Collagen from fish scale waste is currently being studied as a promising biological material to replace collagen from animals because of advantages such as safe, fat-free, not suffering from communicable diseases, and easy absorption in human body solutions. Finding the suitable process of extracting fish scale collagen is necessary because extracting collagen from fish scales by chemical methods often requires a long time. Therefore, in this paper, some bases and acids at different concentrations were chosen to find the most suitable condition for extracting fish scale collagen from the wastage of different scale fishes belonging to the familiar Cyprinus genus. The characterizations of the extracted collagen including structure, morphology, element composition, relative molecular weight, amino acid composition, denaturation temperature, crystal structure, and thermal stability were investigated. In addition, the amino acid sequence of the extracted collagen was also determined and compared with the National Center for Biotechnology Information protein database.

A new chalcone named as balanochalcone (1) together with eight known compounds, methyl caffeate (2), β-hydroxydihydrochalcone (3), methyl gallate (4), dimethyl-6,9,10-trihydroxybenzo[kl]xanthene-1,2-dicarboxylate (5), p-coumaric acid (6), quercetin (7), scopoletin (8) and pinoresinol (9) have been isolated from the ethyl acetate extract of Vietnamese Balanophora laxiflora Hemsl. Their structures were characterised by IR, UV, HR-ESI-MS, 1D and 2D NMR and CD spectroscopies. Compounds 2 and 5 showed moderate cytotoxicity against four cancer cell lines, KB (a human epidermal carcinoma), MCF7 (human breast carcinoma), SK-LU-1 (human lung carcinoma) and HepG2 (hepatocellular carcinoma). In addition, compounds 1 and 5 showed moderate antioxidant activity.

In this study, nanoparticles based on poly(lactic acid) (PLA), chitosan (CS), and nifedipine (NIF) were prepared by an emulsion method with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) as an emulsifier. We investigated the most suitable conditions for preparing the poly(lactic acid)/chitosan/nifedipine nanoparticles (PCNs) by changing the distilled water volume, PEO content, and PLA/CS ratio. NIFs with different contents were loaded into poly(lactic acid)/chitosan nanoparticles (PCs) to study in vitro drug-delivery systems. The PCNs were characterized with a Zetasizer particle size analyzer, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. From the obtained results of the particle size parameters of the PCNs, the most suitable conditions for the preparation of the PCNs were found. The FTIR spectroscopy and XRD results show that NIF was loaded into the PCs. The PCNs had major basic particle sizes in the range 20-40 nm. NIF release from the PCNs was studied as a function of the pH of the immersed solution, the immersion time, and the NIF content. The kinetics of drug release were investigated and are reported to determine the type of release mechanism.

No abstract

Sargassum is a genus of brown macroalgae in the class Phaeophyta, distributed widely in all oceans, including those of Vietnam. Species of this genus have been proven to possess diverse biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory, along with many benefits and applications for human health, including anti-diabetic, obesity, and thrombosis. These benefits arise from a diverse chemical composition, with compounds such as fucoidan, mannitol, and especially phlorotannin—a group of phenolic derivatives found predominantly in brown algae. In this study, we evaluated and optimized the factors that affected the extraction process of phlorotannins from Sargassum swartzii (Turn.) C. Ag., a common species of brown macroalgae in Vietnam. The process utilized ethanol and water as the solvent system, and the extraction process was assisted with the use of microwaves. To carry out optimization studies, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was adopted according to a Central Composite Desisgn (CCD), taking four processing factors into consideration, ethanol concentration (%, v/v), extraction time (minutes), solvent/material ratio (v/w), and microwave output power (W) as independent variables. Phlorotannin concentration (mgPhE/g) and extract mass (mg) were regarded as optimization outcomes. Experimental conditions that produced the highest phlorotannin yield from 10 g of S. swartzii are as follows: Extraction time of 65 minutes, ethanol concentration of 52%, microwave output power of 613 W, and solvent/material ratio of 33/1 (v/w). These conditions corresponded to a phlorotannin concentration of 5.59 ± 0.11 mg PhE/g, and a total extract content of 27.88 ± 0.13 mg/g.