A new coelozoic Myxozoan species, Ceratomyxa tunisiensis n. sp., was found infecting the gallbladders of two carangid fish, Caranx rhonchus and Trachurus trachurus (Perciforme, Carangidae), from the Gulf of Gabès, on the southern coast of Tunisia. The parasite develops in spherical mono-, diplo-, or polysporic tropozoites in the gallbladder of the hosts. Mature spores are typical of the genus Ceratomyxa. They are transversely elongated and narrowly crescent-shaped with a slightly convex anterior and concave posterior, and measure 23 ± 0. 27 (20-25) μm width × 6 ± 0.26 (5-8) μm in length. Spore shell valves are symmetrical with rounded ends. Two spherical polar capsules situated on either side of the sutural line measure 2.2 μm (2.0-3.0) in diam. Periodical sampling of C. rhonchus and T. trachurus from Marsh 2012 to February 2013 showed that infection due to C. tunisiensis occurs in 59% and 69% of the examined fish, respectively. Molecular analysis based on the small subunit (SSU) rRNA sequence shows high genetic divergence with all other ceratomyxid species. A Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree shows association with the species C. leatharjecketi Fiala, kova, Kodadkova, Freeman, Bartošova-Sojkova, and Atkinson, 2015 reported from the gallbladder of Aluterusmonoceros (L.) caught in the Andaman Sea, off Malaysia. Nonetheless, the SSU rRNA sequences of C. tunisiensis and C. leatharjecketi have only a 90% similarity.
The present study focused on investigating the storage stability of oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions with high oil volume fractions prepared with palm olein-based diacylglycerol oil (POL-DAG)/soybean oil (SBO) blends at 25 °C. The incorporation of different ratios of oil blends significantly influenced (p < 0.05) the texture, color, droplet size distribution, and rheological parameters of the emulsions. Only emulsions incorporated with 10% to 20% POL-DAG in oil phase exhibited pseudoplastic behavior that fitted the Power Law model well. Furthermore, the O/W emulsions prepared with POL-DAG/SBO blends exhibited elastic properties, with G' higher than G". During storage, the emulsion was found to be less solid-like with the increase in tan δ values. All emulsions produced with POL-DAG/SBO blends also showed thixotropic behavior. Optical microscopy revealed that the POL-DAG incorporation above 40% caused aggregated droplets to coalesce and flocculate and, thus, larger droplet sizes were observed. The current results demonstrated that the 20% POL-DAG substituted emulsion was more stable than the control emulsion. The valuable insights gained from this study would be able to generate a lot more possible applications using POL-DAG, which could further sustain the competitiveness of the palm oil industry.
3-Monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) esters and glycidyl esters (GE) are heat-induced contaminants which form during oil refining process, particularly at the high temperature deodorization stage. It is worth to investigate the content of 3-MCPD and GE in fries which also involved high temperature. The content of 3-MCPD esters and GE were monitored in fries. The factors that been chosen were temperature and duration of frying, and different concentration of salt (NaCl). The results in our study showed that the effect was in the order of concentration of sodium chloride
A new Schiff base, 1-(E)-(4-((E) 4nitrobenzylidene) amino) phenyl)imino) methyl)naphthalen-2-ol (4NMN), was prepared from the reaction of p-phenylenediamine with 2-hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde and 4-nitrobenzaldehyde and characterized with spectroscopic analysis. UV-VIS and NMR. Frontier molecular orbitals, molecular electrostatic potential, and chemical reactivity descriptors of the synthesized compound were studied using molecular modeling methods. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of the Schiff base were studied for its minimum inhibitory concentration. The compound showed a higher effect on yeast than against bacteria. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to study the mechanism of reaction for the synthesis of 4NMN, and the results were consistent with the experimental findings. 4NMN exhibited moderate antibacterial and antifungal activities and demonstrated higher inhibition potential against different resistant strains compared to the reference drug gentamycin. The absorption and fluorescence spectra of 4NMN were measured in different solvents, and the effect of relative polarity and acidity on the medium was observed. An inner filter effect was observed at high concentrations, and the compound showed considerable fluorescence enhancement with increasing medium viscosity and fluorescence quenching by the addition of traces of Cr1+ and Cu2+. Additionally, molecular docking studies were conducted to investigate the efficiency of antibacterial and antifungal targets.