Impact of emulsion-based drug delivery systems on intestinal permeability and drug release kinetics

Simplified spectrophotometric method using methylene blue for determining anionic surfactants: applications to the study of primary biodegradation in aerobic screening tests.

Analytics of surfactants in the environment: problems and challenges.

Rhamnolipids, produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, represent an important group of biosurfactants having various industrial, environmental, and medical applications. Current methods for rhamnolipid quantification involve the use of strong hazardous acids/chemicals, indirect measurement of the concentration of sugar moiety, or require the availability of expensive equipment (HPLC-MS). A safer, easier method that measures the whole rhamnolipid molecules would significantly enhance strain selection, metabolic engineering, and process development for economical rhamnolipid production. A semi-quantitative method was reported earlier to differentiate between the rhamnolipid-producing and non-producing strains using agar plates containing methylene blue and cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). In this study, a rapid and simple method for rhamnolipid analysis was developed by systematically investigating the complexation of rhamnolipids and methylene blue, with and without the presence of CTAB. The method relies on measuring the absorbance (at 638 nm) of the rhamnolipid−methylene blue complex that partitions into the chloroform phase. With P. aeruginosa fermentation samples, the applicability of this method was verified by comparison of the analysis results with those obtained from the commonly used anthrone reaction technique.

Analysis of rhamnolipid biosurfactants by methylene blue complexation.

Analytical procedures for the determination of surfactants in environmental samples.

A rapid and simple method for the determination of anionic surfactants in tap water has been developed. The official analytical method in Japan for the determination of anionic surfactants in tap water requires tedious procedures and requires large amounts of chloroform as the extract solvent; it was greatly improved by the present spectrophotometric method using Methylene Blue. Our present method requires only one half of sample (50 ml), one tenth of the extraction solvent (chloroform=5 ml), and one sixth of the analytical time compared with the official analytical method.

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Maki Irie

Papers

Rapid Determination of Anionic Surfactants by Improved Spectrophotometric Method Using Methylene Blue