جواد سرگلزائی

Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) is used as plasticizer to produce flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which is used in food and medical industries. Due to temperature change and contact with biological fluids and other liquids, DEHP leaches out from PVC. Humans get exposed to DEHP in different way including food consumption and medical utilities such as blood bags, blood transfusion tubes, syringes. At 2002, 120000 tons of DEHP has been produced in United States of America and this production was raised up to 230000 tons at 2006. In Iran, only in one of the industries called as Farabi petrochemical industries, 55000 tons of phthalate per year is produced. It has been reported that the DEHP concentration in human blood might reach to 52 to 55 µg/ml when blood is stored in polyvinyl chloride bags for two weeks. Previously, the effect of different concentration of DEHP on viability, proliferation and differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells was investigated. In the present study, effect of 100 µM (39 µg/ml) of DEHP on the expression of genes related to osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells was investigated.

In this experimental study, rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells were extracted from Wistar rats and after 3rd passage the cells cultured was performed in osteogenic media in presence of 100 µM of DEHP for 21 days. The viability of the cells was studied using 3-[4, 5- dimethylthiazol-2yl]-2, 5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. In addition, the osteogenic differentiation of the rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells was investigated using quantitative alizarin red test and calcium concentration determination. In addition, alkaline phosphatase enzyme activity as a marker of osteogenic differentiation was measured. Expression of the osteogenic related genes (osteonectin, SMAD1 ،BMP2 ،BMP7 and RUNX2) were studied using reverse transcriptase-PCR. Data was analyzed and the minimum level of significant was considered as p<0.05.

Data analysis revealed, rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells viability reduced significantly (p<0.05) following treatment with 100 µM of DEHP when compared to control one. Also, we observed a significant (p<0.05) reduction in matrix production based on significant reduction in alizarin red concentration as well as calcium content and alkaline phosphatase enzyme activity. In addition, a significant (p<0.05) reduction in total protein also was observed in the samples extracted from BMSCs differentiated to osteoblasts in presence of DEHP. Meanwhile, a significant (p<0.05) down regulation of osteogenic related genes was confirmed while no change (p>0.05) was observed in the expression of GAPDH.

based on this study, long term exposure to DEHP caused reduction in matrix production which strongly showed the osteogenic differentiation of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells is affected by low concentration of this environmental pollutant. As it was observed, the concentration used in this study was lower than the concentration of this pollutant in blood bags. Therefore, if a patient gets exposed to the biological or nonbiological fluids in a treatment procedure, large amount of DEHP would enter the blood circulation system. As DEHP is used in production of food containers and medical utilities such as blood tubing, blood bags, dialysis tubes in dialysis machines, we strongly suggest a legal restriction to be forced on the industrial which using this chemical as plasticizer.

In recent decades, the application of tetrazole structures in various fields of medicine and industry has become very important, because they can cause structural and thus functional changes in the proteins. In this article, the effect of a new tetrazole derivative on calf thymus DNA (Ct-DNA) as well as on bovine serum albumin protein (BSA) in the solution was determined using various spectroscopic methods in vitro.

The primary, secondary, and tertiary structures of BSA proteins and Ct-DNA were studied using UV-Vis spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD), and fluorescence spectroscopy, respectively.

The results showed that the optical density of Ct-DNA and BSA were increased in the resukt of interactions with oxindolin-(H1-tetrazol-5-yl) acetonitrile at 260 and 280 nm. The emission spectra of Ct-DNA and BSA decreased dependent to the concentration of oxindolin-(H1-tetrazol-5-yl) acetonitrile, which indicates the binding of oxindolin-(H1-tetrazol-5-yl) acetonitrile to chromophores in Ct-DNA and BSA. Binding of oxindolin-(H1-tetrazol-5-yl) acetonitrile causes a significant increase in ellipticity, circular dichroism of DNA molecules in the regions of 220 and 275 nm, and increase in its negativity in 245 nm, which shows an stronger binding of oxindolin- (H1-tetrazol-5-yl) acetonitrile to Ct-DNA. As the concentration increases, the molar ellipse associated with the alpha helix in the BSA structure becomes more negative in the 220 nm region, which indicates an increase in the amount of irregular coils in the structure of BSA.

The obtained results can provide useful information in the field of designing drugs with tetrazole derivatives with more anti-tumor effect and less side effects.

Bismuth and its related compounds such as bismuth oxide nanoparticles (Bi2O3 NPs) are widely used in the medical field of science for drug delivery, cancer therapy, bio imaging, and fighting against pathogenic microorganisms. Most of the chemical compounds used in the synthesis of nanoparticles are toxic to human health and the environment, for this reason, recently considerable interest has been focused on the green synthesis of non-toxic and environmentally friendly nanoparticles (NPs). In the biosynthesis procedure, chemicals reducing agents are replaced by cell extract of organisms that contain bio-reductive compounds as stabilizing and capping agent for NPs.

In this study, bismuth oxide nanoparticles (Bi2O3 NPs) were prepared using green synthesis by cyanobacterial cell extract of Spirulina platensis. The physico-chemical properties of the Bi2O3 NPs characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X‒ray (EDX) analysis, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM). The apoptotic properties of biosynthesized nanoparticles on MCF-7 and MCF-10a cell lines were determined using the effect of the Bi2O3 NPs on the expression of BAX and BCL2 genes by real-time polymerase chain reaction.

The size, shape, and morphology of Bi2O3 NPs are suitable for penetrating into the cancer cells and affecting their vital activities. In the MCF-7 cell line, the ratio of BAX/BCL2 expression was significantly higher than that of in MCF-10a cell line treated with the Bi2O3 NPs.

The results revealed the stimulation of apoptosis in breast cancer cell line by green synthesized Bi2O3 NPs through an increase in apoptosis regulator genes expression.

According to the importance of coumarin derivatives as an effective medication on cancer cells and various other therapeutic effects, in this study we investigated the effect of a new derivative of coumarin named 3- (tetrazol-5-yl) coumarin on single-stranded DNA by different spectroscopic methods in solution.

The present study has investigated the effect of 3- (tetrazol-5-il) coumarin on single-stranded DNA in vitro. The findings demonstrates that the rate of single strand DNA absorption enhances by interaction with 3-(tetrazol-5-yl) coumarin at 210 and 260 nm. The fluorescence intensity of single-stranded DNA increases in a concentration-dependent of 3- (tetrazol-5-yl) coumarin, indicating the binding of 3- (tetrazol-5-yl) coumarin to the chromophores in single-stranded DNA.

Binding of 3- (tetrazol-5-yl) coumarin to single-stranded DNA causes a significant increase in ellipticity in circular dichroism of DNA molecules in the regions of 220 and 275 nm which is more positive at 245 nm. The results indicate a stronger binding of 3- (tetrazol-5-l) coumarin to single-stranded DNA, which may be due to the fact that single-stranded DNA may be more available during replication.

The results obtained from the effect of 3- (tetrazol-5-yl) coumarin on single-stranded DNA can provide valuable information to design medications by coumarin derivatives which have more anti-tumor effect and less side effects.

The Okra belongs to the family Malvaceae with the scientific name Abelmoschus esculentus (Peyvast, 2009). The viscous property of okra is due to the thick and viscous matter in the fruit pod, called mucilage. Okra mucilage is a polysaccharide currently used in pharmaceutical industry as a hydrophilic polymer in tablet coatings (Bakre et al, 2009). Mucilage collectively contains polysaccharides, proteins, and minerals found in a plants or seeds that are more widely used in various industries, including food industry, as a stiffener in dairy products. Mucilage composed of monosaccharide polymers, amorphous and semi-transparent, and are hydrocolloids. These materials are hydrophilic molecules that can be extracted with water and form a concentrated or gel solutions. Gels are widely used in the food, pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical industries. The cultivation of okra in Iran is mainly occurred in tropical and subtropical regions and is found in Khuzestan, Ilam, Kermanshah, South Fars, Bushehr and Hormozgan provinces (Mozafarian, 2012). Many studies have been done on the extraction of okra mucilage and its applications in the pharmaceutical and food industries. Faroq et al. worked on the organoleptic properties of okra mucilage and concluded that okra mucilage has good flow properties and high solubility in water that can be used safely without any side effects (Farooq et al, 2013). ). Noorlaila et al studied the emulsifying property of mucilage extracted from okra (Noorlaila et al, 2014). Nazni and Vigneshwar studied the extraction and evaluation of organoleptic properties of mucilage from okra and several other plants and used ethanol and acetone to purify mucilage (Nazni et al, 2012). A study was conducted in 2018 to study the basic properties such as swelling index, emulsion stability, viscosity and antioxidant activity of okra mucilage (Fekadu Gememde et al, 2018). In a study on the use of okra mucilage in pharmacy, Ameena et al after extracting mucilage from okra and measured the physicochemical properties of mucilage, applied it in tablet formulation and many parameters such as diameter, thickness, weight change, hardness and Fragility were assessed. According to observations, low concentrations of okra mucilage can be used as a substitute for starch in tablet formulation, and also high levels of okra mucilage can be used in the drug release system as a natural substance (Ameena et al, 2010). In a study, Mishra et al presented okra mucilage as a new proposal to replace polymer materials used in various industries (Mishra et al, 2008). In 2014, the effect of okra mucilage on the release of propranolol hydrocolloid in tablets was studied. The highest hardness and lowest brittleness were observed for okra tablets (Zaharuddin et al, 2014). In this research, extraction of okra mucilage was investigated by two methods of solvent and supercritical fluid extraction. Optimization the yield and physicochemical properties of the extract obtained from both methods was also investigated.

Fresh okra obtained from local supermarket in Khuzestan province. Chemicals materials such as pure ethanol, acetone, chloroform, acetonitrile purchased from Merck and Sigma Aldrich. After transferring the okra fruit to the laboratory, the contaminants were removed from the plant and then rinsed thoroughly with water. The okra pods were dried at about 40 °C in a digital fan oven model 6882A. It was powdered by a German-made electric milling machine and then it passed through a 30-mesh sieve to be ready for extraction and it was weighted by laboratory scales (0.0001 precision manufactured by Cornell, Germany). In the solvent extraction process, the okra powder was weighed by a digital balanced (GR-200 model made in Japan) and transferred to 250 ml human. The solids stirred in distilled water and various amounts of solvent for 1 to 5 hours until the mucilage is completely released into the water. The solution was filtered and then adjacent to an organic solvent. Then, the filtrate was poured again into Petri dish and placed on a water bath at 45 °C to evaporate the residual solvent inside it. The residue inside the Petri dish was dried in a fan oven (Reyhan Teb Company) at 40 °C and powdered and kept at 20 °C until the day of analysis. In the supercritical extraction method, the supercritical fluid extraction machine which designed and manufactured in the laboratory of the Faculty of Engineering at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad was used. The carbon dioxide was supplied by Khakakan Co., Quchan Road, Iran in a 45 kg cylinder.

Generally, according to the results of both methods of solvent extraction and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), the extraction efficiency of mucilage at the optimal point in the solvent extraction and in the supercritical methods was 5.12% and 1.58%, respectively. Due to the less use of organic solvents in the supercritical method, this method is more environmentally friendly, which is significant in converting the laboratory method to pilot or industrial scale. Physio-chemical analysis of mucilage obtained by two methods shows that the index of swelling, moisture and ash of mucilage obtained by maceration is more than that of supercritical mucilage. By comparing the obtained values at the optimal point of both methods, the solvent method has a higher total efficiency and has been more successful. However, in the supercritical fluid method, the solvent utilization is significantly reduced. The extraction time in the supercritical fluid method is also reduced by about 50%.

Saponin compounds have been considered as anti-cancer, antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral activity agents. In addition, they are also used as foaming agents in some food industries. There are few studies for assessing the extraction of this substance, so far. The main purpose of this study is to assess and compare the extraction yield of Saponin by conventional extracting using solvent and super-critical fluid method.

In the extraction with solvent, the effect of three independent parameters including mass of solid material, percentage of ethanol solvent, and time of extraction on process performance was investigated. Yield of extraction and Saponin concentration were considered as indexes for evaluating the process performance. In the super critical fluid extraction, the effects of extraction time, pressure, and temperature were investigated. In this method, carbon dioxide was used as super critical fluid and 80% ethanol was used as co-solvent. In order to design of experiment and process optimization, response surface methodology and central composite design was used.

In optimum condition of extraction with solvent, the mass of solid material, ethanol solvent percentage, and extraction time were 5.4 g, 77.5%, and 7 h, respectively. In this condition, the maximum efficiency of extraction yield of 1.12 mg of saponins per a gram of dry primary substance was obtained. The results indicated that time and solvent percentage were significant parameters.  Further, interaction between two factors of time and solvent percentage was significant. For supercritical fluid extraction, in optimum condition, extraction time, pressure, and temperature were 10 h, 400 bar, and 50 °C, respectively. Extraction yield in this condition was 20% more than the yield of conventional method. It is concluded that the supercritical fluid extraction method has higher performance than conventional method.

In this study, the performance of moving-bed sequencing batch reactor with intermittent aeration strategy (IA-MBSBR) was evaluated for treatment of livestock wastewater in simultaneous nitrification-denitrification process. The statistical design and analysis were employed to optimize independent variables such as sludge retention time (SRT), temperature, and aeration rate using response surface methodology (RSM) through Box-Behnken design (BBD). The effect of variables was investigated on chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal and SND efficiency ( ). The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to confirm the suitability and significance of the quadratic models. Based on the results, a very high regression coefficient was achieved between the variables and the responses: COD removal and SND efficiency were R2 = 0.9788 and R2 = 0.9600, respectively indicating an excellent evaluation of experimental data by polynomial regression model. Long SRT reduced the negative effect of low temperature, but lowered COD removal and ESNDin high temperature. Further, appropriate aeration rate was vital for the SND to reach equilibrium between the nitrification and denitrification processes. The optimal conditions obtained from the models were SRT= 20 d, temperature = 19.16 °C and aeration rate= 0.1 , which results in COD removal and ESND of 92.9 and 91.3%, respectively. It was found that an alternating anaerobic/aerobic conditions with step-filling mode is an effective, economic, and environmentally-friendly strategy for the biological treatment of livestock wastewater in the moving-bed sequencing batch reactor.

The term antioxidant is said to be compounds that are delaying or preventing oxidization of a substance at their own presence, which leads to reach a stabilized food quality (Collins, 2005). Natural antioxidants are often phenolic compounds that exist in all parts of a plant. These compounds are secondary metabolites that can inhibit active oxygen species by giving hydrogen atoms and converting them into more stable non-radical compounds due to oxidation and reduction properties. They also have the ability to chelate the metals (Wijngaard et al., 2009 and Erasto et al., 2007). Regarding the positive effects of natural antioxidants, many studies have been conducted to extract, identify and apply them from various herbal sources. Edible fruit jujube is a member of the Ramanaceae family, known in Iran as the jujube. The plants of the family are jujube flowers, which are all diploid and have 24 chromosomes. The jujube tree has been cultivated in China for thousands of years ago and is used as a medicine, food and food flavoring, also distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of Europe, Australia and South Asia. (Su et. al., 2005, Yan et. al., 2002, Preeti et al. 2014). Phenolic compounds have a high potential for antioxidants and a natural source of antioxidants. The antioxidant capacity of the Jujube is due to its antioxidant compounds such as flavonoids, total phenolic, anthocyanins and ascorbic acid. Zhao et al., 2014) and Zhang et al., 2010). Shell, pulp and fruit jujube seeds have a wide range of phenolic compounds and have long been used as a drug and flavor agent (Zhang et. al., 2010, Mahajan et al., 2009). Many studies have investigated the effects of Jujube fruit and its juice on the prevention and treatment of diseases such as digestive disorders, weakness, obesity, liver problems, diabetes, skin infections, Infections, Anemia, and Allergies have been reported (Gao et al., 2015 and 2013, Kim et al., 2011, Verma, 2016, Li et al., 2012). In a study by Wang et al. on Jujube fruit, 22 compounds were identified in ethanol jujube extracts (Wang et al., 2014). Zhang et al. The study that they carried out showed that the antioxidant activity of the jujube is due to its antioxidant compounds, such as flavonoids, total phenolic, anthocyanidins and ascorbic acid (Zhang et al., 2010). Italian scientists influence the phenolic compounds of jujube fruit extract on breast cancer cells (Plastina et al., 2012). During a study conducted in Egypt, the effect of jujube fruit on obesity, lipid profile and liver function were examined. (Mostafa et al., 2013). In another study on juvenile fruit phenolic compounds, the effect of jujube on seizure treatment was evaluated and the results showed that jujube has protective properties against seizure, oxidative stress and other disorders. Pahuja et al., 2011).In this research, extraction of phenolic compounds of Ziziphus Jujuba extracts has been performed using the supercritical carbon dioxide fluid method and optimization of the extracted compounds and the measurement of the antioxidant activity of Jujube fruit.

Jujube fruit was prepared from Birjand in late August. Chemical materials such as pure ethanol, reagent Folin-Cictalto, sodium carbonate and free radical molecules from German-German corporations and Sigma Aldrich, and laboratory glassware and instruments such as volumetric balloons, refrigerators and freezers, spatula, vertex, buret, pipettes, calibrated cylinders, Filter paper, Falcon, Human Dimension, Mesh 30, Funnel and Arlene were provided. The freshly purchased fruits were separated from the tree before drying. After separating the jujube grain, the fruit was dried at 40°C in a digital-powered oven (volume 5 liters made by Binder Company in Germany), and dried with the aid of a home-made mill. For particles of uniform size, the resulting powder was sown using a mesh 30 and kept in a refrigerator at -20°C until it was extracted.

Generally, according to the results of both solvent extraction and supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) methods, the total amount of phenolic extraction at the optimal point in terms of mg Gallic acid to gram of dry extract in the solvent extraction and in the supercritical method were 26.21 and 2.24, respectively. Comparison of the obtained values ​​at the optimal point of both methods indicated that the solvent method shows higher values of the total phenol content and it has been more successful. However, due to the insignificant differences in total extraction phenol content between the two methods, the supercritical method can be described as a better way to extract phenolic compounds, since the supercritical method was less effective than antioxidant power despite the presence of phenol,  because in the supercritical method, the selectivity can be increased and the target compounds can be isolated by adjusting the temperature and pressure which increases the purity and increase the antioxidant property, and the purpose of the extraction of phenolic compounds. On the other hand, due to the low amount of organic solvent used in this method and the reduction of health and environmental risks, the supercritical method can be introduced as an effective method for extraction of phenolic compounds from Ziziphus Jujube fruit, which reduces the consumption of organic solvent and causes in an efficiency equal with solvent method approximately. In general, according to the amount of total phenolic extraction in both methods, it can be said that Jujube has higher phenol content than other herbs and it can be introduced as a natural antioxidant at the commercial level.

Drying foods, such as freezing methods and hot air, are not ideal and reduces the nutritional value and is also expensive and is used only for high value food. In this research, drying with supercritical fluid of carbon dioxide was investigated to remove moisture from the figs. In the drying process with supercritical fluid, the structure of food products is maintained during drying. The design of the experiment was carried out in a factorial arrangement using Design Expert software and analysis variance table to determine the effect of three pressure parameters, temperature, and time to measure the removal rate of moisture. The calculated factorial model was meaningful and able to select the best drying parameters. In optimum conditions, the highest yield (78.109%) with the desirability of 0.992 at 20 MPa, 60 °C and 120 minutes duration. The results showed that the drying of figs during the whole drying period is carried out at the downstream stage, which indicates that the drying of these materials, the internal moisture control, controls the rate of drying and mass transfer. In this study, by solving the second Fick's law and in the range of pressure and temperature tested, with the assumption of the spherical of the fig using the Crank equation, the amount of moisture diffusion coefficient between 4.51× 10-10 and 0.18 × 10 -10 m2/s were obtained. The fig's drying rate was also calculated. Increasing temperature and pressure caused to increase the drying rate.

Treating wastewaters containing nitrogenous compounds is an essential issue due to environmental hazards. New biological technologies such as simultaneous nitrification-denitrification (SND), ANAMMOX and SHARON were developed in the last decades. Such techniques are economical and more effective compared to conventional methods. The aim of this work was to investigate physico-chemical properties of SND process.

In this study, subsequent to constructing a comprehensive survey on papers published in the last two decades, the impacts of effective parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, organic carbon, floc size and sludge retention time (SRT) on SND process were investigated.

SND process reduces carbon source demand. Dissolved oxygen should be adjusted in a particular range to maintain an equilibrium between the nitrification and denitrification.  The process efficiency was higher in the basic pH. The optimum temperature for the growth of SND bacteria were 20-30 ℃. There was no linear correlation between efficiency of process and SRT.

The results of this research approved that new biological processes for nitrogen removal such as SND were promising owing to reducing the need for aeration and carbon source. By controlling the Physico-chemical conditions in process, good efficiencies can be achieved.

Due to the environmental hazards, nitrogenous wastewater treatment is essential and important. In recent decades, novel biological processes such as Annamox and SHARON have developed which are cheaper and more effective compared to conventional processes. In the present study, several significant biological parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, organic carbon, salt concentration, nitrite concentration and sludge retention time (SRT) were investigated. The results showed that SHARON process lowered the need for carbon source while Annamox process without carbon source requirement, was implemented in anaerobic condition. The optimum pH for Annamox process was reported 6.7-8.3. Nitrite and salt concentrations were important control parameters to prevent Annamox bacterial activity. Desired temperature for the bacterial growth was 30-40℃ for Annamox and higher than 25℃ for SHARON, and process efficiencies were not directly related to SRT. Overall, the new biological processes of nitrogen removal were described promising due to the decrease in need for aeration and carbon source and are suitable alternatives for conventional processes

Corrosion means the destruction or the deterioration of materials because of reaction with its environment. One of important effective factors on corrosion rate is fluid motion in pipe and all of construction that have flow of fluid. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of fluid flow on the corrosion of simple carbon steel ST37 (AISI 1020) in aqueous solution of Bandar Abbas’s gas well at 25oC under the air-saturated condition. To investigate the mechanism and kinetic of corrosion in different hydrodynamic conditions، a Rotating Disk Electrode (RDE) was used. The imposed potential and polarization on the metal sample، a potentiostat system was utilized and to interpret the data، Linear Polarization Resistance (LPR) and tafel polarization methods were applied. To study the effect of fluid flow on the rate of corrosion، the speed of rotating disk was changed from 100 to 1700 rpm. Drawing the related polarization curves mass transfer coefficients were predicted. Using these coefficients and empirical correlation between dimensionless groups as Sh= 0. 8433 Re0. 497Sc1/3 was found. This correlation is much closer to the correlation proposed by Levich. Experimental data also shows that increasing the disk speed to 1000 rpm. The rate of corrosion (due to the increases in mass transfer rate) was increased. Above this speeds the rate of corrosion in independent of disk speed. Finally to study the corrosion inside the pipes using the analogy aspects، a relation to predict the disk speed (generating the same velocity of fluid inside the pipe) was obtained.