Assessment Of Lung Function Status Of Workers At A Transformer Manufacturing Plant In Selangor, Malaysia

@#Transformer manufacturing industry uses volatile organic compounds (VOCs) containing materials such as varnish which can cause adverse health effects to human. Exposure to a high level of VOCs could disrupt the normal functions of a human lung.Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the status of lung functions of the workers exposed to VOCs at a transformer manufacturing plant in Selangor. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) concentration in the office and production area was measured using direct-reading method and 60 subjects were selected to undergo the lung function test. The FVC and FEV1 values showed significant difference (p<0.05) between the exposed group and the non-exposed group. The mean readings of FVC (69.07±12.58) and FEV₁ (72.90±10.46) of the exposed groups were lower than the non-exposed group, which were 81.47±9.78 and 84.23±9.07, respectively. In contrast to the FEV1/FVC parameters, the non-exposed group (102.93 ± 7.17) showed lower mean values than the exposed group (105.90±8.98). Besides that, the nasal symptoms showed significant differences (p<0.05) between the exposed and non-exposed group. The demographic data of the exposed group showed no association with the lung function status of the exposed group workers. However, the lung functions of the exposed group were influenced by the concentration of VOCs in the production area. High concentration of VOCs may cause detrimental effects on the lung functions. Therefore, management or employers in the industry should always be aware of the effects of VOCs, and take appropriate steps to ensure the safety and welfare of the employees.

Volatile organic compounds profiles emitted by Cochliobolus miyabeanus, a causal agent of brown spot disease of rice

Aims@#Brown spot disease is among the important crop diseases of rice caused by the infection of a pathogenic fungus, Cochliobolus miyabeanus that results in yield losses. Nowadays, limited studies on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been carried out using pathogenic fungal isolate. Hence, this study was conducted to identify VOCs produced by C. miyabeanus wild-type isolate, WK1C, a causal agent of brown spot disease using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). @*Methodology and results@#Fungal isolate WK1C was cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and in potato dextrose broth (PDB) for extraction. The extracts were analysed using GC-MS and the profiles of VOCs were obtained. Cochliobolus miyabeanus WK1C isolate showed a significant presence of various types of organic compound including ester, alcohol, phenol, alkane, alkene, ketone, carboxylic acid, amide and aldehyde. @*Conclusion, significance and impact of study@#This study important for a preliminary assessment of VOCs profiles of C. miyabeanus, a causal agent of brown spot disease. In order to identify the compounds contribute to pathogenicity, further study can be conducted to identify the virulence factor of brown spot disease using different approaches

Evaluación de la actividad fungicida e identificación de compuestos orgánicos volátiles liberados por Trichoderma viride / Evaluation of fungicidal activity and identification of volatile organic compounds released by Trichoderma viride

Resumen Los metabolitos secundarios producidos por hongos son ampliamente diversos en estructura y función, lo que provee una fuente de compuestos con actividad biológica para aplicaciones en agricultura, farmacia y procesamiento de alimentos. Entre los metabolitos secundarios se encuentran compuestos orgánicos volátiles (COVs) a los cuales se atribuye un papel determinante en la comunicación entre microorganismos. En este trabajo empleamos una cámara de ensayos comunicada por el espacio de cabeza para evaluar la actividad debida únicamente a COVs. Los resultados indican que los COVs liberados por T. viride afectan el crecimiento de los hongos fitopatógenos evaluados. En el caso de Fusarium sp. se afectaron los halos de crecimiento y para Colletotrichum gloeosporioides se observaron cambios morfológicos en su color. Para identificar los COVs responsables de esta actividad, se usaron 3 técnicas de extracción: Headspace dinámico (HSD), headspace estático (HSE) y extracción líquido-líquido (ELL) y el análisis por cromatografía de gases acoplada a espectrometría de masas (GCMS). Mediante el muestreo del HSD y HSE se encontraron alcoholes y lactonas, mientras que en ELL los compuestos mayoritarios fueron alcoholes y varios ácidos orgánicos. Entre los compuestos determinados por las tres técnicas se encuentran alcohol bencílico, alcohol 2-feniletílico, 6-pentil-2H-piran-2-ona y gama-butirolactona. Esta última identificada por primera vez en T. viride. La comparación de las tres técnicas de extracción permitió establecer que HSD es el método de extracción de COVs que mejor simula la situación presentada en la cámara de evaluación de actividad biológica, permitiendo así identificar los COVs responsables de la actividad antifúngica detectada.

Abstract The secondary metabolites produced by fungi widely vary in structure and function, providing a rich source of biologically active compounds with applications in farming, pharmacology and food processing. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a biologically relevant class of secondary metabolites, since they are suspected of playing a crucial role in the communication between microorganisms. In this work, we use a test headspace chamber to evaluate the VOCs mediated antifungal activity of T. viride against Fusarium sp. and Colletotricum gloeosporiodes. We observed that VOCs produced by T. viride interact with both fungi affecting the growth halos of Fusarium sp. and modifying the colour of Colletotricum gloeosporiodes. The VOCs responsible for this activity were identified using three extraction techniques: Dynamical Headspace (DHS), Static Headspace (SHS) and liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), all of them analyzed via gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GCMS). DHS and SHS identified alcohols and lactones as VOCs, while with LLE we found a large number of alcohol components and several organic acids. All three techniques identified benzyl alcohol, 2-phenylethyl alcohol, 6-pentyl-2H-pyran-2-one and, for the first time associated to T. viride, gama-butirolactone. After comparison between these extraction techniques, we established that DHS provides the most accurate simulation of biological activity in the test chamber, which reflects in a reliable identification of the VCOs with antifungal activity.