The influence of dioxide chloride on water quality of Balneário Camboriú beach, Brazil.

Since February 1999, the Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant (MWTP) of Balneário Camboriú, Brazil, started a complementary treatment with ClO(2) application on its effluent. It was realized to minimize its impacts caused by increase of the population during summer. This study was realized in order to verify the influence of this compound in the water quality and the environmental evaluations. Samples of surface water were collected in this environment between January 1997 and June 2001 for chemical and microbiological surveys. The results had shown that after application of ClO(2), fecal coliforms were decreased about six times in the beach (2.3 x 10(3) to 3.5 x 10(2) MPN/100 ml) and three times in the river (3.3 x 10(4) to 1.0 x 10(4) MPN/100 ml), during summer time. NH(4) (+) showed an increase of about four times and 1.5 times, respectively, to beach and river. These results are showing the influence of ClO(2) on chemical and microbiological parameters.

Phytochemical and pharmacological investigations of Virola oleifera leaves.

A methanolic extract and two fractions (n-hexane and ethyl acetate) from Virola oleifera leaves and some compounds (one lignan and two flavonoids) were investigated to verify the analgesic activity by using the writhing test in mice. The crude methanolic extract showed a moderate analgesic effect (about 40% of inhibition in this test at 10 mg/kg), whereas n-hexane and ethyl acetate fractions caused inhibition of 51.3 +/- 5.9% and 50.5 +/- 6.3%, respectively. Oleiferin-C (1), a lignan isolated from the n-hexane fraction, showed an interesting analgesic potential in this model when compared to two standard drugs, paracetamol (4-acetamidophenol) and aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid). The ID50 calculated for this compound was 17.25 micromol/kg, with confidence interval between 13.7 and 21.3 micromol/kg, being about 8 times more potent than the standard drugs. The mixture of two glycoside-flavonoids, identified as astilbin (2) and quercitrin (3), also exhibited good analgesic activity, causing 63% of reduction of abdominal constriction in mice. These results suggest beneficial effect of this plant to treat dolorous processes.