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Numerous studies derived from medicinal herbs have been conducted to explore bioactive compounds as potential alternatives to synthetic drugs, aiming to mitigate harmful side effects and alleviate economic burdens. In this study, we assessed the safety and potential biological activities of extracts from Fomes fomentarius L. (FFL). The FFL extracts were obtained through various ethanol concentrations, as follows: 0%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%, respectively. All extracts did not induce mutagenicity even up to 5 mg/plate concentration. In the assessment of antioxidant activity, only the hot water extract exhibited weaker antioxidant activity than the other ethanol extracts. Notably, all extracts exhibited significant antimutagenetic effects only with a metabolically active enzyme system (S9 mix). The condition of 70% ethanol extract displayed the most robust antimutagenic activity; thus, the extract was sequentially fractionated with solvents of varying polarities to isolate inhibitory components. After the fractionization, the diethyl ether and butanol fractions effectively suppressed the growth of mutated colonies, suggesting that those such as essential oils, vitamins, alkaloids, and flavonoids can be considered major active compounds. Overall, our study demonstrated that FFL extracts induce potent antioxidant and antimutagenic effects. Further investigations are warranted to verify specific active compounds which induce an antimutagenic effect. Our findings provide valuable insights into FFL as a promising source for potential functional food development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncaria rhynchophylla (UR) belongs to the Rubiaceae family, and its dried hooks are usually used in traditional medicine. It is effective in treating diseases related to the central nervous system. This study aimed to evaluate the safety of UR extract, investigate its antimutagenic and antioxidative activities, and elucidate its active components. Extraction and fractionation of the UR extract resulted in yields of 6.71%, 0.037%, 0.042%, 0.152%, 0.332%, and 5.132%, for hexane, ether, DCM, EtOAC, and aqueous fractions, respectively. The four indole alkaloids, total phenolic content (TPC), and total flavonoid content (TFC) of UR extract and its subfractions were measured. Alkaloid content was highest in the UR extract. TPC was the highest in the EtOAC fraction (373.7 ± 20.9 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g), whereas TFC was the highest in the UR extract (33.5 ± 2.4 mg quercetin equivalent (QE)/g). To assess the safety of UR extract mutagenicity, cytotoxicity, and oxidative stress inducibility assays were performed. The UR extract (2000 µg/plate) showed excellent antimutagenic activity (above 90%) against BaP in both TA98 and TA100 strains. The UR extract exhibited efficient DPPH (RC50 239.2 ± 16.5 µg/mL) and ABTS scavenging activity (RC50 458.7 ± 25.0 µg/mL). The UR extract (150 µg/mL) showed cytoprotective activity (65.6% ± 9.2%) against t-BHP. Among the subfractions, the EtOAC fraction possessed the strongest activities, overall. UR generally showed excellent biological activity at nontoxic concentrations (determined in vitro in current work), although the chemical composition of UR requires further investigation prior to its potential future use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A qualitative and quantitative method based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) and photodiode array (PDA) and electrospray ionization–quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-Q-TOF/MS) was developed, verified, and used to determine the quinoline alkaloids in Dictamnus dasycarpus and Zanthoxylum schinifolium, belonging to the Rutaceae family. Excellent analyte peak resolution was achieved on both quaternary and binary pumps by using acetonitrile and water containing 0.1% formic acid as the mobile phase using a C18 column. All alkaloids exhibited maximum absorption wavelength from 239 to 244 nm. The analytes were ionized as quasi-molecular ions [M + H]+ in MS and were characterized by using fragmentation ions formed by collision-induced dissociation (CID). This information was included in a library that was used to qualitatively identify alkaloids. The proposed method showed excellent linearity (r2 > 0.9988), limits of detection (PDA ≤ 25 ng/mL, MS ≤ 1.2 ng/mL), limits of quantification (PDA ≤ 75 ng/mL, MS ≤ 3.6 ng/mL), precision (in terms of relative standard deviation) of PDA ≤ 1.81% and MS 5.7%,. Liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) were conducted to separate and purify the alkaloids from the extracts. The analyte recoveries were determined to be PDA ≤ 103.11% and MS ≤ 104.45%. The method proceeded to deliver the comparable results for the determination of alkaloid components in samples. The developed UPLC-PDA and UPLC-ESI-Q-TOF/MS protocol facilitated the rapid, qualitative and quantitative identification of alkaloids in plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: BACKGROUND: A vitamin B6 derivative, 4′‐O‐methylpyridoxine (MPN), is responsible for food poisoning by Ginkgo biloba seeds. In this study, we investigate the content of pyridoxine and MPN in MPN standard solution and G. biloba seed extract solution upon heat treatment in order to evaluate the reduction of toxic components in G. biloba seed by such treatment. RESULTS: Heat treatment was conducted at 90–150 °C for 0–60 min, and all samples were adjusted to the same concentration of 1 g L−1. The MPN content decreased to 994.92–563.69 mg kg−1 for MPN standard solution and to 371.56–76.84 mg kg−1 for G. biloba seed extract solution, and in both cases decreased even further with increasing heat treatment time. However, in all samples, except for the 90 °C heat treatment group, the pyridoxine content in MPN standard solution increased with increasing heat temperature and time; in addition, the extract solution showed a similar tendency. This may be the result of thermal degradation of MPN into pyridoxine. CONCLUSION: We can expect to improve the utilization of functional food materials by applying suitable heat treatment conditions and decreasing the MPN content of the G. biloba seed. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a new analytical method based on dry ashing followed by Si removal was developed for the determination of Zn in polycarbonate (PC)‐conducting polymers containing fiber‐type SiO2 fillers. Since major matrices of the polymers, i.e., PC and SiO2 fibers, were removed during the treatment, low interference and reproducible result were achieved in inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). When the developed method was applied to PC polymers used for electrical appliances, the recovery was obtained in the range of 103.5% to 108.8% with relative standard deviations of <12.1%. Furthermore, the determined polymers were used as reference materials for laser‐ablation ICP‐MS (LA‐ICP‐MS) and laser induced‐breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in order to test the feasibility of screening and quality control. Although the mapping images of LIBS showed severe inhomogeneity, the averaged intensities of LIBS and LA‐ICP‐MS displayed reasonable correlations with the determined concentrations of Zn. The result indicates that both methods have a potential for screening and quantitative analysis of the conducting polymers used in manufacturing process, even if fiber‐type SiO2 fillers were embedded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]