Awareness regarding the harmful effects of excessive oils and fats intake is universal. Consequently, health conscious individuals are modifying their dietary habits and eating less fat , as high fat intake specially saturated fat is associated with increased risk for obesity, high blood cholesterol, coronary heart disease, cancer, and arteriosclerosis. Although oils and fats are not only the concentrated source of energy but also the source of essential fatty acids (EFA). Taking into account the drawbacks and benefits of oils and fats, the production of Structured Lipids (SLs) containing especial fatty acids has been now a days attracting more and more attention.

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Eleven organonitrogen pesticides (EPTC, chlorpropham, alachlor, metolachlor, thiobencarb, diethofencarb, pendimethalin, flutolanil, lenacil, fenarimol and bitertanol) were added to crude soybean oil, which was refined through degumming, alkali refining, bleaching and deodorization. The amounts of residual pesticides in the treated oils were determined immediately after each process.
   DEGUMMING : Bitertanol and fenarimol were significantly decreased by H₃PO₄ treatment, but the other pesticides were not. With hot water treatment, all the pesticides remained at a level of 85% or more.
   ALKALI REFINING : About 50% of lenacil was removed by both the 125%NaOH and 200%NaOH treatments. Removal rates of the other pesticides ranged from 15 to 20% for 125%NaOH and from 20 to 30% for 200%NaOH treatments, respectively.
   BLEACHING : More than 90% of bitertanol and fenarimol were efficiently removed by both the activated clay and activated clay containing activated charcoal. On the contrary, chlorpropham, thiobencarb and pendimetharin were decreased by less than 10%.
   DEODORIZATION : About half of fenarimol and bitertanol, and more than 80% of lenacil and flutolanil remaind after treatment at 260°C while the other pesticides decreased to below quantification limits.
   We found that while each pesticide was decreased at a different rate, and each process decreased these pesticides differently, they could all ultimately be decreased through the 4 refining processes.

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A sonicated dispersion of the novel lipid A analog, E5531, was feeze-dried in the presence of various additives such as saccharides and polyalcohols, and their cryoprotective effects were investigated. Fusion of the vesicles was examined by measuring fluorescence energy transfer and size distribution. The ability as cryoprotectants differed among the addtive species. The addition of polyalcohols led to considerable fusion. Although monosaccharides, similar to disaccharides, completely prevented the fusion of the vesicles during lyophilization, they showed far less ability to retain the entrapped calcein in the vesicles compared to disaccharides. Differential scanning calorimetry heating profiles of vesicles that had been lyophilized with various additives were obtained. Disaccharides and monosaccharides again resulted in markedly different thermal properties of the vesicles. This variety in cryoprotective ability of saccharide species can be attributed to differences in their interaction with the E5531 head group.

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The phase behavior of aqueous mixed solution of cationic cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and anionic sodium octylsulfate was studied focusing on the concentration-dependent vesicle-micelle transition. Dynamic light scattering measurements and freeze fracture TEM observations showed that the phase transition occurs in two steps depending on the total surfactant concentration. Equilibrium vesicles (V) formed in dilute solution was shown to transform to micelles (M) through a micelle/ small unilamellar vesicle (M+V) coexisting state. The concentration at which the transition from V to M+V occurs on the SOS-rich side lies around the CMC of pure SOS (120 mM). Moreover, electroconductivity and FT-IR measurements revealed that the phase transition is accompanied by a decrease in the degree of counter ion dissociation from surfactant molecules. Based on these experimental findings, the cause of the phase transition was discussed.

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This study was designed to investigate the effects of a fat- and cholesterol-enriched diet on gene expression related to cholesterol metabolism in rats. Rats were fed a cholesterol-free diet with 50 g/kg corn oil or a fat- and cholesterol-enriched diet containing 5 g/kg cholesterol and 100 g/kg palm oil for 2 weeks. There were no significant differences in food intake, final body weight and liver weight among the groups. The serum total cholesterol and very low-density lipoprotein + intermediate-density lipoprotein + LDL-cholesterol concentrations in the cholesterol-free diet group were significantly lower than those in the fat- and cholesterol-enriched diet group throughout the experimental period. The serum HDL-cholesterol concentration in the fat- and cholesterol-enriched diet group was significantly lower than that in the cholesterol-free diet at week 1, but there was no significant difference between the groups at week 2. There was no significant difference in the serum triglyceride concentration between the groups throughout the experimental period. The hepatic ADD1/SREBP-1c (adipocyte determination differentiation-dependent factor 1/ sterol regulatory element binding protein), PPARγ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor), LDL receptor, scavenger receptor class B type 1, and HMG-CoA reductase mRNA levels in the fat- and cholesterol-enriched diet group were significantly lower that those in the cholesterol-free diet group. However, there were no significant differences in the hepatic fatty acid synthase and cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase mRNA levels between the groups. The results of this study demonstrate that ADD1/SREBP-1c and PPARγ are regulated by food fat in the rat liver and that the decline in nuclear ADD1/SREBP-1c and PPARγ upon feeding the fat- and cholesterol-enriched diet may in part explain the decrease in mRNAs encoding enzymes of the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway.

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When a pyridine solution of sodium enolate of diethyl acetonedicarboxylate was heated in the presence of p-nitrophenol, the dimerization readily proceeded under mild conditions to give polyfunctionalized phenol, ethyl {2,4-bis(ethoxycarbonyl)-3,5-dihydroxyphenyl}acetate, in moderate yield.

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Cationic manganese (III) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis (N-methylpyridinium-2-yl) porphyrin (MnT2MPyP) and manganese (III) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis (N-methylpyridinium-4-yl) porphyrin (MnT4MPyP) complexes were synthesized as superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimics which were introduced into niosomes so as to examine this effects on the capacity of drug delivery system (DDS) to maintain and perpetuate blood circulation. All the niosomes were prepared from polyoxyethylene solbitan monostearate (Tween 61) by the conventional sonication method. SOD activity was measured by the stopped-flow analysis and the cytochrome c method. Sodium stearate-linked MnT2MPyP was found to be the most effective catalyst along with SOD activity for decomposing O₂^-· at a second-order rate constant of 2.0×10⁷ M^-1s^-1 in Tween 61 niosomes. Rate constants of metalloporphyrin-embedded niosomes for reaction with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and half-life times in H₂O₂ were also determined. Metalloporphyrin-embedded niosomes were found to have greater half-life times compared to metalloporphyrin without niosomes. The present findings clearly indicate that metalloporphyrin-embedded niosomes are highly effective for bringing about O₂^-· decomposition and should thus find application as DDS in antioxidant drugs.

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