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.
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.
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.
Bu çalışmada, asidik bir boyarmadde olan Asit Mavi 193 (Isolan Dark Blue 2S-GL-03)'ün sulu çözeltiden yeni sentezlenen poli(Akrilamid-Vinilimidazol) (poli(AAm-VI)) hidrojeli kullanılarak kesikli sistemde adsorpsiyon ile giderimi incelenmiştir. Sentezlenen hidrojelin SEM, FTIR ve TGA yöntemleri ile karakterizasyonu yapılmıştır. Adsorpsiyon prosesi üzerine boyarmaddenin başlangıç derişimi, çözeltinin başlangıç pH değeri, hidrojel miktarı, temas süresi ve karıştırma hızının etkileri araştırılmıştır. Hidrojel miktarı arttığı zaman adsorplanan boya miktarının arttığı belirlenmiştir. En fazla adsorpsiyon pH 1.5 değerinde meydana geldiği gözlenmiştir. Başlangıç Asit Mavi 193 boyar madde derişimi, çözeltinin başlangıç pH değeri, karıştırma hızı ve hidrojel miktarı sırasıyla 250 mg/L, 1.5, 600 rpm ve 2 g/L iken 90 dakika işlem süresi sonunda elde edilen giderim yüzdesi %99.8'dir. Boyarmaddenin poli(AAm-VI) hidrojeli ile arasındaki ilişkiyi ifade etmek için Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin ve Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorpsiyon izotermeleri kullanılmış ve kinetik analizleri yapılmıştır. Korelasyon katsayısının (R2) değeri, farklı modellerin en iyi model uyumu göstergesi olarak kullanılmış ve denge verilerinin R2'leri büyük olan Freundlich izoterm modeline ve yalancı ikinci mertebe kinetik modeline uyduğu belirlenmiştir. Sonuçlar, poli (AAm-VI) hidrojelin, asidik boyalarının kirli sudan uzaklaştırılması için uygun bir sorbent olarak kullanılabileceğini göstermiştir.In this study, the removal of acidic dyestuff, Acid Blue 193 (Isolan Dark Blue 2S-GL-03) from the aqueous solution by using the newly synthesized poly (Acrylamide-Vinimidimidazole) (poly (AAm-VI)) hydrogel in the batch system was investigated by adsorption. The synthesized hydrogel was characterized by SEM, FTIR and TGA methods. The effects of the initial concentration of dyestuff , initial pH value of solution, hydrogel dosage, contact time and stirring speed on the adsorption process were studied. It was determined that the amount of the adsorbed dyestuff increased when hydrogel dosage increased. The maximum adsorption was observed to occur at pH 1.5. While the initial solution concentration, initial pH value, contact time, stirring speed, and hydrogel dosage were 250 mg/L, 1.5, 90 minute, 600 rpm, and 2 g/L, respectively, the efficiency of dye adsorption on hydrogel was 99.8%. Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption isotherms were used to express the relationship of dyestuff with poly (AAm-VI) hydrogel and kinetic analyzes were performed. The correlation coefficient (R2) was used as an indicator of the best model fit of the different models and it was determined that the equilibrium data fit the Freundlich isotherm model and the pseudo second order kinetic model which have large R2 values. The results showed that poly (AAm-VI) hydrogel could be used as a suitable sorbent to remove acidic dyes from contaminated water.
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.
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