Efficient and selective extraction of sinomenine by deep eutectic solvents

Sinomenine is the main bio-active ingredient of Sinomenii Caulis and usually produced by solventextraction techniques. However, the extraction of sinomenine suffers from the lack of highly efficient and environmentally-benign solvents. In this work, deep eutectic solvents(DESs) based on fragrances were synthesized, hydrogen-bond donors(HBDs) and hydrogen-bond acceptors(HBAs) components of DESs were identified and their extraction ability for sinomenine was evaluated and the extraction conditions were optimized by single-factor and orthogonal design experiments. It was found that the hydrogen-bonding interaction between sinomenine and DESs was the main extraction driving force and there was no explicit relationship between the extraction ability and the hydrophobicity of the DESs. The DESs could be recycled and sinomenine could be recovered quantitatively via backextraction. High-purity sinomenine((95.0 ± 2.3)%) could be produced. These findings suggest that DESs are highly-effective solvents for the isolation of sinomenine and exhibit great potential for the extraction of other bio-active compounds.

Kinetics of medium-temperature α-amylase hydrolyzed <i>Huai yam</i>powder

In order to learn the enzymatic characteristics of Huai yam powder with medium-temperatureα-amylase, effects of substrate concentration,enzyme concentration, pH and temperature wereinvestigated. The Michealis-Menten equationwas used to fit the kinetics of the hydrolysis reaction. Experimental results indicate that maximum rate (Vm) is 3.1588 mg/mL·min under the condition of 70&#176;C, pH 7.0 and 0.0200 mg/mL of enzyme concentration. The Michealis constant (Km) is 6.6641 mg/mL. The kinetic model, including the factors such as substrate concentration, enzyme concentration and temperature, was established for the hydrolysis reaction under the temperature range from 40&#176;C - 70&#176;C.

Effective photodegradation of 4-nitrophenol with CuO nano particles prepared by ionic liquids/water system

The hydrophobic ionic liquids/water two-phase system was developed to prepare CuO nano particles.The catalytic activity of the synthesized CuO was investigated by photodegradation of 4-nitrophenol(4-NP)in the presence of H_(2)O_(2) under visible light irradiation.The optical properties of the synthesized CuO were characterized by ultraviolet–visible(UV–Vis)diffuse reflectance spectroscopy(DRS).Experimental results indicated that the band gap energy(Eg),conduction band edge potential(ECB)and valence band edge potential(EVB)of the synthesized CuO were 1.37 e V,0.625 e V and 1.995 e V,respectively.A degradation efficiency of 4-NP(4.8 mmol L^(-1))as high as 95.3% could be achieved under the conditions of p H 6.0,0.48 g L^(-1)of CuO dosage,1.4% of H_(2)O_(2) dosage and 90 min of degradation time.The synthesized CuO exhibited poor catalytic activity under alkaline conditions due to the disassociation of 4-NP,which elevated the repulsion between CuO and the 4-NP anions.The synthesized CuO nano particles exhibited higher catalytic activity compared with the catalysts reported in literature.Furthermore,the synthesized CuO nano particles could be reused at least six times without decreasing their catalytic activity.Compared with the traditional hydrothermal method,mild operating conditions and time saving are the advantages of the developed method for the preparation of CuO.