Ricerc@Sapienza

A study on essential oil fractions of the Western Balkan endemic Sideritis romana L. subsp. purpurea (Tal. ex Benth.) Heywood collected in Montenegro is reported. The 24-h systematic steam distillation extraction procedure was performed. The gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric (GC/MS) analysis of the fractions showed ?-elemene and spathulenol as two main constituents, revealing a new chemotype of this plant species.

Steam distillation is known to be the most prevalent method of essential oil extraction. Despite many studies on extraction methods, there is no report about the impact of distillation process duration on the yield and oil quality. A new 24-h steam distillation process for extraction of plant essential oils is presented. For improving the total yield, prolonged and continued isolation was used. A selection of plant species from Lamiaceae and Apiaceae families was subjected to direct steam distillation and essential oils were collected at different times (1, 2, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h).

In this research, we developed a direct-flow surface plasmon resonance (SPR) immunosensor for ampicillin to perform direct, simple, and fast measurements of this important antibiotic. In order to better evaluate the performance, it was compared with a conventional amperometric immunosensor, working with a competitive format with the aim of finding out experimental real advantages and disadvantages of two respective methods.

Voltammetry of microparticles (VMP) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques, complemented by SEM-EDX and Raman spectroscopy, were applied to a set of 15 Roman bronze coins and one Tessera from the temple of Magna Mater (Rome, Italy). The archaeological site, dated back be- tween the second half and the end of the 4th century A.D., presented a complicated stratigraphic context.

With the aim of pushing forward the limits of high efficient and ultrafast chiral liquid chromatography, a new Chiral Stationary Phase (CSP) has been prepared by covalently bonding the teicoplanin selector on 2.0 ?m Superficially Porous Particles (SPPs). An already validated bonding protocol, which permits to achieve teicoplanin-based CSPs exhibiting zwitterionic behaviour, has been employed to prepare not only the 2.0 ?m version of the CSP but also two other analogous CSPs based, respectively, on 2.7 ?m SPPs and 1.9 ?m Fully Porous Particles (FPPs).

Capillary methacrylate-based monoliths were prepared for the high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) separation of both small molecules and large biomolecules. An efficient grafting from/to syntheticapproach was adopted introducing a network of activated sites in the inner wall surface using the newsilanization agent (N-trimethoxysilylpropyl)-polyethylenimine.

A new chiral stationary phase was designed by
introducing 9-amino-9-deoxy-9-epiquinine, one of the
most versatile organocatalysts in asymmetric synthesis, as
chiral scaffold. The derivatization of its amino group with
the 3,5-dinitrobenzoyl (DNB) fragment provided hydrogen
bonding and ?–? donor/acceptor systems in addition to
the quinoline and quinuclidine moieties having two nitrogen
atoms with different basicities. The selector offers
multiple interaction sites in both typical of the Pirkle-type

Editorial for the Topical Collection "Discovery of Bioactive Compounds"

Microalgae are unicellular marine organisms that have promoted complex biochemical pathways to survive in greatly competitive marine environments. They could contain significant amounts of high-quality proteins which, because of their structural diversity, contain a range of yet undiscovered novel bioactive peptides. In this work, a peptidomic platform was developed for the separation and identification of bioactive peptides in protein hydrolysates.

Bacterial canker of Actinidia, caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa), is the most serious disease of these plants worldwide. Leaves of three species of Actinidia, namely A. chinensis var. chinensis, A. chinensis var. deliciosa and A. arguta, having different degrees of tolerance to Psa, were analyzed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. Aqueous extracts of leaves were studied and several metabolites, classified as organic acids, amino acids, carbohydrates, phenols and other metabolites, were identified by 1D and 2D NMR experiments and quantified.