Molecular mobility in Medicago truncatula seed during early stage of germination: Neutron scattering and NMR investigations

Cadmium impurities in traditional herbal medicinal products with Thymi herba available in Polish pharmacies - short communication: the level of Cd impurities and comprehensive toxicological risk assessment

Traditional herbal medicinal products (THMP) with Thymi herba are very popular as OTC among the European population. The aim of this article was the toxicological risk assessment (TRA) of Cd impurities in THMP with Thymi herba from Polish pharmacies. The estimations of Cd impurities in the single dose (1.10-12.90 µg/single dose) and in the daily dose (ng/day) were based on the worst-case scenario (WC), i.e. based on the dosage indicated in the community herbal monograph on Thymus vulgaris L. and Thymus zygis L., herba by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The estimated daily exposure (ng/day) meets the standards of the ICH Q3D (R1) guideline (5.0 µg/day) according to the Cd levels (all results were below 40 ng/day). It can be concluded that all THMPs analysed with Thymi herba from Polish pharmacies should not represent any health risk to the human health.

Exploring the Limits of Biological Complexity Amenable to Studies by Incoherent Neutron Spectroscopy

The wavelengths of neutrons available at neutron scattering facilities are comparable with intra- and inter-molecular distances, while their energies are comparable with molecular vibrational energies, making such neutrons highly suitable for studies of molecular-level dynamics. The unmistakable trend in neutron spectroscopy has been towards measurements of systems of greater complexity. Several decades of studies of dynamics using neutron scattering have witnessed a progression from measurements of solids to liquids to protein complexes and biomembranes, which may exhibit properties characteristic of both solids and liquids. Over the last two decades, the frontier of complexity amenable to neutron spectroscopy studies has reached the level of cells. Considering this a baseline for neutron spectroscopy of systems of the utmost biological complexity, we briefly review what has been learned to date from neutron scattering studies at the cellular level and then discuss in more detail the recent strides into neutron spectroscopy of tissues and whole multicellular organisms.

Water Dynamics of Mung bean (Vigna radiata) Sprouts Treated with 6-Benzylaminopurine: Discrimination by Low-Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Spectrometry

Mung bean sprouts are a kind of favorite healthy food across the world. As a forbidden plant hormone cytokinins, the use of 6-benzylaminopurine (6-BAP) in promoting the growth of bean sprouts is forbidden due to its safety concerns. Rapid analysis of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts is required to assess their growth changes and discriminate them from the normal sample. In this study, the water dynamics of growth for 6-BAP treated bean sprouts was monitored by the low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging. A simplified cartoon model of the water dynamics was proposed to explain the LF-NMR analysis result. Principal component analysis of the NMR relaxation data clearly showed the different water distribution of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts from the control sample. The juice of 6-BAP treated bean sprouts showed significant difference in the ultraviolet absorption and fluorescence spectra. Therefore, combining the spectrometry, the LF-NMR may have potential for rapid discrimination of the 6-BAP treated bean sprouts.