Biochar derived from tobacco waste significantly reduces the accumulations of cadmium and copper in edible parts of two vegetables: an in-situ field study.

Biochar, as a soil amendment, can be applied to remediate heavy metal (HM) contaminated farmland. However, there is little research on the effect of tobacco biochar (TB) derived from tobacco waste on HM controlling in edible parts of vegetables. In this study, the impact of two TB levels on the plant growth, copper (Cu) and cadmium (Cd) accumulation in the edible parts of lettuce and chrysanthemum, and on Cu and Cd bioavailability of rhizosphere soil was investigated through in-situ field experiments. The results showed that TB has rich oxygen containing functional groups, high porosity, high nitrogen adsorption capacity. The addition of 5 t ha-1 and 10 t ha-1 TB significantly increased the shoot biomass of chrysanthemum, but had no effect on the growth of lettuce. Two levels of TB significantly increased the pH value, but decreased the available Cu and Cd concentrations of rhizosphere soil, thereby reducing the Cu and Cd accumulations in the edible parts of lettuce and chrysanthemum. The findings provided effective evidences that TB derived from tobacco waste is an efficient strategy for controlling Cu and Cd accumulation in the edible parts of vegetables to ensure agri-product safety production in HM-polluted farmland.

Beneficial effects of arbuscular mycorrhizae on Cu detoxification in Mimosa pudica L. grown in Cu-polluted soils.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are known to have beneficial effects on host plants growing on contaminated soils. The present study aimed at investigating the influence of two different AM fungi (Rhizophagus intraradices and Funneliformis mosseae) on the growth of plants and Cu uptake by Mimosa pudica L. grown in polluted soils containing various levels of Cu (Control, 400, 500, or 600 mg kg-l soil) in pot experiments. Mycorrhizal colonisation rates by the two AM fungi decreased markedly with the increasing Cu levels in soils. This inhibition was more pronounced to F. mosseae than R. intraradices, indicating that R. intraradices was more tolerant to Cu than F. mosseae. Compared with non-mycorrhizal plants, R. intraradices inoculation increased plant growth (including shoot height, numbers of compound leaves and leaflets, and dry biomass) and P concentrations in the shoots and roots of M. pudica at all levels of Cu. Meanwhile, F. mosseae displayed a capability of growth promotion to M. pudica much later and lower than R. intraradices. F. mosseae and R. intraradices markedly decreased Cu concentration in shoots at 400-600 mg kg-1 Cu levels. However, R. intraradices was more efficient than F. mosseae in decreasing the shoot Cu concentrations. As for the increasing Cu tolerance by R. intraradices, possibly it was reached though the improvement of phosphorus nutrition and the decline of Cu transport from roots to shoots of M. pudica. R. intraradices showed a good potential for improving medicinal plants growth and declining toxic effects in Cu-contaminated soils.

Crude oil price uncertainty and corporate carbon emissions.

Low-carbon transformation has become a key priority in China, as demonstrated in the implementation of the Carbon Peak, Carbon Neutralization policy, leading to increasing concern of environmental performance at the corporate level. This paper measures the carbon emission of 1,089 Chinese companies through the EIO-LCA-based approach. Then we examine the impacts of international crude oil price fluctuations and the corporate development level on carbon emissions of individual companies. Our results indicate that an increase in international crude oil price uncertainty could inhibit the company's carbon emission. In parallel, we find that there might exist an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) inverted U-shaped correlation between the company's development level and its environmental performance. However, some exceptions to corporate carbon performance may emerge, resulting from specific corporate characteristics such as the state-owned nature and whether the firm is listed on the stock exchange. Our results could help companies optimize their internal carbon emission structure during the low-carbon transition process and contribute to effective policy regulations towards the target of carbon reduction.

Serum and urine metabolomics based on UPLC-Q-TOF/MS reveals the antipyretic mechanism of Reduning injection in a rat model.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Reduning injection (RDN), a patented traditional Chinese medicine, has the obvious antipyretic effect and has been widely used in China. Although some previous studies proved its antipyretic effect by animal efficacy experiment or clinical observation, its holistic mechanism in vivo was still unclear. AIM OF THE STUDY: To comprehensively elucidate the antipyretic mechanism of RDN, the investigation of fever-related potential biomarkers and metabolic pathways in the rat fever model is described in this paper. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Rat fever model was established by dry yeast. A large number of endogenous metabolites in serum and urine were detected by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS, and fever-related potential biomarkers were screened and identified by multivariate analysis and metabolite databases. The reliability and biological significance of the largely disturbed biomarkers was verified by the metabolic network and the correlation with pharmacodynamic indicators, which contained IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF-α, PGE2 and cAMP. RESULTS: The established UPLC-Q-TOF/MS analytical method afforded satisfactory results in terms of precision, repeatability and stability, which met the requirements of biological sample determination. A total of 32 potential biomarkers associated with fever were screened and identified, among which 22 species could be adjusted by RDN. The metabolism pathway analysis revealed that valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, and sphingolipid metabolism were greatly disturbed. Their biomarkers involved L-leucine, L-valine, sphinganine and phytosphingosine, all of which showed a callback trend after RDN was given. These 4 biomarkers had a certain correlation with some known fever-related small molecules and pharmacodynamic indicators, which indicated that the selected fever-related biomarkers had certain reliability and biological significance. CONCLUSIONS: RDN has a good regulation of the metabolic disorder of endogenous components in dry yeast-induced fever rats. Its antipyretic mechanism is mainly related to the regulation of amino acid, lipid and energy metabolism. The study is useful to better understand and analyze the pharmacodynamic mechanism of complex systems, such as traditional Chinese medicine.

Cellular pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics mechanisms of ginkgo diterpene lactone and its modulation of P-glycoprotein expression in human SH-SY5Y cells.

Ginkgo diterpene lactone (GDL) is the raw material for ginkgo diterpene lactone meglumine injection, which is used for treating cerebral ischemia. The aims of this study were to explore the cellular pharmacokinetics of GDL in whole cells and subcellular fractions, and detect cellular pharmacodynamics on the human SH-SY5Y cells induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation and reoxygenation (OGD/R). Firstly, a simple, sensitive and reliable liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated for assessing the amount of ginkgolide A (GA), B (GB) and K (GK) in cellular/subcellular samples. Then, phosphatidylserine and mitochondria membrane potential were assayed to evaluate the extent of apoptosis effect. The study showed that the cellular/subcellular accumulation of GA and GB were increased in a concentration-dependent manner; the levels of GA and GB in cytosol were the highest among these subcellular organelles. Meanwhile, GDL also attenuated the OGD/R-induced increases in the percentage of apoptotic and mitochondria membrane potential. In addition, verapamil increased the rate and amount of GA and GB entering cellular/subcellular compartments through inhibition of P-glycoprotein activity, and promoted the protective effect of GDL. The present study reports the cellular pharmacokinetics profiles of GA and GB in normal and OGD/R-induced SH-SY5Y cells in vitro for the first time, which provided valuable information for clinical safety application.