Iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized starting from two aqueous extracts based on Artemisia absinthium L. leaf and stems, employing a simplest, eco-friendliness and low toxicity method—green synthesis. The nanoparticles were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF), thermal analysis (TG/DSC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Lack of magnetic properties and the reddish-brown color of all the samples confirms the presence of hematite as majority phase. The FTIR bands located at 435 cm−1 and 590 cm−1, are assigned to Fe-O stretching vibration from hematite, confirming the formation of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (NPs). The in vitro screening of the samples revealed that the healthy cell line (HaCaT) presents a good viability (above 80%) after exposure to iron oxide NPs and lack of apoptotic features, while the tumorigenic cell lines manifested a higher sensitivity, especially the melanoma cells (A375) when exposed to concentration of 500 µg/mL iron oxide NPs for 72 h. Moreover, A375 cells elicited significant apoptotic markers under these parameters (concentration of 500 µg/mL iron oxide NPs for a contact time of 72 h).

This chapter deals with the major natural sources of nanoparticles in the atmosphere: volcanic eruptions, desert surfaces, dust from cosmic sources located in the solar system or outside it. Details are given about the composition of very fine particles according to their type, the successive or parallel chemical transformations that can occur among them or when they meet the major components of the atmosphere (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide). The authors specify possible ways of evolution from the mineral kingdom to organic substances through nanoparticles originating from cosmic dust, based on suppositions that are provided in the literature of the field and accepted based on physical and chemical computational models.

Using the concept of Fractional Charges were calculate the attachment energies and was simulated the growth form of quartz crystals in the past. In this paper , by using the concept of normal and fractional charges in the system for A2BSi2O7 and AB2O6 types of crystals, will be computed the attachment energies and it will be done the conclusions of influences of fractional charges in the system for energies calculations the first step in Hartman Perdok Method applied to microcrystals.

This paper deal with an analysis of the growth form of crystals from the point of view of Hartman Perdok method of analysis. We present in the present paper a parallel of three types of crystals like : betulinic acid, urea and quartz crystals that from starting Hartman Perdok method, knowing the structure of each crystal we can obtained by using simulations the growth form of these crystals. The simulations are in good agreements obtained in experiment with the crystal for quartz and urea crystals but for betulinic acid the studies are only preliminaries and need to be improved

In this work, the assessment by means of non-invasive techniques of skin injuries generated by the action of the inorganic and organic phases resulted from the COSORB process was performed. For this purpose, the SKH-1 hairless mice were used to evaluate the effects of the inorganic and organic phases on skin physiological parameters after topical application and exposition in pollute environment. The obtained results, expressed as melanin content, erythema parameter, skin surface hydration level, and TEWL parameter, revealed that the constituents of the test solutions (the inorganic and the organic phases) induce skin toxicity by significant modifications of the physiological skin parameters status, which might be correlated to the first signs of skin pathology.

This paper deal with an analysis of the growth and equilibrium form of oxides crystals from the point of view of Wigner Seitz and Brillouin zone analysis based on the computer simulation of SiO2 and TiO2. These methods are robust and suitable to predict the growing and equilibrium form of the crystals in the future. The significance, and novelty of this work is high because it can be applied in fields such as healthcare and pharmaceuticals, environmental and forensic analysis, as well as in agricultural science and food products.

Considering the growing interest of urea in different fields the researchers studied the simulation of growth, equilibrium, Wigner Seits and Brillouin Zone of ureea crystals. By using these methods is presented for the first time the form of this crystal related to the attachament energy and to the surface energies.

A quantitative structure - property relationship (QSPR) modeling of vapor pressure at 298.15 K, expressed as log (VP / Pa) was performed for a series of 84 hydrocarbons (63 alkanes and 21 cycloalkanes) using the van der Waals (vdW) surface area, SW/Å2, calculated by the Monte Carlo method, as the molecular descriptor. The QSPR model developed from the subset of 63 alkanes (C1-C16), deemed as the training set, was successfully used for the prediction of the log (VP / Pa) values of the 21 cycloalkanes, which was the external prediction (test) subset. A QSPR model was also developed for a series composed of all 84 hydrocarbons. Both QSPR models were statistically tested for their ability to fit the data and for prediction. The results showed that the vdW molecular surface used as molecular descriptor (MD) explains the variance of the majority of the log (VP / Pa) values in this series of 84 hydrocarbons. This MD describes very well the intermolecular forces that hold neutral molecules together. The clear physical meaning of the molecular surface values, SW/Å2, could explain the success of the QSPR models obtained with a single structural molecular descriptor.

Romania ranks fourth in the world for the consumption of ethnobotanical products, behind England, Germany and the Netherlands, although in 2008, our country was not in the ranking. The study intends to identify the substances contained in ethnobotanical products. This was possible using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The results revealed the presence of psychoactive substances in some ethno botanical products. The presence of these substances explains the symptoms of the ethnobotanical product poisoned patients who come to the emergency department.

BACKGROUND:Emulsifiers have a significant role in the emulsion polymerization by reducing the interfacial tension thus increasing the stability of colloidal dispersions of polymer nanostructures. This study evaluates the impact of four emulsifiers on the characteristics of polyurethane hollow structures used as drug delivery system.RESULTS:Polyurethane (PU) structures with high stability and sizes ranging from nano- to micro-scale were obtained by interfacial polyaddition combined with spontaneous emulsification. The pH of PU aqueous solutions (0.1% w/w) was slightly acidic, which is acceptable for products intended to be used on human skin. Agglomerated structures with irregular shapes were observed by scanning electron microscopy. The synthesized structures have melting points between 245-265°C and reveal promising results in different evaluations (TEWL, mexametry) on murine skin.CONCLUSIONS:In this study hollow PU structures of reduced noxiousness were synthesized, their size and stability being influenced by emulsifiers. Such structures could be used in the pharmaceutical field as future drug delivery systems.

Taking into account the advanced photosensitivity of some pharmaceutical substances, there are several special requirements for their use, storage and even their assay in pharmaceutical formulations. Despite numerous attempts made in order to characterize the intrinsic photo-transformation tendency of drugs, the problem is far to be solved satisfactorily. In this paper a model study is performed in the concrete case of retinol acetate (vitamin A), a compound with well-known photosensitivity, using a photochemical reactor of original conception. In the case of vitamin A, a single dominant photochemical process seems to be takes place, as suggested by HPLC UV-spectroscopy and chemometric processing of spectrophotometric data. An adequate interpretation of kinetic data allows to define and determine a rate constant suitable to express the intrinsic photo-instability, irrespective of some experimental factors such as initial concentration, the nature of solvent etc. The processing technique we have been used is suitable even in the case when the spectroscopic behavior of reaction product is unknown. The described strategy is based on the monomolecular pathway supposition, successfully tested in the case of vitamin A.

Expensive high quality vegetable oils and animal fats are susceptible to adulteration. Substitution of high quality and expensive oils and fats with cheaper and inferior quality oils or fats and labeling of those products as pure products are often used by producers to obtain a maximum profit. Such falsification in the oils and fats domain as well as the other food products represents a major economic fraud, and it may have serious implications for public health. The present work intends to identify the adulteration of some olive, peanut, corn germ and pumpkin oils with sunflower oil, the most common oil in Romania, using FT-IR spectroscopy. Experimental results showed that even if the spectral differences in the middle infrared spectral region are very small, because most vegetable oils contain the same type of fatty acids (especially those with C 16 and C 18) and triglyceride content is similar (C50, C52, C54), nevertheless, there are subtle spectral differences in the spectrum of various types of vegetable oils. This enables us to identify the addition of foreign oil in an oil sample using calibration curves established for certain characteristic frequencies in known mixed oils.

Genisteine is the most abundant and the most studied estrogen-mimetic izoflavone. It's chemical formula is 4',5,7 – trihidroxyisoflavone. It has also estrogen-modulated properties by its binding ability to the beta type estrogen receptor. Genisteine presents the following farmacodinamic effects: antiaterogen effect, prevention of estrogen-dependent cancers, especially breast cancer, prevention of skin aging body, osteoprogen effect, prevention of osteoporosis at the menopauses women. Despite all these real benefits, there are also many adverse effects, registered both in humans and animals. Thus, the sheep feeding with some Fabaceae species, containing estrogen-mimetic isoflavones were stopped their reproductive function(isoflavones acted as an oral contraceptive. In humans, phytoestroges influence is still under evaluation, being suspected effects such as cerebral involution - via abusive apoptosis - or disturbance in hormonal status, in male children. All these are added to already known allergies, caused by soy proteins.

Molecular modeling and MTD methods are useful tools to assess both qualitative (SAR) and quantitative (QSAR) chemical structure-biological activity relationships. The 1[( 2-hydroxiethoxi)-methyl]-6-(phenylthio) thymine congeners ( HEPT ligands) show in vitro anti-viral activity against the type-1 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1), which is the etiologic agent of AIDS. This work shows an extensive QSAR study performed upon a large series of 79 HEPT ligands using the MTD and HyperChem molecular modeling methods. The studied HEPT ligands are HIV reverse-transcriptase inhibitors. Their geometries were optimized and conformational analysis was carried out to build the hypermolecule, which allowed applying the MTD method. The hypermolecule was used for space mapping of the receptor's interaction site. The obtained results show that there are three 3D molecular zones important for the anti-HIV biological activity of the HEPT ligands under study.

10 topological indicators of molecular similarity derived from cluster analysis, and based on binary distance measures were examined. The correlation coefficients (r) between these similarity measures and the biological activity (A) of a series of 22 alkyl alcohols that competitively inhibit the microsomal p-hydroxylation of aniline (A is pI 50 , that is, the logarithm of reciprocal concentration that causes 50% inhibition) are in the range of 0.032 - 0.907. We also propose a topological similarity/ dissimilarity measure (TSDM) developed on the basis of original Minimal Topological Difference (MTD) method, named MSD. Thus, the bioactive molecules are treated as hydrogen depleted graphs and the geometrical congruencies of the molecule with the highest activity vs. compared molecules are performed seeking the maximal superposition. The TSDM was obtained by normalization of MSD values. The range of variation is (0,1). A value of TSDM close to 1 implies a high topological similarity. The degree of dissimilarity is maximum if TSDM=0. The results obtained by QSAR analysis of the same series of alcohols with TSDM values were: the correlation coefficient r=0.944 and the cross-validation coefficient was r2 CV =0.736. This supports the hypothesis that the binding of alcohols to the enzymatic site of cytochrome P-450 takes place