A rapid and sensitive procedure for estimating low numbers of Clostridium perfringens has been investigated and compared to methods used currently in the food industry. The new liquid medium, RPM (rapid perfringens medium), was compared with sulfite-polymyxin-sulfadiazine agar and tryptose-sulfite-cycloserine agar in recovery studies with naturally contaminated and with inoculated foods. The me...

The structural genes for dissimilatory sulfite reductase (desulfoviridin) from Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hilden-borough were cloned as a 7.2-kbp SacII DNA fragment. Nucleotide sequencing indicated the presence of a third gene, encoding a protein of only 78 amino acids, immediately downstream from the genes for the alpha and beta subunits (dsvA and dsvB). We designated this protein DsvD and the gen...

Rapid separation and determination of mixtures of L-ascorbic acid, nitrite, sulfite, oxalate, iodide and thiosulfate by conventional ion chromatography is often difficult due to incomplete separation of L-ascorbic acid and nitrite from the water peak when using eluents giving short elution times for iodide and thiosulfate. Separation of the six species within about 15 min has been achieved by i...

Sulfites are used as anti-microbial and anti-oxidant agents in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Curcumin, a flavonoid, is an Asian spice that shows neuroprotective activities. The current study aimed to stereologically assess the rats' cerebellar cortex and rotarod performance following sulfite exposure and determine the possible neuroprotective potential of curcumin. The rats were divid...

IN Part V [Gulland and Randall, 1935] it was shown that the molecule of the oxytocic hormone certainly contains one, and may possibly contain two, oxidation-reduction systems, although the existence of the second is not definitely established. The present communication describes the actions on the hormone of some oxidising and reducing agents, which were studied in the hope that they might thro...

In bacteria, oxidation of sulfite to sulfate, the most common strategy for sulfite detoxification, is mainly accomplished by the molybdenum-containing sulfite:acceptor oxidoreductases (SORs). Bacterial SORs are very diverse proteins; they can exist as monomers or homodimers of their core subunit, as well as heterodimers with an additional cytochrome c subunit. We have previously described the h...

Two kinds of predatory bacteria have been observed and characterized by light and electron microscopy in samples from freshwater sulfurous lakes in northeastern Spain. The first bacterium, named Vampirococcus, is Gram-negative and ovoidal (0.6 micrometer wide). An anaerobic epibiont, it adheres to the surface of phototrophic bacteria (Chromatium spp.) by specific attachment structures and, as...

Sulfites and other preservatives are considered food additives to limit bacterial contamination, and are generally regarded as safe for consumption by governmental regulatory agencies at concentrations up to 5000 parts per million (ppm). Consumption of bactericidal and bacteriostatic drugs have been shown to damage beneficial bacteria in the human gut and this damage has been associated with se...

A new and simple differential pulse polarographic procedure was established for the trace determination of mercury(II). An indirect method had to be used since no polarographic peak can be observed for its direct determination. According to their standard potentials, the reaction between SO2− 3 and Hg(II) was suitable. The peak height of sulfite at about –0.70 V (pH 6, 7) was sharp, high, and v...

The present structural revision of the title compound, tetra-cadmium tetra-sulfite hexa-hydrate, [Cd(4)(SO(3))(4)(H(2)O)(5)]·H(2)O, is a low-temperature upgrade (T = 100 K and R = 0.017) of the original room-temperature structure reported by Kiers & Vos [Cryst. Struct. Commun. (1978). 7, 399-403; T = 293 K and R = 0.080). The compound is a three-dimensional polymer with four independent cadmium...