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Pomegranate seed oil is a highly unsaturated fatty acid and liable to be oxidized; hence, oil was encapsulated to protect its bioactive materials and increase shelf life with the most common spray drying technique. Whey protein (WP) alone and in combination with Maltodextrin (MD) in the ratio 1:4 weight was utilized. Feed emulsion, droplet size, encapsulation efficiency (EE), moisture, bulk density, powder morphology, particle size, hygroscopicity, and solubility were also analyzed. The spray drying conditions were applied: inlet temperature 125 to 150°C and outlet 60 to 67°C, airflow rate 40-42 m

In this study, the chemical composition and oxidative stability of cold-pressed flaxseed, black seed, pumpkin seed, walnut seed, and poppy seed oils were examined. The results showed that the seed oils contained appreciable amounts of unsaturated fatty acids (above 79 %). Polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly linoleic acids were dominant, with values ranging from 53.24 % - 71.37 % of the total amount of fatty acids except for pumpkin seed oil. Tocols content was found to be between ~ 490-932 mg kg-1, and the flaxseed oil exhibited the highest levels of total tocopherols (977.47 mg kg-1) under the experimental conditions. While, the highest PV was found in walnut seed oil (2.81 meq O2 kg-1), and the highest content of FFAs was reported for flaxseed oil (1.82 %). OSI values were 4.15, 3.57, 4.31, 3.98 and 4.92 h for the flaxseed, black seed, pumpkin seed, walnut seed, and poppy seed oils, respectively. The obtained data suggest that the seed oils in this study may serve as special dietary sources., Bu çalışmada, soğuk pres keten tohumu, çörek otu, kabak çekirdeği, ceviz ve haşhaş tohumu yağlarının kimyasal bileşimi ve oksidatif stabilitesi incelenmiştir. Sonuçlar, çekirdek yağlarının kayda değer miktarlarda doymamış yağ asitlerini içerdiğini (% 79'un üzerinde), bunlar arasında ise çoklu doymamış yağ asitlerinin, özellikle de linoleik asitlerin, kabak çekirdeği yağı hariç diğer yağlardaki toplam yağ asidi miktarının % 53.24 ile % 71.37'si arasındaki değerlerde baskın olduğunu göstermiştir. Yağların tokol içeriği ~ 490-932 mg kg-1 arasında bulunmuş ve deney koşullarındaki en yüksek toplam tokoferol düzeyi (977.47 mg kg-1) keten tohumu yağında tespit edilmiştir. En yüksek PV değeri ceviz yağında rapor edilmiş (2.81 meq O2 kg-1), en yüksek FFA içeriği ise keten tohumu yağında (%1.82) bulunmuştur. OSI değerleri; keten tohumu, çörek otu, kabak çekirdeği, ceviz ve haşhaş tohumu yağları için sırasıyla 4.15, 3.57, 4.31, 3.98 ve 4.92 saat olarak tespit edilmiştir. Elde edilen veriler, bu çalışmadaki tohum yağlarının özel diyet kaynakları olarak kullanılabileceğini göstermektedir.

The quality and thermo-oxidative stability of soybean oil (SO), palm olein oil (POO), canola oil (CO) and their blends were evaluated. The binary blends of SO:POO and CO:POO were formulated in a ratio of (75:25) and ternary blend were prepared by blending CO:POO:SO in a ratio of (35:30:35). To monitor the thermal stability of pure oils and their blends, they were subjected to temperature (180°C) at different time intervals. The results revealed that at elevated temperature the quality of pure and blended oils deteriorate significantly. Heating process led to a substantial increase in free fatty acid (FFA), peroxide value (PV), p-anisidine value (p-AV), and saponification value (SV), while iodine value (IV) and oxidative stability index (OSI) decreased. However, blends comparatively showed better nutritional status and stability than the pure ones. The Principal component analysis (PCA) of all parameters was also performed. The data provide three significant principal components (PCs with eigenvalue ˃1), which collectively report 98.8% of the total variance. PC1 contributed mainly with total (50.1%) followed by PC2 (36.2%) and PC3 (12.5%) in the data. This work suggests that blending POO with other oils that contain more unsaturatation could be an effective and eco-friendly procedure which enhances the chemical sustainability and nutritional content of the oil.

This study represents a simple and facile method for the fabrication of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) using Cephradine (Cep) drug as a capping agent. Synthesized Cep-AuNPs have been characterized using different modern analytical techniques such as UV–Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, and Atomic Force Microscopy. The estimated average size of synthesized gold nanoparticles was found up to 30 nm. These Cep-AuNPs has been used for the highly selective and sensitive colorimetric sensing for the mitoxantrone (MX) detection. The linear range of proposed colorimetric sensor responded to MX in the range of 10–100 µg/L. The detection and quantification limit of the sensor was 3.5 µg/L and 11.9 µg/L, respectively. The developed sensor was highly selected and highly efficient for MX detection as compared with other coexisting compounds such as 5Florourical, Capecitabine, Methotrexate (MTX), Zoledronic Acid. This developed sensor was successfully applied for the detection of MX from the real biological samples. The developed colorimetric sensor is sensitive, selective, cheaper and no need for sample preparation and easy to operate. No need expansive instruments.

Zearalenone (ZEA) is the most occurring Fusarium toxin in animal feed causing reproductive disorders and results in severe economical losses. A renewable bio adsorbent sourced from banana peel was tested for in vitro removal of ZEA from liquid mediums at different pH values. Efficacy of banana peel to sequester ZEA was evaluated by varying its pH, adsorbent dosage, equilibration time and quantified by using UHPLC-MS/MS. Adsorption was found to be efficient and completed in fifteen minutes with highest adsorption at alkaline pH (9). The adsorption and desorption studies have demonstrated the adsorption was strong enough to sustain the pH changes (3-9). Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to characterize the surface of bio sorbent to explain the mechanism of adsorption. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm was found to be best fitted model with maximum monolayer capacity (Q0) 8 ng/mg. The results of this study suggested that dried banana peel may be an effective low cost decontamination method to be incorporated in animal feed.

Aim of the present study was to improve the efficiency of processing to achieve a superior quality of canola oil with better recovery. Three sets of canola oil containing crude, neutralized, bleached, deodorized oils and deodorizer distillates (DD) were collected from edible oil processing industries. Important physicochemical properties of the oil were evaluated in all three sets including unsaponifiable matter, phosphorus content and soap content. The industrial processing of set I and II was found to be satisfactory as compared to set III. Therefore, set III was selected for the optimization of different processing parameters during each stage of processing. For neutralization, bleaching and deodorization different parameters were optimized to achieve a better quality of the finished product, good recovery and control of the processing cost. After optimization, physicochemical characteristics of neutralized, bleached, deodorized oil and its DD were evaluated. Also, the loss and recovery of neutral oil were calculated in each processing stage. The results of the present study showed that a slight variation of processing parameters leads to a great impact on the quality and recovery of the canola oil. High contents of free fatty acids (FFA) in DD indicated that it could be used as a potential source of biodiesel production.

The natural co-occurrence of seven Fusarium toxins was analysed in 192 samples including poultry feeds (54) and poultry feed ingredients (138) using ultra high pressure liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Zearalenone (ZEN) and fumonisins (FUM) were found to be the most occurring Fusarium toxins. The levels of ZEN, FUM, deoxynivalenol (DON), nivalenol, 3 or 15 acetyl deoxynivalenol and T2-toxin in feed ingredients and poultry feed ranged between 0–1800 µg/kg, 0–2400 µg/kg, 0–1100 µg/kg, 0–1250 µg/kg, 0–300 µg/kg and 0–1490 µg/kg, respectively. Results of the study indicated that from total analysed samples, 35% were co-contaminated with two or more than two Fusarium toxins but their concentrations were found to be lower than the maximum regulatory limits.

Energy plays a key role in each sector of life ranging from basic needs to better standards of life. The world is concerned about 3 ps (population, poverty, and pollution). The increase of these three factors has led the search of the best alternative sources of energies to fulfill all needs of a modern way of life. Biodiesel is a sustainable energy source that has proved to be the best alternate of mineral diesel that possesses similar properties as found in mineral diesel. The recent trend in biodiesel research is towards the use of very cheap feedstock to make this substitute more economical. Following this similar trend, the attempt is made to produce biodiesel from less expensive feedstock namely; residual oil of spent bleaching clay (SBC). In the first step, the quantity of the residual oil that can be recovered followed by assessing its quality was investigated. Afterward, a two-step method of the transesterification process was employed to enhance the yield of methyl ester. The highest yield of 85% was obtained. Key fuel properties were measured and found in good agreement with ASTMD 6751 standards limits. The study also concerned with the practical availability of biodiesel in terms of its stability. For this purpose, produced biodiesel was evaluated for its oxidation stability during 90 days of storage by FT-IR and rancimat methods.

In this study, we prepare synthetic arsenic-imprinted polymer (As-IP) by simple precipitation polymerization method by using 4-vinyl pyridine and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate as ligand and functional monomer use for the selective elimination of arsenic (As3+) from the aqueous environment. To achieve maximum sorption capacity several factors, i.e., pH, agitation time, shaking speed and sorbent dose were optimized. This prepared polymer was characterized by using SEM, EDX and FT-IR. Adsorption isotherm and kinetic data of As3+ follow the Langmuir isotherm and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The maximum sorption capacity of As-IP is 106.3 mg/g. The limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be 0.87 and 2.9 µg/L, respectivley. The relative selectivity factors of As-IP as compared to NIP for As3+/Cr3+, As3+/Al3+, As3+/Ni2+, As3+/Cu2+, As3+/NO3−, As3+/PO43− and As3+/SO42− were 1.445, 1.779, 1.469, 1.168, 1.481, 1.802 and 2.367, respectively. The adsorption efficiency of As3+ ions by using As-IP from real water samples was approximately 99% which shows that As-IP has good sorption capability and highly selective for the extraction of arsenic ions. Graphical representation of As-IP

Background: Macrolide antibiotics are known as versatile broad-spectrum antibiotics. Macrolides belong to the oldest group of antibacterial agents. The macrolides which are frequently used for clinical purposes are broadly categorized in three classes depending on the number of membered macrocyclic lactone ring. These three classes actually consist of 14, 15 or 16 atoms in macrocyclic lactone ring which are linked through glycosidic bonds. Erythromycin, azithromycin clarithromycin and roxithromycin are frequently used to control against bacterial infections. Methods: The quality assurance and quality controls are important tasks in the pharmaceutical industries. Consequently, to check the quality of drugs, there is a strong need to know about alternative analytical methods for the routine analysis. Many methods have been reported in the literature for the quantitative determination of erythromycin, clarithromycin, azithromycin and clarithromycin in pharmaceutical formulations and biological samples. Results: This review will cover a brief introduction of erythromycin, azithromycin, clarithromycin and roxithromycin as well as analytical techniques for their assessment. Each developed method has its own merits and demerits. Conclusion: Any accurate method could be used for the quality control and quality assurance of macrolide antibiotics according to the availability, performance and procedure of selected instrument as well as skill and expertise of the analyst.

Background: Captopril is the synthetic dipeptide used as an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor. Captopril is used to treat hypertension as well as for the treatment of moderate heart failure. Analytical instrumentation and methodology plays an important role in pharmaceutical analysis. Methods: This review presents some important applications of electrochemical modes used for the analysis of captopril. So far captopril has been analyzed by using different bare and modified working electrodes with a variety of modifiers from organic and inorganic materials to various types of nano particles/materials. Results: This paper presents some of the methods which have been published in the last few years i.e. from 2003 to 2016. This review highlights the role of the analytical instrumentation, particularly electrochemical methods in assessing captopril using various working electrodes. Conclusion: A large number of studies on voltammetry noted by means of various bare and modified electrodes. Among all of the published voltammetric methods, DPV, SWV, CV and miscellaneous modes were trendy techniques used to analyze captopril in pharmaceutical formulations as well as biological samples. Electrodes modified with nanomaterials are promising sensing tools as this showed high sensitivity, good accuracy with precision as well as selectivity. In comparison to chromatographic methods, the main advantages of electrochemical methods are its cheaper instrumentation, lower detection limit and minimal or no sample preparation.

Use of abundant indigenous energy crops for biofuel production contributes to enhance the economy and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. This article aims to shed light on two energy crops available in Pakistan; castor (Ricinus communis L.) and cottonseed (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Although castor has excellent oil content (54%), its high viscosity is not acceptable. Therefore, pre-blending with cottonseed oil was proposed. Physical and chemical properties of crude oils, pure biodiesels and binary blends besides fatty acid composition and degree of unsaturation were analyzed. Biodiesels were checked for quality parameters within limits of American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) and European Standards. Improvement in kinematic viscosity and density of castor biodiesel were noticed following this concept. Moreover, the developed empirical formula indicated that an optimized blending ratio of 93.86% cottonseed oil and 6.14% castor oil accomplished biodiesel yield of 91.12%, kinematic viscosity of 6 mm(2)/s and cetane number of 48.79, respectively, which all satisfy ASTM D6751. This technique also indicated that pre-blending can raise the ester content of castor biodiesel. In conclusion, it is recommended to adopt the concept of pre-blending to improve the quality of biodiesel and thus the engine and emission performance in compression ignition engines.

Herein, we describe the fabrication of green bell pepper, Capsicum annuum L. extract capped gold nanoparticles (CA-AuNPs) in aqueous medium using tetrachloroaurate (HAuCl

The development of efficient emulsion is essential and requires a good understanding of the parameters that govern the formation and stability of the emulsion. The droplet size significantly affects the stability of the emulsion. In this study, the stability of pomegranate oil-in-water emulsions (0.5 to 7.0% v/v) was investigated using various emulsifiers in terms of droplet size and instability index during 16 days of storage. The Mastersizer and Lumisizer were used to measure the droplet size and instability index. It was observed that the minimum droplet size was achieved by using 0.3% carboxy methyl cellulose (5.37 μm) and maximum with 1.0/2.5% whey protein/maltodextrin (24.26 μm). The Lumisizer results during storage revealed the higher emulsion stability of carboxy methyl cellulose due to smaller droplet size and high thickness as compared to other emulsions studied. The findings of the present study would be useful for food applications to obtain fine and stable microcapsules. El desarrollo de una emulsión eficiente es esencial y requiere una buena comprensión de los parámetros que rigen la formación y la estabilidad de la emulsión. El tamaño de la gota afecta significativamente a la estabilidad de la emulsión. En este estudio, se investigó la estabilidad de las emulsiones de aceite de granada en agua (0,5 a 7,0% v/v) usando varios emulsionantes, en términos de tamaño de gota e índice de inestabilidad, durante 16 días de almacenamiento. El Mastersizer y el Lumisizer se usaron para medir el tamaño de gota y el índice de inestabilidad. Se observó que, el tamaño mínimo de gota se logró utilizando 0,3% de carboximetilcelulosa (5,37 μm) y el máximo (24,26 μm), con 1,0/2,5% de proteína de suero/maltodextrina Los resultados del Lumisizer, durante el almacenamiento, revelaron una mayor estabilidad de la emulsión de carboximetilcelulosa debido al tamaño de gota más pequeño y al alto espesor en comparación con otras emulsiones estudiadas. Los resultados del presente estudio se utilizarían en aplicaciones alimentarias para obtener microcápsulas finas y estables.

The present study describes a simple and facile precipitation polymerization technique. For the synthesis of Cd2+ion-imprinted polymer for the selective detoxification of toxic Cd2+ ions from the aqueous samples. The resultant Cd2+-imprinted polymer was characterized by the EDX, SEM, and FTIR. Different parameters were optimized during the adsorption study to achieve the maximum adsorption capability i.e. pH, equilibrium time, temperature shaking speed, and adsorbent dose. The maximum adsorption capacity of Cd2+ion-imprinted polymer was 62.9 mg. g−1 at pH 6. The kinetic study was best defined by pseudo-second-order, while the Langmuir isotherm model well fitted to present data. Good linearity was achieved in (10–100 μg. L−1) concentration range with LOD 0.88 μg. L−1 and LOQ 2.95 μg. L−1. The relative selective factor (K’) of Cd2+-ion and interfering ions was greater than 1 due to the imprinting effect. The developed method was validated by the spiking addition method and obtained good results in accordance with spiking values in real samples. The synthesized ion-imprinted polymer shown higher adsorption capacity than previously reported methods for the selective removal of Cd2+-ions from aqueous samples.

In this study, groundwater of 10 union councils of Larkana city was assessed by using atomic absorption spectrometry following microwave-assisted digestion. A total of 110 groundwater samples were collected by using a Global Positioning System. The results revealed that iron, zinc, nickel, copper, and lead present in the groundwater of Larkana city were within the level of 0.002–0.6 mg/L, 0.02–0.42 mg/L, 1–14.0 mg/L, 0.01–0.87 mg/L, and 0.01–12.0 mg/L, respectively. A total of 38% and 16% of samples showed a higher concentration of iron and lead, respectively. While other elements in the analyzed samples were within the safe limits set by WHO guidelines.

In the present study, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used for the separation of tocopherols and triglycerides of processed soybean oil and deodorizer distillate (DD). The results of normal and reversed-phase modes of HPLC revealed that concentrations of tocopherols and triglycerides content were decreased during the neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization processes. The loss of individual tocopherols ranged between 55.16% and 63.25%. During processing, triglycerides containing stearic-oleic-linoleic (SOL) moieties and palmitic-palmitic-linoleic (PPL) fragments showed greater reduction up to 38.14% and 37.69%, respectively. Among tocopherols and triglycerides; gamma-tocopherol and oleic-oleic-oleic (OOO) were found to be in greater concentrations 5.53% and 19.78%, respectively in DD as compared to their counterparts. A maximum reduction of tocopherols was observed in the deodorization step. DD was found to be a rich source of bioactive components; therefore, it could be used for many industrial applications including pharmaceutical formulations, cosmetics, and food industries.

The presented work demonstrates the preparation of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) via aqueous leaves extract of Ziziphus mauritiana L. ( Zm ) using hydrazine as a reducing agent. Various parameters such as volume of extract, concentration of hydrazine hydrate, concentration of copper chloride, and pH of the solution were optimized to obtain Ziziphus mauritiana L. leaves extract derived copper nanoparticles ( Zm -CuNPs). Brownish red color was initial indication of the formation of Zm -CuNPs while it was confirmed by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band at wavelength of 584 nm using ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. Synthesized Zm -CuNPs were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). AFM images showed that the particle size of Zm -CuNPs was from 7 to 17 nm with an average size of 11.3 nm. Fabricated sensor ( Zm -CuNPs) were used as a colorimetric sensor for the detection of Ag + at a linear range between 0.67 × 10 -6 - 9.3 × 10 -6 with R 2 value of 0.992. For real water samples, limit of quantification (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) for Ag + was found to be 330 × 10 -9 and 100 × 10 -9 , respectively.

A study was conducted to evaluate the natural occurrence of aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2) in cotton seeds (n = 110) and cotton seed cake (CSC; n = 110) from Pakistan. All samples were screene...

Water is an essential component for the survival of humans and animals. Due to industrialization, water is being contaminated with varying polluting agents, arsenic (As) contamination is one of them. An exclusive study was carried out for the determination of As in groundwater of Larkana city using microwave-assisted digestion followed by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). For that purpose, a total of 110 groundwater samples were collected from 10 union councils (UCs) of the city based on global position system (GPS) method. Results revealed that maximum concentration of As was found 17.0 μg/L in UC-6, while in UC-1, UC-2 and UC-10 the concentration of As was found within the permissible limits of WHO. The minimum and maximum mean concentration of As was found 3.59 μg/L and 6.78 μg/L, respectively. Out of 110 ground water samples of Larkana city, 13 samples were found above the permissible limits (~12% of total samples). Hence, water can be used for drinking purpose with caution.

The influence of refining processes on the physicochemical properties including fatty acid composition of cottonseed oil (CSO) was studied. Physicochemical properties were determined by standard AOCS and IUPAC methods. The obtained results of physical parameters showed that neutralization, bleaching and deodorization processes on crude CSO significantly reduced the moisture content, color, freezing point and smoke point, while slightly decrease in refractive index was observed. Similarly, in the case of chemical properties free fatty acids, saponification value and peroxide value were reduced from 1.7 to 0.15%, 175 to 173 mg KOH/g oil and 3.4 to 1.2 mEq O2/Kg oil, respectively. Refining processes did not showed significant effect on the fatty acid composition and iodine value. As, soap contents generated in the chemical neutralization step, therefore soap content were decreased from 61.0 to 15.5 ppm in bleaching and deodorization steps. Moreover, this work suggests that overall deodorization process has greater impact on physicochemical properties to improve the quality and stability of cottonseed oil.

Herein, we describe the fabrication of green bell pepper, Capsicum annuum L. extract capped gold nanoparticles (CA-AuNPs) in aqueous medium using tetrachloroaurate (HAuCl4·3H2O) as precursor salt and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution as accelerator as well as pH adjuster. Formation of CA-AuNPs was verified via colour change from yellowish to ruby red with further confirmation through surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band at 519 nm using ultraviolet violet-visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy. Other characterizations techniques include, Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), dynamic light scattering (DLS) with Zeta-potential analysis (ZPA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) method. The resulting AuNPs were efficaciously implemented as highly sensitive colorimetric sensor for selective detection of Fe2+ in the presence of several interfering cations including Fe3+. Importantly, the fabricated CA-AuNPs based colorimetric sensor functioned linearly in the range of 0.3–7.0 ppb Fe2+, based on increasing absorption intensity with R2 value of 0.9938 using UV–Vis spectrometry. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for Fe2+ were estimated as 0.036 and 0.12 ppb, respectively. Finally, the sensor was effectively tested for determination of Fe2+ in some locally collected real water samples.

The aim of present study was to extract the guava seed oil for its quantitative determination and to evaluate chemical characteristics including fatty acid composition and to compare with reported literature. Average oil content of guava seeds was found to be 11.12 g oil /100g seed. The iodine value, acid value, free fatty acid, peroxide value and saponification value were found to be 120.55 g of I2/100 g oil, 3.74 g/100g of oil, 1.86 g/100 g oil, 4.13 mEq/kg of oil and 190.74 mg/100 g of oil, respectively. Fatty acid composition was evaluated by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. By GC-MS, a total of eighteen fatty acids were identified from which twelve were saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and six were unsaturated fatty acids (USFAs). Among SFAs, palmitic acid, stearic acid and arachidic acid were dominant, while linoleic and oleic acids were main USFAs found in guava seed oil. GC-MS results indicated that guava seed oil is a good source of essential f...

The aim of this study was to quantify free fatty acid in cottonseed oil (Gossypium) variety by a chemometric approach using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Calibration standards were prepared by gravimetrical mixing of oleic acid (0.1–40 g/100 g) in neutralized cottonseed oil containing

In the present study copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) were synthesized using a hydrothermal method with ranolazine as a shape-directing agent. Ranolazine-functionalized CuO NPs were characterized by various analytical techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The SEM pattern confirmed the morphology of ranolazine-functionalized CuO NPs with well-defined rice-like structures. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the interaction between CuO NPs and ranolazine. The XRD analysis indicated that the structure of ranolazine-functionalized CuO NPs was monoclinic crystalline and the size ranged between 9 and 18 nm with an average particle size of 12 nm. The smaller size range of CuO NPs gave a large surface area that enhanced the efficiency of these catalysts employed for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) in the H 2 O system. In homogeneous catalysis, results showed that 50 μL of CuO NPs was required in the presence of NaBH4 for 99% reduction of 4-NP in 240 s. On the other hand, for heterogeneous catalysis, 0.5 mg of CuO NPs was used in the presence of NaBH4 for 99% catalytic reduction of 4-NP to 4-AP in 320 s. The rate of reaction for homogeneous catalysis and heterogeneous catalysis was determined from the plots of In(Ct /C0) of 4-NP versus time (s), which showed good linearity with values of 1.3 × 10 -2 and 8.8 × 10 -3 s -1 . respectively. The high-quality catalytic efficiency, good reusability, nontoxic nature, and low cost are favorable properties of the synthesized CuO NPs for use as efficient catalysts for reduction of 4-AP to 4-NP in both homogeneous and heterogeneous media.