Oregano: chemical analysis and evaluation of its antimalarial, antioxidant, and cytotoxic activities

Abstract: GC‐FID and GC‐MS analysis of essential oil from oregano leaves (Origanum compactum) resulted in the identification of 46 compounds, representing more than 98% of the total composition. Carvacrol was the predominant compound (36.46%), followed by thymol (29.74%) and p‐cymene (24.31%). Serial extractions with petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, ethanol, and water were performed on aerials parts of Origanum compactum. In these extracts, different chemical families were characterized: polyphenols (gallic acid equivalent 21.2 to 858.3 g/kg), tannins (catechin equivalent 12.4 to 510.3 g/kg), anthocyanins (cyanidin equivalent 0.38 to 5.63 mg/kg), and flavonoids (quercetin equivalent 14.5 to 54.7 g/kg). The samples (essential oil and extracts) were subjected to a screening for antioxidant (DPPH and ABTS assays) and antimalarial activities and against human breast cancer cells. The essential oil showed a higher antioxidant activity with an IC₅₀= 2 ± 0.1 mg/L. Among the extracts, the aqueous extract had the highest antioxidant activity with an IC₅₀= 4.8 ± 0.2 mg/L (DPPH assay). Concerning antimalarial activity, Origanum compactum essential oil and ethyl acetate extract showed the best results with an IC₅₀ of 34 and 33 mg/mL, respectively. In addition, ethyl acetate extract (30 mg/L) and ethanol extract (56 mg/L) showed activity against human breast cancer cells (MCF7). The oregano essential oil was considered to be nontoxic.     

Electrodeposition of lead dioxide on Fe electrode: application to the degradation of Indigo Carmine dye

Journal of Applied Electrochemistry - The modification of an iron electrode was carried out according to the following two steps. In a first step, a cathodic reduction is performed to form a film...     

A New Control Strategy of 5-Phase PM Motor under Open-Circuited Phase Based on High Order Sliding Mode and Current References Real-Time Generation

The high quality of electrical power in high power and high reliability applications is a crucial necessity even under fault mode function. However, in these conditions, the quality of the torque is a key feature. To overcome this problem, the multiphase permanent magnet (PM) motors seems to be a very attractive choice. In order to highlight the robustness and reliability of this technology, this paper investigates the control of a five-phase PM motor under an open circuited phase fault conditions. Moreover, a High Order Sliding Mode (HOSM) controller combined to an optimal reference current generation is tested and compared to a PID controller under fault mode conditions. This original control strategy is proposed for faulted conditions. Compared to classical fault tolerant control, this strategy allows a better dynamic tracking of the non-sinusoidal reference currents and leads to a smooth torque with minimal losses even in severe fault conditions. To validate the proposed control strategy, simulation, and experimental results are presented and discussed.     

Channel Estimation in Long Term Evolution Uplink Using Minimum Mean Square Error-Support Vector Regression

In this paper, minimum mean square error-support vector regression (MMSE-SVR) is proposed, which is shown to be adequate for the estimation of the long term evolution (LTE) uplink channel with nonlinear features. MMSE-SVR was applied to estimate real channel environments such as the vehicular A channels defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The simulation results show that the proposed method has a better performance than the least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM) and the standard MMSE with linear and spline interpolation.     

Specific interactions in poly(styrene‐co‐2‐hydroxyethyl acrylate)/poly(styrene‐co‐N,N‐dimethylacrylamide) systems

Amphiphilic copolymers of poly(styrene‐co‐2‐hydroxyethyl acrylate) (SHEA) and poly(styrene‐co‐N, N‐dimethylacrylamide) (SAD) of different compositions were prepared by free radical copolymerization and characterized by different techniques. Depending on the nature of the solvent and the densities of interacting species incorporated within the polystyrene matrices, novel materials as blends or interpolymer complexes with properties different from those of their constituents were elaborated when these copolymers are mixed together. The specific interpolymer interactions of hydrogen bonding type and the phase behavior of the elaborated materials were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infra red spectroscopy (FTIR). The specific interactions of hydrogen bonding type that occurred within the SHEA and within their blends with the SAD were evidenced by FTIR qualitatively by the appearance of a new band at 1626 cm^?1 and quantitatively using appropriate spectral curve fitting in the carbonyl and amide regions. The variation of the glass transition temperature with the blend composition behaved differently with the densities of interacting species. The thermal degradation behavior of the materials was studied by thermogravimetry. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Solar map of India under clear sky conditions

This paper focusses on generation of solar irradiation map under clear sky conditions using r.sun model. Direct Irradiation, diffuse irradiation and global irradiation maps are plotted using programme which was developed in C language. This programme calculates different components of solar irradiation using clear sky model (r.sun). Further Surfer software was used to plot different irradiation maps. All three values (Direct Irradiation, Global Irradiation and Diffuse Irradiation) were compared by IMD values for performing statistical analysis i.e. Mean Bias Error (MBE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and standard deviation. MBE was found within ±10%, RMSE lies within <20% and standard deviation was found to have very low value which indicated good fitting between model results and calculated values. Therefore the r.sun model is good model and can be used for computing solar irradiation for India.     

Boundary stabilisation of the wave equation in the presence of singularities

We study the boundary stabilisation of the wave equation by a nonlinear feedback active on a part of the boundary in geometric situations for which the solutions have singularities. These singularities appear at the interfaces at which the mixed Neumann–Dirichlet boundary conditions meet. Under a simple geometrical condition concerning the orientation of the boundary, we obtain sharp energy decay rates under a general growth assumption on the feedback. We show that the singularities do not affect the energy decay rates and give examples.     

Production of biodiesel at small-scale (10 L) for local power generation

The transesterification reaction of two different types of raw materials, a refined cooking oil and a used cooking sample, was performed at small scale (10 L) at the constant temperature of 65 °C. The effects of several reaction parameters, such as KOH wt% with respect to the oil weight, methanol/oil molar ratio and reaction time, were investigated. Biodiesel yields as good as 97.5 and 93.2% were achieved for the refined and the cooking oils, respectively, in the following conditions: 1.2 wt% of KOH as catalyst, a methanol/oil molar ratio of 6:1 and reaction time of 60 min.The properties of the biodiesel obtained starting from the used cooking oil are as good as those of the biodiesels obeying the European standards. The resulting product was used in a diesel electricity generator engine, which operated in real conditions. The results showed that biodiesel combustion leads to higher concentration of CO and to a lower emission of NO_x as compared to a petrodiesel-fueled engine. An optimization of the operating parameters of the engine would guarantee lower CO emissions in conformity with the regulation.