Chemistry and Biochemistry: Research Progress Vol. 9

Evaluation of Proximate, Mineral and Anti-Nutrient Compositions of Vigna subterranean L. Thouars (Bambara Nut) Seeds

I.J. Alinnor — 2026-01-30

Vigna subterranean L. Thouars (Bambara nut) is a leguminous plant grown in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its seeds have attracted increasing attention due to their associated health benefits. This study evaluated the proximate, mineral and anti – nutrient compositions of Bambara nut seeds using standard analytical methods. The proximate compositions of Bambara nut seeds showed moisture content 7.54±0.01%, ash 3.46±0.02%, Crude fat 4.79±0.01%, Crude protein 22.40±0.01%, crude fibre 1.65±0.02%, carbohydrate 60.16±0.02% and available energy 1580.75kJ. The mineral composition of the analysed samples showed that Vigan subterranean L. Thouars seeds have 57.39±0.02 mg/100g and 55.67±0.02 mg/100g of potassium and calcium, respectively. The high Ca/P ratio of 92.78 indicates that Bambara nut is a very good source of food. This study revealed that oxalate, nitrate and cyanide values were below the WHO standard. The low content of anti-nutrients of Vigna subterranean L. Thouars showed that Bambara nut will not constitute a health hazard. This study was restricted to a sample from a single market, so future investigations should include samples from different markets to evaluate its potential as a nutritious food source.

Copper-Mediated Cross Coupling Reactions and Their Applications: An Overview

Gadamani Suresh Babu — 2026-01-30

Copper (Cu) is a promising catalytic metal for C–C bond construction through coupling transformations. Coupling strategies of a range of organo-metallic reagents, with aromatic, heteroaromatic, and alkyl halides, can be carried out by Cu-catalysts with high efficiency, demonstrating the adaptability of Cu supported catalytic methods in carrying out these transformations. Conversely, the parallel palladium-catalysed cross-coupling methods are frequently complementary to the scope and selectivity of copper-assisted methods. Furthermore, Cu-catalysts are displaying a distinct pattern of reactivity that permits ligand-less coupling for the formation of aromatic–heteroaromatic and heteroaromatic–heteroaromatic bonds, a transformation that typically calls for unique, specially created ligands with Pd-catalysts. Early findings in the field of Cu-mediated couplings to generate C-C bonds are summarised in this chapter.

Carbohydrate-Based Derivatives Act as Potential Antimicrobial and Influenza Virus Inhibitors: In vitro and In silico Approaches

Sarkar M. A. Kawsar — 2026-01-30

A wide range of carbohydrate-derived drugs are currently utilised worldwide as antifungal, antibacterial and anticancer drugs. In this context, our research group focused on designing and synthesising new derivatives of methyl α-D-mannopyranoside (1, MDM) and exploring its antiviral and antibacterial properties through both experimental and computational approaches.

Seven MDM derivatives (2–7) were synthesised via selective acylation and fully characterised using spectroscopic techniques. In vitro antibacterial activity was evaluated by MIC and MBC assays, while in silico analyses included PASS prediction, density functional theory calculations, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulations against influenza A neuraminidase (H1N1, PDB ID: 7XGC). Compounds 3 and 5 exhibited the most significant antibacterial activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains, with compound 5 showing superior MIC and MBC values. Computational studies revealed favourable electronic properties for the active compounds. Docking and molecular dynamics analyses identified compounds 6 and 7 as the most potent neuraminidase binders, forming stable interactions with key catalytic residues commonly involved in known neuraminidase inhibitors. The combined in vitro and in silico findings highlight acylated MDM derivatives as promising dual-action antibacterial and antiviral scaffolds, with compound 5 emerging as a potential antibacterial lead and compounds 6 and 7 as promising candidates for anti-influenza drug development.

From local Reactions to Global Emergence: Sheaf-theoretic Insights into Prebiotic Chemical Evolution

Javier Burgos Salcedo — 2026-01-30

The emergence of life required isolated prebiotic chemical reactions to integrate into coordinated systems, yet how this transition occurred across early Earth's diverse environments remains unclear. We present a mathematical framework using sheaf theory to model how local chemical processes in distinct microenvironments could have scaled to create global biochemical networks.

We systematically characterised ten prebiotic microenvironments—including hydrothermal vents, mineral surfaces, lipid membranes, and ice eutectic phases—using formal concept analysis to identify twelve key physicochemical attributes such as polar solvents, mineral catalysis, and redox gradients. These attributes define a topological space where microenvironments share common properties from open sets, allowing us to apply sheaf-theoretic methods.

Our sheaf construction shows that physicochemical attributes act as selective "carriers" that are active only in specific microenvironmental combinations. The locality and glueing conditions of the sheaf theory model how chemical processes maintain internal consistency while integrating across overlapping niches. This reveals hierarchical structures showing how attributes propagate across scales, with hydrothermal vents, mineral surfaces, and lipid membranes emerging as critical hubs concentrating multiple catalytic and compartmentalising properties.

These findings suggest prebiotic chemical evolution emerged not from a single optimal environment, but from the integration of disparate microenvironments, each contributing specialised conditions that collectively enabled complex biochemical networks. Our framework provides mathematical rigour for understanding prebiotic chemistry's spatial and functional organisation, offering predictive insights into which environmental combinations most likely facilitated life's origin.

Exploring Sustainable Approaches to Citric Acid Manufacturing

Amber S Gad — 2026-01-30

Citric acid possesses many important qualities as a green solvent, palatable, highly soluble and extremely low toxic to humans and mammals. Chemical synthesis of citric acid is more costly than fermentation, the second-largest fermentation product. Citric acid has a predominant position among the most highly relevant biotechnological products in industrial demand. Multi-functional citric acid is well known for its applications, mainly in the food and nanotechnology drug delivery sectors. A. niger is the world’s leading choice attractive production host that excretes citric acid after growth on corn substrates because it is a good source of nutrients, sugary substrates for citric acid. Improper disposal of the agro-waste causes a serious ecological threat by encouraging the growth of microbial pathogens. The alternatives for the utilisation of such cellulosic biomass are therefore of great importance for cleaner production to reduce the cost of bioactive compounds production. Hence, pulps, seeds and peel wastes were used as feedstocks and carbon sources for citric acid-production. The high energy cost, complex process, and heavy use of reagents, hazardous to the environment in conventional industrial separation, extraction, and production, strongly call for modern technological innovation. This review provides a summary describing microorganisms, morphology, self-immobilisation, bioreactors variability, metabolic engineering, parameter optima and product recovery in order to highlight microbial citric acid production.

Determination of Proximate and Antinutrient Composition of Hura crepitans Seeds from Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, Nigeria

Etiowo George Ukpong — 2026-01-30

Hura crepitans is traditionally grown as a shade tree and has also been found to be useful in many ethnomedicinal applications, such as its use in the treatment of leprosy and as an antimicrobial, among others. Although sandbox trees are being used as shade in most parts of the world, the tree is one of the underutilised trees in Nigeria. This study was carried out to determine the proximate and antinutritional composition of the seeds of H. crepitans. Analysis of proximate and antinutrient composition of Hura crepitans (Sandbox tree) seeds obtained from the campus of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic, Ikot Osurua, Ikot Ekpene were carried out using standard analytical procedures. The recommended methods of AOAC were used for proximate analysis. The result of the proximate composition analysis showed that H. crepitans seeds contain moisture content (13.875 ± 0.176%), crude fat (36.750±1.060%), crude fibre (0.5±0.000%), crude protein (36.625±0.884%), ash content (0.25±0.000%) and carbohydrate (25.875±0.200%). The result of the antinutrient analysis showed that H. crepitans seeds contain phytic acid (phytate) (0.615±0.002mg/100g), hydrogen cyanide (3.289±0.003mg/100g), oxalate (1.386±0.001mg/100g) and tannins (8.130±0.003mg/100g). Tannins had the highest concentration, while phytate had the lowest concentration of all the antinutrients analysed. The antinutrients can be removed during processing. The result of the proximate composition reveals high crude fat and protein contents of the seed of H. crepitans, showing that the seed is nutritional. It was concluded that sandbox tree seeds possess all the analysed antinutrients, which can even be removed during processing. Findings from this study, therefore, suggest intensified research on the seeds of H. crepitans so as to harness its potential in the production of animal feed.

Substituted Arylidene Imidazolones: Synthesis, Spectral Characterization and Molecular Docking Studies

Y. Aparna — 2026-01-30

Ten analogues of acetylphenyl tethered imidazolones (4.12a-j) from 4-arylidene-2-phenyloxazol-5(4H)-ones were prepared and characterised by IR, ¹HNMR, ¹³CNMR and mass spectra. All the analogues have shown moderate to good antibacterial activity against E. coli, P. aeruginosa, B. subtilis, and S. aureus. By means of FabI of S. aureus, docking studies were carried out. Altogether, the compounds were proven to be inhibitors of enoylacylcarrier proteinreductase.

Carboxymethyl Cellulose/Poly (Acrylamide-co-vinyl imidazole) Based Self-Healing Hydrogel for Supercapacitor Applications and Moisture Determination: Synthesis, Characterisation, and Functional Evaluation (Part-II)

Deepika Dubey — 2026-01-30

Hydrogels’ self-healing process involves reconstructing the damaged network structure, which is typically mediated by the reversible interactions among the polymer chains. A number of approaches have been employed to fabricate self-healing hydrogels. These include hydrogen bonding, host-guest recognition, electrostatic interactions, hydrophobic associations, metal-ligand coordination, dynamic covalent bonds, etc. This chapter describes the physical entanglements between carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) chains and poly (acrylamide-co-vinyl imidazole)(poly(AAm-co-VI), which resulted in a unique solid hydrogel electrolyte(SHE) material with highly controllable properties. The SHE was synthesised by carrying out free radical co-polymerisation of monomer Acrylamide and vinyl imidazole in the presence of dissolved CMC at 40 °C. The SHE was characterised using rheological, mechanical, adhesion, and electrochemical techniques. The SHE showed an excellent self-healing property, as confirmed by the “LED glowing” experiment, and the ‘self-healed ‘material recovered 78% of its original elongation capacity. The freshly prepared SHE, when put on a copper surface, required a Detachment Pressure (DP) of 864 Pa, while a fairly high DP of 8909 Pa was required after 24 h of contact. The SHE sample was highly flexible and regained its shape after knotting, folding and twisting. The hydrogel also exhibited shape memory property. Finally, the samples SHE-I and SHE-IV (containing 0 and 4 ml glycerol per 40 ml of film-forming solution) were charged using a 12-volt battery for 2 min and then employed to glow an LED bulb as well as run an alarm clock. It was found that the sample SHE-I was able to glow the LED bulb for almost 55 min, while the sample SHE-IV successfully lit the LED for almost 357 min. Similarly, a small alarm clock was run by the two SHE systems for 118 and 838 min respectively. The hydrogel sample SHE-IV, loaded with glycerol and the sample SHE-V, loaded with the salt ZnCl₂demonstrated excellent anti-freezing behavior by maintaining the electrical connectivity in the circuit even at -25^oC. Finally, the sample SHE-I was prepared with a highly porous texture and used as a “Gravimetric Analyzer for Humidity Monitoring” (GAHM). The moisture absorption-desorption capacity of GAHM was tested by putting it before a hot air blower for 600 s, followed by its immediate transfer in RH atmosphere of 75%. It attained the Equilibrium mass within a short period of 600 s. Owing to hydrogen-bonding interactions and mutual polymer-chain entanglements, the SHE possesses self-healing, shape memory, adhesiveness, and flexibility. It also functions as a rechargeable supercapacitor, which lasts longer in the presence of glycerol.

Corrosion Inhibition of Indigofera Tinctoria Leaf Extract on Mild Steel in 1M HCL Solution

M. Prema — 2026-01-30

In the present work, the dissolution prevention of mild steel induced by Indigofera tinctoria Leaves (ITL) extract was analysed using different techniques such as weight loss, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and potentiodynamic polarisation in 1M HCl solution at various contact periods and temperatures (303-333K). The result exhibits that Indigofera tinctoria Leaves acts as a mild steel inhibitor that performs well in 1M HCl solution. Inhibition efficiency of mild steel in 1M HCl increases as more inhibitor is added. The Highest percentage of inhibition efficiency was found to be 54.3% a 500 ppm concentration at a temperature of 303 K. Thermodynamic parameters E_a, Q_ads, G_ads, H, and S suggest that the adsorption of Indigofera tinctoria leaves extract is exothermic, spontaneous, and a chemisorption process. The Langmuir adsorption isotherm governs the adsorption of Indigofera tinctoria leaves on a mild steel surface. Also, the electrochemical study exhibits that it acts as a cathodic inhibitor in a 1M HCl medium. Thin film formation on the surface of metal may also be confirmed by UV, FT-IR, and SEM studies.