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Different approaches employed in the passively driven microfluidics and LOC devices.

Colon cancer is a world-wide health problem and the second-most dangerous type of cancer, affecting both men and women. The modern diet and lifestyles, with high meat consumption and excessive alcohol use, along with limited physical activity has led to an increasing mortality rate for colon cancer worldwide. As a result, there is a need to develop novel and environmentally benign drug therapies for colon cancer. Currently, nutraceuticals play an increasingly important role in the treatment of various chronic diseases such as colon cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer׳s disease. Nutraceuticals are derived from various natural sources such as medicinal plants, marine organisms, vegetables and fruits. Nutraceuticals have shown the potential to reduce the risk of colon cancer and slow its progression. These dietary substances target different molecular aspects of colon cancer development. Accordingly, this review briefly discusses the medicinal importance of nutraceuticals and their ability to reduce the risk of colorectal carcinogenesis.

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Volatile oils of Aquilaria malaccensis Benth. (Thymelaeaceae) from Malaysia were obtained by hydrodistillation and subjected to detailed GC-FID and GC/MS analyses to determine possible similarities and differences in their chemical composition in comparison with the commercial oil. A total of thirty-one compounds were identified compared with twenty-nine identified in the commercial oil. The major compounds identified were 4-phenyl-2-butanone (32.1%), jinkoh-eremol (6.5%) and α-guaiene (5.8%), while the major compounds in the commercial oil were α-guaiene (10.3%), caryophellene oxide (8.6%), and eudesmol (3.2%). The results of the present study showed that more than nine sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were present, which is more than previously reported. Analysis also showed that the number of oxygenated sesquiterpenes in this study were much less than previously reported. Among the compounds detected were α-guaiene, β-agarofuran, α-bulnesene, jinkoh-eremol, kusunol, selina-3,11-dien-9-one, oxo-agarospirol and guaia-1(10),11-dien-15,2-olide.

A new pseudocapacitive combination, viz. CoO-MnO 2 −MnCo 2 O 4 hybrid nanowires (HNWs), is synthesized using a facile single-step hydrothermal process, and its properties are benchmarked with conventional battery-type flower-shaped MnCo 2 O 4 obtained by similar processing. The HNWs showed high electrical conductivity and specific capacitance (C s ) (1650 F g −1 or 184 mA h g −1 at 1 A g −1 ) with high capacity retention, whereas MnCo 2 O 4 nanoflower electrode showed only one-third conductivity and one-half of its capacitance (872 F g −1 or 96 mA h g −1 at 1 A g −1 ) when used as a supercapacitor electrode in 6 M KOH electrolyte. The structure−property relationship of the materials is deeply investigated and reported herein. Using the HNWs as a pseudocapacitive electrode and commercial activated carbon as a supercapacitive electrode we achieved battery-like specific energy (E s ) and supercapacitor-like specific power (P s ) in aqueous alkaline asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs). The HNWs ASCs have shown high E s (90 Wh kg −1 ) (volumetric energy density E v ≈ 0.52 Wh cm −3 ) with P s up to ∼10 4 W kg −1 (volumetric power density P v ≈ 5 W cm −3 ) in 6 M KOH electrolyte, allowing the device to store an order of magnitude more energy than conventional supercapacitors.

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Agarwood or gaharu is resin-impregnated wood of the tree genus Aquilaria (Thymelaeaceae). In Malaysia, the main agarwood producer is Aquilaria malaccensis and oil extracted from this species is highly priced. One of the challenges in commercializing agarwood is the lack of universal standard to classify the aromatic oils. Our present knowledge places the main aromatic compounds of agarwood oil in the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon region. In this work, we extracted agarwood oil using hydrodistillation method in the laboratory and compared with a commercial-scale extraction in the factory. We analyzed the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon region using several highly sophisticated detection systems. Using GC-FID, 12 sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were identifi ed, while another eight were determined using GC-MS. Five compounds were identifi ed in both analytical techniques: aromadendrene, α-bulnesene, α-guaiene, γ-gurjunene, and β-maaliene. Advanced analysis using GC × GC/TOFMS detected 24 sesquiterpene hydrocarbons in both laboratory and pilot scale agarwood oils. Many of the sesquiterpene hydrocarbons identifi ed provide the woody aroma to the agarwood oil. Specifi cally, α-gurjunene and α-guaiene contribute to the woody balsamic aroma, while α-copaene contributes to the spicy-wood aroma. In total, 33 sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were identifi ed from A. malaccensis in the present study, with high certainty. Results from this study can be used toward establishing a universal standard for agarwood oil from the genus Aquilaria in the global market, which is presently lacking.