No abstract

No abstract

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as promising materials have been widely used in drug delivery, disease diagnosis and therapy, however, their effects on reproductive system remains unknown, which hinders their further clinical...

In order to find out the biological activity of plant essential oils on armyworm [Mythimna separata (Walker, 1865)] larvae and provide a theoretical basis for the biological control of armyworms, in this study, the antifeedant activity, repellent activity, fumigation activity, contact activity, and synergistic effect on indoxacarb of nine kinds of plant essential oils on armyworm larvae were determined. The results showed that lavender and citronella essential oils had the greatest impact on the antifeedant activity on armyworm larvae, and the antifeedant rate reached 100.00%. Meanwhile, rosemary essential oil revealed the best repellent activity on armyworm larvae with an average dwell time of 0 s at the content of 0.2%. Moreover, tea tree essential oil and lemon essential oil at the content of 2.0% had the best fumigation and contact activity against armyworm larvae, and the corrected mortality rates at 120 h were 86.67 and 66.67%, respectively. In addition, the combination of citronella essential oil and indoxacarb with the ratio of 5:1 had the best synergistic effect on armyworm larvae at 96 h, and the synergistic ratio was reached 100.00%. These findings will guide the development of new insecticides for controlling armyworm larvae.

Background UV exposure continues to induce many health issues, though commercial sunscreens are available. Novel UV filters with high safety and efficacy are urgently needed. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) could be a suitable platform for UV filter development, due to their tunable optical, electrical, and photoelectric properties by precise controlled synthesis. Results Herein, four zinc-based MOFs with various bandgap energies were chose to investigate their optical behaviors and evaluate their possibility as sunscreens. Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) was found to possess the highest and widest UV reflectance, thereby protecting against sunburn and DNA damage on mouse skin and even achieving a comparable or higher anti-UV efficacy relative to the commercially available UV filters, TiO2 or ZnO, on pig skin, a model that correlates well with human skin. Also, ZIF-8 exerted appealing characteristics for topical skin use with low radical production, low skin penetration, low toxicity, high transparency, and high stability. Conclusion These results confirmed ZIF-8 could potentially be a safe and effective sunscreen surrogate for human, and MOFs could be a novel source to develop more effective and safe UV filters. Graphical Abstract