Chloroperoxidase from Caldariomyces fumago catalyses the oxidation of 1,2-dihydronaphthalene to (1R,2R)-(+)-dihydroxytetrahydronaphthalene in homogenous citrate buffer/ionic liquid mixtures, using t-butyl hydroperoxide as O2 donor. It tolerates up to 30 (v/v) 1,3-dimethylimidazolium methylsulfate or 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methylsulfate. The enzyme activity in these ionic liquid co-solvent systems is retained for 24 h, but it falls to 3 h using non-ionic organic solvents such as t-BuOH or acetone.
The valorization of food wastes is a challenging opportunity for a green, sustainable, and competitive development of industry. Approximately 30 million m3 of olive mill wastewater (OMWW) are produced annually in the world as a by-product of the olive oil extraction process. In addition to being a serious environmental and economic issue because of their polluting load, OMWW can also represent a precious resource of high-added-value molecules such as polyphenols that show acclaimed antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities and can find useful applications in the pharmaceutical industry. In particular, the possibility to develop novel nutraceutical ophthalmic formulations containing free radical scavengers would represent an important therapeutic opportunity for all inflammatory diseases of the ocular surface. In this work, different adsorbents were tested to selectively recover a fraction that is rich in polyphenols from OMWW. Afterward, cytotoxicity and antioxidant/anti-inflammatory activities of polyphenolic fraction were evaluated through in vitro tests. Our results showed that the fraction (0.01%) had no toxic effects and was able to protect cells against oxidant and inflammatory stimulus, reducing reactive oxygen species and TNF-α levels. Finally, a novel stable ophthalmic hydrogel containing a polyphenolic fraction (0.01%) was formulated and the technical and economic feasibility of the process at a pre-industrial level was investigated.
Flavonoids are constituents of the human diet (they are present in many beverages and food), and in organisms they are responsible for several biological functions, including that of antioxidant. Because of the increasing interest in these molecules, methods for their synthesis and structural modification are of great importance; studies on the biological activities of many of these compounds are insufficient because of their scarcity and/or high cost. We have developed an expeditious synthesis of polyoxygenated flavones, starting from available and inexpensive flavanones, using a bromination-methoxylation procedure. A series of flavonoids that are not otherwise accessible can be prepared using this method. As an example, 3'-demethoxysudachitin, a limited flavone possessing antimicrobial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Helicobacter pylori and acting as a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenger, was prepared in fairly satisfactory yield.
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