Hypericin is a naturally occurring compound synthesized by certain species of the genus Hypericum, with various pharmacological effects. It is used as a natural photosensitizing agent with great potential in photodynamic therapy. This review discusses the latest results about the biosynthetic pathways and chemical synthetic routes to obtain hypericin. Although many analysis methods can be used for the determination of hypericin purity, HPLC has become the method of choice due to its fast and sensitive analyses. The extraction and purification of hypericin are also described. Hypericin can be used as a photosensitizer due to a large and active π-electron conjugated system in its structure. Medical applications of hypericin are not easy due to several unsolved practical problems, which include hypericin phototoxicity, poor solubility in water, and extreme sensitivity to light, heat, and pH.@en

Bisphenols are important industrial materials for example for the production of plastics, but are also well known for their adverse health effects, in particular bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disruptor. The widespread use of plastics has raised concerns. Therefore, the removal of bisphenols from wastewater has sparked the interest of the scientific community. This work introduces a novel hybrid technique of micro-nano bubbles assisted laccase (MNB-Lac) to degrade bisphenols in water. The feasibility of MNB-Lac using BPA as a model contaminant was evaluated by comparing with MNB, Lac, ultrasound (UL), UL-Lac, and UL-MNB-Lac. Comprehensive investigations were carried out to understand the specific influences of key process parameters including the initial pollutant concentration, temperature, air intake, pH, outlet pipe length, and Lac concentration on BPA degradation. The alkaline environment and extended length of outlet pipe could improve the degradation efficiency further. MNB-Lac exhibited 2.3–6.2 folds higher BPA degradation and less time than the other above process under the optimal parameters. The mechanism of MNB-Lac revealed that the generation of hydroxyl radical, high O2 solubility, and high mass transfer efficiency induced by MNB play important roles on enhancing the degradation catalyzed by Lac. MNB-Lac was successfully used for treating bisphenol B, bisphenol C, and the mixture of three bisphenols with high removal efficiency. Subsequently, these degradation products were analyzed by GC–MS. MNB-Lac potentially represents an innovative technology with considerable advantages in contaminant cleanup and time efficiency for treating phenolic contaminated water. Furthermore, the findings provide new insights into the enhancement of the performance of an oxidizing enzyme by introducing MNB technology.@en

Glucosinolates can be hydrolyzed by the enzyme commonly known as myrosinase (E.C. 3.2.1.147)to a variety of biological compounds. Myrosinase (MYR)has been immobilized through the flexible spacers of different length on cross-linked chitosan resin (CCR). Ethylene diamine, hexamethylenediamine and decamethylene-diamine have been separately used as spacers. The influence of the flexible spacer length on the immobilized MYR (IMYR)properties were evaluated. The optimum pH and V max of IMYR linearly increase with the flexible spacer length, and the optimum temperature and K m of IMYR show an opposite trend. The recyclability of IMYR was good, with 90% recovery of activity after 10 cycles and 80% recovery after 30 cycles. IMYR was highly stable under storage conditions, with 95% recovery of activity after one year storage at 4 °C. The IMYR with the longest flexible spacer, decamethylene-diamine, was used as a biocatalyst for sulforaphene production. The overall hydrolysis ratio of glucoraphenin was 93.25 ± 0.91% and the activity of DDMCCR-IMYR remained 95% after 10 days of continuous use. @en