BACKGROUND Although an aggressive use of tretinoin along with hydroquinone enables an efficient treatment of hyperpigmented skin lesions, irritant dermatitis remains to be solved. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficiency and adverse effects of 10% all-trans retinol (ROL) gel for improvement of skin hyperpigmentation. METHODS Ten-percent ROL gel was used instead of 0.1% tretinoin gel in our two-...

β-Galactosidases can transfer the galactosyl from lactose or galactoside donors to various acceptors and thus are especially useful for the synthesis of important glycosides. However, these enzymes have limitations in the glycosylation of phenolic compounds that have many physiological functions. In this work, the β-galactosidase from Lactobacillus bulgaricus L3 was subjected to site-saturation...

While gold nanorods have been extensively studied and used in many biological, plasmonics, and sensing applications, their conventional seed-mediated synthesis still presents a number of limitations. Its high sensitivity to the concentration of the reducing agent (ascorbic acid) leads to problems with reliability as well as extremely poor yield of ionic-to-metallic gold conversion, which is onl...

The catabolism of 4-hydroxyacetophenone in Pseudomonas fluorescens ACB is known to proceed through the intermediate formation of hydroquinone. Here, we provide evidence that hydroquinone is further degraded through 4-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde and maleylacetate to beta-ketoadipate. The P. fluorescens ACB genes involved in 4-hydroxyacetophenone utilization were cloned and characterized. Sequenc...

The skin-whitening agent, deoxyArbutin, is a potent tyrosinase inhibitor that is safer than hydroquinone and arbutin. However, it is thermolabile in aqueous solutions, where it decomposes to hydroquinone. Pharmaceutical and cosmetic emulsions are normally oil-in-water (o/w) or water-in-oil (w/o) systems; however, emulsions can be formulated with no aqueous phase to produce an anhydrous emulsion...

The volatile compounds that constitute the fruit aroma of ripe tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) are often sequestered in glycosylated form. A homology-based screen was used to identify the gene SlUGT5, which is a member of UDP-glycosyltransferase 72 family and shows specificity towards a range of substrates, including flavonoid, flavanols, hydroquinone, xenobiotics and chlorinated pollutants. SlUG...

Electrocatalytic oxidation of ascorbic acid (AA) at a carbon paste electrode, chemically modified 2,2'-[3,6-dioxa-1,8-octanediylbis(nitriloethylidyne)]-bis-hydroquinone, was thoroughly investigated. The results of cyclic voltammetry, double potential-step chronoamperometry, linear sweep voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) studies were used for the prediction of the mechanism of...

From the leaves and branches of Markhamia stipulata, five verbascoside derivatives (markhamiosides A-E), and one hydroquinone derivative (markhamioside F) were isolated together with 13 known compounds. Their structural elucidation was based on analyses of chemical and spectroscopic data.

We demonstrate a protein micropatterning method based on electropolymerization of a monomer with two electroactive units, hydroquinone monoester and disulfide, which enables electrochemical ON-OFF switching for immobilization of bioligands on electrodes modified with the electropolymerized film.

E. coli cells evolved under electrochemical tension in a microbial fuel cell possess direct electrochemical behavior due to the excretion of hydroquinone derivatives through a highly permeable outer membrane, and their catalyzed fuel cell demonstrates excellent performance.