Basil plant is a common source for linalool and estragole. However, it has been showed that the chemical composition of basil varies considerably depending on many factors including method of extraction, cultivar of the plant or geographical location. In this study, we attempted to extract essential oil from Vietnamese basil and analyze the chemical composition of the obtained oil using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The extraction method of choice was microwave-assisted hydro-distillation (MAHD) and the process was optimized with Response Surface Methodology (RSM) with regard to four experimental parameters including raw material size, raw material to water ratio, extraction time and microwave power. The results showed that ground basil leaves, when extracted with optimal conditions of water-to-material ratio of 3.2:1, extraction time of 97 (min) and microwave power of 430 (W), gave the actual essential oil yield of 0.6%. Regarding ANOVA results of the quadratic model, high determination coefficient (R² = 0.9077), significant F-value of 10.92 and the p-value of less than 0.05 indicate that this model is significant between experimental and predicted variables, and should be fixed. In addition, GC-MS analysis revealed that major components of Vietnamese Basil were Estragole (87.869%), α-Bergamotene (2.922%), τ-Cadinol (2.770%), and Linalool (1.347%).

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) is a tropical crop with extensive medicinal potential in ethnomedicine and nutraceutical applications. The essential oil of black pepper finds wide applications in inhabitation of respiratory infections and soothing of muscular pains due to its warming and energizing property. The pungent bioactive piperine is responsible for this function, and therefore, efficient technology is required for an optimal extraction process of this compound. In the present article, we have developed a procedure for extracting black pepper essential oil from Vietnam, optimizing conditions that affect the extraction process. The effect of process parameters, namely material size, preservation method, the concentration of sodium chloride, the concentration of soak time, the ratio of material to water, temperature extraction, time extraction on the extraction yield, and relative efficiency were investigated. Results demonstrated that 20 g of black pepper milled with a mesh size of 160 obtained 0.48 g of essential oil (2.4%) at a raw material to water ratio of 1/21 (g/mL) at 150 °C in a time of 5.2 h. GC-MS (Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry) spectra showed that 3-carene (29.21%), D-limonene (20.94%), caryophyllene (15.05%), and β-pinene (9.77%) were present as major components. These results suggested that the essential oil extracted from Vietnamese black pepper is applicable in the manufacturing processes of insecticides and air deodorizers.

The purpose of this study was to attempt the encapsulation of lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) essential oil utilizing spray drying technique. An array of process parameters including concentration of wall (15–30%), type of wall materials (maltodextrin, maltodextrin and gum Arabic mixture), and concentration of essential oil (0.5–2.0%) were thoroughly investigated. The results show that the use of sole maltodextrin as encapsulant gave microcapsules characteristics comparable to that of powder produced using maltodextrin and gum Arabic mixture. The encapsulation process that was performed with maltodextrin at the concentration of 30% as wall material and lemongrass essential oil at the concentration of 1.5% as core material showed highest drying yield (84.49%), microencapsulation yield (89.31%) and microencapsulation efficiency (84.75%). Encapsulated essential oils retained most of their major constituents in comparison with the bare essential oils without any significant compromise in product quality.

Natural graphite, a locally available, eco-friendly, and low-cost carbonaceous source, can be easily transformed into exfoliated graphite (EG) with many surface functional groups via a chemical oxidation route. Combination between EG and magnetic MnFe₂O₄ is a promising strategy to create a hybrid kind of nanocomposite (EG@MnFe₂O₄) for the efficient adsorptive removal of Congo red (CR) dye from water. Here, we reported the facile synthesis and characterization of chemical bonds of EG@MnFe₂O₄ using several techniques such as Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In particular, the quantity method by Boehm titration was employed to identify the content of functional groups: Carboxylic acid (0.044 mmol/g), phenol (0.032 mmol/g), lactone (0.020 mmol/g), and total base (0.0156 mmol/g) on the surface of EG@MnFe₂O₄. Through the response surface methodology-optimized models, we found a clear difference in the adsorption capacity between EG-decorated MnFe₂O₄ (62.0 mg/g) and MnFe₂O₄ without EG decoration (11.1 mg/g). This result was also interpreted via a proposed mechanism to elucidate the contribution of surface functional groups of EG@MnFe₂O₄ to adsorption efficiency towards CR dye.

An aerobic coupling of 2-aminopyrimidines or 2-aminopyridines with trans-chalcones to afford aroylimidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines and aroylimidazo[1,2-a]pyridines is reported. Reactions proceed in the presence of CuFe₂O₄ superparamagnetic nanoparticle catalyst, two equivalents of iodine, oxygen oxidant, and 1,4-dioxane solvent. The catalyst is superior to many common copper or iron complexes. Copper ferrite could be easily separated by magnetic decantation and reused up to 5 times without a major loss of activity. The method described here marks a rare example of using a simple, heterogeneous catalyst for synthesis of fused heterocycles. To our best knowledge, aroylimidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidines and aroylimidazo[1,2-a]pyridines were not previously synthesized using this protocol.

In this study, we attempted the preparation of gac oil-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) by the high-speed homogenization method using Naterol SE solid lipid, a cosmetic self-emulsifying base, and surfactant and investigated the effects of different conditions on the characteristics of the resulting nanoparticles. The suspensions containing 5% active agents (gac-oil, w/w) were dispersed in a surfactant concentration of 5% (w/w) (Span 80:Tween 80 ratio of 28:72 w/w) and 2.5% (w/w) of solid lipid (Naterol SE) concentration. Suitable conditions for hot homogenization were 13,000 rpm, 60 min and 60 °C for speed, time and temperature, respectively. The suitable conditions for the subsequent cold homogenization were 25 min of homogenization time and 5 °C of temperature. The results showed that the mean size of SLNs-gac oil was 107 nm (measured by laser diffraction spectrometry, LDS), and dried size of SLNs-gac oil ranged from 50 to 80 nm (measured by transmission electron microscope, TEM). In addition, the study investigated the impact of gac oil content on the particle size of SLNs-gac oil and its stability under different storage conditions of UV radiation and storage temperature. At high storage temperatures, the color changes (ΔE) of the samples were more profound in comparison to that at the low storage temperature. The ΔE value of the blank sample (SLN-FREE gac-oil) was higher than that of the Gac oil-loaded SLNs samples (SLN-gac oil).