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The present study aimed to quantify and identify the bioactive compounds of the Arbutus unedo L. leaves in order to evaluate both their antioxidant properties and litholytic activities against calcium oxalate stones.This survey was carried out using hydroalcoholic extract (E.FA) and infusion (I.FA) of A. unedo leaves. The quantification of phenolic compounds, flavonoids, flavonols and anthocyanins was done by spectrophotometric methods and identification of chemical components was performed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Antioxidant activity was measured using the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) method and by the ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. Litholytic activity of E.FA and I.FA was studied using a special model that resembles circuitry of the urinary system.E.FA showed greater antioxidant efficacy than I.FA (P 0.05). Its higher efficiency was shown via the values of median inhibitory concentration, which was close to (76.14 ± 0.91) µg/mL for E.FA versus (202.64 ± 5.77) μg/mL for I.FA using the DPPH method, and (53.77 ± 0.81) μg/mL for E.FA versus (236.86 ± 31.90) μg/mL for I.FA, using FRAP method. I.FA exhibited significantly higher litholytic activity compared to E.FA (P 0.05), with dissolution values of 31.03% ± 0.63% versus 14.55% ± 0.65%, respectively.Overall, the results suggest that the A. unedo is rich in bioactive compounds, and possesses antioxidant and litholitic abilities that are worthy of further study.

The environment and human health protection as well as the search for promising and cost-effective materials to eliminate hazardous dyes are a main contemporary worldwide challenge. In this regard, improving the morphology and the specific surface area of the oil shale ash leading to highly efficient innovative adsorbent for the removal of Crystal Violet (CV) and Methyl orange (MeO) dyes. In this research work, we prepared and characterized the treated oil shale ash (TOSA) adsorbent through XRD, XRF, FTIR, pHpzc, SEM-EDX, TEM, and BET. The chosen material’s selectivity and sensitivity depend on the pH and the foreign ions' strength due to the competition between different charges present in the colored solution. The adsorption capacities of CV and MeO, under conditions of dye concentration 100 mg L−1 with adsorbent dose 0.5 g L−1, are 168.88 mg g−1 and 72.26 mg g−1 respectively. Furthermore, a monolayer pattern could be assigned to the Langmuir adsorption model and the equilibrium kinetics of adsorption is best approved by the pseudo-second-order model for the two dyes. According to response surface methodology, the experimental values for CV and MeO were consistent with the predicted values that lead to the maximum dye removal rate of 99.98% and 67.13% respectively. The regeneration results confirm the performance of our adsorbent after several adsorption-desorption cycles. The capital cost of the treated materials used for adsorption was estimated to be around $ 2.15 for 1 g which means that is a non-expensive process for the future valorization of natural resources.

The plant Punica granatum L. has several biological activities and a great curative and preventive power against chronic diseases. For this purpose, the objective of this work is to valorize the fruit peel of this plant in the field of phytomedicine, by quantifying and identifying its bioactive compounds and by evaluating their antioxidant and anticrystallization activities against calcium oxalate. This comparative study has been carried out by hydroalcoholic extract (E.PG) and infusion (I.PG) of the plant. The quantification of the phenolic compounds has been performed by spectrophotometric methods, and the chemical species identification has been performed by UPLC-PDA-ESI-MS. Moreover, the examination of the antioxidant activity has been executed by both methods of DPPH and FRAP. The crystallization inhibition has been studied in vitro by the turbidimetric model. The characterization of the synthesized crystals has been accomplished by microscopic observation and by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The results found show the comparable importance of the two plant extracts in the elimination of free radicals; the values of the half maximal inhibitory concentration “IC50” obtained are in the order of 60.87 ± 0.27 and 59.91 ± 0.83 μg/mL by the DPPH method and in the order of 42.17 ± 7.46 and 79.77 ± 6.91 μg/mL by the FRAP method, for both E.PG and I.PG, respectively. Furthermore, the inhibition percentages of calcium oxalate crystallization are in the range of 98.11 ± 0.17 and 98.22 ± 0.71% against the nucleation and in the order of 88.98 ± 0.98 and 88.78 ± 2.48% against the aggregation, for E.PG and I.PG, respectively. These results prove the richness of the plant in bioactive compounds, offering an antioxidant and anticrystallization capacity; therefore, it can be used in the treatment and/or the prevention of stone formation.

The aim of this work was the elaboration and characterization of a zeolite (OSZ) in an alkaline medium from the oil shale ash for the removal of the two dyes Crystal Violet (CV) and Red Congo (RC) in aqueous milieu. The adsorbent material quality (OSZ) prepared was studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) coupled by EDX, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and fluorescence of X-rays spectroscopy (FRX). In addition, the adsorption in batch system of the two dyes CV and RC on the OSZ material was studied. Therefore, we accomplished a parametric study of the adsorption by studying the effect of several important parameters on the decolorizing power of the used material, namely, the contact time, the adsorbent dose, the pH solution and the temperature. The decolorization percentage was 97 and 81% for CV and RC dye respectively. Kinetic studies of dyes carried out the pseudo-second order at different dye concentration values. The Langmuir model describes satisfactory adsorption on the OSZ. Thermodynamic studies indicated that dye adsorption process by OSZ was spontaneous, physisorption and endothermic in nature.

Summary Introduction Urinary lithiasis is a recurrent disease defined by the presence of calculi in the urinary tract. Most urinary calculi have as a major component calcium oxalate which occurs mainly in two crystalline forms: Calcium oxalate monohydrate (whewellite) and calcium oxalate dihydrate (weddellite). The target behind, this work is to study the inhibiting effect of the calcium oxalate's crystallization by the extract of the Ammi visnaga and the Punica granatum. Methods The inhibition of crystallization has been studied in vitro with both the absence and the presence of the different concentrations of the extracts of the two plants. This study consists in measurement, with the UV-Visible spectrophotometer, the temporal evolution of the optical density at λ equal to 620 nm corresponding to the formation of the crystals due to the mixing of metastable solutions of calcium and oxalate. The characterization of the crystals is carried out in parallel by both the Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and the observation of the crystals with the help of an optical microscope. In this respect, the inhibition percentages were calculated from the turbidity slopes in the presence and absence of the extract. Results The results obtained were more effective, especially for Punica granatum with percentages of 97.8 ± 0.12 and 83.46 ± 1.34% against nucleation and aggregation, respectively, the order of Ammi visnaga was as follow: 73.25 ± 0.81 and 59.44 ± 3.3%. Thus, all correlation coefficients are greater than 0.95 and all coefficients of variation are less than 10%. Conclusions The prevention and treatment of urinary lithiasis and especially in the case of recurrence by plants remains an alternative choice for medical methods. This study justified the efficacy of the plants Ammi visnaga and in particular Punica granatum against the crystallization of calcium oxalate. Level of evidence 3.

This study involves the adsorption of Crystal Violet (CV) dye adsorbed from solution on the pyrophyllite’s surface. The batch technique was used under a variety of conditions to produce quantitative adsorption, namely amount of adsorbent, dye concentration, contact time, pH solution and temperature. The maximum adsorption capacity of Crystal Violet on pyrophyllite was 9.58 mg/g for 10 mg/L of CV concentration, pH = 6.8 at a temperature 20 °C and 1 g/L of adsorbent. This study of adsorption kinetics was carried out within framework of three models: intraparticle diffusion, pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order. The experimental isotherm data were analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich models. Different thermodynamic parameters have shown spontaneous reaction with endothermic nature (The estimated value for Δ G was −7.64 kJ/mol at 293 K). Various techniques for characterizing the adsorbent were applied including X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) coupled by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). In addition, the regenerated adsorbents technique was reused several times; this demonstrated an economical aspect of using pyrophyllite which underlines the re-use importance considering the material capacity to regenerate.

The present study is focused on the experimental verification of the efficiency of Arbutus unedo L. leaves against the crystallization of calcium oxalate. The inhibition of crystallization has been studied in vitro with the absence and the presence of the different concentrations of the infusion and hydroalcoholic extract of the plant. This study consists of measuring, using a UV-Visible spectrophotometer, the temporal evolution of the optical density at λ = 620 nm corresponding to the crystals formation. The latter have been characterized by microscopic observation using an optical microscope, and by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). The results suggest a greater effectiveness of the plant infusion with respect to the hydroalcoholic extract against crystallization or nucleation at percentages of 69.41 ± 0.24 or 19.76 ± 0.27% and at 93.92 ± 2.61 and 45.16 ± 3.06% against the aggregation, for both the infusion and the hydroalcoholic extract respectively. A. unedo leaves is a very promising and effective remedy against the crystallization of calcium oxalate and especially in the aggregation stage.

The aim of this study is to characterize honeybees from semi-arid regions of North-east Algeria. Therefore, twenty artisanal honey samples (13 multifloral and 7 unifloral) were collected and then characterized on the basis of their physico-chemical parameters (free acidity, pH, moisture content, electrical conductivity, Ash and sugar content) and the mineral composition (Ca, K, Mg and Na). Results showed that these regions are characterized by low moisture and low percentage of major elements. However, potassium was the most abundant of all elements determined. A statistical analysis was carried out to identify the most significant parameters and the chemometric methods used such as principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) in order to classify the three types of honeys. The PCA indicated that the cumulative variance was 81.74% with the first four principal components variables. Therefore, the use of chemometric methods on the physico-chemical parameters and major elements is not a useful tool to characterize different types of honey originates regions with the same climate.