Ion-exchange chromatography as a tool for investigating vanadium speciation in sediments: preliminary studies

Journal of Soils and Sediments - We conducted this investigation in order to develop a simple method for the determination of bioavailable vanadium and its speciation within sediments. The...     

Antimicrobial Activity of the Marine Alkaloids,Clathrodin and Oroidin,and Their Synthetic Analogues

Marine organisms produce secondary metabolites that may be valuable for the development of novel drug leads as such and can also provide structural scaffolds for the design and synthesis of novel bioactive compounds. The marine alkaloids, clathrodin and oroidin, which were originally isolated from sponges of the genus, Agelas, were prepared and evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against three bacterial strains (Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli) and one fungal strain (Candida albicans), and oroidin was found to possess promising Gram-positive antibacterial activity. Using oroidin as a scaffold, 34 new analogues were designed, prepared and screened for their antimicrobial properties. Of these compounds, 12 exhibited >80% inhibition of the growth of at least one microorganism at a concentration of 50 µM. The most active derivative was found to be 4-phenyl-2-aminoimidazole 6h, which exhibited MIC₉₀ (minimum inhibitory concentration) values of 12.5 µM against the Gram-positive bacteria and 50 µM against E. coli. The selectivity index between S. aureus and mammalian cells, which is important to consider in the evaluation of a compound’s potential as an antimicrobial lead, was found to be 2.9 for compound 6h.     

Does ivermectin attract earthworms?

Purpose  

Changes in the behavior of earthworms (for example avoidance of a particular substrate) can influence the soil ecosystem. Our aim was to determine whether the earthworms Eisenia fetida and Lumbricus terrestris are able to avoid ivermectin (a veterinary endectocide belonging to the avermectins). A standard avoidance test with earthworms was conducted using standardized Lufa 2.3 soil (Speyer, Germany) and sandy soil provided by Cinkarna Celje (Slovenia).