Quinones as an Efficient Molecular Scaffold in the Antibacterial/Antifungal or Antitumoral Arsenal.

Quinone-based compounds constitute several general classes of antibiotics that have long shown unwavering efficiency against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative microbial infections. These quinone-based antibiotics are increasingly popular due to their natural origins and are used in natural beverages from herbs or plants in African, Chinese and Indian traditional medicines to treat and prevent various diseases. Quinone-based antibiotics display different bioactive profiles depending on their structures and exert specific biocidal and anti-biofilm properties, and based on recent literature, will be discussed herein.

Evaluation of different methods for extraction of nanocellulose from yerba mate residues.

In this work, we evaluate the production of nanocellulose from yerba mate sticks (YMS) using soft chemical and steam explosion treatments. The nanocellulose is characterized by chemical characterization, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The main results showed that after the chemical treatment and steam explosion, the YMS fiber reached diameters of 11-15 nm and aspect ratios (L/D) of 12-24. The XRD results showed that there is an increase in the index of crystallinity of up to 35% when compared to raw YMS. We discover that it is possible to obtain cellulose nanofibers (CNF) from the YMS without the use of alkaline treatment, which reduces the generation of liquid waste. Thus, the production of CNF by means of acid hydrolysis, bleaching and steam explosion represents an alternative route.