Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2010 number 1

In the review, materials are generalized concerning the chemistry and pharmacological properties of phytogenous alkaloid berberine available under the conditions of Russia. Methods for berberine isolation from plant raw material as well as the biological activity of berberine and its synthetic derivatives are considered. The reactions of berberine and its hydrogenated derivatives occurring both with the conservation of protoberberine skeleton and with its transformation are considered in detail.

Biological transformation routes were studied for some aromatic compounds by the strains of fungi Trichoderma asperellum and Penicillium cyclopium isolated earlier from hydrolytic lignin. It has been demonstrated that the destruction of these compounds is of oxidative nature. The biological transformation of aromatic substrates is accompanied by the reactions of α-oxidation, demethylation, oligomerization, aromatic ring destruction. Cellulase and Mn-dependent peroxidase were revealed to be present in the enzymatic complexes of the fungi. Correlation between the dynamics of Mn-dependent peroxidase activity and the rate of aromatic compound destruction has been observed. For composting lignocellulosic wastes, the strains Trichoderma asperellum Nos. 3, 10 and 11 those exhibit the maximal Mn-peroxidase activity and a high rate of aromatic substrate utilization have been chosen.

The structure of ultrafine polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) powder obtained via waste PTFE thermal treatment by superheated steam was studied. The condensation of the resulting gaseous pyrolysis products has been performed with the use of water. The features of molecular and morphological structure of the powder have been established, the potentialities of its practical application have been revealed. The technology allows processing the wastes on the industrial scale to obtain commercial product, thus solving one of the problems of fluoropolymer production.

The processes were studied concerning the amorphization of three structural types of serpentine minerals (antigorite, lizardite, and chrysotile) and the formation of an active metastable phase resulting from thermal impact. It has been established that the level of antigorite activation is lower than the activation level for lizardite and chrysotile.

Elemental composition has been studied for the blood of Chukchi people living in the continental part of Chukotka, and Eskimo people living at the coast of the Bering Bay, as well as for a group of Novosibirsk townspeople. Elemental composition has been determined for the hair of the Chukchi and Yakut people  living in the continent. Using the Synchrotron Radiation X-ray Fluorescence Analysis (SR XFA) technique, a simultaneous determination of chemical elements in the blood of the mentioned populations has been performed, as it follows: K, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ge, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Zr, Pb. The technique potentialities of determining the concentration of chemical elements in the hair of some groups of Yakut and Chukchi men and women using XPA SR have allowed detecting simultaneously K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, As, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Mo, Hg, Pb, Bi. Individual, sexual and regional differences in the concentration of elements in blood and hair of the populations under investigation have been established. The data obtained have allowed us to estimate the level of elemental exchange for some groups of Chukchi, Yakut, Eskimo people, to reveal the features of elemental distribution, as well as to perform a certain biogeochemical characterization of the environment.

Snow samples have been taken from ten points according to a special route at a distance of 150 m from the Sovetskoye highway of the Novosibirsk City, in February 2008. The studies on this object are being carried out by the authors for more than 10 years running. With the use of two sample preparation schemes, the major inorganic and organic components of automobile emission chemical composition were determined. The analysis of data concerning almost all the parameters under investigation indicates monotonously decreasing pollutant concentrations with an increase in the distance from the road. A model with a small number of parameters has been developed to estimate the precipitation of a polydisperse contaminant resulting from a linear source. Approbation of the model constructed has been performed using route observations data for snow cover aerosol pollution with polyaromatic hydrocarbons, macro components and heavy metals. Considerable composition heterogeneity of the precipitating aerosol contaminants has been demonstrated. A high level of PAH concentration in the snow was revealed both in the vicinity of and at a long distance from the road, which indicates considerable atmospheric pollution with fine-dispersed components.

Thermodynamic and experimental studies were performed concerning phase formation process in the solution compositionally close to the oral fluid of humans with respect to the mineral and amino acid content. It has been established that amino acids to a considerable extent contribute into the ionic strength of the system promoting an increase in the electrostatic repulsion between the ions of the like charge and inhibiting the deposition of low-soluble calcium phosphates. In this process, the complexation of amino acids with Са²⁺ does not result in a decrease of the solution supersaturation level and in changing the sequence of salt precipitation. The experimental simulation results for hydroxyapatite crystallization process have demonstrated that the inhibiting effect of amino acids is caused by the adsorption interaction between ionized species and the surface of the solid phase.

Precipitation of bismuth (III) benzoates from hydrochloric and nitric solutions depending on the concentration of benzoate ions, process temperature and the concentration of hydrogen ions in solution was studied by means of X-ray phase analysis, IR and Raman spectroscopy, thermogravimetry and chemical analysis. It was established that, depending on synthesis conditions, precipitating compounds can be bismuth oxide benzoate BiOC₇H₅O₂ or bismuth tribenzoate Bi(C₇H₅O₂)₃. The reasonability to obtain medical bismuth tribenzoate from metal bismuth after its preliminary oxidation with atmospheric oxygen was demonstrated. The formed bismuth oxide is dissolved in nitric acid (1 : 1), and bismuth (III) tribenzoate is precipitated by adding the bismuth-containing solution to the solution of sodium benzoate at the molar ratio of benzoate ions to bismuth equal to 3.0-3.2, and process temperature (70±10) °C.

An effect of the major technological parameters of lipid recovery from therapeutic mud was studied. The optimal conditions of lipid recovery from the silt sulphide mud of the Tukhloye Lake (Novosibirsk Region) have been determined.

Effect of the mechanochemical activation of therapeutic mud in the planetary mill AGO-2 on the degree of dispersing, the yield of free and bound lipids and the content of β-carotene and antioxidants in them was studied. It was shown that the amount of extractable free lipids increases substantially after mechanochemical activation of the organomineral raw material in the planetary mill in the presence of orthophosphoric acid due to the release of a part of bound lipids. An increase in the content of β-carotene and antioxidants in lipids was established.

Data are presented concerning the technology employed for anionite АV-17-8 industrial production as compared to the technology developed at the Kemerovo Azot  JSC, as well as an experience is described concerning the operation of AV-17-8 anionite manufactured according to a novel technology, with improved kinetic properties at the stage of finishing water purification in a water treatment plant.

Transformations taking place in the system Ca(NO₃)₂-Na₂H₂Y-(NH₄)₂HPO₄-NH₄OH-H₂O during the homogeneous precipitation of hydroxyapatite were studied by means of conductometric, potentiometric and photometric analysis. It was established that the synthesis of hydroxyapatite from the aqueous solutions of calcium and phosphorus salts proceeds as a sequence of several stages, and the use of disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate promotes the formation of microcrystalline powder with Ca/P ratio close to the biological value (1.67).