Keywords: Caryophyllene; Filariasis; Gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry; Linalool; Medicinal plants; Pennyroyal

Background: Prosthechea karwinskii is an endemic Mexican orchid, it’s currently used as decorative element and in the traditional medicine to treat diabetes and some problems related to inflammatory processes. Aim: To determine antioxidant activity index (AAI) and to validate by the first time and through an rat model the hydroalcoholic extract obtained from Prosthechea karwinskii, a plant used in traditional medicine for treat conditions relate to the metabolic syndrome. Methods: For in vivo assays 25 weaned male Wistar rats were divided into a control group (CG; n = 5) and a Metabolic Syndrome group (MS; n = 20). The rats of the latter were induced to MS with 40% sucrose in the drink water during 13 weeks. After MS induction this group was subdivided into 4 groups: MS group (n = 5) received sucrose, and three groups receiving 200 mg/kg of body weight of each extract pseudobulb (P, n = 5), leaf (L, n = 5), and flower (F, n = 5). All treatments were followed for 13 days. Blood was collected at the end of the study to measure glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides. AAI were measured in the extracts by the method of DPPH. The results were analyzed using MINITAB 16.1.0, and the statistical significance was determined by ANOVA and a Tukey’s test (P < 0.05). Results: Leaves (L) extract had highest values in AAI, followed by flowers (F) and pseudobulb (P) extracts. Leaves extract had highest reducing effect on glucose level, while flower extract had highest reducing effect on the cholesterol and triglycerides levels. Conclusions: The P. karwinskii extracts evaluated here reduces the glycemic and lipidemic parameters in Wistar rats with MS induced. These effects may be attributed to the high antioxidant capacity of the extracts

Electrodes that measure the oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) assess the relationship between oxidized and reduced substances that may exist in water disinfection processes. This work presents the implementation and characterization of an ORP measurement system using the Atlas Scientific ORP sensor, integrated with an Arduino R4 development board as the control and data transmission unit. The main objective is to develop an economical, fast, and reliable solution for the continuous monitoring of the bacteriological quality of water in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The system operates in real time, transmitting information to remote platforms. The manufacturing and integration stages of the system, as well as its calibration and experimental validation, are described. The results indicate that a properly calibrated sensor provides accurate measurements, making it a viable and cost-effective alternative to traditional laboratory equipment or bacteriological analyses that require long processing times. Additionally, by monitoring the ORP variable in a WWTP, alerts can be generated for variations related to microbial load in the wastewater treatment process, enabling immediate corrective actions before discharge into surface water bodies.

De la totalidad —100%— de los residuos sólidos urbanos generados en la ciudad de Oaxaca, 42% corresponden a residuos orgánicos. Ello hace indispensable considerar alternativas para la generación de materiales adsorbentes, debido al contenido de carbono orgánico (CO) presente en estos residuos. El carbón activado (CA) es un material capaz de adsorber colorantes y sustancias contaminantes, lo cual depende del contenido de CO presente en la materia prima. Se ha reportado que los residuos vegetales y el bagazo de agave son valorados para el compostaje por su capacidad de aumentar el contenido de CO. En este trabajo se obtuvo CA a partir de bagazo de Agave angustifolia Haw. (CAB) y residuos vegetales (CAO) para evaluar su capacidad adsortiva de Pb2+ y colorantes. La activación fisicoquímica realizada con H3PO4 se demostró mediante el desarrollo de la porosidad en micrografías comparativas, la adsorción de colorantes fue evaluada considerando pruebas de absorbancia colorimétrica por UV-VIS, la capacidad adsortiva de Pb2+ fue valorada por medio de HNO3/ICP-OES-MS, el índice de yodo se determinó con base en la norma NMX-F-296-SCFI-2011 y el punto de carga cero se evaluó en un potenciómetro HANNA-HI4521. Las micrografías confirmaron el desarrollo de la porosidad tras la aplicación del método de activación utilizado, las pruebas colorimétricas demostraron valores de 0 u.a. en las soluciones filtradas mediante CAB y CAO. Respecto a la adsorción de Pb2+, valorada mediante pruebas de adsorción por lotes, se demostró que el CAB adsorbió 84.45% y el CAO 82.61% de la concentración inicial de plomo presente en las muestras acuosas evaluadas en este trabajo de investigación. Por lo que es importante considerar el potencial de uso del CAB y el CAO en la adsorción de metales pesados y colorantes, así como en aplicaciones de tratamiento de agua.