Flavonoids have a broad spectrum of established positive effects on human and animal health. They find an application in medicine for disease therapy and chemoprevention, whence the interest in flavonoids increases. In addition, they are used in food and cosmetic industries as pigments and biopreservatives. Plants are an inexhaustible source of flavonoids. The most important step of plant raw material processing is extraction and isolation of target compounds. The quality of an extract and efficiency of a procedure are influenced by several factors: Plant material and pre-extracting sample preparation, type of solvent, extraction technique, physicochemical conditions, etc. The present overview discusses the common problems and key challenges of the extraction procedures and the different mechanisms for selective extraction of flavonoids from different plant sources. In summary, there is no universal extraction method and each optimized procedure is individual for the respective plants. For an extraction technique to be selective, it must combine an optimal solvent or mixture of solvents with an appropriate technique. Last but not least, its optimization is important for a variety of applications. Moreover, when the selected method needs to be standardized, it must achieve acceptable degree of repeatability and reproducibility.

1. The pharmacokinetics of danofloxacin was investigated in common pheasants, guinea fowls and Japanese quails after intravenous (i.v.) and oral (p.o.) administration at a dose of 10 mg kg(-1) body weight. Concentrations of the drug in serum were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. The values of the pharmacokinetic parameters after both applications were calculated on the basis of a one-compartment model. 2. The elimination half-lives after i.v. injection were 6.82 ± 1.87, 3.31 ± 0.13 and 3.84 ± 0.89 h in pheasants, guinea fowls and quails, respectively. Total body clearance values were 0.45 ± 0.16, 1.23 ± 0.07 and 1.61 ± 0.34 l h(-1) kg(-1) in pheasants, guinea fowls and quails, respectively. 3. After p.o. administration, maximum serum concentrations were 0.54 ± 0.26, 0.51 ± 0.12 and 0.78 ± 0.11 μg ml(-1) respectively, reached at 2.04 ± 0.23, 10.4 ± 5.64 and 5.35 ± 0.47 h. Oral bioavailability values were 82.32% for pheasants, 79.46% for guinea fowls and 83.5% for Japanese quails. Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) predictive indices were also calculated and compared.

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Pesticides can be taken up from the water and accumulated in tissues of hydrobionts, often becoming multiplied thousands of times higher in the organism than in the surrounding water. The dithiocarbamate mancozeb is applied in plant protection as fungicide. In recent years the amount of mancozeb used in Europe significantly increased. It is carcinogen due to its metabolite -ethylene thiourea (ETU), which causes thyroid and pituitary tumors. The purpose of this study is to determinate the quantity of ethylene thiourea in products of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss W.), reared in environment containing permissible, according to the European law, amount of mancozeb. Seeking an answer to the question: is this concentration limit really safe for the reproduction of rainbow trout and can the more toxic metabolite -ETU, be accumulated in the fish eggs and fillet and afterwards make them harmful to the consumers? The study included 3 stages: feeding, analysis of ethylene thiourea in fish eggs and fillet by a new developed and validated HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) method and study of the reproductive indicators. The assays of ETU in all analyzed samples (fish and water) were below the limit of quantification of the method, 0.05 mg*l -1