Acta Chemica Malaysia

Journal: Acta Chemica Malaysia (ACMY)
Author: Abdelmalik M. Shakorfow and Abdulaziz. H. Mohamed

ISSN: 2576-6732
e-ISSN: 2576-6724

This is an open access journal distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/acmy-2020-0013

Several techniques, in which different homogenous catalysts and procedures, that are in use for transesterification of a vegetable oil or an animal fat have been successful in synthesizing biodiesel, although with some certain limitations. For such a purpose, among the catalysts employed are acidic as well as basic catalysts. It has been found that acidic catalysts can be tolerant with a high content of free fatty acids found in those low value feedstock oils/fats to be transesterified, although some sort of pretreatment by means of esterification might be required in order to synthesize biodiesel. Moreover, with employing homogenous acidic catalysts, it seems that biodiesel purification procedures are simplified; thus, reducing synthesis cost. In fact, these features of homogenous acidic catalysts render them advantageous over basic ones. With basic homogenous catalysts this; however, has not been possible due to the development of saponification reaction. To effectively perform, such catalysts require that the content of free fatty acids in the feedstock oil/fat is minimal. This requirement is also applicable to the moisture level in the feedstock. In terms of corrosive effects; nevertheless, acidic catalysts are disadvantageous compared to basic ones.

Journal: Acta Chemica Malaysia (ACMY)
Author: Mohd Razik Midin, Muhammad Irfan Fikri and Siti Sarah Zailani

ISSN: 2576-6732
e-ISSN: 2576-6724

This is an open access journal distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/acmy-2020-0012

Christia vespertilionis (butterfly wing plant) is an ornamental plant originated from South East Asia with reported usage in traditional medicine practice and potential as an anticancer and antitumor. This research aims to estimate the genome size of C. vespertilionis via flow cytometry (FCM) method. The research was conducted with the optimisation of nuclear suspension preparation followed by the genome size estimation. Two chopping techniques [manual chopping (MC) and BDTM Medimachine (MM)] and two lysis buffers (Otto and LBO1) were tested. Otto buffer with manual chopping was found to be the most suitable method, generated fine DNA peak with minimum debris background, and coefficient of variation (CV) value less than 3%. Five replicates of the FCM analysis were made for the genome size determination. The estimated genome size of C. vespertilionis was found to be 3.22 pg by using Glycine max cv. Polanka (2C=2.5pg) as an external reference standard. Further comparison with other Christia species was not possible due to the lack of data on genome size. The genome size data of C. vespertilionis can be useful for future morphology and genetics studies of Christia species.

Journal: Acta Chemica Malaysia (ACMY)
Author: Redempta S. Kalinda and Naomi B. Rioba

ISSN: 2576-6732
e-ISSN: 2576-6724

This is an open access journal distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/acmy-2020-0011

Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda, J.E. Smith) is a pest with devasting effects on maize. A laboratory biassay was conducted to analyse the phytochemicals and determine the efficacy of M. spicata and R. officinalis extracts on FAW. Treatments were laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 3 replications. The factors included solvent [Methanol (Me), dichloromethane (DCM), distilled water (Di)] and the plant species (M. spicata and R. officinalis). Coragen SC 200 (Co) and Distilled water (Di) were the positive and negative controls, respectively. FAW rearing, plant extract preparation and phytochemical screening were done using standard procedure. Data collection and analysis was done using standard procedures. The extract yield was highest for R. officinalis regardless of the solvent used. Me-R. officinalis and Di-M. spicata extracts yielded the highest. Saponins, glycosides, alkaloid, flavonoids and tannins. Flavonoid contents were 7.9036 mg/mL and 6.0073 ± 0.6117 mg/mL in methanolic extract of M. spicata and R. officinalis, respectively. M. spicatha and R. officinalis extracts caused 100% mortality to 3rd instar larvae. Based on the findings, both M. spicata and R. officinalis have several secondary metabolites that confer insecticidal activity of the plants against FAW, hence should be evaluated under field conditions.