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Resulting from the year‐on‐year increase in tea plantations and the saturated consumption of tea leaves, the relative overcapacity in China's tea‐leaf production appears. Discovering the new utilization of tea leaves is helpful to alleviate this phenomenon. The feasibility of extracting saponins from aged tea leaves was investigated and confirmed; three major variables in water extraction were optimized by Box‐Behnken designs. The significant variable found in Box‐Behnken designs, liquid–solid ratio, was went through single‐variable experiments for a more accurate optimization. Seventy‐five ml/g, 1 hr, and 80°C were optimal values and tea‐leaf saponins yield of tea tree variety Longjing 43 reached 12.19% ± 0.0030% after optimizations, higher than the yield of tea‐seed saponins from Camellia oleifera seed meals using the same extraction method (water extraction based on optimizations). According to correlation analyses, tea tree's leaf type and germination stage affected tea‐leaf saponins contents positively, indicating tea trees with larger leaves and later germination stage would have a higher content of tea‐leaf saponins with a higher yield of tea‐leaf saponins under the same extraction method.

The monomeric cobalt-phosphite-thiolato complex [ Co (mpt)2 {P (OCH3 )3 }2 ] BF4 (Hmpt = 2-mercaptothiazoline) has been prepared and characterized by X-ray crystallography. The complex crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/c with a = 0.8078(5), b = 2.6020(18), c= 1.2191(7) nm, β= 99.38 (1)°, V = 2.528(3) nm3, and Z = 4. The structure comprises discrete cations [Co (mpt)2(P(OCH3)3}2] + and anions BF4−, in which the cobalt (III) atom is coordinated to two chelate mpt− and two cis-oriented monodentate P(OCH3)3 ligands in a highly distorted octahedral geometry. The most distorted angles are S(2)-Co(1)-S(2a) of 162.23(10)° and N (l)-Co(1)-S(2) of 71.47 (13)°, the latter is caused by the geometric constraint of the bidentate ligand mpt−. Cyclic voltammetry has been used to study the electrochemical behavior of the title complex on the Pt electrode in MeCN solution with 0.1 mol · L−1 of Bu4n NBF4 89 electrolyte, The dts indicate that the title complex is unstable in MeCN.

The extracellular matrix is a vital compartment in plants with a prominent role in defence against pathogen attack. Using a maize cell suspension culture system and pathogen elicitors, responses to pathogen attack that are localised to the extracellular matrix were examined by a proteomic approach. Elicitor treatment of cell cultures induced a rapid change in the phosphorylation status of extracellular peroxidases, the apparent disappearance of a putative extracellular beta-N-acetylglucosamonidase, and accumulation of a secreted putative xylanase inhibitor protein. Onset of the defence response was attended by an accumulation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and a fragment of a putative heat shock protein. Several distinct spots of both proteins, which preferentially accumulated in cell wall protein fractions, were identified. These three novel observations, viz. (i) secretion of a new class of putative enzyme inhibitor, (ii) the apparent recruitment of classical cytosolic proteins into the cell wall and (ii) the change in phosphorylation status of extracellular matrix proteins, suggest that the extracellular matrix plays a complex role in defence. We discuss the role of the extracellular matrix in signal modulation during pathogen-induced defence responses.

The mononuclear complex Fe(II)(mtq)2{P(OCH3)3}2 (Hmtq = 8-Mercaptoquinoline) with mixed N-heterocyclic thiolato and phosphite ligands was synthesized and characterized by X-ray crystallography and cyclic voltammetric measurement. The title complex crystallizes in the triclinic space group P-1 with a = 8.929(4), b = 9.965(3), c = 16.913(11) A, α = 76.21(10), β = 80.89(10), γ= 68.010(10)°, V = 1351.2(11) A3. The Fe(II) atom exhibits an elongated octahedral geometry composed of N2S2P2 donors. The equatorial plane is made up of two cis-oriented N donors from the thiolato ligands and two cis-oriented monodentate P(OCH3)3 ligands. The apical sites are occupied by two trans-oriented S atoms from the mtq− ligands. The thione form is predominant coordination mode of 8-mercaptoquinoline with the N and S donors bound to the Fe(II) to form five-membered chelate rings. The structural feature of the mononuclear Fe(II) complex with mixed phosphite and thiolate ligands is summarized.

Discrete dinuclear and polymeric heterometallic copper(II)−lanthanide(III) complexes have been synthesized upon variation of pH and characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. Reactions of the lig...

A lithium(I) coordination polymer has been formed from LiClO4 and the 2,2′-bipyrimidine (bpym) ligand in which each square pyramidal lithium(I) atom is coordinated in the basal plane by four nitrogen donor atoms derived from two bpym ligands and one water molecule at the apical position. These are connected into a layer structure via hydrogen-bonding interactions involving the perchlorate anions. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

With the completion of the Arabidopsis genome, many hypothetical proteins have been predicted without any information on their expression, subcellular localisation and function. We have performed proteomic analysis of proteins sequentially extracted from enriched Arabidopsis cell wall fractions and separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). The proteins were identified by peptide mass fingerprinting using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry and genomic database searches. This is part of a targeted exercise to establish the entire Arabidopsis secretome database. We report evidence for new proteins of unknown function whose existence had been predicted from genomic sequences and, furthermore, localise them to the cell wall. In addition, we observed an unexpected presence in the cell wall preparations of proteins whose known biochemical activity has never been associated with this compartment hitherto. We discuss the implications of these findings and present results suggesting a possible involvement of cell wall kinases in plant responses to pathogen attack.