Chitosan is a promising biopolymer for drug delivery systems. Because of its beneficial properties, chitosan is widely used in biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. In this review, we summarize the physicochemical and drug delivery properties of chitosan, selected studies on utilization of chitosan and chitosan-based nanoparticle composites in various drug delivery systems, and selected studies on the application of chitosan films in both drug delivery and wound healing. Chitosan is considered the most important polysaccharide for various drug delivery purposes because of its cationic character and primary amino groups, which are responsible for its many properties such as mucoadhesion, controlled drug release, transfection, in situ gelation, and efflux pump inhibitory properties and permeation enhancement. This review can enhance our understanding of drug delivery systems particularly in cases where chitosan drug-loaded nanoparticles are applied.

Methyl esters from vegetable oils have attracted a great deal of interest as substitute for petrodiesel to reduce dependence on imported petroleum and provide an alternate and sustainable source for fuel with more benign environmental properties. In the present study biodiesel was prepared from sunflower seed oil by transesterification by alkali-catalyzed methanolysis. The fuel properties of sunflower oil biodiesel were determined and discussed in the light of ASTM D6751 standards for biodiesel. The sunflower oil biodiesel was chemically characterized with analytical techniques like FT-IR, and NMR ((1)H and (13)C). The chemical composition of sunflower oil biodiesel was determined by GC-MS. Various fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were identified by retention time data and verified by mass fragmentation patterns. The percentage conversion of triglycerides to the corresponding methyl esters determined by (1)H NMR was 87.33% which was quite in good agreement with the practically observed yield of 85.1%.

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Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda and Tachypleus gigas may co-exist and share common spawning grounds elsewhere but at Balok (East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia), C. rotundicauda is an understudied species. Neglected as research candidate because of inaccessible spawning grounds, smaller size and less commercial value than T. gigas and also, difficulty to attain from the wild has made C. rotundicauda population status remaining unidentified at Balok. This standpoint drove the present attempt because anthropic activities like structure placement and mining are pointsource for runoffs that load sediments into Balok River. While erosion-accretion events have altered Balok River width, the shore sediments in Balok Beach were transitioned between medium-fine and fine sand between years 2012 and

Clay is an inherently occurring material constituted with fined-grained mineral. The minerals are generally less than 2 microns and occur to be plastic in water content which solidify when dried. In the earth surface, clay represents the most available mineral and forms rocks known as shale and is the major component of sedimentary rocks. The small size of the particles and their unique crystal structures give clay materials special properties. These properties include: cation exchange capabilities, plastic behaviour when wet, catalytic abilities, swelling behaviour, and low permeability. They give to clay and clay-based minerals higher application in many industries and processes. To acknowledge all the features of clay and clay-based minerals, the understanding of their properties especially the cation exchange capability which affects the mechanical and physical properties of the clay is important, and also to acquire information about the crystal structure of clay mineral in general and montmorillonite especially. The purpose of this laboratory is to illustrate the importance of chemistry on the physical properties of montmorillonite, the clay mineral most often used to isolate dangerous waste materials from the environment.

This study aimed to isolate and evaluate the antagonistic potential of actinomycetes from mangrove forest of Pahang, Malaysia. Sediment samples from seven different sites were pretreated using wet heat and dry heat methods followed by dilution plating on eight isolation media. In total, 4850 isolates were successfully recovered, with inorganic salt-starch agar displaying the highest percentage of recovery (31.7%), followed by actinomycete isolation agar (24.1%). The wet heat pretreatment was found to be more effective in the enumeration of actinomycetes, since 81.4% of total isolates were yielded using this technique, whereas dry heat treatment was better in the enumeration of spore-forming actinomycetes. After both pretreatments, Streptomyces-like and Micromonospora-like isolates were the most predominant. The antagonistic activities of the representative isolates were evaluated using the cross-streak method. In total, 78 isolates were active against at least one of the test organisms. Among them, 28.2% exhibited antibacterial activity, 23.1% exhibited antifungal activity and 48.7% displayed both. Nine isolates demonstrated broad antagonism by inhibiting the growth of all test organisms. The presence of a relatively large number of bioactive isolates suggests that Pahang mangrove forest is a potential source of actinomycetes with biosynthetic capabilities.

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