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Curcumin is a natural product with enormous biological potential. In this study, curcumin synthesis was revisited using different reaction solvents, a catalyst (n-butylamine) and a water scavenger [(n-BuO)3B], to develop the optimal procedure for its rapid acquisition. During synthesis, solvent choice was found to be an important parameter for better curcumin yield and high purity. In a typical reaction, acetyl acetone was treated with boron trioxide, followed by condensation with vanillin in the presence of tri-n-butyl borate as water scavenger and n-butylamine as catalyst at 80 °C in ethyl acetate to afford curcumin. Moreover, curcumin was also extracted from turmeric powder and spectroscopic properties such as IR, MS, 1H NMR and 13C NMR with synthetic curcumin were established to identify any impurity. The purity of synthetic and extracted curcumin was also checked by TLC and HPLC-DAD. To computationally assess its therapeutic potential against cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs), curcumin was docked in different isoforms of CDKs. It was observed that it did not dock at the active sites of CDK2 and CDK6. However, it could enter into weak interactions with CDK4 protein.

Osteoporosis is a worldwide disease depicted by the reduced bone mass, an adequate supply of minerals is needed to support bone remodeling, and their deficiency causes bone-related diseases, osteoporosis in particular, and has osteoprotective effects. The aim of this recent research was to quantify the micro- (Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn) and macroelements (Mg, K, and Ca) in the peel powder of some common fruits (pomegranate, orange, lemon, mango, and grapefruit) by flame atomic absorption spectrometer (FAAS). The extraction of micro- and macroelements in peel powder was done by using dilute acids in an ultrasonic bath. Apple leaves were used as standard reference material (SRM, NIST 1515) to optimize the ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) method at varied operating parameters. Maximum response was obtained for extracting of minerals in 500 mg SRM at 60°C temperature, setting a vortexing time of 5 min while using 5.0 mL extracting agent HNO3 (0.5 M)-H2O2 (10%) at 90% sonication amplitude of ultrasound bath for 6 min. While analyzing the SRM, the percentage recovery was obtained in a range between 96.8 and 102.7% to assure the accuracy whereas repeatability (n = 10) study in terms of % RSD yielding ≤2.29 supports well the precision of the proposed method, and limits of quantitation (μg/g) were 0.034, 0.061, 0.065, 0.057, 0.017, 0.175, and 0.053 for Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mg, K, and Ca, respectively. The proposed UAE method was reliable, efficient, and advantageous over the conventionally employed acid digestion method with regard to less consumption of reagents and short analysis time for the determination of micro- and macroelements in fruit peel powder.

New amidine and benzene sulfonamide derivatives were developed and structures of the new products were confirmed by elemental and spectral analysis (FT-IR, ESI-MS, 1HNMR, and 13CNMR). In vitro, developed compounds were screened for their antibacterial and antifungal activities against medically important bacterial strains, namely, S. aureus, B. subtilis, and E. coli, and fungi, namely, A. flavus, A. parasiticus, and A. sp. The antibacterial and antifungal activities have been determined by measuring MIC values (μg/mL) and zone of inhibitions (mm). Among the tested compounds, it was found that compounds 3b, 9a, and 9b have most potent activity against S. aureus, A. flavus, and A. parasiticus, respectively, and were found to be more active than sulfamethoxazole and itraconazole with MIC values 40 μg/mL. In contrast, all the compounds were totally inactive against the A. sp. except 10b and 15b to show activity to some extent.

Thermostable cyclodextrinase (Tk1770 CDase) from hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis (KOD1) hydrolyzes cyclodextrins into linear dextrins. The sequence of Tk1770 CDase retrieved from UniProt was aligned with sequences of sixteen CD hydrolyzing enzymes and a phylogenetic tree was constructed using Bayesian inference. The homology model of Tk1770 CDase was constructed and optimized with Modeller v9.14 program. The model was validated with ProSA server and PROCHECK analysis. Four conserved regions and the catalytic triad consisting of Asp411, Glu437, and Asp502 of GH13 family were identified in catalytic site. Also an additional fifth conserved region downstream to the fourth region was also identified. The structure of Tk1770 CDase consists of an additional N′-domain and a helix-loop-helix motif that is conserved in all archaeal CD hydrolyzing enzymes. The N′-domain contains an extended loop region that forms a part of catalytic domain and plays an important role in stability and substrate binding. The docking of substrate into catalytic site revealed the interactions with different conserved residues involved in substrate binding and formation of enzyme-substrate complex.