provides an efficient way to implement GAC principles. However, this is not an easy job, particularly in the case of the gradient mode. Analysis of multi-pharmaceuticals for the same manufacturer using one mobile phase system dramatically reduces consumed solvents, time, and cost for pharmaceuticals analysis in quality control laboratories. This work is an attempt to reduce time, cost and effort needed for quality control analysis of several dosage forms produced by the same manufacturer. Our novel and green RP-HPLC method is able to separate and quantify a tertiary mixture of piracetam, ketoprofen and omeprazole produced by the same manufacturers. The analyst can easily quantify the three drugs in the three dosage forms in one run using the gradient elution mode of methanol and water (from 50% methanol to 85% methanol in ten minutes) with a flow rate 1.5 mL min-1 on a non-polar C18 column. Suitable dilutions were done for the working solution of the mixed pharmaceutical formulations prior to chromatographic analysis. This procedure will dramatically reduce the consumed solvents and save time and money during pharmaceutical analysis. The calibration ranges are (5-25), (5-25) and (3-20) µg mL-1 for the three studied drugs. The International Council for Harmonization (ICH) procedures were followed in the validation process and the results were evaluated in comparison with official HPLC methods, where no noteworthy differences were found. The green profile of the method and pictograms of AGREE and Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI) approaches proved the eco-friendly character for the studied drugs. The simultaneous quantitative analysis for Stimulan® and Hyposec® capsules, and Ketolgin® tablets from the Amoun Pharmaceutical Company, Egypt, can be accomplished via the novel method. Also, Memoral® ampoules, Topfam® tablets, and Gastroloc® capsules from Sigma Pharmaceutical Industries, Egypt, could be analyzed simultaneously. Omez® capsules and Ketogesic® tablets from the Pharaonia Pharmaceuticals, Egypt, could be determined simultaneously too. Applying this RP-HPLC method, a significant reduction of the total cost is assured as the required amount of solvent is noticeably decreased when performing multi-analyses in comparison to single component analysis.

Green and Cost-Effective Extraction Techniques of Quercetin from Mixture of Nutraceuticals with Yield Analysis via Spectrophotometry and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Methods.

BACKGROUND: Extraction is the leading critical stage in the analysis of nutraceuticals. Ginkgo biloba (GB) has gained interest because of its therapeutic usages. OBJECTIVES: The aim was to develop four cost-effective extraction techniques for the extraction of quercetin from GB in a sachet containing a mixture of nutraceuticals. These techniques are solid-phase extraction (SPE), liquid-liquid extraction, inverted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction, and the QuEChERS (quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe) method. METHOD: Direct spectrophotometry was used to monitor the recovery of the standard quercetin throughout the optimization steps. The HPLC-UV method of analysis was optimized to quantify the yields from the extracts present in the complicated contents of the sachets. The present study was assessed by analytical Eco-Scale assessment (ESA) and the National Environmental Method Index (NEMI) for greenness in comparison with the literature. RESULTS: SPE showed the best cleanup outcomes. ESA and NEMI showed an adequate greenness of the proposed extraction protocol. CONCLUSIONS: Quercetin (marker for GB) extraction from market nutraceutical sachets is considered an exemplar for analysis in the QC of nutraceuticals. Regarding the greenness results, the proposed method of extraction is better even with adequate greenness as the extraction was a one-step process, in comparison with multistep processes of previously published protocols. Accordingly, it is recommended for use in routine extraction and analysis of such nutraceuticals. HIGHLIGHTS: Four extraction protocols have been developed. For GB ternary-mixture sachets, proper recovery was obtained using C18 SPE. The assessment of greenness of the proposed protocol guaranteed the superiority of the presented method. Safer sorbents and chemicals are favored for use in routine extraction of nutraceuticals.

Comparative study of four greenness assessment tools for selection of greenest analytical method for assay of hyoscine N-butyl bromide.

Several assessment tools were recently introduced for the evaluation of the greenness of analytical methods. Each tool has advantages, disadvantages, and a unique assessment protocol. The final results obtained from each assessment tool may lead to a dissimilar conclusion about the selection of the greenest method, which makes the decision confusing as to which an assessment tool relies on. Accordingly, in this comparative case study, four greenness assessment tools-National Environmental Methods Index (NEMI), Eco-Scale Assessment (ESA), Green Analytical Procedure Index (GAPI), and Analytical GREEnness metric (AGREE)-were tested to evaluate 16 chromatographic methods described in the literature for the assessment of the commonly used antispasmodic drug Hyoscine N-butyl bromide (HNBB). The importance of applying more than one assessment tool when evaluating the greenness of analytical methods is explained in this study. Despite NEMI tool simplicity, it was the least effective in providing information about the analytical method as 14 out of 16 methods had the same NEMI pictogram. ESA and AGREE provided reliable numerical assessments that differed in their total scores whereas the total scores were out of 100 and 1 for each, respectively. AGREE has the merits over ESA with respect to automation and highlighting the weakest points in analytical techniques that need further improvements in terms of greenness. GAPI and AGREE provide fully descriptive three-colored pictograms. The main disadvantage of GAPI is complexity compared to NEMI and ESA. AGREE has the merits of simplicity and automation over GAPI. Based on the results, recommendations are made for ESA, GAPI, and AGREE tools, which provide reliable and precise results about the greenness of the method. Planning for the greenness of analytical methods should be assured before practical trials in a laboratory for reduction of chemical hazards released into the environment. Moreover, inclusion of the evaluation of greenness of analytical methods in method validation protocols is strongly recommended.