A water extraction method has been used to extract plant proteins from the roots of Eurycoma longifolia harvested from Perak and Pahang, Malaysia. On the basis of the spectroscopic Bradford assay, Tongkat Ali Perak and Pahang contained 0.3868 and 0.9573 mg mL(-1) of crude protein, respectively. The crude proteins were separated by one dimensional 15% sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis into two (49.8 and 5.5 kD) and four (49.8, 24.7, 21.1 and 5.5 kD) protein spots for Tongkat Ali Perak and Pahang, respectively. Isoleucine was present in the highest concentration significantly. Both plant samples showed differences in the mineral and trace element profiles, but the minerals calcium, magnesium and potassium were present in the highest concentration. The highly concerned toxic metals such as arsenic and lead were not detected.
This paper proposes a novel hybrid magnetoacoustic measurement (HMM) system aiming at breast cancer detection. HMM combines ultrasound and magnetism for the simultaneous assessment of bioelectric and acoustic profiles of breast tissue. HMM is demonstrated on breast tissue samples, which are exposed to 9.8 MHz ultrasound wave with the presence of a 0.25 Tesla static magnetic field. The interaction between the ultrasound wave and the magnetic field in the breast tissue results in Lorentz Force that produces a magnetoacoustic voltage output, proportional to breast tissue conductivity. Simultaneously, the ultrasound wave is sensed back by the ultrasound receiver for tissue acoustic evaluation. Experiments are performed on gel phantoms and real breast tissue samples harvested from laboratory mice. Ultrasound wave characterization results show that normal breast tissue experiences higher attenuation compared with cancerous tissue. The mean magnetoacoustic voltage results for normal tissue are lower than that for the cancerous tissue group. In conclusion, the combination of acoustic and bioelectric measurements is a promising approach for breast cancer diagnosis.
This study discusses the isolation and identification of a new Streptomycetes highly active chitinase producer. Fifteen strains were isolated from Malaysian soil samples. The isolate WICC-A03 was found to be the most active chitinase producer. Its antifungal activity was evaluated against many phytopathogens. The identification of WICC-A03 using phenotypic and genotypic methods strongly indicated that strain WICC-A03 belonged to the genus Streptomyces and displayed similarity (91%) with Streptomyces glauciniger. Thus, it was given the suggested name S. glauciniger WICC-A03 with accession number: JX139754. WICC-A03 produces extracellular chitinase in a medium containing 1.5% colloidal chitin in submerged culture on 144 h. The produced enzyme was partially characterised and its molecular weight of 50 kDa was determined by using SDS-PAGE. This study indicates that WICC-A03 is a potential chitinase producer for biocontrol of plant pathogens. Further experiments are being carried out to optimise medium composition and cultivation conditions under lab and bioreactor scale.