Scrophularia peyronii Post. from Jordan: Chemical Composition of Essential Oil and Phytochemical Profiling of Crude Extracts and Their In Vitro Antioxidant Activity

The genus Scrophularia is one of the largest genera belonging to the Scrophulariaceae family. Different members of the genus exhibit an interesting, wide spectrum of bioactivities. Accordingly, the current study aimed to investigate, for the first time, the chemical composition of the essential oil of Scrophularia peyronii Post. from Jordan. Additionally, extracts obtained from the aerial parts with solvents of different polarities were assayed for their phytochemical constituents and in vitro antioxidant activities. The major constituents detected in the essential oil, as revealed by GC/MS analysis, contained mainly Z,Z-farnesyl acetone (11.04%), β-elemene (6.36%), n-octanal (5.98%), and spathulenol (4.58%). Each of the aqueous methanol (Sp-M) and butanol (Sp-B) extracts contained flavonoids, saponins, anthraquinone, and glycosides. Both extracts were evaluated for their total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and their in vitro antioxidant activity, which were assayed using the DPPH radical scavenging activity and ABTS radical scavenging methods. Additionally, the two extracts were then subjected to LC-ESI-MS/MS for the qualitative determination of their secondary metabolite content, especially in flavonoids and phenolic compounds. The results showed that the Sp-B extract of S. peyronii had the highest contents of both phenolic compounds and flavonoids and showed high radical scavenging activity, as determined by the two assay methods, when compared with the Sp-M extract. The LC-ESI-MS/MS analysis resulted in the detection of 21 compounds, including 8 flavonoids, 6 phenolic acids, 6 iridoids, and 2 acids. Although the majority of compounds were detected in both extracts, it was noticed that scropolioside B, 6'-O-cinnamoylharpagide, isoferulic acid, and 6-O-methylcatapol were only detected in the Sp-M fraction.

An investigation of the role acceptor side chains play in the processibility and efficiency of organic solar cells fabricated from small molecular donors featuring 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene cores

Organic photovoltaic devices fabricated from small molecular donors continue to receive significant interest due to their desirable properties such as convenient synthesis, purification and batch-to-batch reproducibility. In this study, we have synthesized two small molecules based on an alternating A–D–A structure, utilizing a central EDOT donor moiety and either 2-ethylhexyl cyanoacetate (SAM-72) or N-(2-ethylhexyl)cyanoacetamide (SAM-80) units as acceptor termini. The small molecules were incorporated into bulk heterojunction solar cells with PC₇₁BM. Our investigations have shown that the side chains utilized for SAM-80 only allow for solution processing using volatile solvents, such as chloroform, which limits the reproducibility of device fabrication. However, SAM-72 displays better solubility and devices fabricated using a SAM-72:PC₇₁BM active layer reached average power conversion efficiencies of 1.9%, with fill factors reaching 60%. Post-processing methods such as thermal and solvent vapor annealing were found to significantly increase the stability of devices, but were not able to improve overall device performance.

The chemical nature of the acceptor side chain plays an important role in the processability and photovoltaic performance of EDOT-based small molecule donors.