COLLABORATORY RESEARCH PROJECTS: MACEWAN PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Dr. Samuel Mugo

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Listen to Nature, Learn from Nature

The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation. -Albert Einstein

“Being ‘less bad’ is no good.”

Collaboratory Research Project Themes

FATS and OILs Natural Products Novel Analytical Platforms for Environmental and Food monitoring

Hormones and Antibiotics-NSERC project

Value added Green Products

Profiling Bioactive, sensory, antioxidants, allelopathic compounds

On-site integrated sampling techniques

Destroy antibiotics in cattle manure: use it as fertilizer U of A: Dr

CurtisDr. Njenga, Dr Mellisa Hills

ARDN Dr. Withey, Highmark

FATS and OILs

Transformations (natural catalysts) Wax esters,

Structured lipids, Biodiesel,

Green ProductsOils and fats: Most important renewable materials. Exploit carboxylate chemistry

Natural Products

Profiling Bioactive, sensory, antioxidants, allelopathic compounds

Natural Products: Antioxidants

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Synthetic antioxidants:Natural antioxidants:

Safety (Carcinogenic) Concerns?

No harmful physiological effectsNot Fat-soluble (mainly hydrophilic)Economical

Quercetin-3-glucoside

- If you keep food for a long time on shelf they go bad: Preserve

TIME

Antioxidants (polyphenolics) From Herbal Plants

Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis L.): Common spice widely used in food processing

Yanishlineva et al. Eur. J. Lipid. Technol. 108(2006): 776

Obtained by extraction with ethanol/methanol fraction

More effective than BHT and BHA

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Antioxidants (polyphenolics) From Herbal Plants

Oregano (Oreganum Vulgare L.) antimicrobial and antioxidant properties

Yanishlineva et al. Eur. J. Lipid. Technol. 108(2006): 7768

Herbal Plants and Spices of Interest

Strychnos heningsii (muteta)

Cure and Prophylaxis of arthritis

Clausena anisata(Give herbal preparations sweet smell)

Tamarindus indica.

Compounds to look for with antioxidant activity: flavonols, flavonoids, isoflavones, diterpenes and phenolic acids

Botany Depart: JKUAT (KENYA)Plants from:

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Ixora scheffleri K.Schum

Concomitant study of the secondary Metabolites

Characterization of active compounds makes their use safer!Piper capense

Used in the management of flu and cold; antimicrobial

Seeds used to treat boils, bark decoction for lowering sugar level

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Our research

Figure 1. Myrianthus Hostii, an East African Herbal Plant

Often taken as a concoction for myriad remedies

Natural Products

Bioactive and sensory compoundsallelopathic compounds

Aloe Vera

Novel Analytical Platforms for Environmental and Food monitoring

MUGO-Rural Alberta Water Quality Monitoring: concept map

Different types of polymer in different morphologies entrained in the microbore to extract the contaminant

In House Developed microbore microextractors

Online couple to GC-MS (trihalomethanes, volatile compounds)

Elute to LC-MS (polyromatichydrocarbons, EDCs)

Online couple to ICP or AAS (heavy metal analysis)

Onsite microboremicroextractor

Drinking water from tap

CHEMOMETRICs (DR. KAREN BURO

Using statistical tools to quickly interpret complex data quickly acquired by Fourier Transform Spectroscopic Methods: FTIR and RAMAN

Adulteration in Foods

Case of Melamine tainted Milk, cat food etc.

Nitrate tainted milk

Trans Fats in Cookies

Olive oil spiked with Canola oil

NSERC-funded research on hormones and antibiotics

Project: Development of a novel, practical approach for the detection, tracing anddestruction of antibiotics and hormones in animal biowaste

Collaborative project with Highmark Renewables Research, and part of the larger bioWaste to Energy for Canada Integration Initiative (BECii)

Currently funded by a two-year $200,000 NSERC CCI grant

Method development taking place entirely at the MacEwan campus, utilizingstart-of-art instrumentation and dedicated research space acquired as part of thenew baccalaureate degree programs Project involves two MacEwan faculty members, one post-doctoral researchassociate, and employs four undergraduate students as research assistants eachyear.

Equipment Infrastructure

LCQ Fleet ion trap MSn

GC-MS

LC

Dual-laser Raman spectrometer (3 cm-1)with optical microscope

We service clients off-campus for a reasonable fee

400 MHz NMRspectrometer

FT-IR

iCAP (inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy)

Atomic absorption spectrometry

We service clients off-campus for a reasonable fee

Challenges/opportunitiesStudents Training Opportunity: Karl ayton, Alex Cerezo, Samuel Langman, Linh Tran, Jennifer, Lauren, Patrick, Merrill Singleton etc.

We are collaboration crazy! It is the way to go

Money- Getting access to money from other funding agencies (NSERC, ARDN, Canola growers Association, CIDA, CHIR, AACTI, AIF etc.