Achyranthes bidentata Blume (Amaranthaceae): a review of its botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology.

OBJECTIVES: Achyranthes bidentata Blume (A. bidentata) is a plant of Amaranthaceae family, and its root is the main medicinal part, named "Huai-Niu-Xi." It is used to expel blood stasis through menstruation, tonify liver and kidney, strengthen muscles and bones, and induce diuresis. This review aimed to provide a systematic summary of botany, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of A. bidentata. METHODS: The present review covers the literature survey. The data have been collected from various journals, books, and some of the electronic search via Internet-based information such as Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar, Google patents, CNKI, SpringerLink, online electronic journals, and ScienceDirect. KEY FINDINGS: So far, more than 270 metabolites have been isolated from A. bidentata, including terpenoids, steroids, alkaloids, flavonoids, and so on. Among them, terpenoids and steroids are the main metabolites. The extract and metabolites exert multiple pharmacological activities such as alleviating osteoarthritis effect, antiosteoporosis activity, neuroprotective effect, antidiabetic activity-associated complications, immunoregulatory activity, and so on. SUMMARY: Some traditional uses of A. bidentata need further in-depth studies to confirm. Similarly, the separation and screening of active compounds, as well as the corresponding molecular mechanisms of action of compounds, are also needed to be studied.

[Research Progress on Solidification and MICP Remediation of Soils in Heavy Metal Contaminated Site].

Heavy metal pollution in soils of smelting sites is an important environmental problem to be solved urgently. Solidification technology has become one of the mainstream technologies for heavy metal remediation in contaminated sites owing to its shorter remediation time, low cost, and high treatment efficiency. On the basis of summarizing the latest research progress on the remediation of heavy metal pollution in sites by solidification in the past 10 years, this study focused on the mechanisms of solidification technology and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of different mechanisms (mechanism of inorganic materials, mechanism of organic materials, mechanism of mechanical ball milling, and mechanism of microbial-induced carbonate mineralization (MICP)) and their scope of application. Then, according to the research focus and development trend presented by CiteSpace, the application prospects and limiting factors of MICP technology for the solidification and remediation of heavy metal pollution in sites were summarized from three aspects:the application of MICP in multi-metal remediation, the application of MICP composites in contaminated sites, and the influencing factors of MICP technology application. Finally, the prospects and challenges in solidification technology were put forward in order to provide reference for the future development.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of 9-(pyrimidin-2-yl)-9H-carbazole derivatives disrupting mitochondrial homeostasis in human lung adenocarcinoma.

Since more than 85% of lung cancer cases are non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), finding novel agents with anti-tumor activities is meaningful for NSCLC patients. Mitochondria is essential for cellular energy metabolism in cancer, and regulating mitochondrial bioenergetics is emerging as a practical approach for cancer treatment and prevention. The carbazole scaffold is an active structure showing anti-cancer biological activity, and the structural diversity has been expanded through the improvement and optimization of synthesizing methods. To find novel carbazole derivatives with great anti-tumor potential and explore structures variety, we designed and synthesized a series of 9-(pyrimidin-2-yl)-9H-carbazole derivatives based on the previously reported Cp∗Rh(III)/H+ tandem catalytic system. With thoroughly bioactivity exploration, we found benzo[d] [1,3]dioxol-5-yl(9-(pyrimidin-2-yl)-9H-carbazol-1-yl)methanone (compound 5n) showed notable activity in disrupting the mitochondrial homeostasis, induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human adenocarcinoma cells, and finally showed anti-tumor activity in an NSCLC-xenograft mice model.

Single-run electrochemical determination of melamine in dairy products and pet foods.

A simple electrochemical approach, which does not require any expensive and complex instruments, is established for the selective and quantitative recognition of melamine in diary products and pet foods. During a preconcentration step (at 1.8 V versus Ag/AgCl), the formation of a polymer film from melamine on a preanodized screen-printed carbon electrode was identified by SEM and XPS. The as-formed polymer was found to be electroactive with a reversible redox peak, and hence square-wave voltammetry was applied to further increase the detection sensitivity to meet the detection limit for application in real sample analysis. Simply with a medium exchange procedure, melamine was selectively detected with a detection limit (S/N=3) of 0.8 µM (i.e., 98.3 ppb) by square-wave voltammetry. Lower than 1 ppm of melamine in real samples can be easily detected with good recoveries of 98.7-100.9% by the proposed approach. The recovery tests established for external calibration and standard addition techniques verified that the analysis can be done in a single-run measurement.