Vaccinium arctostaphylos fruit (VAF) has long been an important source of food and pharmaceutical ingredients and is considered to have high antioxidant potential. Growing V. arctostaphylos in Turkey is a substantial food, but information about its antioxidant activities is scarce. Other pharmacological properties of V. arctostaphylos, specifically antioxidant activity, contents of total phenolic, total flavonoid, total anthocyanin and ascorbic acid, are also not well explored. This study was designed to explore the in vitro antioxidant activities of ethanol extracts and chemical compositions such as ascorbic acid, total phenols, flavonoids and anthocyanins in V. arctostaphylos fruit and their jam (VAJ). Antioxidant activity, total phenolics, flavonoids, anthocyanins and ascorbic acid content changed during processing of jam depends on temperature. The results obtained in this study indicate that V. arctostaphylos fruit and their jam are potential sources of natural antioxidant.
Practical Applications
We applied a lot of antioxidant tests such as total antioxidant activity, reducing power, hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, ferrous ion chelating activity and DPPH radical‐scavenging activity. On the other hand, we determined the phenolic, flavonoid, anthocyanin and ascorbic acid in the Vaccinium arctostaphylos fruit and their jam. Higher processing temperatures caused a reduction in the antioxidant capability of the jam and the ascorbic acid concentration. Although the antioxidant activity found in various in vitro methods is the indication of only potential health benefit, the results remain important as a first step in screening the antioxidant activity of V. arctostaphylos fruit and their jam.
We have tested whether some pesticides might cause inner membrane leakage in ML35 Escherichia coli cells, which express beta-galactosidase (lacZ; EC 3.2.1.23) constitutively but lack the permease (lacY) required for substrate entry. The activity of beta-galactosidase (indicative of substrate leakage through the inner membrane) was increased by various concentrations of pesticides, including the organometallic fungicides maneb and mancozeb, the insecticide Thiodan, and the herbicide Ally, as well as by antibiotics such as ampicillin, gramicidin D, and the calcium ionophore A23187. The enzyme activity was increased by up to approximately 30% when the E. coli ML35 strain was exposed to various concentrations (between 50 and 250 ppm) of both fungicides. Thiodan had only a slight effect on beta-galactosidase activity (increase of 12.8%), whereas, among the antibiotics, the calcium ionophore at 20 microg/ml caused a significant increase in enzyme activity by up to 61.8%. This effect is similar to that of sodium dodecyl sulfate, used as positive control ( approximately 70% increase). Accumulation of maneb and mancozeb by bacterial cells was also studied taking advantage of their metal content and using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. In parallel with the increase in enzyme activity, both fungicides accumulated in the cells as a function of their concentration. Time course experiments (3, 6, and 9 h) of fungicide accumulation and of bacterial growth at various pesticide concentrations were also carried out. Maneb seems to inhibit the bacterial growth better than mancozeb. In addition, maneb uptake increases with time up to 9 h at all tested concentrations, whereas the accumulation of mancozeb is similar at all the exposure times tested. This indicates a different uptake and/or metabolizing strategy by E. coli cells for the two fungicides.
In this study; a novel all‐solid‐state type potentiometric microsensor based on ion‐imprinted polymer (IIP) has been developed for Cu(II) sensing. The IIP was synthesized by suspension polymerization by using Cu(II) ion, methacrylamide, methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as template, functional monomers and cross‐linker respectively. The resultant Cu(II)‐imprinted polymer was used as ionophore in the structure of the PVC membrane to obtain a selective potentiometric response towards Cu(II) ions. The fabricated microsensor exhibited a highly selective Nernstian response (28.6±2.2 mV per decade) over the concentration range of 10−1 to 10−6 mol L−1 of Cu2+ ion for 2 months without any considerable divergence in potentials. The response time of the microsensor was considerably short (less than 15 s) and its detection limit was determined as 7.6×10−7 mol L−1. The microsensor was effectively performed in the pH range of 4–7. The microsensor was successfully used as an indicator electrode in the potentiometric titration of Cu(II) ions with EDTA. The proposed microsensor was also used for the determination of Cu(II) contents of some environmental water samples. The obtained potentiometric results were in good harmony with the results obtained by the AAS method.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.