The functional evaluation of waste yuzu (Citrus junos) seeds.

We have succeeded in extracting a large amount of expensive limonoids and the high total antioxidant capability yuzu seed oil from waste yuzu seed by simple methods. Yuzu seeds contain higher amounts of fat-soluble limonoid aglycone (330.6 mg g(-1) of dry seed), water-soluble limonoid glycoside (452.0 mg g(-1) of dry seed), and oil (40 mg g(-1) of green seed) than other citrus fruits. The antioxidant activities of yuzu seed aglycone, glycoside, and seed oil were evaluated in vitro. The potential antioxidant activity in oil solution, diphenylpicrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging activity, and hydrogen peroxide-scavenging activity effects of the seed extracts were also investigated. The antioxidant activity of yuzu seed oil was two times that of grapefruit seed oil, which has high activity. Yuzu glycoside produced the same high antioxidant activity as Luo Han Guo glycoside.

Adsorption behavior of heavy metals on biomaterials.

We have investigated adsorption of Cd(II) and Pb(II) at pH 2-6.7 onto the biomaterials chitosan, coffee, green tea, tea, yuzu, aloe, and Japanese coarse tea, and onto the inorganic adsorbents, activated carbon and zeolite. High adsorptive capabilities were observed for all of the biomaterials at pH 4 and 6.7. In the adsorption of Cd(II), blend coffee, tea, green tea, and coarse tea have comparable loading capacities to activated carbon and zeolite. Although activated carbon, zeolite, and chitosan are utilized in a variety of fields such as wastewater treatment, chemical and metallurgical engineering, and analytical chemistry, these adsorbents are costly. On the other hand, processing of the test biomaterials was inexpensive, and all the biomaterials except for chitosan were able to adsorb large amounts of Pb(II) and Cd(II) ions after a convenient pretreatment of washing with water followed by drying. The high adsorption capability of the biomaterials prepared from plant materials is promising in the development of a novel, low-cost adsorbent. From these results, it is concluded that heavy metal removal using biomaterials would be an effective method for the economic treatment of wastewater. The proposed adsorption method was applied to the determination of amounts of Cd(II) and Pb(II) in water samples.

Determination of biologically active substances in roasted coffees using a diode-array HPLC system.

We studied the simultaneous quantitative analysis of biologically active substances, such as nicotinic acid, trigonelline, caffeine, qunolinic acid and tannic acid and pyrogallic acid, in several roasted coffees by an HPLC/diode-array system with a home-made sol-gel and ODS-2 columns. A simple method for simultaneous quantitative analysis of biologically active substances in the coffee brew became feasible by an HPLC/diode-array system with a sol-gel column at a single wavelength of 210 nm. The most efficient condition of the Rs value was above 1.05 when two sol-gel columns were connected. In addition, the elution behavior of nicotinic acid in brew extracted from commercially available coffee beans suggests the thermal decomposition process during roasting, and indicated the maximum value for full city roasted coffee.

Effects of fabrication parameters on the enzyme loading and sensor response of enzyme-carrying conductive polymer electrodes.

Hydrogen peroxide sensors where horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is incorporated into pyrrole/3-alkylsulfonate pyrrole copolymer films deposited on an SnO2 electrode (HRP/Py-PS electrode) were investigated with regard to the effects of the fabrication parameters (electropolymerization charge, deposition current density, and electrodeposition solution pH) on the amount of surface-immobilized enzyme and the sensor response. The amount of incorporated enzyme was determined with a method recently developed by ourselves. The results suggest that the amount of entrapped enzyme increases almost linearly with the total charge passed, and strongly depends on the polymer film growth rate and the electropolymerization pH. These findings open up a way to control the amount of enzyme and the resultant response of the biosensor by modifying the preparation conditions.

Novel hydrogen peroxide sensors based on peroxidase-carrying poly[pyrrole-co-[4-(3-pyrrolyl)butanesulfonate]] copolymer films.

Amperometric hydrogen peroxide biosensors were fabricated by incorporating horseradish peroxidase (HRP) into poly[pyrrole-co-[4-(3-pyrrolyl)butanesulfonate]] (Py-PS) copolymer films deposited on an SnO2 electrode surface by electropolymerization. The HRP/Py-PS electrodes exhibited an extended dynamic range and a markedly improved operational and storage stability, compared with HRP-incorporated polypyrrole (PPy) electrodes prepared under similar conditions. The linear range was expanded from 10(-7)-10(-4) M to 10(-7)-10(-3) M H2O2. In about 80 measurements over three weeks, the HRP/Py-PS electrode retained 60% of its initial response, while the HRP/PPy electrode almost completely lost activity. The influence of the electrodeposition solution pH on the sensor response was also investigated. Our results suggest that an expansion of the linear range and an enhancement of lifetime are due to electrostatic interactions of HRP with a negatively-charged Py-PS copolymer.