Maternal and developmental toxicity after exposure to formulation of chlorothalonil and thiophanate-methyl during organogenesis in rats.

Chlorothalonil and thiophanate-methyl are fungicides widely used in agriculture. The aim of this study was to assess maternal toxicity and embryotoxic potential of exposure to chlorothalonil and thiophanate-methyl during organogenesis period in rats. Pregnant rats were divided into four groups: control and exposed to 400 (CT400), 800 (CT800) and 1200 mg-1kg bw-1 day (CT1200) of commercial formulation constituted of 200 g of thiophanate-methyl kg-1 and 500 g of chlorothalonil kg-1 by gavage, from 6th to 15th gestational day. Maternal toxicity, liver, kidney and placenta histology, reproductive performance, and external, skeletal and visceral malformations of fetuses were evaluated. Maternal liver weight was decreased in CT1200 group and focal necrosis and microvesicular steatosis, inflammatory infiltrate and hepatocytes with pyknotic nucleus were observed in CT800 and CT1200 groups. Reproductive performance was similar among groups. The percentage of fetuses small for pregnancy age was increase in CT400 and CT800 groups. Moreover, incidence of skeletal anomalies was increased in the three groups exposed to fungicides. Chlorothalonil and thiophanate-methyl exposure showed affect the prenatal development and induce maternal toxicity.

Impact of extraction parameters on the recovery of lipolytic activity from fermented babassu cake.

Enzyme extraction from solid matrix is as important step in solid-state fermentation to obtain soluble enzymes for further immobilization and application in biocatalysis. A method for the recovery of a pool of lipases from Penicillium simplicissimum produced by solid-state fermentation was developed. For lipase recovery different extraction solution was used and phosphate buffer containing Tween 80 and NaCl showed the best results, yielding lipase activity of 85.7 U/g and 65.7 U/g, respectively. The parameters with great impacts on enzyme extraction detected by the Plackett-Burman analysis were studied by Central Composite Rotatable experimental designs where a quadratic model was built showing maximum predicted lipase activity (160 U/g) at 25°C, Tween 80 0.5% (w/v), pH 8.0 and extraction solution 7 mL/g, maintaining constant buffer molarity of 0.1 M and 200 rpm. After the optimization process a 2.5 fold increase in lipase activity in the crude extract was obtained, comparing the intial value (64 U/g) with the experimental design (160 U/g), thus improving the overall productivity of the process.