0000000000414650
AUTHOR
Manef Abderrabba
Tunisian Milk Thistle: An Investigation of the Chemical Composition and the Characterization of Its Cold-Pressed Seed Oils
In this study, milk thistle seeds growing in different areas in Tunisia were cold pressed and the extracted oils were examined for their chemical and antioxidant properties. The major fatty acids were linoleic acid (C18:2) (57.0%, 60.0%, and 60.3% for the milk thistle seed oils native to Bizerte, Zaghouan and Sousse, respectively) and oleic acid (C18:1) (15.5%, 21.5%, and 22.4% for the milk thistle seed oils originating from Bizerte, Zaghouan and Sousse, respectively). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis showed the richness of the milk thistle seed oils (MTSO) in α-tocopherol. The highest content was recorded for that of the region of Zaghouan (286.22 mg/kg). The total ph…
Effective conjugation in conjugated polymers with strongly twisted backbones: A case study on fluorinated MEHPPV
Conjugated polymers with strongly twisted backbones, such as MEHPPV with fluorinated vinylene units (F-MEHPPV), demand a redefinition of the all-important ‘effective conjugation length’ ECL, which we extract here by a facile graphical method. In MEHPPV (being essentially planar), the ECL coincides with the ‘maximum conducive chain length’ MCC and extends over about n ≈ 9 repetition units (RU). In F-MEHPPV, the MCC is similarly long with n ≈ 8, but the ECL localizes on just one RU. The strong twist in F-MEHPPV persists in the excited state, broadening the emission spectrum and quenching the fluorescence with reduced radiative and enhanced non-radiative rates.