Detection of Senecionine in Dietary Sources by Single-Use Electrochemical Sensor

An insight into recent updates on analytical techniques for bioactive alkaloids

INTRODUCTION

Alkaloids represent a wide class of naturally existing nitrogen-containing organic compounds having diverse biological activities. They are primary bioactive substances extracted from diverse plant parts. Due to their diverse biological activities, they are frequently used as medicines. The alkaloids have diverse pharmacological impacts on the human body; alkaloids are used for prevention, treatment, and reduction of discomfort associated with chronic illnesses. As most alkaloids exist in plants in complex form, combined with numerous other natural plant components, it is essential to recognize and characterize these molecules using different analytical techniques.

OBJECTIVES

We aimed to review the literature on the methods and protocols for the analysis of naturally occurring alkaloids.

METHODS

We carried out a literature survey using the PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases and other relevant published materials. The keywords used in the searches were "alkaloids," "analytical methods," "HPLC method," "GC method," "electrochemical methods," and "bioanalytical methods," in various combinations.

RESULTS

In this article, several classes of alkaloids are presented, along with their biological activities. Moreover, it includes a thorough explanation of chromatographic techniques, hyphenated techniques, electrochemical techniques, and current trending analytical methods utilized for the isolation, identification, and comprehensive characterization of alkaloids.

CONCLUSIONS

The various analytical techniques play an important role in the identification as well as the characterization of various alkaloids from plants, plasma samples, and urine samples. The hyphenation of various chromatographic techniques with mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy plays a crucial role in the characterization of unknown compounds.

Powerful and fast nanostructure electrochemical sensor for monitoring of carbidopa catechol-based drug in water and biological fluids

Herein, to monitor the concentration of carbidopa in an aqueous solution, an analytical approach based on electrode surface modification by Pt/SWCNTs as a sensor has been proposed. Pt/SWCNTs was synthesized by polyol strategy and characterized by the TEM method. Results confirmed spherical Pt nanoparticles with a diameter of about 10 nm decorated at the surface of SWCNTs with good distribution. The carbon paste electrode modified (CPEM) with Pt/SWCNTs was fabricated by mixing 12% of nanocomposite as an optimum condition with graphite powder in the presence of paraffin oil as a binder. Carbidopa's oxidation signal was enhanced by about 2.73 times when using the CPEM/Pt/SWCNTs, and its oxidation potential was decreased by about 110 mV. Additionally, the sensor demonstrated a linear dynamic range of 1.0 nM-120 M with a detection limit of 0.5 nM at pH = 7.0 as the ideal condition for monitoring carbidopa. Therefore, carbidopa in water and dextrose saline can be detected using CPEM/Pt/SWCNTs with an acceptable recovery range.

Electrochemical sensors based on carbon nanostructures for the analysis of bisphenol A-A review

Overuse of Bisphenol A (BPA), a proven endocrine disruptor, has become a serious public health problem across the world. It has the potential to harm both the environment and human health, notably reproductive disorders, heart disease, and diabetes. Accordingly, much attention has been paid to the detection of BPA to promote food safety and environmental health. Carbon based nanostructures have proven themselves well in a variety of applications, such as energy storage, catalysis and sensors, due to their remarkable properties. Therefore, researchers have recently focused on fabricating electrochemical BPA sensors based on carbon nanostructures due to their unique advantages, such as real-time monitoring, simplicity, high selectivity, high sensitivity and easy operation. The purpose of the current review was to summarize the recent findings on carbon nanostructures for electrochemically sensing the BPA, as well as relevant future prospects and ongoing challenges.

Recent advances in carbon nanomaterials-based electrochemical sensors for food azo dyes detection

Azo dyes as widely applied food colorants are popular for their stability and affordability. On the other hand, many of these dyes can have harmful impacts on living organs, which underscores the need to control the content of this group of dyes in food. Among the various analytical approaches for detecting the azo dyes, special attention has been paid to electro-analytical techniques for reasons such as admirable sensitivity, excellent selectivity, reproducibility, miniaturization, green nature, low cost, less time to prepare and detect of specimens and the ability to modify the electrode. Satisfactory results have been obtained so far for carbon-based nanomaterials in the fabrication of electrochemical sensing systems in detecting the levels of these materials in various specimens. The purpose of this review article is to investigate carbon nanomaterial-supported techniques for electrochemical sensing systems on the analysis of azo dyes in food samples in terms of carbon nanomaterials used, like carbon nanotubes (CNT) and grapheme (Gr).

Monitoring of Butylated Hydroxyanisole in Food and Wastewater Samples Using Electroanalytical Two-Fold Amplified Sensor

A high performance and fast response sensor was fabricated as a monitoring system for the determination of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) in food and wastewater samples. In this regard, a carbon paste electrode (CPE) that was amplified with platinum-decorated single wall carbon nanotubes (Pt/SWCNTs) and 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C4mim][Cl]) was investigated as a new electroanalytical sensor for the monitoring of BHA in aqueous solution. The [C4mim][Cl]/Pt/SWCNTs/CPE offered an excellent catalytic activity on oxidation signal of BHA and enhanced its oxidation current about 5.51 times. In the final step, the standard addition results confirmed the powerful ability of [C4mim][Cl]/Pt/SWCNTs/CPE to the monitoring of BHA in different water and food samples with acceptable recovery data.