Volatile profile of bee bread.

Bee bread is one of the least studied bee products. In this study, ten bee bread samples were characterized using palynology and HS-SPME-GC-MS (headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry). In total, over one hundred different volatile components were identified, belonging to different chemical groups. Only ten common components were detected in all the samples. These volatiles were ethanol, ethylene chloride, ethyl acetate, acetic acid, α-pinene, furfural, nonane, nonanal, n-hexane and isovaleric acid. Several other components were commonly shared among various bee bread samples. Over sixty detected compounds have not been previously reported in bee bread. The analysis required a mild extraction temperature of 40 °C, as higher temperatures resulted in the Maillard reaction, leading to the production of furfural. The profile of volatile compounds of the tested bee pollen samples was complex and varied. Some relationships have been shown between botanical origin and volatile organic compound profile.

Mentha piperita: Essential Oil and Extracts, Their Biological Activities, and Perspectives on the Development of New Medicinal and Cosmetic Products.

This review aims to analyze Mentha piperita L. as a potential raw material for the development of new health-promoting products (nutraceuticals, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products). A lot of scientific publications were retrieved from the Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases which enable the study and generalization of the extraction procedures, key biologically active compounds of essential oil and extracts, biological properties, and therapeutic potential of M. piperita, along with perspectives on the development of its dosage forms, including combinations of synthetic active substances and herbal preparations of M. piperita. The results of this review indicate that M. piperita is a source rich in phytoconstituents of different chemical nature and can be regarded as a source of active substances to enhance health and to develop medicinal products for complementary therapy of various conditions, especially those related with oxidant stress, inflammation, and moderate infections. Essential oil has a broad spectrum of activities. Depending on the test and concentration, this essential oil has both anti- and prooxidant properties. Gram-positive bacteria are more sensitive to the essential oil of M. piperita than Gram-negative ones. This review also considered some facets of the standardization of essential oil and extracts of M. piperita. Among the identified phenolics of extracts were caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid, eriocitrin, luteolin derivates (luteolin-7-O-rutinoside, luteolin-7-O-glucoronide), and hesperidin. The concentration of these phenolics depends on the solvent used. This review also considered the relationships between the chemical component and biological activity. The results showed that the essential oil and extracts reduced inflammation in vitro by inhibiting the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), and in vivo by reducing the paw edema induced using carrageenan injection in rats. Therefore, herbal preparations of M. piperita are promising medicinal and cosmetic preparations for their usage in skincare and oral cavity care products with antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing properties. This plant can also be regarded as a platform for the development of antibacterial preparations and combined anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective medicinal products (synthetic active substances plus herbal preparations). This review could be considered for the justification of the composition of some medicinal products during their pharmaceutical development for writing a registration dossier in the format of Common Technical Document.

Comparative Evaluation of the Essential Oil of the New Ukrainian Lavandula angustifolia and Lavandula x intermedia Cultivars Grown on the Same Plots.

New cultivars of lavender adapted to arid steppe conditions were developed by the Institute of Rice of Ukrainian National Academy of Agrarian Sciences (NAAS). This work is a part of the characterization process of the new cultivars. The chemical composition of the essential oil of the seven new Lavandula angustifolia and eight new Lavandula x intermedia cultivars was investigated and compared. In total, 71 different compounds were identified. Linalool and linalool acetate were the main components in both species in ranges of 26.14-57.07% and 9.08-24.45%, respectively. They were followed by terpinen-4-ol (2.16-22.44%), lavandulyl acetate (2.12-10.23%), and lavandulol (1.30-3.14) in the case of L. angustifolia and camphor (10.11-12.55%), borneol (5.49-8.71%), and eucalyptol (0.47-7.41%) in the case of L. x intermedia. The oils had a valuable terpene profile-a high linalool content and the substantial presence of lavandulol and its ester. Nevertheless, they did not comply with the industry standards, mostly due to high levels of terpinene-4-ol. Evidently, a high content of terpinen-4-ol is a characteristic feature of L. angustifolia oils bred in Ukraine. Additionally, the LA3 cultivar yielded an oil with some of the highest linalool contents reported in the literature. Statistical analysis and literature data allowed for the comparative analysis of the gathered data. MANOVA, PCA, and HCA marked caryophyllene oxide as another potential differentiating compound between studied species.

Chemical Variability and Pharmacological Potential of Propolis as a Source for the Development of New Pharmaceutical Products.

This review aims to analyze propolis as a potential raw material for the development and manufacture of new health-promoting products. Many scientific publications were retrieved from the Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases via searching the word "propolis". The different extraction procedures, key biologically active compounds, biological properties, and therapeutic potential of propolis were analyzed. It was concluded that propolis possesses a variety of biological properties because of a very complex chemical composition that mainly depends on the plant species visited by bees and species of bees. Numerous studies found versatile pharmacological activities of propolis: antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, etc. In this review, the composition and biological activities of propolis are presented from a point of view of the origin and standardization of propolis for the purpose of the development of new pharmaceutical products on its base. It was revealed that some types of propolis, especially European propolis, contain flavonoids and phenolic acids, which could be markers for the standardization and quality evaluation of propolis and its preparations. One more focus of this paper was the overview of microorganisms' sensitivity to propolis for further development of antimicrobial and antioxidant products for the treatment of various infectious diseases with an emphasis on the illnesses of the oral cavity. It was established that the antimicrobial activity of different types of propolis is quite significant, especially to Gram-negative bacteria and lipophilic viruses. The present study could be also of interest to the pharmaceutical industry as a review for the appropriate design of standardized propolis preparations such as mouthwashes, toothpastes, oral drops, sprays, creams, ointments, suppositories, tablets, and capsules, etc. Moreover, propolis could be regarded as a source for the isolation of biologically active substances. Furthermore, this review can facilitate partially overcoming the problem of the standardization of propolis preparations, which is a principal obstacle to the broader use of propolis in the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, this study could be of interest in the area of the food industry for the development of nutritionally well-balanced products. The results of this review indicate that propolis deserves to be better studied for its promising therapeutic effects from the point of view of the connection of its chemical composition with the locality of its collection, vegetation, appropriate extraction methods, and standardization.

Phytochemical and Pharmacological Evaluation of the Residue By-Product Developed from the Ocimum americanum (Lamiaceae) Postdistillation Waste.

The yield of essential oils in plants is not high and postdistillation wastes rich in phenolic compounds could be used to enhance the profitability of essential oil-bearing plants. The aim of the study was to evaluate polyphenols in a dry extract obtained from the postdistillation waste of the American basil (Ocimum americanum L.) herb, and to conduct the screening of its pharmacological activities. Rosmarinic acid, caffeic acid and rutin were identified in the extract using high-performance thin-layer chromatography. The high-performance liquid chromatography analysis found the presence of a plethora of polyphenols in the extract. Rosmarinic acid, luteolin-7-O-glucoside and rutin were as the main compounds. The total phenolic content in the extract was 106.31 mg GAE/g and free radical scavenging activity against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl evaluated as IC50 was 0.298 mg/mL. The tested extract dose-dependently decreased the paw edema in rats, suggesting its potent anti-inflammatory property. The acute toxicity study indicates its safety. Thus, the O. americanum hydrodistilled residue by-product is the promising source of biologically active compounds with significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

Phytochemical Evaluation of Tinctures and Essential Oil Obtained from Satureja montana Herb.

Winter Savory (Satureja montana L.) has been used in traditional medicine and as a spice or natural food preservative in the Mediterranean region for centuries. In this paper, some technological and analytical aspects of the S. montana tinctures development and an evaluation of the essential oil composition are provided. The total phenolic and flavonoid contents and phenolic compounds profile analyzed spectrophotometrically and by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC), respectively, were evaluated in the developed tinctures. The results showed that the tinctures prepared from the S. montana herb by maceration or remaceration are rich in polyphenols, and there is an influence of the technological factors (particle size and extraction mode) on the total phenolic and flavonoid contents. Caffeic, rosmarinic, and chlorogenic acids, (-)-catechin and rutin were identified in the tinctures using the HPTLC method. p-Thymol (81.79%) revealed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was the predominant compound of the essential oil of this plant. Thus, the high contents of polyphenols and flavonoids in the developed tinctures and p-thymol among the volatile components of the S. montana essential oil could indicate the promising antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of these herbal preparations. The obtained results are a ground for the organization of the manufacture of the S. montana tincture and essential oil with the purpose of performing preclinical studies.

The preparation and evaluation of core-shell magnetic dummy-template molecularly imprinted polymers for preliminary recognition of the low-mass polybrominated diphenyl ethers from aqueous solutions.

The design, preparation process, binding abilities, morphological characteristic and prospective field of application of dummy-template magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (DMMIP) for preliminary recognition of the selected low-mass polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE-47 and PBDE-99) from aquatic environment were investigated. The surface of iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanopowder (50-100 nm particles size) was modified with tetraethoxysilane and next prepared Fe3O4@SiO2 particles were dispersed in anhydrous toluene functionalized by (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane. Finally, MIPs' thin film layer on the surface of Fe3O4@SiO2@NH2 was formed in acetonitrile as a solvent solution, using ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linker, building monomer, 1,1'-Azobis(cyclohexanecarbonitrile) as the radical initiator, methacrylic acid as a functional monomer and 4,4'-Dihydroxydiphenyl ether as the dummy template molecule as a structural analogue of low-mass PBDEs. To characterize the chemical structure of prepared DMMIPs, the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis was performed. The specific surface area of the developed sorbent was estimated using Brauner-Emmet-Teller nitrogen adsorption/desorption analysis. To assess the average pore sizes, pore diameters and pore volumes of the prepared sorbent, the Barret-Joyner-Halenda technique was applied. The average values of imprinting factor for PBDE-47 and PBDE-99 were 11.3 ±â€¯1.6 and 13.7 ±â€¯1.2, respectively. The average value of recovery of PBDE-47 and PBDE-99 for developed DMMIPs from modelling water: methanol solution were 85.4 ±â€¯6.7% and 86.4 ±â€¯9.4%, respectively. In a case of spiked distilled water, tap water as well as local river water the calculated recovery values ranged from 65%% up to 82% and from 33% up to 76% for PBDE-47 and PBDE-99, respectively. Following the preliminary research on selected water samples, the proposed combination of imprinting technology and core-shell materials with magnetic properties might be considered as a promising sorption tool used for targeted recognition of low-mass PBDEs in aquatic solutions.

Preparation and characterization of dummy-template molecularly imprinted polymers as potential sorbents for the recognition of selected polybrominated diphenyl ethers.

The main aim of this work was to conduct the preliminary/basic research concerning the preparation process of a new dummy molecularly imprinted polymer (DMIP) materials. Developed DMIPs were proposed as a sorption material in solid-phase extraction (SPE) technique for recognition of selected low mass polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) - PBDE-47 and PBDE-99. Four new DMIPs were synthesized employing bulky polymerization technique by application of structural analogue of low mass PBDEs - 4,4'-Dihydroxydiphenyl ether, as a dummy template. The DMIPs and corresponding non-imprinted polymers were prepared using different functional monomers: methacrylic acid; methyl methacrylate and different porogen agents: acetonitrile and tetrahydrofuran. The polymerization reaction was thermally initiated with 1,1'-azobis (cyclohexanecarbonitryle). Ethylene glycol dimethacrylate was applied as a cross-linker. To optimize geometries and to calculate energies of the respective template-monomer complexes, the computational molecular modeling method was employed. The particles morphology and physicochemical characteristics of developed DMIPs and their equivalent NIPs were performed using nitrogen sorption porosimetry, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The sorption capacities of prepared DMIPs and corresponding NIPs were studied using standard binding test. The adsorption capability studies give a possibility to assess the imprinting factor (IF) values, which were in the range from 1.1 to 4.0, depending on the DMIP type. The recovery values of PBDE-47 and PBDE-99 from prepared organic solutions were in the range from 43 to 92%, depending on the studied DMIP. Performed basic laboratory studies give a possibility to select the optimal DMIP material which might be applied in the environmental samples preparation process as a potential sorbent for the recognition of low mass PBDEs.