Macaw palm, Acrocomia aculeata is an oleaginous species of the Arecaceae family; it has been identified as one of the most promising plants for sustainable production of renewable energy, especially biodiesel. We developed an efficient protocol of genomic DNA extraction for A. aculeata using leaf and stipe tissues, based on the cationic hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide method, and we evaluate...

In this batch study, montmorillonite was modified by a cationic surfactant [hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMA-MMT)] and used as sorbent to remove bromocresol green (BCG) from aqueous solutions. The effect of several factors such as surfactant loading rate onto the clay, contact time, pH, adsorbent dosage, dye concentration, and ion strength were investigated on the sorption. The equilib...

Slow kinetics is one of the capital issues photocatalytic technology because its heterogeneous nature, which involves multi-step processes. Herein, we show that simple modification sol-gel-based TiO2-smectite composite by hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTMA) significantly boosts adsorption and efficient light towards removal diclofenac from water. Three photocatalysts were prepared, inclu...

A simple, sensitive, and selective colorimetric biosensor for the detection of the malarial biomarkers Plasmodium vivax lactate dehydrogenase (PvLDH) and Plasmodium falciparum LDH (PfLDH) was demonstrated using the pL1 aptamer as the recognition element and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as probes. The proposed method is based on the aggregation of AuNPs using hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CT...

Siderophores are potent ferric ion chelators produced by microbes like bacteria and fungi during iron stress. The objective of this study was to verify the siderophore-production in noduleforming bacteria and then to compare them with pure cultures of Rhizobium meliloti bacteria. It was achieved by inoculating nodule-forming bacteria in YEM media followed by Chrome Azurol Sulfonate (CAS) assay,...

Due to the potential for intentional contamination of food with crude preparations containing ricin, a real-time PCR method was developed for the detection of castor plant material in ground beef. One primer pair was identified and confirmed to be castor-specific and efficient for amplification of ricin in DNA extracts from castor or beef matrices. Of three different DNA extraction protocols co...

This work reports on the structural evolution during room temperature synthesis of hexagonally ordered mesoporous silica nanoparticles with and without embedded iron oxide particles. Oleic acidcapped iron oxide nanoparticles are synthesized and transferred to an aqueous phase using the cationic surfactant, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). MCM-41 type silica and composite nanoparticles...