Effect of wax separation on macro‐ and micro‐elements, phenolic compounds, pesticide residues, and toxic elements in propolis
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Evran E
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10916619 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:The accumulation of hazardous contaminants in Cannabis sativa L. raises warning signs regarding possible adverse effects on human health due to the consumption of herbal medicines and/or other herbal edible products made from cannabis. Thus, there is an urge to investigate the levels of hazardous contaminants, such as heavy metals, in cannabis plant. In the present study, 29 macro and trace elements, including both beneficial and toxic elements (heavy metals and metalloids), were investigated in 90 samples of Cannabis sativa L. collected from Greece. According to the results, the detected concentrations of macro elements in the leaves/flowers of cannabis ranged between 28 and 138,378 ppm, and of trace elements between 0.002 and 1352.904 ppm. Although the concentrations of elements varied among the samples, their accumulation pattern was found to be similar, with the contribution of toxic elements to the total concentration of trace elements being below 1%. The detected levels of the most toxic elements were below the prescribed limits established by the WHO, while the calculated THQ and CR values showed no risk (non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic) for the population exposed to the current cannabis samples. Positive correlation between the concentration of elements and cannabis geographical origin and variety was observed. Cannabis leaves/flowers were more contaminated with trace and macro elements than seeds.
| S-EPMC8100522 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A novel nano/micro-structured pesticide detection card was developed by combining electrospinning and hydrophilic modification, and its feasibility for detecting different pesticides was investigated. Here, the plain and hydrophilic-modified poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) fiber mats were used for the absorption of indolyl acetate and acetylcholinesterase (AChE), respectively. By pre-treating the fiber mat with ethanol, its surface wettability was improved, thus, promoting the hydrolysis of the PCL fiber mat. Furthermore, the absorption efficiency of AChE was improved by almost two times due to the increased hydrophilicity of the modified fiber mat. Noteworthily, this self-made detection card showed a 5-fold, 2-fold, and 1.5-fold reduction of the minimum detectable concentration for carbofuran, malathion, and trichlorfon, respectively, compared to the national standard values. Additionally, it also exhibited good stability when stored at 4 °C and room temperature. The food detection test showed that this nano/micro-based detection card had better detectability than the commercial detection card. Therefore, this study offers new insights into the design of pesticide detection cards, which also broadens the application of electrospinning technique.
| S-EPMC8073816 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We use agent-based modeling to investigate the effect of conservatism and partisanship on the efficiency with which large populations solve the density classification task - a paradigmatic problem for information aggregation and consensus building. We find that conservative agents enhance the populations' ability to efficiently solve the density classification task despite large levels of noise in the system. In contrast, we find that the presence of even a small fraction of partisans holding the minority position will result in deadlock or a consensus on an incorrect answer. Our results provide a possible explanation for the emergence of conservatism and suggest that even low levels of partisanship can lead to significant social costs.
| S-EPMC4029510 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Lipid metabolism disorder is one of the significant risk factors for a multitude of human diseases and has become a serious threat to human health. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of phenolics from poplar-type propolis on regulating lipid metabolism by using cell models of steatosis induced by palmitic acid (PA). Our study shows that phenolic esters have higher lipid-lowering activities than phenolic acids, especially for three caffeic acid esters, including caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), caffeic acid cinnamyl ester (CACE), and caffeic acid benzyl ester (CABE). Most notably, CACE presents prominent properties to prevent intracellular lipid accumulation and to amend extracellular adipokine secretion abnormalities. In addition, our results firstly reveal that CACE can alleviate lipid metabolism disorder through mediating protein kinase RNA-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK), activating transcription factor 6 (ATF6) signaling pathway-associated protein expression, suppressing endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and activating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) by distinct upregulation of PPARα and downregulation of PPARγ.
| S-EPMC7914084 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Brucella organisms are responsible for one of the most widespread bacterial zoonoses, named brucellosis. The disease affects several species of animals, including humans. One of the most intriguing aspects of the brucellae is that the various species show a ~97% similarity at the genome level. Still, the distinct Brucella species display different host preferences, zoonotic risk, and virulence. After 133 years of research, there are many aspects of the Brucella biology that remain poorly understood, such as host adaptation and virulence mechanisms. A strategy to understand these characteristics focuses on the relationship between the genomic diversity and host preference of the various Brucella species. Pseudogenization, genome reduction, single nucleotide polymorphism variation, number of tandem repeats, and mobile genetic elements are unveiled markers for host adaptation and virulence. Understanding the mechanisms of genome variability in the Brucella genus is relevant to comprehend the emergence of pathogens.
| S-EPMC7589603 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Honeybees use propolis collected from plants for coating the inner walls of their nest. This substance is also used as a natural antibiotic against microbial pathogens, similarly to many other animals exploiting natural products for self-medication. We carried out chemical analyses and laboratory bioassays to test if honeybees use propolis for social medication against their major ectoparasite: Varroa destructor. We found that propolis is applied to brood cells where it can affect the reproducing parasites, with a positive effect on honeybees and a potential impact on Varroa population. We conclude that propolis can be regarded as a natural pesticide used by the honeybee to limit a dangerous parasite. These findings significantly enlarge our understanding of behavioural immunity in animals and may have important implications for the management of the most important threat to honeybees worldwide.
| S-EPMC8670950 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Bees are essential pollinators of many plants in natural ecosystems and agricultural crops alike. In recent years the decline and disappearance of bee species in the wild and the collapse of honey bee colonies have concerned ecologists and apiculturalists, who search for causes and solutions to this problem. Whilst biological factors such as viral diseases, mite and parasite infections are undoubtedly involved, it is also evident that pesticides applied to agricultural crops have a negative impact on bees. Most risk assessments have focused on direct acute exposure of bees to agrochemicals from spray drift. However, the large number of pesticide residues found in pollen and honey demand a thorough evaluation of all residual compounds so as to identify those of highest risk to bees. Using data from recent residue surveys and toxicity of pesticides to honey and bumble bees, a comprehensive evaluation of risks under current exposure conditions is presented here. Standard risk assessments are complemented with new approaches that take into account time-cumulative effects over time, especially with dietary exposures. Whilst overall risks appear to be low, our analysis indicates that residues of pyrethroid and neonicotinoid insecticides pose the highest risk by contact exposure of bees with contaminated pollen. However, the synergism of ergosterol inhibiting fungicides with those two classes of insecticides results in much higher risks in spite of the low prevalence of their combined residues. Risks by ingestion of contaminated pollen and honey are of some concern for systemic insecticides, particularly imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, chlorpyrifos and the mixtures of cyhalothrin and ergosterol inhibiting fungicides. More attention should be paid to specific residue mixtures that may result in synergistic toxicity to bees.
| S-EPMC3981812 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Causal interactions within complex systems can be analyzed at multiple spatial and temporal scales. For example, the brain can be analyzed at the level of neurons, neuronal groups, and areas, over tens, hundreds, or thousands of milliseconds. It is widely assumed that, once a micro level is fixed, macro levels are fixed too, a relation called supervenience. It is also assumed that, although macro descriptions may be convenient, only the micro level is causally complete, because it includes every detail, thus leaving no room for causation at the macro level. However, this assumption can only be evaluated under a proper measure of causation. Here, we use a measure [effective information (EI)] that depends on both the effectiveness of a system's mechanisms and the size of its state space: EI is higher the more the mechanisms constrain the system's possible past and future states. By measuring EI at micro and macro levels in simple systems whose micro mechanisms are fixed, we show that for certain causal architectures EI can peak at a macro level in space and/or time. This happens when coarse-grained macro mechanisms are more effective (more deterministic and/or less degenerate) than the underlying micro mechanisms, to an extent that overcomes the smaller state space. Thus, although the macro level supervenes upon the micro, it can supersede it causally, leading to genuine causal emergence--the gain in EI when moving from a micro to a macro level of analysis.
| S-EPMC3856819 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Many sociological theories make critically different macropredictions when their microassumptions are implemented stochastically rather than deterministically. Deviations from individuals' behavioral patterns described by microtheories can spark cascades that change macrooutcomes, even when deviations are rare and random. With two experiments, we empirically tested whether macrophenomena can be critically shaped by random deviations. Ninety-six percent of participants' decisions were in line with a deterministic theory of bounded rationality. Despite this impressive microlevel accuracy, the deterministic model failed to predict the observed macrooutcomes. However, a stochastic version of the same microtheory largely improved macropredictions. The stochastic model also correctly predicted the conditions under which deviations mattered. Results also supported the hypothesis that nonrandom deviations can result in fundamentally different macrooutcomes than random deviations. In conclusion, we echo the warning that deterministic microtheories can be misleading. Our findings show that taking into account deviations in sociological theories can improve explanations and predictions.
| S-EPMC7324148 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Whereas the mechanism of fluid flow, and thus structural control, linked with mineral deposit formation is quite understood, the specific structures that likely provided controls on mineralization at certain geographic scales are not readily known for a given region unless it is well-explored. This contributes uncertainty in mineral prospectivity analysis in poorly-explored regions (or greenfields). Here, because the spatial distribution of mineral deposits has been postulated to be fractals (i.e., the patterns of these features are self-similar across a range of spatial scales), we show for the first time that micro-geochemical anomalies (as proxies of micro-scale patterns of ore minerals), from few discrete parts of the Sossego iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposit in the Carajás Mineral Province (CMP) of Brazil, exhibit trends of macro-scale faults that are known to have controlled IOCG mineralization in the CMP. The methodology described here, which led to this novel finding, would help towards detecting mineral exploration targets as well as help towards understanding structural controls on mineralization in greenfields.
| S-EPMC6416276 | biostudies-literature