Browsing by Person "Baumgartner, Vera"

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HPTLC-bioluminescence detection: methodological improvements and the application of the method to mouthwashes
(2013) Baumgartner, Vera; Schwack, Wolfgang
For the chemical analysis of food, drugs, and environmental samples it becomes more and more important to find substances of a certain (biological) activity. For this, several biological screening assays are available. One of the most versatile is the luminescent bacteria test according to an international norm (DIN EN ISO 11348), a rapid cuvette test on cytotoxicity. The assay employs the naturally bioluminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri, which emits blue-green light under good living conditions. Because the energy-consuming luminescence metabolism is linked directly to the bacterium?s respiratory chain, a disturbance of the bacterium?s metabolism affects the luminescence, whereas the degree of toxicity is proportional to the luminescence inhibition. Major advantage was achieved by coupling this biotest with previous separation by high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC), which allowed for a screening for individual components. The workflow consists of sample application onto an HPTLC plate, separation, drying the plate, application of the Vibrio fischeri suspension, and detection with a light-sensitive CCD camera. In the resulting image, dark zones on a brightly luminizing background indicate substances that affect the bacteria?s metabolism. No suitable image evaluation program for the effective correction and quantitative evaluation of the image after Vibrio fischeri detection was available, which was regarded as a great disadvantage. In literature, adaptations of the special corrections based on the cuvette test calculations were described, including horizontal background correction and the recalculation of the sigmoid dose-response-relationship of the bacteria?s reaction. This served as a basis for the development of a new method using existing software which did not only perform the necessary calculations but was easy and convenient enough for use in routine evaluations. Furthermore, the process of applying the aqueous bacteria suspension onto the HPTLC plates was improved. Usually, application was done by dipping with the help of a dipping device. Especially for polar substances, however, it was observed that substances can start to dissolve during this process, leading to blurring and tailing of the zones on the plate. A simple rolling device consisting of commercially available household articles was constructed. To compare rolling with dipping, octhilinone and methylparaben were chosen as test compounds. The results of rolling were far superior to dipping. However, manual rolling depended on the person who did it, and it was not possible to control pressure and velocity. To overcome this problem, a prototype of an automated rolling device was constructed and built. After the successful process optimizations, the applicability of the HPTLC-bioluminescence assay was tested on commercial mouthwashes. Mouthwashes are likely to contain antimicrobial compounds, which are not necessarily indicated on the packaging. HPTLC with biodetection was used as a rapid screening method to detect zones of interest, which were further analyzed by conventional techniques like HPLC and GC. First, the reaction of Vibrio fischeri towards more than 40 standard substances was determined. This database was used for the analysis of six commercially available mouthwashes. It revealed that not only declared preservatives are used in mouthwashes, but also other antimicrobial compounds. These were especially constituents of essential oils having antibacterial properties (anethole, carvone, menthol, thymol), but are summarized as ?aroma?, which is in compliance with legal restrictions. A most interesting question concerns the bacteria?s condition on the HPTLC plate. For the brightly luminizing background, it must be assumed that the bacteria are well alive. But no clear statement can be given for bacteria in the dark zones: they might be dead, inhibited (maybe only temporarily), or absent due to water repelling effects of the zone?s compound. A basic attempt to answer this question was made by applying a combination of classical microbiological techniques. In this dissertation it could be shown that HPTLC coupled with Vibrio fischeri detection can successfully be used in practice and is well suited to complement conventional analytical techniques. This work is meant to serve as a guideline for further research and new applications.