Investigation of embelin synthetic hybrids as potential COVID-19 and COX inhibitors: Synthesis, spectral analysis, DFT calculations and molecular docking studies

Embelin (2, 5-dihydroxy-3-undecyl-1,4-benzoquinone), a benzoquinone isolated from fruits of Embelia ribes has miscellaneous biological potentials including; anticancer, anti-inflammation, antibiotic, and anti-hyperglycemic activities. Also, embelin down-regulates the overexpression of inflammatory pathways like NF-kB, TACE, TNF-α, and other cytokines. Furthermore, embelin fascinated synthetic interest as a pharmacologically active compound. The present article involves the design, synthesis, DFT calculations, and molecular docking studies of embelin derivatives as cyclooxygenase inhibitors. The structure of these derivatives is confirmed by the various spectral analyses such as IR, NMR, and Mass. The DFT calculations were carried out for the molecules (1-8) using CAM-B3LYP hybrid functional with a 6-31+g(d) all-electron basis set using the Gaussian 09 package. Second-order harmonic vibrational calculations are used to check the minimum nature of the geometry. Further, HOMO and LUMO analyses were used for the charge transfer interface between the structures. Based on our previous work and structural activity relationship study, foresaid embelin derivatives were evaluated for in vitro COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitory activity. The compounds 3, 4, 7, and 8 demonstrated excellent COX inhibitions with IC50 values of 1.65, 1.54, 1.56, and 1.23 μM compared to standard drugs Celecoxib and Ibuprofen. Finally, the molecular docking studies carried out with Covid-19 and cyclooxygenase with all the newly synthesized embelin derivatives.

Development of rice analogues fortified with iron, folic acid and Vitamin A

Fortified rice analogues were developed utilising the broken-rice fortified with selected micronutrients like iron, folic acid and Vitamin A. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of fortifying rice analogues with micronutrients and retention after extrusion and cooking. Cold extruder operated at 55 rpm screw speed and 1.5 kg/h feed rate was used for the study. The composite flour prepared using broken-rice flour, sodium alginate (1%), water (30%) and micronutrient mix was extruded through rice shaped die at barrel temperature of 60 °C. The level of fortifying nutrient ready mix (FNRM) was statistically optimised based on retention of nutrients after extrusion and cooking. The retention results for iron was observed to be 73.3 to 91.3 per cent after cooking whereas folic acid and Vitamin A being sensitive to processing and culinary operations were 44.2 to 60.4 and 10.1 to 12.4 per cent, respectively. Statistical optimisation resulted 150 per cent of FNRM could supply nutrient levels nearing the standards with the desirability of 0.835. The production cost was calculated as Rs.53.50 per kg whereas, increase in the cost of raw rice mixed with fortified analogues @ 1:50 ratio was about Rs.1.00 per kg with benefit-cost ratio of 1.22:1.

Development of rice analogues using by-products of rice and dhal mills

Development process of rice analogues by utilising the broken rice (BRF) and broken pigeonpea dhal (BPDF) flours together with water and sodium alginate as binding agent through extrusion was carried out. Two variable viz., BPDF (20, 30 and 40%) and moisture content (25, 30 and 35%) were controlled in the study to produce rice analogue resembling the raw rice. The optimum combination of flour mixture established for 30% BPDF and 30% water content with highest desirability of 0.855. The optimum combination had highest crude protein, carbohydrate and ash contents of 12.70, 71.72 and 0.99%, respectively. The colour values L*, a* and b* were found to be 68.30, 4.62 and 25.91, respectively. The pasting temperature and peak viscosity were 78.68 °C and 23,173.3 cP. The physico-chemical and pasting properties can be modified by altering the different constituents for specific quality requirements.