Maleimide structure: a promising scaffold for the development of antimicrobial agents.

Natural compounds bearing maleimide rings are a series of secondary metabolites derived from fungi/marine microorganisms, which are characterized by a general structure -CO-N(R)-CO-, and the R group is normally substituted with alkyl or aryl groups. Maleimide compounds show various biological activities such as antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activity. In this review, the broad-spectrum antimicrobial activities of 15 maleimide compounds from natural sources and 32 artificially synthesized maleimides were summarized, especially against Candida albicans, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and Staphylococcus aureus. It highlights that maleimide scaffold has tremendous potential to be utilized in the development of novel antimicrobial agents.

Dispersive suspended microextraction.

A novel sample pre-treatment technique termed dispersive suspended microextraction (DSME) coupled with gas chromatography-flame photometric detection (GC-FPD) has been developed for the determination of eight organophosphorus pesticides (ethoprophos, malathion, chlorpyrifos, isocarbophos, methidathion, fenamiphos, profenofos, triazophos) in aqueous samples. In this method, both extraction and two phases' separation process were performed by the assistance of magnetic stirring. After separating the two phases, 1 µL of the suspended phase was injected into GC for further instrument analysis. Varieties of experiment factors which could affect the experiment results were optimized and the following were selected: 12.0 µL p-xylene was selected as extraction solvent, extraction speed was 1200 rpm, extraction time was 30 s, the restoration speed was 800 rpm, the restoration time was 8 min, and no salt was added. Under the optimum conditions, limits of detections (LODs) varied between 0.01 and 0.05 µg L(-1). The relative standard deviation (RSDs, n=6) ranged from 4.6% to 12.1%. The linearity was obtained by five points in the concentration range of 0.1-100.0 µg L(-1). Correlation coefficients (r) varied from 0.9964 to 0.9995. The enrichment factors (EFs) were between 206 and 243. In the final experiment, the developed method has been successfully applied to the determination of organophosphorus pesticides in wine and tap water samples and the obtained recoveries were between 83.8% and 101.3%. Compared with other pre-treatment methods, DSME has its own features and could achieve satisfied results for the analysis of trace components in complicated matrices.

Vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced-emulsification liquid-liquid microextraction.

A novel sample pre-treatment technique, based on vortex-assisted surfactant-enhanced-emulsification liquid-liquid microextraction (VSLLME), followed by gas chromatography-flame photometric detection (GC-FPD) has been developed for the determination of seven organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs) in wine and honey samples. In the VSLLME method, the extraction solvent was dispersed into the aqueous samples by the assistance of vortex agitator. Meanwhile, the addition of a surfactant, which was used as an emulsifier, could enhance the speed of the mass-transfer from aqueous samples to the extraction solvent. The main parameters relevant to this method were investigated and the optimum conditions were established: 15 µL chlorobenzene was used as extraction solvent, 0.2 mmol L(-1) Triton X-114 was selected as the surfactant, the extraction time was fixed at 30s, 3% sodium chloride was added and the extraction process was performed under the room temperature. Under the optimum conditions, limits of detections (LODs) were varied between 0.01 and 0.05 µg L(-1). The relative standard deviation (RSD, n=6) ranged from 2.3% and 8.9%. The linearity was obtained by five points in the concentration range of 0.1-50.0 µg L(-1). Correlation coefficients (r) varied from 0.9969 to 0.9991. The enrichment factors (EFs) were in a range of 282-309. Finally, the proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of target analytes in real samples. The recoveries of the target analytes in wine and honey samples were between 81.2% and 108.0%.