Dibasic Magnesium Hypochlorite as an Oxidant to Tune Pasting Properties of Potato Starch in One Step

Modified starches are used widely in the food industry but often have a low nutritional value, lacking minerals vital for the human body, such as magnesium. Magnesium addition to native starches has been shown to result in changes in pasting properties. However, little work has been done on the addition of magnesium and other divalent cations to highly oxidised starches. In this work, we used dibasic magnesium hypochlorite (DMH) to oxidise potato starch to an industrially relevant degree of oxidation while at the same time introducing magnesium into the starch structure. We found that magnesium incorporation changes the pasting properties of starch and increases the gelatinisation temperature significantly, possibly due to an ionic cross-linking effect. These properties resemble the properties found for heat-moisture-treated potato starches. This change in properties was found to be reversible by performing a straightforward exchange of metal cations, either from sodium to magnesium or from magnesium to sodium. We show in this work the potential of the addition of divalent cations to highly oxidised starches in modifying the rheological and pasting properties of these starches and at the same time adding possible health benefits to modified starches by introducing magnesium.

Recent advances in the synthesis of organic chloramines and their insights into health care

Organic nitrogen–chlorine compounds and their derivatives are important heterocyclic motifs, exhibiting applications such as N-chlorinating agents, analytical reagents, disinfectants, antipathogens, and as synthetic intermediates for drugs, polymers, and natural products.

Oxidation pretreatment by calcium hypochlorite to improve the sensitivity of enzyme inhibition-based detection of organophosphorus pesticides

BACKGROUND

Enzyme inhibition-based detection is the most widely used method for rapid detection of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) in food and agricultural products. However, the accuracy of the method is negatively affected by low inhibitory activities of OPs with PS moiety on acetylcholinesterase.

RESULTS

We demonstrated that oxidation pretreatments with bromine, hydrogen peroxide, or calcium hypochlorite significantly enhanced the enzyme inhibitory activities of these OPs. Especially, calcium hypochlorite (0.05%) pretreatment converted the PS moiety in OPs to PO and produced the most potent and steady inhibitory effect on the enzyme. This, in turn, resulted in a dramatic increase in the sensitivity of enzyme inhibition-based detection of these OPs by as much as 2 to 7 orders of magnitude. Importantly, this enhanced detection of OPs was validated in various vegetable samples.

CONCLUSION

Our findings provide a solid basis to use calcium hypochlorite pretreatment for the improved detection of OPs by the enzyme inhibition-based method. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

HDAC and NF-κB mediated cytotoxicity induced by novel N-Chloro β-lactams and benzisoxazole derivatives

Novel N-chloro â-Lactam and benzisoxazole derivatives were successfully synthesized with excellent yields (92-96%) under simple and mild reaction conditions. The β-lactams as a class acquired importance since the discovery of penicillin which contains β-lactam unit as an essential structural feature of its molecule, this interest continued unabated because of the therapeutic importance of β-lactam antibiotics. In silico studies of the compounds with cancer drug target enzymes showed the inhibition of HDAC (Histone Deacetylase) and NF-κB (nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells) significantly. The compounds were then investigated for the inhibitory potential against the same enzymes in vitro. NF-κB inhibition was investigated by trans activation assay using HEK293/NF-κB-luc cells. Overall, the synthesized compounds induce the cancer cell toxicity by restraining the NF-κB transcription factor mediated by HDAC inhibition and thus the compounds act as dual inhibitors.

Chemoselective Oxidation of Benzyl, Amino, and Propargyl Alcohols to Aldehydes and Ketones under Mild Reaction Conditions

Catalytic oxidation reactions often suffer from drawbacks such as low yields and poor selectivity. Particularly, selective oxidation of alcohols becomes more difficult when a compound contains more than one oxidizable functional group. In order to deliver a methodology that addresses these issues, herein we report an efficient, aerobic, chemoselective and simplified approach to oxidize a broad range of benzyl and propargyl alcohols containing diverse functional groups to their corresponding aldehydes and ketones in excellent yields under mild reaction conditions. Optimal yields were obtained at room temperature using 1 mmol substrate, 10 mol % copper(I) iodide, 10 mol % 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP), and 1 mol % 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine 1-oxyl (TEMPO) in acetonitrile, under an oxygen balloon. The catalytic system can be applied even when sensitive and oxidizable groups such as alkynes, amines, and phenols are present; starting materials and products containing such groups were found to be stable under the developed conditions.