Surfactants form a group of chemicals with considerable environmental importance due to their high volume consumption and widespread use as essential ingredients in most laundry and cleaning products. Since the major part of the biosphere is aerobic, so it is necessary that the surfactant must be biodegradable. Therefore, it is desirable to design new softener molecules, which will both perform in the washing machine or dryer and biodegrade better than current softeners once released to the waste streams. The present paper reviews the synthesis, properties and applications of biodegradable ester-amide fabric softeners.

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Thin liquid films containing octyl p-methoxycinnamate (OPMC) and octylsilyl titanium dioxide particle having average diameter of 35 nm (OSI-TIO2-35) were prepared on glass plates. The content of OSI-TIO2-35 to OPMC was varied from 8:2 to 2:8 and the film thickness was from 0.050 to 0.200 mg/cm². The liquid films underwent dewetting when immersed into water at 35°C for 10 min to form long cylindrical ridged patterns or droplet patterns. The dewetting patterns were confirmed to be spatially periodic by two-dimensional fast Fourier transform indicating that the first stage of the dewetting was spinodal dewetting, i.e., formation of holes by amplification of surface fluctuation followed by growth and coalescence of holes. Both thickness and content of the films influenced on the dewetting pattern formation. Dewetting occurred more easily as decreasing the film thickness. Droplet patterns tended to be formed as increasing the content of OPMC. Characteristic length of the dewetting patterns decreased as increasing the content of OSI-TIO2-35 and decreasing the film thickness. Wave vector of fluctuation having the highest growth rate is influenced by film thickness and interfacial tension. Interfacial tension and viscosity of the liquid film are easily adjusted by changing the ratio of OPMC to OSI-TIO2-35. Spatial periodicities of dewetting structures of the oleo-liquid films are thus easily controlled.

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Male SHR/NDmc-cp rats aged 10 weeks were fed ad libitum a powdered diet (AIN93G; no fat) containing 7 wt% of fresh virgin soybean oil (control) or used frying oil recovered from Japanese food manufacturing companies (recovered oil) for 8 weeks and subjected to anthropometric measurements, hematological analyses, and histological evaluations of liver and kidneys. All of the rats grew well, and no gross symptoms attributable to recovered oil were observed. The experimental group showed a tendency toward higher body weight gain and higher amounts of fecal excretion than the control group in spite of decreased consumption of the diet. In the serum of the experimental group, remarkably high levels of glucose, triacylglycerol, and free fatty acids were detected. Microscopic observations indicated frequent lesions in renal cells and nuclear losses of tubular epithelium in the experimental group. Thus, the high body weight gain seems to be due to water accumulation in the body. It is not clear, however, why recovered oil increased serum glucose level. No consistent effects on blood pressure or heart rate were observed.

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Male Wistar rats aged 10 weeks were fed ad libitum a powdered diet (AIN93G; no fat) containing 7 wt% of fresh virgin soybean oil (control) or used frying oil recovered from Japanese food manufacturing companies (recovered oil) for 8 weeks and subjected to anthropometric measurements, hematological analyses, and histological evaluations of liver and kidneys. Mild feeding conditions were chosen to mimic the human situation, and Wistar rats were chosen as a healthy model. All the rats grew well, and no gross symptoms attributable to recovered oil were observed. The experimental group did not show any differences in food intake, body weight gain, and weights of liver, kidney and adipose tissue when compared to the control group. In the serum of the experimental group, a remarkably high level of phospholipids was detected, along with increased glucose, triacylglycerol, and cholesterol levels. Microscopic observations indicated frequent lesions in renal cells and nuclear losses of tubular epithelium in the experimental group. No consistent effects on blood pressure or heart rate were observed. It was suggested that ingestion of the recovered oil altered blood composition and damaged kidneys, resulting in promotion of lifestyle-related diseases.

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The effects of concentrations of methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) on the gelation characteristics and the shrinkage properties of solventless polyester varnishes were studied. Activation energies for gelation at different concentrations (0.75, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 5.0 phr) of MEKP were 56.2, 54.3, 53.9, 51.5, 49.4, 44.0, and 41.6 kJ/mole, respectively. The mechanism of gelation and the kinetic rate equation are proposed to define the possible reasons for the variation of the above-mentioned varnish properties in the presence of the catalyst.

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We previously reported that ingestion of apple polyphenols reduced the weight of visceral adipose tissue and the triglyceride content of blood and liver in rats fed a high-fat diet (1). To further elucidate the mechanism of the improvement of lipid metabolism by dietary polyphenols, the effects of feeding apple- and tea-derived catechins on hepatic gene expression profile was investigated using the GeneChip DNA microarray system. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a normal diet, a high-fat diet, a high-fat diet supplemented with 1.0% apple polyphenols or a high-fat diet supplemented with 1.0% tea catechins for 9 weeks. Both polyphenols reduced the weight of visceral adipose tissue and the triglyceride content in blood and liver. Tea catechins increased the transcription of genes involved in cholesterol synthesis whereas apple polyphenols decreased the transcription of genes involved in fatty acid synthesis. Thus, each polyphenol exerts a different effect on hepatic gene expression. The reduction of the weight of visceral adipose tissue was also observed when apple polyphenols were fed with a normal-fat diet. The genes involved in fatty acid synthesis were down-regulated in both high fat and normal diets. These results suggest that apple polyphenols and tea catechines improve lipid metabolism through different manner of action. Apple polyphenols widely inhibit the expressions of genes involved in fatty acid synthesis.

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