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Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis (L.f.) Koekemoer, also known as rhinoceros bush and previously called Elytropappus rhinocerotis (L.f.) Less., is from the Asteraceae plant family. The plant is traditionally used to treat indigestion, stomach ulcers, influenza, and diarrhea. This study was aimed at investigating the phytochemistry, anti-glucosidase, anti-amylase, and anti-tyrosinase effects of D. rhinocerotis as research in this area is limited. The air-dried plant materials were macerated in 80% methanol (MeOH) and fractionated between hexane, dichloromethane (DCM), ethyl acetate (EtOAc), and butanol (BuOH). Column chromatography on silica gel was employed for the isolation of the compounds. A total of six compounds (1–6) were isolated from the fractions viz. acacetin (1), 15-hydroxy-cis-clerodan-3-ene-18-oic-acid (2), acacetin-7-glucoside (3), pinitol (4), apigenin (5), and β-sitosterol-3-O-glycoside (6). Compounds 2–4 and 6 are reported for the first time from this plant. Among the different fractions, the BuOH and EtOAc fractions had strong tyrosinase inhibitory activities with IC50 values of 13.7 ± 1.71 and 11.6 ± 2.68 µg/mL, respectively, while among the isolated compounds, apigenin (5) had the strongest inhibitory activity, with an IC50 of 14.58 µM, which competes favorably with Kojic acid (17.26 µM). The anti-glucosidase assay showed good activity in three of the fractions and compound 5, while the anti-amylase assays did not show significant inhibition activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the global demand for lipid compounds on the rise, concerns are growing about the environmental and economic impact of traditional lipid sources. This concern is exacerbated by the ever‐increasing demand for plant‐based lipids, which is contributing to unsustainable production practices and competition for land and food. Considering this challenge, this work aimed at exploring the potential of black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) as a low‐cost and ecofriendly source of lipid classes. A fractionation scheme consisting of a mixture of polar and nonpolar solvents at different ratios was employed to isolate the lipid classes from BSFL oil using silica gel column chromatography, which is a conventional method of chromatography. The fraction's separation efficiency was validated using thin‐layer chromatography and characterized with Fourier‐transformed infrared spectroscopy and gas chromatography flame ionization (GC‐FID). Triglycerides (30%) were found to be the most abundant component while cholesterols (0.6%) were the least abundant lipid fractions in the lipid mixture. GC‐FID in the various lipid fractions analyzed, lauric acid exhibited the highest percentage among the triglycerides (16.64%), diglycerides (19.10%), monoglycerides (22.70%), and free fatty acids (27.65%) fractions. The fractionation scheme proposed achieves high efficiency in separating and recovering different lipid classes extracted from the BSFL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B3LYP/6-311+G* calculations were performed on five phenolic pent-4-en-1-yne derivatives, namely rooperol, dehydroxyrooperol I and II, bis-dehydroxyrooperol, and hypoxoside, to investigate and compare their antioxidant radical scavenging properties. The main objectives were to model, for the first time, the antioxidant properties of dehydroxyrooperol I and II and bis-dehydroxyrooperol, to clarify the possible role of hypoxoside as radical scavenger and to provide insight into molecular geometry factors influencing the radical scavenging properties of phenolic pent-4-en-1-yne derivatives. The study was conducted by checking the molecules’ ability for two main antiradical mechanisms, hydrogen atom transfer and electron transfer. The results indicated that the antiradical properties of rooperol and the two dehydroxyrooperols are predominantly exerted through the hydrogen atom transfer mechanism and are the outcome of the stabilization of their neutral radical species through the interplay of hydrogen bond(s) and spin density distributions stabilizing their neutral radical species. The antiradical properties of bis-dehydroxyrooperol may be explained only in terms of the spin density distribution of its neutral radical species. The antiradical properties of hypoxoside, with O−H bond dissociation enthalpy considerably greater than that of phenol, could be considered to be minor and mainly governed by electron transfer mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]