Production of luteolin extracts from Reseda luteola and assessment of their dyeing properties

In this work, several experiments were performed sequentially in 50 cm³ shaken tubes and a 1 dm³ stirred extractor, thus allowing methanol to be selected as the most appropriate leaching solvent for luteolin from leaves, stems and flowers of weld (Reseda luteola). The extraction capability of methanol at 25 °C was found to be about 7 times greater than that of boiling water at pH 10. A composite design experiment allowed the effects of particle size and liquid/solid ratio to be determined, thus resulting in an optimal luteolin extraction yield of 8.6 ± 0.2 g kg^?1 dried weld material when leaching plant particles sieved through 0.5 mm openings with 40 dm³ methanol kg^?1. Preliminary dyeing tests on pre‐mordanted raw cotton and wool standard specimens gave rise to dyed specimens with the same greenish‐yellow hue but greater or smaller values of lightness and chroma respectively. Despite all dyed specimens exhibiting a minimum resistance to a simulated acid perspiration solution, the resistance to fading of dyed wool specimens was generally greater than that of cotton ones. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

Assessment of the dyeing properties of pigments from Monascus purpureus

Monascus purpureus C322 was cultivated on well‐established production media to yield prevailingly red or orange pigment‐rich ethanolic extracts. Once these extracts had been diluted by an overall factor of 50, they were used as such to dye raw wool standard specimens differently premordanted using alum or stannic chloride. Independently of the mordant used, the specimens dyed with the red pigment‐rich extracts showed a pale red colour tending to pink, whereas the specimens dyed with the orange pigment‐rich extracts exhibited a more definite orange colour. By carrying out a few colourfastness standard tests (manual washing at 40 °C, acid and basic perspiration and hot pressing), stannic chloride‐premordanted wool specimens dyed with the red pigment‐rich extracts were found to be less resistant to acid and basic perspiration than their orange counterparts. Since the production of the orange pigment‐rich ethanolic extracts appeared to be more cost‐effective than that of their red counterparts, the former might support the present demand for colorants of natural origin in the textile sector. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

The G Protein-Coupled Receptor Heterodimer Network (GPCR-HetNet) and Its Hub Components

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) oligomerization has emerged as a vital characteristic of receptor structure. Substantial experimental evidence supports the existence of GPCR-GPCR interactions in a coordinated and cooperative manner. However, despite the current development of experimental techniques for large-scale detection of GPCR heteromers, in order to understand their connectivity it is necessary to develop novel tools to study the global heteroreceptor networks. To provide insight into the overall topology of the GPCR heteromers and identify key players, a collective interaction network was constructed. Experimental interaction data for each of the individual human GPCR protomers was obtained manually from the STRING and SCOPUS databases. The interaction data were used to build and analyze the network using Cytoscape software. The network was treated as undirected throughout the study. It is comprised of 156 nodes, 260 edges and has a scale-free topology. Connectivity analysis reveals a significant dominance of intrafamily versus interfamily connections. Most of the receptors within the network are linked to each other by a small number of edges. DRD2, OPRM, ADRB2, AA2AR, AA1R, OPRK, OPRD and GHSR are identified as hubs. In a network representation 10 modules/clusters also appear as a highly interconnected group of nodes. Information on this GPCR network can improve our understanding of molecular integration. GPCR-HetNet has been implemented in Java and is freely available at http://www.iiia.csic.es/~ismel/GPCR-Nets/index.html.