A sensitive, rapid, and simple high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection method was developed for the simultaneous determination of seven phthalic acid esters (dimethyl phthalate, dipropyl phthalate, di-n-butyl phthalate, benzyl butyl phthalate, dicyclohexyl phthalate, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, and di-n-octyl phthalate) in several kinds of beverage samples. Ultrasound and vortex-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method was used. The separation was performed using an Intersil ODS-3 column (C18 , 250 × 4.6 mm, 5.0 μm) and a gradient elution with a mobile phase consisting of MeOH/ACN (50:50) and 0.2 M KH2 PO4 buffer. Analytes were detected by a UV detector at 230 nm. The developed method was validated in terms of linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, repeatability, accuracy, and recovery. Calibration equations and correlation coefficients (> 0.99) were calculated by least squares method with weighting factor. The limit of detection and quantification were in the range of 0.019-0.208 and 0.072-0.483 μg/L. The repeatability and intermediate precision were determined in terms of relative standard deviation to be within 0.03-3.93 and 0.02-4.74%, respectively. The accuracy was found to be in the range of -14.55 to 15.57% in terms of relative error. Seventeen different beverage samples in plastic bottles were successfully analyzed, and ten of them were found to be contaminated by different phthalic acid esters.
Ficus carica Linn leaves having significant pharmacological properties such as antioxidant, antifungal, antidiabetic, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-pyretic are available just in season. The effective utilization of nutritional values of leaves with enhanced shelf life has gained attention. Drying is usually the preferred technique to eliminate microbial attacks and increase shelf life of seasonal food products. Therefore, in the present study, the effect of microwave drying conditions on effective moisture diffusivity, activation energy, specific energy consumption (SEC), and energy efficiency were investigated at various microwave output power levels and sample amounts. The seven mathematical models were applied to describe the microwave drying kinetics of leaves and Page model was found as the best model. The maximum effective moisture diffusivity and drying rate constant values were determined as 9.84 Â 10 À11 m 2 /s and 1.15 1/min, respectively, at microwave output power level of 900 W and sample amount of 20 g. The activation energy values were estimated using the modified Arrhenius equation associated with effective moisture diffusivity (E a = 11.41 W/g) and drying rate constant (E a = 8.28 W/g). Additionally, the minimum SEC and maximum energy efficiency values (%) were found as 5.60 MJ/kg water and 40.31, respectively, at microwave output power level of 360 W and sample amount of 100 g. The results obtained from the present study seemed potentially useful to explore the applicability of microwave drying on Ficus carica Linn leaves to expand the availability of leaves having numerous nutritional ingredients throughout the whole year and take the advantage of their benefits in various industries.
Practical ApplicationsEven if the benefits of Ficus carica L. leaves have been well presented in various studies in the literature, no study was found particularly which investigated the microwave drying kinetics of these leaves. Apart from the mathematical modeling of the drying characteristic and energy aspects of the leaf samples, the present study also targets to expand the usage area of these leaves with high shelf life and enable people to reach the leaves easily throughout the whole year. Hence, this study has potential for the commercial usage of these leaves for their effective utilization in various industries; such as beverage, bakery, cosmetic, and so on. In that way, the valuable nutritional ingredients of these leaves have been turned in favor of human consumption.
This study reports in vitro anticholinesterase, antioxidant and antimicrobial effects of the n-hexane, dichloromethane, ethanol and ethanol-water extracts prepared from Pistacia terebinthus L. fruits and Pistacia khinjuk Stocks seeds as well as their total phenolic and flavonoid contents, and fatty acid compositions. Ethanol and ethanol-water extracts of both species exhibited higher anticholinesterase activity than galanthamine. Among ABTS, DPPH and CUPRAC assays, the highest antioxidant capacity of the extracts was found in the last one. P. terebinthus ethanol extract being rich in flavonoid content showed the best cupric reducing effect. All extracts possessed no antimicrobial activity. The main fatty acid in P. terebinthus fruits (52.52%) and P. khinjuk seeds (59.44%) was found to be oleic acid. Our results indicate that P. terebinthus fruits and P. khinjuk seeds could be a good source of anticholinesterase compounds, and could be phytochemically investigated.
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