Aurones are the plant secondary metabolites belonging to the flavonoid’s family. The bioactivities of aurones are very promising, thus these heterocyclic compounds can be considered as an alluring scaffold for drug design and development.

Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is an ancient fruit that is widely consumed as fresh fruit and juice. The aim of the present study was to compare the metabolic profile of pomegranate ecotypes from different geographical origins of Iran, the largest producer of pomegranates in the world. 1H-NMR and 2D NMR spectroscopy were applied to investigate the ecotypic variation. Multivariate data analyses were used to identify overall metabolic differences. Mazandaran pomegranate samples were found to be different from the other ecotypes, having a high content of citric and succinic acids. Bajestan, Ferdows, and Yazd pomegranates contained comparatively higher amounts of anthocyanins and ellagic acid derivatives than other pomegranate ecotypes. The distribution of metabolites among different ecotypes of pomegranate is discussed on the basis of these findings.

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Background: Inclusion of anticancer drugs into biocompatible nanoparticulate carriers decreases the general toxicity and improves the efficacy of clinical treatments due to the reduction of soluble circulating free drug. Methods: In addition, removal of emerging drug contaminants from wastewaters is a necessity that should be seriously attended. Boron nitride (BN) is choice in drug delivery because of many surprising properties. Here, boron nitride nanoparticles are prepared, characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) and used in the delivery of melphalan anti-cancer drug. Results: Then, density functional theory (DFT) calculations are carried out to study adsorption of this drug on the surface of pure boron nitride fullerene via familiar hybrid functionals B3LYP and B3PW91. In addition, the polarizable continuum model (PCM) calculations show that BN is stable in water. Conclusion: Finally, the in vitro cellular toxicity and viability of BN nanoparticles was examined on ES-2 cancer cells. The inhibitory dose IC50 of the material confirmed an acceptable cytotoxicity and nanoparticles affected the average growth of ES-2 cancer cells.

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