Journal of Chemistry

Epimedii Folium (EF) is a commonly used traditional Chinese drug that includes many species. In Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020 edition), EF includes Epimedium brevicornu Maxim, E. Sagittatum (Sieb. et Zucc) Maxim, E. pubescens Maxim, E. koreanum Nakai, and Epimedium Wushanense T.S. Ying. It has been reported that the active constituents in EF are different, resulting in the uneven quality of commercial medicinal materials. To explore the specific differences and make a comprehensive quality evaluation of EF, we established an analytical method to simultaneously detect 45 constituents including 23 flavonoids, 4 phenolic acids, 12 amino acids, 5 nucleosides, and 1 alkaloid in 5 species of EF, based on ultrafast performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometry (UFLC-QTRAP-MS/MS). In addition, orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), analysis of variance (ANOVA), and grey correlation analysis (GRA) were used to discriminate and evaluate different species of samples. The results showed that EF could be divided into three categories and EBM was superior to the other four species. This study provides data basis for the comprehensive evaluation and a new perspective on the quality control of EF from different species.

In view of the deterioration of oil well liquid supply capacity and oil increase effect after multiple rounds of carbon dioxide (CO₂) huff and puff, according to the actual conditions of the Ng12 reservoir in the XA oilfield, an indoor physical simulation experimental model was established. The experimental parameters were determined, five rounds of CO₂ huff and puff experiments were carried out, and the crude oil produced in the water flooding stage and different rounds of CO₂ huff and puff were collected. The effects of CO₂ huff and puff rounds on crude oil viscosity, density, composition, paraffin content, and gum asphaltene content were studied. The results show that with the increase in CO₂ huff and puff rounds, the viscosity and density of produced crude oil decrease. The content of light component (C₂∼C₆) and intermediate component (C₇∼C₁₀) increased, while the content of heavy component (C₁₁₊) decreased. CO₂ has the strongest extraction effect on light components and the weakest extraction effect on heavy components. At the same time, the content of paraffin and gum asphaltene in the produced crude oil is reduced. For oil wells with multiple rounds of CO₂ huff and puff, colloidal asphaltene precipitation inhibitor and scavenger should be considered to reduce the impact of colloidal asphaltene on formation permeability and liquid supply capacity.

This study reports the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the exohedral adsorption of N-(4-methoxybenzylidene) isonicotinohydrazone (INH) onto B₁₂N₁₂ and Al₁₂N₁₂ nanocages. All ground state computations were performed using the density functional theory (DFT) method at the B3LYP-D3/6-311G(d,p) level of theory in the gaseous phase. Excited state computations were achieved via the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) at the CAM-B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level of theory. Molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) analysis of INH reveals the presence of three preferential interaction sites: the O-atom of carbonyl (site 1), the N-atom of pyridine (site 2), and the N-atom of the azomethine group (site 3). The highest interaction energy values for the adsorption of INH onto the B₁₂N₁₂ and Al₁₂N₁₂ were −43.560 and −52.724 kcal·mol⁻¹, respectively, indicating a chemisorption process. The computed Gibbs free energy change (ΔG_ad) and adsorption enthalpy change (ΔH_ad) values for all complexes studied are negative, indicating that the adsorption process is spontaneous and exothermic. Quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM) analysis reveals that the adsorbate-adsorbent interactions are partially covalent, which agrees with the reduced density gradient (RDG) analysis. Exohedral adsorption on the nanocages reduces the band gap, which ranges between 2.851 eV and 6.748 eV, according to density of state (DOS) diagrams. Furthermore, the first and second hyperpolarizabilities (β_tot and γ_tot) were also determined. The outcomes show that adsorption improves these values over INH, and the complexes could be useful materials in optoelectronics and the development of more responsive NLO devices.

Bacteria develop resistance against antimicrobial drugs, and new remediations are constantly being introduced in the market. Silver and its compounds have strong resistance against different bacteria. The vegetable waste extract-synthesized silver nanoparticles (VWE-AgNPs) have distinct properties and potential applications because of their unique size and morphology. The fundamental purpose of this study was to develop an environment-friendly method for the synthesis of VWE-AgNPs to avoid the use of hazardous chemicals that cause danger to the environment as well as recycling vegetable waste material. The VWE-AgNPs were synthesized by mixing 1 mM AgNO₃ solution and VWE at room temperature. The VWE-AgNPs were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, FTIR, SEM, and EDX. The synthesized particles showed good antibacterial properties against poultry bacteria Salmonella gallinarum and Salmonella enteritidis (growth reduction of 31 mm and 18 mm at 80 mg/mL AgNPs, respectively). The results demonstrated that VWE-AgNPs inhibited the growth of tested bacterial strains. The fabricated VWE-AgNPs also had the potential to act as a green photocatalyst for degradation of 87.7% of methylene blue (MB) and 90.76% of methyl orange (MO) nearly at 3.25 h and 1 h sunlight exposure time, respectively. The highest antifungal activity, which was determined to be 36.5 mm and 31.8 mm against Alternata sp. and C. albican, was discovered to be in VWE-AgNPs.

The nanostructures synthesized using the green chemistry method have recently attracted the attention of scientists due to their significance in many scientific domains. This work provides an overview of the biosynthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanosheets (NSs) using Phyllanthus emblica plant (PEP) extract. X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) were used to analyze the synthesized ZnO-NSs. Evaluation of the antibacterial activity of biosynthesized ZnO-NSs was performed. ZnO-NSs exhibit effective antibacterial activity against Gram-positive (S. pyogenes and S. aureus) and Gram-negative (S. typhi and E. coli) bacterial strains. S. typhi is the most sensitive microbe towards ZnO-NSs and formed a 21 mm zone of inhibition (ZOI). ZnO-NSs are also tested as a photocatalyst in the degradation of methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (RB). The degradation rate of MO was 90%, and RB was 96% after being exposed to UV light for 120 min. The as-synthesized ZnO-NSs exhibited selective dye degradation and showed relatively better photocatalytic activity for positively charged (cationic) dyes. This work could lead to the fabrication of high-yield photocatalysts, which have the potential to degrade textile dyes from aqueous solution.

The objective of this study was using a statistical model to optimize the medium formula and liquid culturing conditions, which was employed to evaluate the potency of pine needles extract as nutritional component in basal medium for culturing Helvella lacunose in order to enhancing the production of mycelia and extracellular polysaccharides (EPS). The most proper carbon and nitrogen source, various fermentation parameters (i.e., initial pH in medium, fermentation time, and temperature) were investigated by single factor test. Based on the experimentation, the optimal concentrations of carbon and nitrogen sources were analyzed by response surface methodology (RSM). The results showed that the optimal medium formula and liquid culturing conditions were 1000 mL pine needles extract, 33.56 g glucose, 4.11 g peptone, 4.06 g YE, 1 g KH₂PO₄, 1 g NaHCO₃, 0.5 g MgSO₄, 0.01 g vitamin B₁ for the accumulation of mycelial biomass (at pH 6.0, 25°C culturing of 7 days), and EPS (at pH 7.0, 25°C culturing of 10 days). Under optimized medium, the experimental production of mycelia and EPS were 11.78 g/L and 223.16 mg/L, which were 10.52 and 4.85 times than that of control (1.12 ± 0.52 g/L and 46.08 ± 1.18 mg/L, respectively). This data implied that statistical model is very useful tools for optimizing media components and fermentation parameters, and the screened media components and parameters have reference value for further large-scale production.