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El cacao colombiano, debido a su excelente calidad, se ha convertido en un producto que ha incursionado de manera considerable en el mercado nacional e internacional, lo que ha incrementado su demanda y con ello los efectos inherentes a sus prácticas productivas. Esta revisión de alcance se realizó siguiendo las orientaciones del Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), lo que permitió la selección de 72 documentos, cuya extracción de información condujo a la identificación y homologación de los impactos económicos, ecológicos y sociales del sector cacaotero en los diferentes departamentos productores de Colombia, de los cuales destacan los departamentos de Santander, Antioquia, Arauca, Huila y Tolima, quienes generan el 70% de la producción de cacao a nivel nacional. En la revisión, se observa claramente un total de 13 impactos sociales, 25 ecológicos y 21 económicos, que corresponden a los impactos más persistentes evidenciados en las diferentes investigaciones desarrolladas en este país.

Certification programmes are often promoted as a sustainable solution for the negative environmental and socio-economic effects generated by agricultural activities. This scope review assesses the seven most adopted certification programmes in Colombian coffee plantations and their ecological, economic and social impacts. In addition, this scope review characterises the coffee regions where the studies are conducted and the main methodological approaches that are used. The review revealed that the main methodological approach used in the studies is the mixed approach and that the largest number of studies is not conducted in the departments that report the highest coffee production rates. The main certification program assessed in this review is the Rainforest Alliance. However, this study also reports the existence of several gaps caused by multi-certification effects. In total, 87 reports of ecological, economic, and social impacts were identified. Out of the 87 environmental impact reports of the certifications identified in this study, 66 were positive and only 21 were negative.

El abundante uso de sustancias emergentes microcontaminantes y su inadecuada disposición final, han centrado la atención de las autoridades ambientales en los efectos que sobre el ambiente, se le atribuyen a los antibacteriales y agentes antimicrobiales vertidos en los cuerpos de agua. Actualmente, diversas investigaciones han centrado sus objetivos en determinar las eficiencias que distintos tratamientos físicos, químicos y biológicos presentan para remover diferentes productos farmacéuticos incluidos los anteriormente mencionados. Esta revisión incluye resultados de diversos tratamientos a nivel de microcosmo, mesocosmo y a escala real, en los que se incluyen las principales condiciones experimentales en que se desarrollan las mediciones.

Introducción: Las hidroeléctricas son la fuente de energía eléctrica más demandada a nivel mundial después del año 2000. Objetivo: Este artículo identificó los impactos ambientales generados por la construcción y operación de la central hidroeléctrica El Quimbo en el área de influencia en el sur de Colombia desde una perspectiva ex-post. Metodología: El estudio fue de carácter mixto, bajo el método deductivo y descriptivo utilizando técnicas de recolección de información como el análisis documental, el reconocimiento abierto y participativo y la encuesta Delphi. Resultados: En total, se identificaron ochenta y ocho (88) impactos ambientales en los ámbitos físico, biótico y socioeconómico. En la dimensión física, se encontraron aspectos como la disminución del caudal de los ríos y la inundación de terrenos; en la dimensión biótica, se identificaron aspectos como el aumento del desplazamiento de la fauna terrestre y el aumento de la mortalidad de especies nativas de flora y fauna terrestre; y en el campo socioeconómico, se destacaron la disminución del empleo agrícola y el aumento del costo de vida. Conclusiones: Se concluye con la identificación de un mayor número de impactos negativos en la dimensión socioeconómica frente a los impactos en los ámbitos físico y biótico.

Background: Solubility is one of the most important parameters in the research and development processes of the pharmaceutical industry. In this context, cosolubility is one of the most used strategies to improve the solubility of poorly soluble drugs, besides allowing to identify some factors involved in the dissolution process. The aim of this research is to evaluate the solubility of sulfamethazine in acetotinitrile + 1-propanol cosolvent mixtures at 9 temperatures (278.15, 283.15, 288.15, 293.15, 298.15, 303.15, 308.15, 313.15, and 318.15 K); a drug used in human and veterinary therapy and two solvents of great chemical–pharmaceutical interest. Methods: The determination was carried out by the shaking flask method and the drug was quantified by UV/Vis spectrophotometry. Results: The solubility of sulfamethazine increases from pure 1-propanol (solvent in which it reaches its lowest solubility at 278.15 K) to pure acetonitrile (solvent in which it reaches its maximum solubility at 318.15 K), behaving in a logarithmic-linear fashion. Conclusions: The increase in solubility is related to the acid/base character of the cosolvent mixtures and not to the solubility parameter of the mixtures. The dissolution process is endothermic and favored by the solution entropy, and also shows a strong entropic compensation.

Sulfamerazine (SMR) is a drug used as an antibacterial agent in the treatment of some pathologies, such as bronchitis, prostatitis and urinary tract infections. Although this drug was developed in 1945 and, due to its toxicity, was partially displaced by penicillin, due to the current problem of bacterial resistance, compounds such as SMR have regained validity. In this context, the thermodynamic study of SMR in cosolvent mixtures of acetonitrile (MeCN) + ethanol (EtOH) at nine temperatures (278.15–318.15 K) is presented. The solubility of SMR was determined by UV–Vis spectrophotometry, following the guidelines of the shake-flask method. The solubility process was endothermic in all cases; thus, the minimum solubility was reached in pure EtOH at 278.15 K, and the maximum solubility was reached in pure MeCN at 318.15 K. Both the solution process and the mixing process were entropy-driven. On the other hand, the solubility data were modeled by using the van’t Hoff–Yalkowsky–Roseman model, obtaining an overall average relative deviation of 3.9%. In general terms, it can be concluded that the solution process of SMR in {MeCN (1) + EtOH (2)} mixtures is thermodependent, favored by the entropy of the solution and mixture; additionally, the van’t Hoff–Yalkowsky–Roseman model allows very good approximations to be obtained and is a simple model that starts from only four experimental data.

Solubility is one of the most important physicochemical properties due to its involvement in physiological (bioavailability), industrial (design) and environmental (biotoxicity) processes, and in this regard, cosolvency is one of the best strategies to increase the solubility of poorly soluble drugs in aqueous systems. Thus, the aim of this research is to thermodynamically evaluate the dissolution process of triclocarban (TCC) in cosolvent mixtures of {N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) + water (W)} at seven temperatures (288.15, 293.15, 298.15, 303.15, 308.15, 313.15 and 318.15 K). Solubility is determined by UV/vis spectrophotometry using the flask-shaking method. The dissolution process of the TCC is endothermic and strongly dependent on the cosolvent composition, achieving the minimum solubility in pure water and the maximum solubility in NMP. The activity coefficient decreases from pure water to NMP, reaching values less than one, demonstrating the excellent positive cosolvent effect of NMP, which is corroborated by the negative values of the Gibbs energy of transfer. In general terms, the dissolution process is endothermic, and the increase in TCC solubility may be due to the affinity of TCC with NMP, in addition to the water de-structuring capacity of NMP generating a higher number of free water molecules.