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The production of curcumin produces large quantities of the spent turmeric oleoresin as a by-product, which often pollutes the environment. This study was conducted to obtain turmeric oil from this by-product and evaluate its antifungal activity. Turmeric oil afforded by partitioning the turmeric oleoresin from the production of curcumin (Curcuma longa L.) with n-hexane showed a strong inhibition for Colletotrichum species. The volatile components of turmeric oil were determined by GC-MS. Then, 23 volatile compounds were identified from this oil, of which four main compounds were α-zingiberene, α-turmerone, ar-turmerone, and β-sesquiphellandrene. Besides, the authors also isolated Colletotrichum gloeosporioides from lychee fruits, which were harvested in Luc Ngan district, Bac Giang province. By poisoned food technique, the antifungal activity of turmeric oil against C. gloeosporioides, C. orbiculare, C. acutatum, Phytophthora infestans, and Fusarium oxysporum was demonstrated. The results showed that at a concentration of 1 mg/ml, turmeric oil showed the highest inhibitory effect on C. gloeosporioides (67.9%). As for other fungi, in vitro growth inhibition varied in the range of 41-62%.

In the context of agricultural pest management, botanical pesticides are best suited for use in organic food (agricultural) production, due to their safety to humans and the environment compared to conventional pesticides. Compounds of plant origin can be highly effective, with diverse and multiple mechanisms of action, while having low toxicity towards non-target organisms. However, the large-scale application of these products for pest control is limited by their poor stability and other technological issues. An overview of botanical pesticides is presented in this paper. Trends and challenges in the research and application of botanical pesticides in Vietnam are also discussed.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are the largest software packages of information systems adopted by many organizations all over the world. The utilization of ERP systems has been considered as a key determinant of competitive advantages. The main objective of the present study is to propose a model of the accountant’s satisfaction in using enterprise ERP systems. Data were collected by using a questionnaire survey of almost 225 accountants working from 42 large Vietnamese construction firms. The results show that accounting benefits, ERP system quality and management commitment had significant effects on accountant’s satisfaction in the ERP environment. The study also indicate that the management commitment had an impact on ERP system quality and ERP system quality had a positive relationship with accounting benefits as well. Based on these findings, implications for managers in Vietnamese construction firms in providing accounting information quality are discussed.

Docynia indica (D. indica) shows various useful biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial effects, and positive benefits for human health. Such biological activities relate to the main phytochemicals of D. indica including phenolic and flavonoid. However, isolation for phenolic and flavonoid by popular methods such as hot extraction, soxhlet extraction, and ultrasonic extraction have been relatively ineffective. Therefore, in this study, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) was used for the extraction of total phenolic and total flavonoid from D. indica. The optimization experiments were conducted based on response surface methodology (RMS) according to a central composite design with four independent variables: extraction time (min), ethanol concentration (%, v/v), microwave power (W), and pH of the solvent. Three dependent variables were total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and yield. The optimal conditions for the extraction of phenolic and flavonoid from D. indica were: extraction time of 50 min, ethanol concentration of 65%, microwave power of 440 W, and solvent pH of 5.4. These conditions corresponded to TPC, TFC, and yield values of 33.57 &plusmn, 0.12 (mg GAE/g), 25.01 &plusmn, 0.11 (mg QE/g) and 33.44 &plusmn, 0.14 (%), respectively.

Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) DC (Rutaceae) is a traditional medicine used for the treatment of various diseases like toothache, gingivitis, fever, colic vomiting, diarrhea, and cholera. Three new alkaloids, zanthocadinanine C (1), 7-methoxy-8-demethoxynitidine (2), and zanthonitiside I (3) were isolated from the stems and twigs of Z. nitidum. Their structures were determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic, including 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy data. Compounds 1–3 were evaluated for cytotoxic activity against 5 human cancer cell lines, KB, MCF-7, LNCaP, HepG-2, and LU-1. Compound 2 showed significant cytotoxic activity against all tested human cancer cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 10.3 to 12.6 µM.

HCTN_16Methanol extract of the roots of Scutellaria baicalensis effectively inhibited the bacterial growth of human pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, Bacillus cereus ATCC 21768 and Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633 at MICs of 2,000 µg/mL. n-Hexane, ethyl acetate and aqueous residues were prepared by successively partitioning the methanol extract with n-hexane and ethyl acetate. Among them, only ethyl acetate layer showed antibiotic effect; whereas n-hexane and aqueous layers were inactive against tested bacteria. The ethyl acetate residue was fractionated by silica gel column chromatography to afford three flavonoids and an oligosaccharide. Their chemical structures were elucidated as wogonin (SB1), baicalein (SB4), baicalin (SB5) and tetrasaccharide (SB10) on the basis of the analysis of NMR and MS spectroscopic data. The isolates were evaluated for in vitro inhibitory effect against human pathogenic bacteria using micro dilution bioassay method. Baicalein (SB4) showed a broad-spectrum inhibition against various human pathogenic bacteria. In particular, it was found to potently inhibit S. aureus ATCC 6538 and B. cereus ATCC 21768 with MICs of 9.5 and 38 µg/mL, respectively. The study results demonstrated antibiotic effect of the extracts from the roots of S. baicalensis and characterization of compounds isolated from the plant materials.

Being naturally abundant resources and having many interesting physicochemical and biological properties, chitin/chitosan have been found to be useful in many fields, especially biomedical ones. This paper describes the strategy to design multifunctional, hybrid chitosan-based nanomaterials and test them in some typical biomedical applications.