Comparison of lovastatin, citrinin and pigment production of different Monascus purpureus strains grown on rice and millet.

Six Monascus purpureus (red mould) strains were cultivated on brown rice and millet as substrates. They underwent strain selection for high lovastatin and pigment production, and low citrinin mycotoxin production, with particular reference to potential for millet as substrate. For most of these strains, substrate dry matter loss was 54-60% on rice and 46-48% on millet, although the 'MOPU GS1' strain showed 18% and 17% dry matter loss, respectively. 'MOPU GS1' was also the only strain with detectable levels of lovastatin (1.3 and 1.6 mg lovastatin/g substrate dry weight [dw], respectively) and citrinin under the limit of detection. In the other strains, citrinin varied from 0.3 to 18.2 mg/g substrate dw. Among the six strains, 'EBY3' provided high pigment production when grown on rice, although it produced 1.1 mg citrinin/g substrate dw. Millet showed good potential as an alternative substrate to rice, due to higher lovastatin and lower citrinin production; however, rice was the better substrate for production of M. purpureus pigments.

Rapid Estimation of Tocopherol Content in Linseed and Sunflower Oils-Reactivity and Assay.

The reactivity of tocopherols with 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) was studied in model systems in order to establish a method for quantifying vitamin E in plant oils. The method was optimized with respect to solvent composition of the assay medium, which has a large influence on the course of reaction of tocopherols with DPPH. The rate of reaction of α-tocopherol with DPPH is higher than that of γ-tocopherol in both protic and aprotic solvents. In ethyl acetate, routinely applied for the analysis of antioxidant potential (AOP) of plant oils, reactions of tocopherols with DPPH are slower and concentration of tocopherols in the assay has a large influence on their molar reactivity. In 2-propanol, however, two electrons are exchanged for both α- and γ-tocopherols, independent of their concentration. 2-propanol is not toxic and is fully compatible with polypropylene labware. The chromatographically determined content of tocopherols and their molar reactivity in the DPPH assay reveal that only tocopherols contribute to the AOP of sunflower oil, whereas the contribution of tocopherols to the AOP of linseed oil is 75%. The DPPH assay in 2-propanol can be applied for rapid and cheap estimation of vitamin E content in plant oils where tocopherols are major antioxidants.

Identification of new process-related impurity in the key intermediate in the synthesis of TCV-116.

Development of safe and effective drugs requires complete impurity evaluation and, therefore, knowledge about the formation and elimination of impurities is necessary. During impurity profiling of a key intermediate during synthesis of candesartan cilexetil (1-(((cyclohexyloxy)carbonyl) oxy)ethyl 1-((2'-(2H-tetrazol-5-yl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yl) methyl)-2-ethoxy-1H-benzo[d]imidazole-7-carboxylate, TCV-116), a novel compound, which had not been reported previously, was observed. Structural elucidation of impurity was achieved by liquid chromatography hyphenated to different high resolution mass analyzers. Based on exact mass measurements and fragmentation pattern, a chloro alkyl carbonate ester analogue of the intermediate was identified. Structure of the impurity was confirmed by mass spectro-metric and NMR analyses of the target substance. Identified impurity could represent a hazard if it is transferred to the final API stage and its presence should be kept below allowed limits. Further investigation could reveal whether bis(1-chloroethyl) carbonate is a precursor to impurity formation. Therefore, synthesis should be regulated so as to minimize impurity production. Analysis of the final product indicated that the amount of impurity did not exceed 50 mg L-1, which represents the detection limit, determined according to the signal/noise ratio.

Non-Destructive Evaluation of Historical Paper Based on pH Estimation from VOC Emissions.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from materials during degradationcan be a valuable source of information. In this work, the emissions of furfural and aceticacid from cellulose were studied using solid-phase micro-extraction (SPME) incombination with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Two sampling techniques wereemployed: static headspace sampling using SPME for 1 h at 40 oC after 18-h samplepreparation at 80 oC in a closed glass vial, and contact SPME in a stack of paper (or abook). While a number of VOCs are emitted from paper under conditions of natural oraccelerated degradation, two compounds were confirmed to be of particular diagnosticvalue: acetic acid and furfural. The emissions of furfural are shown to correlate with pH ofthe cellulosic environment. Since pH is one of the most important parameters regardingdurability of this material, the developed method could be used for non-destructiveevaluation of historical paper.