Acute and subacute (28 days) oral toxicity studies of tucum almond oil (Bactris Setosa Mart.) in mice.

Oils extracted from almonds are often used with particular interest due to their prospective health effects and benefits. Tucum is a Pantanal fruit widely consumed by local population and no in vivo toxicity studies regarding its safety are available in the literature to date. This study investigated the acute and subacute toxicity of tucum almond oil (TAO) in mice by evaluating its safety profile. For the acute (2000 mg/kg) and subacute (250, 500 and 1000 mg/kg) toxicity studies, TAO was administered orally to mice according to 425 and 407 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Guidelines, respectively. Food intake, body, and organ weight of animals were recorded. Signs of toxicity were assessed, and hematological, biochemical and histopathological analyses were performed. In the acute toxicity study, no mortality or behavioral changes were observed in mice treated with 2000 mg/kg, indicating that LD50 is higher than this dose. In the subacute toxicity test, the doses evaluated did not produce relevant changes in hematological, biochemical or histopathological parameters in the exposed animals. The data obtained suggest that TAO did not induce toxicity after exposure to a single or repeated doses and LD50 value may be considered to be more than 2000 mg/kg body weight.

Miniaturized liquid chromatography focusing on analytical columns and mass spectrometry: A review.

The technological advances achieved over the last decades boosted the development of suitable benchtop platforms to work at miniaturized liquid chromatography scale (capillary and nano-LC). Under the right conditions, miniaturized LC can offer higher analysis efficiency resulting in superior chromatographic resolution and overall sensitivity than conventional LC. Among the main advantages are the reduced reagents and sample requirement, the decreasing on analytical column dimensions, and consequently flow rates and the easer coupling to mass spectrometry. This review describes fundamental aspects and advances over miniaturized LC technology with a focus on the last decade. Therefore, relevant characteristics of the most common analytical column, covering both filled (packed and monolithic) and open tubular (PLOT and WCOT) columns, are herein discussed. Alternatively, other modern approaches based on microchip separations or 2D configurations aiming for the sample preparation on the first dimension, are also introduced. Likewise, some positive and negative aspects of these systems over HPLC are underscored. Besides, considering the necessity to developed components to work at capillary or nanoscale, without significant dead-volumes, the most critical features of specially designed instrumentation for benchtop instruments are briefly discussed highlighting connectors, pumping, injections, oven and detection systems. Also, a more detailed section is presented focused on mass spectrometry efforts towards its miniaturization and how this trend can be useful working together with miniaturized LC. Finally, applications of capillary and nano-LC involving bioanalytical, environmental, and food methods are discussed to support the miniaturized LC as a powerful and emergent separation technique for the years ahead.