This study presented both the empirical and artificial neural network (ANN) approaches to estimate the moisture content of Mentha spicata. Two different types of drying methods (in shade and in oven (35 and 50°C)) were used to investigate the drying kinetics of the Mentha spicata samples. The effects of drying methods on effective diffusion coefficient, moisture ratio (MR), drying rate, and activation energy were investigated. Moreover, six different thin layer drying models (Page, Diffusion approach, Newton, Modified Henderson, Henderson and Pabis and Pabis and Midilli) and an ANN with feed forward structure were used to define the drying kinetics of these samples. In order to estimate the kinetic model parameters, sequential quadratic programming (SQP) was used. Model performances were evaluated based on the coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE%) values. In the kinetic part of the modeling study, the Midilli model provided better results than the others. However, the ANN had the best results when a total assessment was made. The effective diffusion coefficient values were found in the range between 1.31 × 10–12 and 4.43 × 10–12 m2/s. The activation energy was obtained as 44.31 kJ/kmol. The R2, MAPE%, and RMSE values for the ANN test data were 1.00, 0.2257, and 5.9447 × 10−4, respectively. In the future, different modeling approaches will be applied to describe this drying process. Practical applications Drying is a process where heat transfer and mass transfer take place together. Modeling is an innovative approach used in evaluation of experimental data and has increasing popularity in recent years. ANNs are a powerful data‐driven method, and they have a very broad area of usage from medicine to engineering issues. Empirical models are another approach for describing experimental data. In this study, these two modeling approaches were used to obtain the MR. Humidity is a condition that needs to be checked in food safety and protection. Therefore, it is very important to ensure control with robust modeling techniques. In this study, the developed ANN model had a high R2 value (R2 = 1.00). This indicated that it may be used successfully in real applications.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a common cancer type, especially among men. Although cucurbitacin I (CuI), widely found in plants belonging to the Ecballium elaterium (E. L) plant family, has been shown to have antitumorigenic properties in many cancer types, its anticancer effect, molecular mechanism, and apoptotic effect mediated by signal pathways on hepatocellular carcinoma have not been fully clarified. In the present study, we investigated the anticancer effect of CuI treated at different doses on the HepG2 cell line and the underlying mechanism in vitro. High-purity CuI was obtained from the E. elaterium plant with the aid of HPLC. The effects of this substance on the viability of cells were studied by the MTT assay. The effects of CuI on cell cycle progression and apoptosis were studied with flow cytometry. DNA breaks were analyzed by the Comet assay method.The proteins and genes involved in the JAK/STAT3, MAPK/ERK, and AKT/mTOR signaling pathways were investigated using Western blot and qRT-PCR, respectively. The results of this study demonstrated that CuI significantly reduced HepG2 cell growth in vitro, induced antiproliferation, and G2/M phase of the cell cycle was interrupted. Practical applicationsCuI administration was shown to downregulate the levels of proteins in the PI3K/ AKT/mTOR, MAPK, and JAK2/STAT3 cascades in HepG2 cells. CuI also reduced the expression of MAPK, STAT3, mTOR, JAK2, and Akt genes in different concentrations.DNA breaks are formed as a result of this effect. CuI, by reducing cell proliferation and promoting apoptosis, was found to have potential as a chemotherapeutic agent of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Cucurbitacin D (CuD) is a natural compound that can be isolated in various plant families, mainly from Ecballium Elaterium (L.) A. Rich. (E. Elaterium). It is a triterpenoid with a broad spectrum of biological activity, including anti-cancer properties. Hepatocellular carcinoma, the aggressive type of liver cancer, is an important public health problem worldwide. Objective: In the present study, we investigated the anticancer effect of CuD treated at different doses on the HepG2 cell line and the underlying mechanism in vitro. Method: CuD was isolated from the fruit juice of E. Elaterium plant and quantitative analysis was performed using high-performance liquid chromatography. The cell viability effect of purified CuD was determined by the MTT test also cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest effects were determined by flow cytometry. DNA damage was evaluated with the comet test. Proteins and genes involved in PI3K/AKT/mTOR, MAPK, and JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathways were evaluated by western blot and qRT-PCR. Result: CuD showed both antiproliferative and cytotoxic effects against the HepG2 cell line in a dose and time-dependent manner. It was observed that CuD induced apoptosis and blocked the cell cycle in HepG2 cells. It was observed that the expression of genes and some proteins that play a key role in PI3K/AKT/mTOR, MAPK, and JAK2/STAT3 cascades were dose-dependently down-regulated and activated the apoptotic pathway. Conclusion: All these results; show promise that CuD may have a therapeutic effect in liver cancer with HCC.

The objective of this study was to develop a rapid, economic, and efficient method for simultaneous selective isolation, separation, and purification of cucurbitacin D and I from Ecballium elaterium (L.) A. Rich fruit juice via reversed-phase flash chromatography combined with HPLC. The chloroform extract of the fruit juice was fractionated with flash chromatography using a chloroform, acetone and methanol solvent combination at a 5 ml/min flow rate. Then, a validated HPLC method was utilized for purification of the two targeted cucurbitacins. Cucurbitacin D and I were collected automatically by the fraction collector. The fractions containing the same compounds were pooled and lyophilized. The purified cucurbitacin D and I compounds were identified by NMR, LC-MS, and UV spectra analysis. The results suggest that the applied procedure is simple, quick, and highly efficient. The HPLC method was found to be linear, accurate, precise and rugged for the quantification of the cucurbitacins studied.

A series of acrylamide (AAm) based hydrogels containing acrylic acid (AAc), 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) and vinyl imidazole (VI) comonomers were prepared by free radical polymerization. Silver nanoparticles were loaded to hydrogels systems via in situ reduction of silver nitrate in the presence of sodium borohydride as a reducing agent. The synthesized hydrogels and their composites were characterized using FT-IR, SEM, EDX and EDX-Mapping. The antimicrobial activity of hydrogel-silver composite was determined by using well agar and broth dilution tests. In the first stage, four different hydrogel-silver composites were evaluated against six different microorganisms using the well agar technique. The most effective hydrogel-silver composite among all tested was poly (AAm-co-VI-co-AMPS)-Ag, while the most sensitive and resistant microorganisms among all tested were S. cerevisiae and S. aureus respectively. Poly (AAm-co-VI-co-AMPS)-Ag composite was used in modeling the inhibition kinetic of E.coli. The present study displays that hydrogel-silver composite has considerable antimicrobial activity, which deserves further investigation for use in clinic application and industrial processing.2 Graphical Abstract KEYWORDS: Acrylamide based hydrogels, hydrogel-silver composites, antimicrobial activity, inhibition kinetic.

Telomerase activity is dependent on the expression level of human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) in cancer cells. hTERT messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is expressed in more than 85% of cancer cells, but not in normal human somatic cells. Therefore, the proliferation of human cancer cells can be arrested by telomerase inhibition. We aimed to investigate the effect of cucurbitacin I on the inhibition of hTERT mRNA expression in LS174T colorectal carcinoma cells. After treating the LS174T cells with various concentrations (2.5-125 ng/mL) of cucurbitacin I for 24 h, total RNA was extracted and cDNA was synthesized. Real-time PCR was used for quantitative assessment of hTERT mRNA gene expression versus control group. The level of hTERT mRNA was calculated via normalized to β-actin mRNA level which uniformly expressed housekeeping gene, within each sample. The results of our investigation suggested that cucurbitacin I significantly inhibited telomerase activity and showed a considerable decrease in mRNA expression of hTERT in the treated cells in comparison with the control cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Preliminary study shows that cucurbitacin I is effective for the inhibition of telomerase activity in colorectal cancer.

The objective of this study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of cucurbitacin I (CuI) and Ecballium elaterium L. (fruit juice and chloroform extract) on breast cancer cells (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231). The CuI content of E. elaterium fruit juice and chloroform extract was quantified using high performance liquid chromatography. The cytotoxic effects of the fruit juice, chloroform extract and CuI were determined by MTT, wound healing and colony formation assays; all had an anti-proliferative activity on the breast cancer cells. Clarifying the mechanisms of cucurbitacins will enable the identification of new molecular targets for breast cancer therapy.

In this study, the aim was to microwave dry Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. leaves, while evaluating the role of microwave power regarding drying behavior, drying rate, drying time, drying kinetics, moisture diffusivity, energy consumption and essential oil yield. The leaves were dried by microwave at four different power levels (180, 360, 600 and 720 W). The results found that increasing the increment power levels decreased the time for drying and increased the drying rate. To fit the experimental data, nine widely used thin layer drying kinetics models were used. The analysis of the drying curves indicated that the Page model was the most appropriate. There was a significant difference in moisture diffusivity between 2.36×10 -11 and 11.45×10 -11 m 2 /s. Increasing microwave power was led to an increase in moisture diffusivity. In accordance with the Arrhenius equation, a value of 7.4225 W/g was determined for the activation energy. In terms of specific energy consumption, the results ranged from 8.56 to 9.93 kWh/kg. When leaves were dried with a microwave power of 180 W, the maximum yield of essential oil was obtained.Bu çalışmada, Okaliptüs camaldulensis Dehnh. yapraklarının mikrodalga kurutulması bu esnada mikrodalga gücünün kuruma davranışı, kuruma hızı, kuruma süresi, kuruma kinetiği, nem diffüzivitesi, enerji tüketimi ve uçucu yağ verimi üzerindeki etkisinin değerlendirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Yapraklar dört farklı mikrodalga güç seviyesinde (180, 360, 600 ve 720 W) kurutulmuştur. Sonuçlar, artan güç seviyelerinin kuruma süresini azalttığını ve kuruma hızının arttığını göstermiştir. Deneysel veriler, yaygın olarak kullanılan dokuz ince tabaka kurutma kinetiği modeline uydurulmuş ve Page modelinin kurutma eğrilerine uyan en iyi model olduğu bulunmuştur. Efektif nem diffüzivitesi 2.36×10 -11 -11.45×10 -11 m 2 /s aralığında bulunmuştur. Artan mikrodalga gücü, nem yayılımında bir artışa yol açmıştır. Aktivasyon enerjisi Arrhenius denklemine göre 7.4225 W/g olarak belirlenmiştir. Spesifik enerji tüketimi 8.56 ile 9.93 kWh/kg arasında değişmektedir. Maksimum uçucu yağ verimi, 180 W mikrodalga gücünde kurutulan yapraklardan elde edilmiştir.