A gloomy view of modern society based on the assumption that those in charge form a "cognitive élite" which is likely to be dynastic mischievously begs too many questions.

No abstract

Flavanol depleted whole fresh green tea leaf powder, as reported in the literature, was used as matrix for a systematic study of the endogenous oxidative enzymatic conversion of selected flavanol combinations to theaflavins and thearubigins. The activity of the two crucial enzymes polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) was controlled individually through addition of H2O2 and/or O2. Using the endogenous peroxidase only it was shown that (-)-epicatechin alone did not react with POD. According to these results it is possible that theaflavin formation occurs via reaction of a flavanol quinone with a nonquinone flavanol. It was confirmed that only a dihydroxy-B-ring flavanol with a trihydroxy-B-ring flavanol gave a theaflavin upon enzymatic oxidation. Use of horseradish peroxidase in the presence of a flavanol depleted tea leaf matrix led to significantly higher kinetics on theaflavin 3-gallate degradation compared to the absence of leaf matrix, suggesting a catalytic effect of the leaf matrix not reported before.

et al. / A novel water-soluble fluorescent probe Mass spectrometry. (5-I3C)-Retinal: m/z 285 (M + ); I3C incorporation calcd. from the mass spectra: 85%; exact mass calcd. for '3C,,'3CH,,0: 258.2174; found: 285.2164. ( 18-'3C)-Retinal: m/z 285 ( M + ) ; I3C incorporation calcd. from the mass spectra: 92.4%.from the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research (ZWO). The authors wich to hank Drs. C. Erkelens and Mr. F. Lefeber for recording the NMR spectra and Mr. J . J. van Houte for recording the mass spectra. The manuscript was reviewed by Miss S. Amadio.Abstract. The reaction of the 3,3',5,5'-tetramethyI-2,2'-pyrromethen-1,l '-BF, complex with chlorosulfonic acid and its subsequent neutralisation with sodium bicarbonate yields the titled compound 1, which, in addition to appropriate thermal and photochemical stability, possesses excellent fluorescent properties. As a preliminary assay of its potential usefulness as a fluorescent probe in medical and biological research, the chemical was administered intravenously to rats and possible signs of toxicity were recorded. The rats showed no apparent detrimental effects and excreted the compound in the urine within three hours. In tests in which Salmonella and E. coli strains were used as indicators of genotoxicity, no mutagenic effects were observed.

Chemical communication is common among animals. In humans, the chemical basis of social communication has remained a black box, despite psychological and neural research showing distinctive physiological, behavioral, and neural consequences of body odors emitted during emotional states like fear and happiness. We used a multidisciplinary approach to examine whether molecular cues could be associated with an emotional state in the emitter. Our research revealed that the volatile molecules transmitting different emotions to perceivers also have objectively different chemical properties. Chemical analysis of underarm sweat collected from the same donors in fearful, happy, and emotionally neutral states was conducted using untargeted two-dimensional (GC×GC) coupled with time of flight (ToF) MS-based profiling. Based on the multivariate statistical analyses, we find that the pattern of chemical volatiles (N = 1655 peaks) associated with fearful state is clearly different from that associated with (pleasant) neutral state. Happy sweat is also significantly different from the other states, chemically, but shows a bipolar pattern of overlap with fearful as well as neutral state. Candidate chemical classes associated with emotional and neutral sweat have been identified, specifically, linear aldehydes, ketones, esters, and cyclic molecules (5 rings). This research constitutes a first step toward identifying the chemical fingerprints of emotion.