Phthalates are chemical compounds added to plastic materials to provide flexibility. They are used in numerous consumer products including children’s toys and child care articles. Exposure to phthalates is linked to reproductive and developmental disorders in addition to endocrine disruption effects. This study is the first to investigate the presence and levels of phthalates and other plasticisers in children’s toys and child care articles sold in the Saudi market. Twenty-seven products were obtained from local marketplaces and analysed by GC-MS for the levels of the six regulated phthalates dibutyl phthalate (DBP), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP), di-(2-ethylhexl) phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP), diisononyl phthalate (DINP) and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP). Other plasticisers and plastic additives were investigated qualitatively for potential risks. Overall, 19% of products tested were found to have one or more regulated phthalates exceeding the 0.1% w/w regulatory limit. All noncompliant items were made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In contrast, the 16 non-PVC items tested were compliant with regulations. Among the 11 PVC items tested, 45% were noncompliant. DEHP was detected in all 11 PVC products, with concentrations ranging from <LOQ-32.2% w/w, and with concentrations exceeding regulatory levels in 4 of 11 PVC products (36%). The other regulated phthalates detected in PVC products were DBP and DINP with amounts that ranged from <LOQ-0.275 and 0.218–14.2% w/w, respectively. Plasticisers other than the regulated ones were present in a number of products; including dioctyl isophthalate (DOIP), di(isononyl) cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylate (DINCH), methyl stearate, acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC) and diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP). Inexpensive children’s toys were found to be less complying with the regulations of toys safety regarding phthalates content, which may pose more risk to children.

The genetic diversity of local coffee populations is crucial to breed new varieties better adapted to the increasingly stressful environment due to climate change and the evolving consumer preferences. Unfortunately, local coffee germplasm conservation and genetic assessment have not received much attention. Molecular tools offer substantial benefits in identifying and selecting new cultivars or clones suitable for sustainable commercial utilization. New annotation methods, such as chloroplast barcoding, are necessary to produce accurate and high-quality phylogenetic analyses. This study used DNA barcoding techniques to examine the genetic relationships among fifty-six accessions collected from the southern part of Saudi Arabia. PCR amplification and sequence characterization were used to investigate the effectiveness of four barcoding loci, namely atpB-rbcl, TrnL-TrnF, TrnT-TrnL, and TrnL. The maximum nucleotide sites, nucleotide diversity, and an average number of nucleotide differences were recorded for atpB-rbcl, while TrnT-TrnL had the highest variable polymorphic sites, segregating sites, and haploid diversity. Among the four barcode loci, TrnT-TrnL recorded the highest singleton variable sites, while TrnL recorded the highest parsimony information sites. Furthermore, the phylogenetic analysis clustered the Coffea arabica genotypes into four different groups, with three genotypes (KSA31, KSA38, and KSA46) found to be the most divergent genotypes standing alone in the cluster and remained apart during the analysis. The study demonstrates the presence of considerable diversity among coffee populations in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, it also shows that DNA barcoding is an effective technique for identifying local coffee genotypes, with potential applications in coffee conservation and breeding efforts.

The multiple therapeutic potentials of tetracycline and its worldwide usage have encouraged researchers to develop various methods for its assay in various matrices and for different purposes. In this regard, different analytical techniques have been exploited. Among those techniques is flow injection (FI), which is an extended family of three generations and five versions. The current manuscript reviews the utilization of FI techniques for developing assay methods for tetracycline. The review covers more than forty methods, since the inception of FI techniques and up to date. The review highlights the advantages of the application of FI techniques for quantification of tetracycline in terms of reagent consumption, sample frequency, accuracy, and practitioner safety, besides instrumentation simplicity and cost-effectiveness. The review also addresses applications to several matrices ranging from simple matrices such as standard solutions and pharmaceutical formulations to complex matrices such as biological fluids and food. Prior to the review, a brief background on the principles and developments of FI techniques is illustrated.

Packed-bed plasma reactors (PBPRs) have been investigated extensively to study the abatement of volatile organic compounds such as toluene. Previous studies have reported that the applied voltage (or power) is a critical parameter that affects the performance of PBPRs. However, the origin of this change in performance is not well understood. A conventional PBPR contains irregularly filled dielectric pellets that generate several micro- and mesoscopic voids in between the pellets and between pellets and dielectric walls where filamentary discharges are generated. These voids are optically inaccessible and the reaction products are often generated in gaseous form; therefore, the location of the chemical reactions within these voids could not be studied. In this work, we have qualitatively investigated the influence of the applied voltage on the locations of chemical reactions in the void using toluene oxidation as an example. Using a single layer of regularly arranged hemispherical pellets and a transparent electrode in a PBPR, the plasma generation within these voids became optically accessible. The operating conditions were tailored to enhance the deposition of solid or liquid products on the glass beads to understand the locations of chemical reactions. The intensified charged coupled device camera images of the discharge through the transparent electrode show that the distribution of plasma emission changes with the applied voltage amplitude. The distribution of the deposited/condensed solid/liquid intermediates and reaction products was found to match the plasma emission. The analysis of the reaction products and deposition/condensation locations indicates that short-living species such as energetic electrons, OH and O radicals might play an essential role in the formation of deposited chemicals on the glass beads.