Scarless skin regeneration is a challenge in regenerative medicine. Herein, we explore the regenerative potential of a Cupuaçu seed extract (Theobroma grandiflorum) to develop an innovative skin regeneration formulation based on chitosan-coated nanocapsules. Cupuaçu seed extract significantly stimulated cell proliferation and migration. A reparative gene expression profile could be verified following extract treatment, which included high levels of MKI67, a cellular proliferation marker, and extracellular matrix genes, such as ELN and HAS2, which code for elastin and hyaluronic acid synthase 2. Formulations with Cupuaçu seed extract successfully entrapped into nanocapsules (EE% > 94%) were developed. Uncoated or coated nanocapsules with low-molecular-weight chitosan presented unimodal size distribution with hydrodynamic diameters of 278.3 ± 5.0 nm (PDI = 0.18 ± 0.02) and 337.2 ± 2.1 nm (PDI = 0.27 ± 0.01), respectively. Both nanosystems were physically stable for at least 120 days and showed to be non-irritating to reconstructed human epidermis. Chitosan coating promoted active penetration into undamaged skin areas, which were still covered by the stratum corneum. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated for the first time the biotechnological potential of the frequently discarded Cupuaçu seed as a valuable pharmaceutical ingredient to be used in regenerative skin products.

This study compares the chemical modification and polymerization behavior of canola, carinata, and crambe oils to evaluate their suitability as renewable building blocks for polymer synthesis. The vegetable oils were characterized in terms of fatty-acid composition and oxidative stability, and the data showed distinct profiles: canola with 0% erucic acid, carinata around 42.08%, and crambe reaching 56.25%, differences that end up influencing how each one responds during the modification steps. Epoxidation and acrylation were confirmed by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and FTIR-ATR, mainly through the disappearance of the olefinic peaks and the appearance of oxirane- and acrylate-related signals (some of them quite clear, others less pronounced). After acrylation, the oils were subjected to solution polymerization, forming bulk crosslinked materials, whose properties reflected their original fatty-acid profiles: the canola-based polymer reached the highest glass transition temperature (T_g), 47.73 °C, followed by the carinata-based polymer (T_g = 41.86 °C), while the crambe-derived polymer, with lower functionality due to its high erucic acid content, showed a much lower T_g of 20.26 °C. Altogether, these differences highlight how variations in fatty-acid composition subtly shape the efficiency of functionalization and the architecture of the resulting networks. The polymers obtained here point to potential uses in renewable coatings, thermoset resins, and other applications that depend on bio-based crosslinked materials.

Recently, there has been a worldwide problem of increased bee mortality (Colony Collapse Disorder) and the intensive use of pesticides is suspected as one of the causes. Honey samples are one of many indicators to assess bee exposure to pesticides. In this work, a method for the simultaneous analysis of the pesticide Fipronil and its degradation products in honey samples by gas chromatography with electron capture detector (GC-ECD) is presented and validated. The extraction procedure was investigated using C18-SPE with different solvents and methanol showed the best performance. The analytical quantification was performed by internal standard matrix-matched calibration, which resulted in analytical curves presenting correlation coefficients higher than 0.99. The proposed method was validated with good results, such as recoveries around 70 - 99%, limits of detection and quantification bellow 0.014 and 0.072 μg mL-1, respectively, and relative standard deviations below 7%. The method is simple, effective and was successfully applied to 28 commercial honey samples, regular and organic, from different floral sources. The results showed the presence of fipronil desulfinyl, the main degradation product of fipronil, in some samples, even among the organic ones.

A critical assessment of the current literature on the use of Design of Experiments (DoE) in ring opening polymerisation (ROP) and polycondensation for polyester synthesis with a particular focus on enzymatic polymerisation.

This work describes the use of a series of Lewis acids supported in different ionic liquids (ILs), based on an imidazolium cation, as catalysts for the cationic polymerization of styrene. The influence of these ILs, the effect of Lewis acids, temperature, catalyst concentration, and the presence of organic solvents were investigated to evaluate the best conditions for polymerization. These catalytic systems were effective to polymerize styrene in the temperature range of 50–90 °C, obtaining quantitative conversions in the presence of ILs in polymerization catalyzed by small amounts of Lewis acid. It was possible to synthesize polymers with wide ranges of number-average molar mass, in the range of 200,000–600 g mol^–1, with a wide range of molar-mass dispersity, ranging from 1.43 to 4.67, and glass transition temperatures in the range of 40–71 °C by varying the catalytic system and/or the synthesis temperature. The polymerization mechanism was investigated by ESI-MS(/MS) in positive mode with highly elucidative results. Tailored polystyrenes were successfully synthesized due to the fundamental properties of task-specific ILs, paving the way for the industrial application of catalyst systems based on ILs/Lewis acids.