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Urinary stones are a growing disease that results from pathological biomineralization. Cassia fistula Lin. is traditionally used to treat urinary stones. However, no scientific evidence is available to prove its antilithiatic effect. This study evaluates the antilithiatic potential of aqueous and ethanolic extract of Cassia fistula Lin. fruit (Cff) against calcium oxalate kidney stones. Forty-two male Wistar rats were divided into seven groups (n = 6/group): Group I (control), Group II (rats treated with ethylene glycol and ammonium chloride developed nephrolithiasis after 28 days), Group III (lithiatic rats receiving distilled water for 30 days), Group IV and V (lithiatic rats receiving aqueous extract of Cff at doses of 1 and 100 mg/kg body weight for 30 days, respectively) and Group VI and VII (lithiatic rats receiving ethanolic extract of Cff at doses of 1 and 100 mg/kg body weight for 30 days, respectively). Some parameters of urine and serum, and also renal oxidative stress and histopathology were used to determine the antilithiatic effect of aqueous and ethanolic extract of Cff. Therefore, the types of extracts of Cff improved abnormal levels of urine, serum, and renal oxidative stress and histopathology parameters. This antilithiatic effect of aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Cff, can be attributed to the anti-crystallization and antioxidant properties of the extracts and the ability to improve urine and serum biochemistry. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Ethylene glycol and ammonium chloride-induced urolithiasis, aggregation of calcium oxalate deposits, increase of some urinary and serum parameters, relative kidney weight, kidney size and MDA activity, decrease of some urinary parameters, relative body weight and SOD activity. Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of Cassia fistula Lin. lead to the treatment of urolithic rats by decreasing levels of urinary oxalate, phosphate, urea, serum urea, uric acid, creatinine, calcium, phosphate, MDA, kidney weight and kidney size, increasing levels of urinary calcium, creatinine, magnesium, citrate, body weight and SOD activity in the kidney, eliminating CaOx deposition (esp. ethanolic extract)., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

In recent years, green corrosion inhibitors derived from natural plant resources have garnered much interest. In the present work, at first, we investigated the corrosion behavior of mild steel (st-37) in the presence, and absence of Dracocephalum extract based on bulk size as a corrosion inhibitor in two widely used acidic environments (0.5 M H 2 SO 4 , and 1.0 M HCl), at room temperature. Then, we used Dracocephalum extract based on nanometer size to reduce the optimal concentration of inhibitor, increase the corrosion resistant, and efficiency. Dracocephalum extract does not contain heavy metals or other toxic compounds, and also good characteristics such as low cost, eco-friendly, and widespread availability, make it suitable nature candidate as an environmentally safe green inhibitor. The anticorrosive behavior was assessed using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and potentiodynamic polarization (PP). In all of the studies, the inhibitory efficiency (IE%) increased as the extract dose was increased. But by using nano extract, in addition to maintaining high efficiency, the amount of inhibitor was reduced significantly. The highest IE% is 94% at the best dose of nano extract (75 ppm), but the highest IE% is 89% at the best dose of the bulk extract (200 ppm) in H 2 SO 4 solution. Also, for the HCl solution, the highest IE% is 88% at the best dose of nano extract (100 ppm), but the highest IE% is 90% at the best dose of the bulk extract (400 ppm), by polarization method. The PP results suggest that this compound has an effect on both anodic, and cathodic processes, and that it adsorbs on mild steel surface according to the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, and a solid UV-Visible reflection spectrum were used to investigate the alloys' surface morphology., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Herein, at first, green SnO 2 @ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized using Calotropis plant extract as an electron transfer material (ETM) to fabricate low-temperature-processed perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Then, the polyaniline (PANI) polymer was applied as an efficient additive to improve perovskite film quality. Under the effects of the small content of PANI additive, the quality of perovskite films is enhanced, which showed higher crystallinity in (110) crystal plane; also, the perovskite grains were found to be enlarged from 342 to 588 nm. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the prepared PSCs with SnO 2 @ZnO.PANI nanocomposites electron transfer layer (ETL) increased by 3.12%, compared with the PCE of SnO 2 @ZnO nanocomposites. The perovskite devices using SnO 2 @ZnO.PANI nanocomposites ETL have shown good stability during 480 h of tests. Furthermore, the optimal PSCs were fabricated by the mp-TiO 2 /SnO 2 @ZnO.PANI nanocomposites as ETL, which has a power conversion efficiency of 15.45%. We expect that these results will boost the development of low-temperature ETL, which is essential for the commercializing of high-performance, stable, and flexible perovskite solar cells., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

A cadmium(II) complex containing dppt ligand with the formula [CdCl 2 (dppt) 2 ], where dppt is 5,6-diphenyl-3-(2-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazine was synthesized, elucidated and submitted to in vitro cytotoxicity studies against human breast (MCF-7), glioblastoma (U-87), and lung (A549) cancer cell lines as well as mouse embryo normal cell line (NIH/3T3), in comparison with cisplatin employing MTT assay over 24 and 48 h. The complex exhibited the highest cytotoxic effect against MCF-7 cells among the other three cell lines with IC 50 values of 8.7 ± 0.5 (24 h) and 1.2 ± 0.7 µM (48 h). Significantly, flow cytometric assessment of the complex-treated MCF-7 and U-87 cells demonstrated a dose-dependent induced apoptotic cell death. The cellular morphological changes were in concord with cytotoxicity and flow cytometric results. The results of comet assay showed that the complex is able to induce DNA damage in MCF-7 cells. These observations are of importance, as sustained damage to cellular DNA could lead to apoptotic cell death. The results of DNA-binding studies indicated that the complex fits into the DNA minor groove and interacts with DNA via a partial intercalation. Moreover, the complex was able to efficiently cleave pUC19 DNA through a hydrolytic mechanism. The binding affinity between the complex and apoptosis-relevant protein targets including APAF1, Bax, Bcl-2, Cas3, Cas7, and Cas9 was evaluated through molecular docking studies. In silico virtual studies revealed the complex's strong affinity towards apoptosis-related proteins; therefore the complex can act as a potential apoptosis inducer. Physicochemical, pharmacokinetics, lipophilicity, drug-likeness, and medicinal chemistry properties of the complex were also predicted through in silico absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion studies., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Interfacial characteristics and wetting behaviors of titanium dioxide surface along with its various morphologies has recently been studied as an important subject. In this paper the water wetting behaviors and adsorption action of a water droplet on a rutile TiO 2 with various surfaces and morphologies has been investigated through classical molecular dynamics simulation approaches. Also, interface water on a rutile TiO 2 with various surfaces is analyzed based on the distribution and formation of water molecules in the first and second layer. A rutile TiO 2 (011), (101), (110) and (111) has been chosen, which are procured by exerting crystallographic data. The simulation results illustrated that the strong interaction between water molecules and surface depends on the higher density of water molecules in the interface layer due to the van der Waals interaction. Also, molecules of water with their hydrogen atoms pointed towards the oxygen atoms of the titanium dioxide and titanium locations of titanium dioxide where fewer molecules of water could be found. Furthermore, that there is no significant difference on pinning the water droplet on the TiO 2 surface concerning different surfaces. Further investigations revealed that the TiO 2 (110) surface has the lowest value of contact angle and as a result has the highest hydrophilic surface among the investigated structure of TiO 2 . Also, the average interaction energy disclosed the difference between the maximum and minimum energy in the TiO 2 (110) surface is very high that resulting to create a large energy barrier, which inhibits the movement of molecules of water at the water/TiO 2 (110) interface. These results are extracted from calculation of the distribution of the electrical charge, center of mass, contact angle, interaction energy, mean squared displacement, density profiles. All results are in line with the reported quantum calculations and experimental data., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)