Corn cob modified by lauric acid and ethanediol for emulsified oil adsorption

Corn cob is a naturally renewable material with developed micropore and hydrophobic characteristics, which enables it to show good oil adsorption capacity. In order to improve oil adsorption capacity, corn cob was modified with lauric acid and ethanediol. The structure of raw and modified corn cob was investigated using Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy(SEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller(BET) method, thermogravimetric analysis(TGA) and Ze Ta potential analyzer. The effects of p H level, adsorption time, adsorbent dosage, and initial oil concentration on oil absorbency of corn cob were studied. The results indicate that the modification significantly improved the lipophilicity of corn cob, making the modified corn cob with much better adsorption capacity on oil absorbency. Compared with raw corn cob, the maximum saturated adsorption capacity of modified corn cob is 16.52 mg/g at p H 5, and the increasing percentage is found to be 141%, which indicates that the modification causes a better adsorption capacity for oil removal. In addition, due to high oil adsorption capacity, affordable price and low secondary pollution, the modified corn cob could be considered promising alternative for the traditional oil adsorbent to clean up the emulsified oily water.

EFFECT OF ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENT ON CELLULAR HEMORHEOLOGY, CHOLESTEROL AND TRIGLYCERIDE OF SIMPLE OBESITY PATIENTS

Objective: To observe the effect of acupuncture on simple obesity and cellular hemorheology. Methods: Thirty-two cases of simple obesity patients were enrolled into this study. Acupoints of the Stomach Meridian and Spleen Meridian as Zhongwan (中脘 CV 12), Liangmen (梁门 ST 21), Tianshu (天枢 ST 25), Guayuan (关元 CV 4), etc. were punctured, once daily in the first 5 days, and once every other day afterwards, with 10 sessions being a therapeutic course. Before treatment and after 3 courses of treatment, the body weight, waistline, weight index, seam cholesterol (CH), triglyceride and aggregation index of red blood cell (RBC) were detected. Results: After acupuncture treatment, all the indexes of body weight, waistline, weight index, serum CH, triglyceride and aggregation index of RBC decreased significantly in comparison with those of pre-treatment(P< 0.05). Conclusion: Acupuncture can apparently improve cellular hemorheology, reduce body weight, serum cholesterol and TG levels in simple obesity patients.

Transesterification of glyceryl tributyrate with methanol using strontium borate as the solid base catalyst

Four kinds of strontium borates were prepared and characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS, TG-DTA and Hammett titration method and their catalytic activities were examined in the transesterification of glyceryl tributyrate with methanol for the first time. The separate effects of the molar ratio of methanol to oil, the reaction time, and reusability were investigated. In addition, the catalytic activities of Sr（OH）2 and SrCO3 were also examined for the comparison. The results showed that the basicity and catalytic activity of these catalysts were decreased as the following order： Sr（OH）2 〉 SrB2O4·4H2O 〉 SrB6O10·5H2O 〉 SrB2O4 〉 SrB6O10 〉 SrCO3, and the reusability decreases as the following order： anhydrous strontium borates （SrBgO4, SrB6O10） 〉 hydrated strontium borates （SrB2O4·4H2O, SrB6O10·5H2O） 〉 Sr（OH）〉 The results indicate that the SrB2O4·4H2O with regular morphology, which was obtained at low temperature by a simple preparation method, might be as one kind of good potential alkaline earth salts catalyst for transesterification. Moreover, the possible reaction mechanism is proposed and analyzed.