To optimize the adequate atherogenic diet composition for nutritional atherosclerosis studies utilizing B6.KOR-Apoe^shl mice, we investigated the effect of dietary cholesterol, AIN formula, and dietary fats on the development of atherosclerosis. Cholesterol supplementation (0.15-2%) for 12 weeks resulted in a dose-dependent increase in the development of atherosclerosis. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in the degree of atherosclerosis between B6.KOR-Apoe^shl mice fed a modified-AIN-76™ diet and those fed a modified-AIN-93M diet containing corn oil or soybean oil for 10 and 12 weeks. The present experiment indicates that the adequate dietary level of cholesterol was 0.15%, and that further studies are necessary to determine the optimal level of various types of dietary oils for nutritional atherosclerosis experiments in B6.KOR-Apoe^shl mice.

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The amount and characterization of phytosterol and other minor components present in three Indian minor seed oils, mahua (Madhuca latifolia), sal (Shorea robusta) and mango kernel (Mangifera indica), have been done. Theses oils have shown commercial importance as cocoa-butter substitutes because of their high symmetrical triglycerides content. The conventional thin layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC) & gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) techniques were used to characterize the components and the high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) technique was used to quantify the each group of components. The experimental data showed that the all the three oils are rich in sterol content and among all the sterols, β-sitosterol occupies the highest amount. Sal oil contains appreciable amount of cardenolides, gitoxigenin. Tocopherol is present only in mahua oil and oleyl alcohol is present in mango kernel oil. Hydrocarbon, squalene, is present in all the three oils. The characterization of these minor components will help to detect the presence of the particular oil in specific formulations and to assess its stability as well as nutritional quality of the specific oil.

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Water-distilled essential oils from herbal parts of Tanacetum parthenium from two different localities in Turkey were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The essential oil of T. parthenium collected from Davutpasa-Istanbul location were characterized with camphor 49%, trans-chrysanthenyl acetate 22.1% and camphene 9.4%. Second plant sample is collected from the remote east end of the country Savsat-Ardahan location. The essential oil from this location was characterized with camphor 60.8% and camphene 6.8%. Unlike the former this sample contains trans-chrysanthenyl acetate in trace amount and cis- chrysanthenyl acetate in very small amount (0.6%) which is not present in the first sample. Antibacterial activity of the oils were evaluated for five Gram (+) and five Gram (-) bacteria by using a broth microdilution assay. The highest activity was observed on Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant S.aureus however when compared with positive control oils showed higher MIC values. The oil of Istanbul-sample showed highest activity on B. subtilis (125 μg/mL) and methicillin-resistant S. aureus (125 μg/mL) which is two fold concentration when compared with the positive control chloramphenicol (62.5 μg/mL). The oil of Ardahan sample showed the highest activity on S. aureus (125 μg/mL) which is likewise two fold concentration of the positive control chloramphenicol (62.5 μg/mL). DPPH scavenging activity was 59.3% of the oil from Davutpasa at 15mg/mL concentration. When compared to positive control α-tocopherol (94.6%) Savsat oil (28.2%) showed low and Davutpasa oil showed medium DPPH scavenging activity. All of the oils showed toxicity to Vibrio fischeri in the TLC-bioluminescence assay.

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House dust mites (Dermatophagoides farinae) in bedding and clothes are a major allergen. However, house dust mites cannot be killed by general washing conditions under 50°C. Therefore, low-temperature washing conditions must be improved to eliminate house dust mites. Sodium alkyl acyloxybenzene sulfonate (OBS) is a bleach activator that is used to intensify the bleaching effects of some laundry products. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of OBS on the elimination of house dust mites in low-temperature washing conditions. D. farinae was soaked in solutions containing different types of OBS for various durations and at various temperatures. The miticidal effects of the various washing conditions were also evaluated for D. farinae. Then sodium lauroyloxybenzene sulfonate (OBS-12) produced the highest D. farinae mortality rate among the OBS solutions that were examined and had a stronger miticidal effect than available chlorine under general washing conditions. OBS exhibited miticidal effects under general washing conditions at low temperatures. Since OBS is already used as an additive in some laundry products to increase the bleaching activity, OBS can be easily used to kill house dust mites under general washing conditions.

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N-Acyl amino acids have been prepared from fatty acid chlorides and amino acids, but it may not be easy to vary the hydrophobic groups on the view point of availability. In this work, instead of acid halides, long alkyl chloroformates were prepared by the facile reaction of alcohols and triphosgene as an induction agent of hydrophobic group on amino acids. N-Alkoxycarbonyl amino acids were synthesized from alkyl chloroformate and amino acids under Schötten-Baumann reaction condition with some modification. Surfactant properties of their sodium salts were studied by surface tension measurements, dynamic light scattering and foaming test, and compared with those of N-acyl amino acids. Sodium salts of N-alkoxycarbonyl amino acids showed an excellent surface tension lowering ability comparable to N-acyl amino acids, and they also exhibited good foaming ability and stability.

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We investigated phase behavior and rheological properties of aqueous micellar phase formed in water/cocoyl glutamate neutralized with triethanol amine (CGT-n)/hexadecyl trimethylammonium salt (CTAB or CTAC) systems, where n is a degree of neutralization. Micellar phase appears in wide composition range with respect to the surfactant mixing fraction in ternary phase diagrams at 25°C. At high mixing fraction of cationic surfactant in the water/CGT-n/CTAB systems, one can observe a highly viscous micellar phase in which worm-like micelles are expected to form. Contrary to conventional systems in which worm-like micelles are formed, the zero-shear viscosity of the micellar solution in the water/CGT-n/CTAB system with n=1.2 increases with the addition of cationic cosurfactant and once decreases after a maximum, then increases again and decreases after the second maximum. At n=1.5 and 2, highly viscous solution is observed in the relatively wide range of surfactant mixing fraction instead of two maxima of the viscosity curve observed at n=1.2. In the case of CTAC instead of CTAB we can observe narrow composition range for the maximum viscosity. Frequency sweep measurements were performed on the highly viscous samples in the water/CGT-1.5/CTAB system. Typical viscoelastic behavior of worm-like micellar solutions is observed; i.e. the curves of storage (G’) and loss (G”) moduli make a crossover and the data points of G’ and G” can be fitted to the Maxwell model. Relaxation time against the mixing fraction of two surfactants behaves similarly to the zero-shear viscosity change, whereas the plateau modulus continuously increases in the plateau region for the zero-shear viscosity curve.

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Ten cyclic diarylheptanoids (1-10), including three new compounds: myricanone 5-O-α-L-arabinofuranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyranoside (7), myricanone 17-O-β-D-(6′-O-galloyl)-glucopyranoside (8), and 16-methoxy acerogenin B 9-O-β-D-apiofuranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyranoside (10), along with two flavonoids (11, 12), were isolated from the extracts of Myrica rubra (Myricaceae) bark. The structures of new compounds were determined on the basis of spectroscopic methods. On evaluation of compounds 1-12 against the melanogenesis in the B16 melanoma cells, six compounds, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 12, exhibited inhibitory effects with 30-56% reduction of melanin content at 25 μg/mL with no or very weak toxicity to the cells (82-103% of cell viability at 25 μg/mL). In addition, upon evaluation of compounds 1-12 against the scavenging activities of free radicals [against the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical], seven compounds, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, and 12, showed potent scavenging activity [IC₅₀ 2-21 μM (0.6-7.3 μg/mL)].

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The aim of the present study is to formulate and investigate the potential of nanoemulsion formulation for topical delivery of ketoprofen. In this study, Palm Oil Esters (POEs) a newly introduced oil by Universiti Putra Malaysia researchers was chosen for the oil phase of the nanoemulsion, because the oil was reported to be a good vehicle for pharmaceutical use. Oil-in-water nanoemulsion was prepared by spontaneous emulsification method. The droplets size was studied by laser scattering spectroscopy (Nanophox) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Franz diffusion cells were used, to determine the drug release and drug transferred through methyl acetate cellulose membrane (artificial membrane). The results of droplets size analysis shows the droplets are in the range of nanoemulsion which is below than 500 nm. The in vitro release profile shows a sufficient percentage of drugs released through the methyl acetate cellulose membrane. This initial study showed that the nanoemulsion formulated using POEs has great potential for topical delivery of ketoprofen.

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