Turmeric consumption is continually increasing worldwide. Curcuminoids are major active constituents in turmeric and are associated with numerous health benefits. A combination of spectroscopic methods and chemometrics shows the suitability of turmeric for food quality control due to advantages such as speed, versatility, portability, and no need for sample preparation. Five calibration models to quantify curcuminoids in turmeric were proposed using benchtop and portable devices. The most remarkable results showed that Raman and NIR calibration models present an excellent performance reporting RMSEP of 0.44% w/w and 0.41% w/w, respectively. In addition, the five proposed methods (FT-IR, Raman, and NIR) were compared in terms of precision and accuracy. The results showed that benchtop and portable methods were in good agreement and that there are no significant differences between them. This study aims to foster the use of portable devices for food quality control in situ by demonstrating their suitability for the purpose.

Background: Cancer is a non-communicable disease with increasing incidence and mortality rates worldwide, including Thailand. Its apparent lack of effective treatments is posing challenging public health issues. Introduction: Encouraging research results indicating probable anti-cancer properties of the Delonix regia flower Extract (DRE) have prompted us to evaluate the feasibility of developing a type of product for future cancer prevention or treatment. Methods and Results: In the present report, using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), we demonstrate in the DRE the presence of high concentrations of three identifiable flavonoids, namely rutin 4.15±0.30% w/w, isoquercitrin 3.04±0.02 %w/w, and myricetin 2.61±0.01% w/w, respectively, while the IC50 of DPPH and ABTS assay antioxidation activity was 66.88±6.30 μg/ml and 53.65±7.24 μg/ml, respectively. Discussion: Our cancer cell line studies using the MTT assay demonstrated DREs potent and dosedependent inhibition of murine leukemia cell line (P-388: 35.28±4.07% of cell viability remaining), as well as of human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7), human cervical carcinoma (HeLa), human oral cavity carcinoma (KB), and human colon carcinoma (HT-29) cell lines in that order of magnitude. Conclusion: Three identifiable flavonoids (rutin, isoquercitrin and myricetin) with high antioxidation activity and potent and dose-dependent inhibition of murine leukemia cell line and five other cancer cell lines were documented in the DRE. The extract’s lack of cytotoxicity in 3 normal cell lines is a rare advantage not usually seen in current antineoplastic agents. Yet another challenge of the DRE was its low dissolution rate and long-term storage stability, issues to be resolved before a future product can be formulated.

Non-destructive analysis of chlorpheniramine maleate (CPM), pharmaceutical tablets, and granules was conducted by chemometrics-assisted attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR). For tablets, an optimum PLSR model with eight latent factors was obtained from area-normalized and standard normal variate (SNV) pretreated ATR-IR spectral data with correlation coefficients (R²) of calibration and cross-validation of 0.9716 and 0.9602, respectively. The model capability for the 42 test set samples was proven with R² between the reference and model prediction values of 0.9632, and a root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.7786. The successive PLSR model for granules was constructed from SNV and first derivative pretreated ATR-IR spectral data with two latent factors and correlation coefficients (R²) of calibration and cross-validation of 0.9577 and 0.9450, respectively.

Stingless bees are insects which are popularly bred by agriculturists in the eastern region of Thailand for the pollination of their orchards. The products from stingless bee breeding include bee honey and bee propolis. The objective of this experiment is to study the possibility of developing stingless bee propolis wax into solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) by the comparison of five surfactants (Brij 721, Cremophor WO 7, Myrj 52, Poloxamer 188, and Tween 80). Each surfactant is used at three concentrations: 10%, 20%, and 30%. A master formula is selected according to the following: physical features, particle size, zeta potential, and entrapment. The results showed that Brij 721 and Myri 52 at 20% can be used in preparing SLN and have good preservation properties for vitamin E (size: 451.2 nm and 416.8 nm, zeta potential: - 24.0 and - 32.7; % EE: 92.32% and 92.00%, resp.). Therefore, they are further developed by adding the following drugs at low solubility: curcumin, ibuprofen, and astaxanthin. It is found that a formula using the surfactants Brij 721 and Myrj 52 at 20% have similar drug entrapment. The entrapment study involves curcumin 82%, ibuprofen 40%, and astaxanthin 67%. Moreover, the cytotoxicity test of blank solid lipid nanoparticle found no toxicty in fibroblast cell line (CRL-2522). Therefore, from this study, it is determined that stingless bee propolis wax has the potential to be developed to provide more efficient SLN in the future.