Harpagoside Content in Devil's Claw Extracts.

Devil's claw is a common ingredient in nutraceutical products for the treatment of inflammation due to arthritis. The secondary root extract of Harpagophymn piocumbens contains bioactive iridoid glycosides known as harpagosides. Recent scrutiny of the nutraceutical industry claims that products listing devil's claw on their labels should refer only to H. procumbens, while the closely related, and less expensive, H. zeyheri is not to be classified as devil's claw. .This assertion is in contrast to botanists who claim that either species of Harpagophytum can be generically referred to as devil's claw. The current research aimed to determine the chemical composition of extracts from H. procumbens and H. zeyheri, with the intent to identify whether the bioactive harpagosides were similarly present between species, and how their presence resembled or deviated from commercially available H. procumbens extracts commonly used in -nutraceutical products. A microwave extraction followed by high performance liquid chromatography analysis of root samples from botanical specimens of H. procimbens and H. zeyheri identified similar quantities of harpagoside, regardless of species. The chemical composition between root extracts for each.species was found to contain varying quantities of non-harpagoside constituents, however their harpagoside content was comparable. These findings are intended to inform policymakers, nutraceutical manufacturers, and the general public of the distinction between myth and reality regarding devil's claw supplements.

A green process for producing biodiesel from feather meal.

This paper describes a new and environmentally friendly process for developing biodiesel from commercial feather meal, a waste product of the poultry industry. Currently, feather meal is used as an animal feed, given its high protein content, and also as a fertilizer because of its high nitrogen content. In this work, we have extracted fat from the feather meal in boiling water (70 degrees C) and then transesterified the fat into biodiesel using KOH and methanol; 7-11% biodiesel (on a dry basis) is produced in this process. ASTM analysis of the prepared feather meal biodiesel confirmed that the biodiesel is of good quality and comparable to other biodiesels made from other common feedstocks. Given the amount of feather meal produced by the poultry industry, it is estimated that this process can create 150-200 million gallons of biodiesel in the United States and 593.2 million gallons worldwide.

Spent coffee grounds as a versatile source of green energy.

The production of energy from renewable and waste materials is an attractive alternative to the conventional agricultural feed stocks such as corn and soybean. This paper describes an approach to extract oil from spent coffee grounds and to further transesterify the processed oil to convert it into biodiesel. This process yields 10-15% oil depending on the coffee species (Arabica or Robusta). The biodiesel derived from the coffee grounds (100% conversion of oil to biodiesel) was found to be stable for more than 1 month under ambient conditions. It is projected that 340 million gallons of biodiesel can be produced from the waste coffee grounds around the world. The coffee grounds after oil extraction are ideal materials for garden fertilizer, feedstock for ethanol, and as fuel pellets.

Functionalization of self-organized TiO2 nanotubes with Pd nanoparticles for photocatalytic decomposition of dyes under solar light illumination.

Self-organized, vertically oriented TiO2 nanotube arrays prepared by the sonoelectrochemical anodization method are functionalized with palladium (Pd) nanoparticles of approximately 10 nm size. A simple incipient wetness method is adopted to distribute the Pd nanoparticles uniformly throughout the TiO2 nanotubular surface. This functionalized material is found to be an excellent heterogeneous photocatalyst that can decompose nonbiodegradable azo dyes (e.g., methyl red and methyl orange) rapidly (150-270 min) and efficiently (100%) under ambient conditions using simulated solar light in the absence of any external oxidative radicals such as hydrogen peroxide.