The purpose of the study is to evaluate the relationship between the extraction parameters and the metal chelating activity of Centella asiatica (CA) and Erythroxylum cuneatum (EC). The response surface methodology was used to optimize the extraction parameters of methanolic extract of CA and EC with respect to the metal chelating activity. For CA, Run 17 gave optimum chelating activity with IC50 = 0.93 mg/mL at an extraction temperature of 25°C, speed of agitation at 200 rpm, ratio of plant material to solvent at 1 g : 45 mL and extraction time at 1.5 hour. As for EC, Run 13 with 60°C, 200 rpm, 1 g : 35 mL and 1 hour had metal chelating activity at IC50 = 0.3817 mg/mL. Both optimized extracts were further partitioned using a solvent system to evaluate the fraction responsible for the chelating activity of the plants. The hexane fraction of CA showed potential activity with chelating activity at IC50 = 0.090 and the ethyl acetate fraction of EC had IC50 = 0.120 mg/mL. The study showed that the response surface methodology helped to reduce the extraction time, temperature and agitation and subsequently improve the chelating activity of the plants in comparison to the conventional method.
It has been well-established that mycotoxins are poisonous chemical metabolites secreted by certain molds. Some of them significantly affect the health of humans and livestock. Increasing attention is now being paid to uncovering and identifying mycotoxins' presence in the building's environment. However, the main challenge remains in suitable and reliable analytical methods for their identification and detection in infected structures. GC-MS and LC-MS/MS techniques have been used extensively for mycotoxin analysis, and advancement in these techniques enabled a more comprehensive range of mycotoxins to be detected. As such, this study aimed to address a brief overview of various phenomena of existing sample collection, preparation, and analysis to detect mycotoxins in the building's environment. This scoping review includes articles from 2010 to 2020 available from PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Wiley, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect. Duplicate articles were removed, and exclusion criteria were applied to eliminate unrelated studies, resulting in 14 eligible articles. The present study provides an overview of mycotoxin analysis by GC-MS and LC-MS/MS in buildings. Many techniques are available for analyzing and detecting multiple mycotoxins using these methods. Future efforts would focus on rapid assays and tools enabling measuring a broader range of mycotoxins in a single matrix and lower detection limits. In addition, it would assist future findings on new techniques and mycotoxins that existed in the building's environment.