Rosa Busquets

Kingston University London · School of Pharmacy & Chemistry

The environmental occurrence, fate and ecotoxicity of emerging contaminants (ECs) has been the subject of increasing research, policy and public concern over the past two decades. While a wide range of publications have examined the environmental persistence and sediment/soil interactions of ECs following their discharge into aquatic environments,...

Background: Neonicotinoids (hereafter called “neonics”) are systemic insecticides used for the protection of agricultural crops. However, their dispersion in nature has been the subject of global concern due to reports of adverse effects on some living organisms. One of the applications of neonics in Nigeria is to protect the cocoa cash crop. Objec...

Microfibers (MFs) are one of the most prevalent microplastic (MP) sub-groups found in the aquatic environment released from many sources, including household laundry. MPs pose risks to the growth rate of terrestrial/aquatic biota and through biomagnification. Although MFs can be ingested by humans, their toxic effects and potential impact on public...

Water contaminated with heavy metals constitutes an important threat. This threat is a real problem with a negative impact in some developing countries where untreated industrial effluents are used for irrigation. The present study examines heavy metals in wastewater-irrigated vegetables (apple gourd, spinach, cauliflower, sponge gourd, and coriand...

Extensive consumption of cobalt in the chemical field such as for battery materials, alloy, pigments, and dyes has aggravated the pollution of cobalt both in food and the environment, and assays for its on-site monitoring are urgently demanded. Herein, we utilized enzyme dependence on metal cofactors to develop terminal transferase (TdT) as a recog...

The novel and intriguing role of Fe(NO3)3 as a chemical activator in carbonization of macadamia nutshell is introduced in this work. Magnetic mesoporous carbon was achieved by chemical activation of macadamia nutshell with Fe(NO3)3 under nitrogen atmosphere at 850°C (MMC-850). Porosity of MMC-850 included SBET 317 m2/g with Vmicro 0.0796 cm3/g and...

Water treatment plants' effluents are hotspots of microplastics (MPs) and microfibres (MFs) released into the aquatic environment because they were not designed to capture these particles. Special attention should be given to MFs, since they mainly come from laundry and are related to one of the main MP shapes detected in water and wastewater treat...

Very low concentrations of lead (Pb2+) pollution can have far-reaching adverse impacts on human health, due to the cumulative toxicity of Pb2+. Herein, we report a DNAzyme-templated exponential isothermal amplification strategy (termed DNAzymee) for the ultrasensitive detection of Pb2+ pollution and the high-throughput screening of microbial biosor...

Lead contamination in the environment tends to enter the food chain and further into the human body, causing serious health issues. Herein, we proposed a Csm6-DNAzyme tandem assay (termed cDNAzyme) using CRISPR/Cas III-A Csm6 and GR-5 DNAzyme, enabling one-pot and sensitive detection of lead contamination. We found that Pb2+-activated GR-5 DNAzyme...

Microplastic (MP) contamination is a persistent and ubiquitous threat to aquatic ecosystems. This study quantifies MP ingestion by fish inhabiting the Anzali Wetland (Iran), a hotspot of biodiversity. Growth parameters have been monitored in endemic demersal fish (Caspian spined loach, Sabanejewia caspia), and invasive benthopelagic species (Prussi...

There is an urgent need to increase knowledge on the distribution of microplastics (MPs) in wetlands because these are sites of special ecological value and the ever-growing use of plastic can threaten such fragile ecosystems. This research assesses, for the first time, the occurrence of MPs in surface sediment of the Freidounkenar International We...

Endometrial cancer (EC) is a very common female cancer which has attracted more and more attention. According to the individual patient’s condition, the current treatment of EC patients is mainly based on surgery, which is supplemented by chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endocrine intervention. However, these existing treatment strategies also have...

Food authenticity is a critical issue associated with the economy, religion, and food safety. Herein, we report a label-free and colorimetric nucleic acid assay for detecting DNA barcodes, enabling the determination of food authenticity with the naked eye. This method, termed the CRISPR-based colorimetric DNA barcoding (Cricba) assay, utilizes CRIS...

Access to clean drinking water is limited for millions around the world and lead to dire health and economic ramifications, particularly in developing nations. This study explores a recyclable, low-cost, non-doped, microporous titanosilicate for effective removal of organic water pollutants. Rhodamine B was utilized as a modal pollutant to explore...

The study of microplastics (MPs) in inland water bodies has been growing recently, there, however, is still insufficient knowledge of the status of MPs in lacustrine ecosystems, especially in saline lakes. In addition, studies have almost been conducted on sediment, water and biological compartments of lakes. In this study, for the first time, the...

Microplastics (MPs) are an emerging pollutant and a worldwide issue. A wide variety of MPs and tyre wear particles (TWPs) are entering and spreading in the environment. TWPs can reach waterbodies through runoff, where main contributing particulate matter comes from impervious areas. In this paper, TWPs and other types of MPs that were transported w...

This study investigates the incidence of MPs in surface sediment samples, collected from the Anzali Wetland, Gillan province, North of Iran. This natural habitat receives municipal wastewater effluents and hosts industries and recreational activities that could release plastic to the wetland. There is need for studies to understand MPs pollution in...

In current research work, Pr³⁺ doped M-type hexaferrites having general formula BaPrxFe12-xO19 (0.00 < x > 1.00 with 0.25 steps) were synthesized using sol–gel technique. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized via XRD for structural Study, FTIR to study the frequency band, SEM was used to investigate the morphological surface, spectroscopic...

Poor solubility of wheat gluten proteins (WG) has negative impact on functional attributes such as gelation and emulsification, which limits it use in the food industry. In this study, WG underwent different degrees of phosphorylation using sodium tripolyphosphate (STP). Phosphoric acid groups were successfully incorporated in the WG via covalent b...

Several experimental and biological studies have emphasized the tumor suppression efficacy and low toxicity of Apigenin (API); however, its exact underlying mechanism on human endometrial carcinoma Ishikawa cell line (EC) is still unknown. We found that API could inhibit the proliferation of Ishikawa cells at IC50 of 45.55 μM, arrest the cell cycle...

Low-cost wheat by-products have been modified to become an effective delivery system for curcumin. Wheat bran cellulose (WBC) and wheat gluten proteins (WPs) were co-assembled by a pH cycle and addition of sodium tripolyphosphate (STP). Fluorescence spectroscopy and zeta-potential evidenced that the embedding of WBC into the WPs favored the formati...

In this study, the miscible system was formed by mixing gelatin (G) with mulberry leaf polysaccharides (MLPs) continuously extracted with a hot buffer (HBSS), a chelating agent (CHSS), a dilute alkali (DASS), and a concentrated alkali (CASS), and the zeta potential, turbidity, particle size, distribution, and rheological properties of the miscible...

Plastics and their degradation products, microplastics (MPs), are ubiquitous in the environment, and urban and industrial soils may be the most polluted soils by this type of pollution. There is scarce information addressing human exposure to MPs from urban and industrial soils. This study assesses MP pollution in urban and industrial soils of two...

Panax notoginseng is an important functional health product, and has been used worldwide because of a wide range of pharmacological activities, of which the taproot is the main edible or medicinal part. However, technologies for origin discrimination still need to be further studied. In this study, an ICP-MS/MS method for the accurate determination...

Pollinators are vital for ecosystems, agriculture and the economy. Their population has been declining over several decades and the current situation is serious and of great concern. Multiple stressors are likely to have contributed to this, and exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides is one possible causative factor. Pollinators, including bees, can...

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is an oily wastewater generated by palm oil processing mills. Most palm oil factories and refineries have their own treatment system such as anaerobic digestion system and electrocoagulation (EC). In this study, a new method, integrated electrocoagulation (EC)-membrane system is introduced to treat the POME. The treatm...

In the scenario, a novel Ce2(WO4)3/[email protected] (CWZG) nanocomposite (NCs) were constructed by an easier hydrothermal technique. The crystalline phase and the structure of the material were characterized by the Powder X-Ray diffraction analysis (P-XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis; the presenting elements for synthesized materi...

Lycium barbarum seed dreg polysaccharides (LBSDPs) were continuously extracted with four different solvents [hot buffer (HBSS), chelating agent (CHSS), dilute alkaline (DASS), and concentrated alkaline (CASS)]. The present study characterized the physicochemical and anti-oxidant based functional properties of different LBSDPs. The monosaccharide an...

The occurrence of microplastics (MPs) was investigated in the Arvand River (Iran). The Arvand River (200 Km) is a major water body that flows through land with diverse use and it meets the Persian Gulf. This study constitutes the first assessment of MP pollution in the Arvand river. MP monitoring has been carried out in 24 stations located along th...

Circulating microRNAs (miRNA) can serve as key biomarkers for early diagnose of cholangiocarcinoma. Herein, an assay that uses circulating miRNA to trigger strand displacement amplification (SDA) and a CRISPR-Cas14a system to report the SDA process has been developed. In the proposed method, SDA directly amplifies miRNAs without reverse transcripti...

Protein scarcity is the most vital cause of long-lasting diseases and even untimely deaths in some developing nations. The application of protein in food is advantageous from the point of view of non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and dietary benefits. This study aimed to determine the protein contents of the sprouts of Vigna radiates (mung beans), Le...

Aqueous fluorescent dispersions containing dyed acrylic-based copolymer nanoparticles possess significant credentials concerning green technology as compared to those prepared with the conventional vinyl-based monomers in textile and garment sectors; however, their essential textile fastness properties are yet to achieve. In the present work, a ser...

Carbon dioxide and/or dry methane reforming serves as an effective pathway to mitigate these greenhouse gases. This work evaluates different oxide supports including alumina, Y-zeolite and H-ZSM-5 zeolite for the catalysis of dry reforming methane with Nickel (Ni). The composite catalysts were prepared by impregnating the supports with Ni (5%) and...

Flooding is known to mobilise soil phosphorus (P). However, it is still not clear how climate change‐driven extended periods of soil drying followed by flooding will affect soil‐P dynamics. We tested the hypothesis under laboratory conditions that soil antecedent conditions (moist/dry) determine the amount of P mobilised upon flooding. A series of...

This study investigates, for the first time, the concentration, distribution, fate and chemical composition of microplastics (MPs) in urban and industrial soils of Ahvaz metropolis, SW Iran. MP concentrations ranged from 100 to 3135 and 80 to1220 unit·kg⁻¹ in urban and industrial soils, respectively, with corresponding means of 619 and 390 unit·kg⁻...

Microplastics (MPs), sized ~150 μm, have been found in tap water at levels of ~5 particles/L, suggesting that water treatment plants are not effectively removing MPs. Therefore, there is an urgent need to evaluate their fate in drinking water treatment processes. Coagulation-flocculation and sedimentation are applied in water treatment to primarily...

This study examines for the first time the characteristics and human exposure of microplastics (MPs) in settled indoor dust in schools. An average of 195 MPs·g of dust⁻¹ were detected in settled indoor composite dust samples from 28 schools in Shiraz. White-transparent microfibres with lengths 500–1000 μm were the most abundant type of MP found amo...

Waxy sorghum has greater economic value than wild sorghum in relation to their use in food processing and the brewing industry. Thus, the authentication of the waxy sorghum species is an important issue. Herein, a rapid and sensitive Authentication Amplification Refractory Mutation System-PCR (aARMS-PCR) method was employed to identify sorghum spec...

The study of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) with ionic liquids (ILs) is becoming a significant research area for the pharmaceutical industry. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the physicochemical and biological behaviour of ionic liquids having different counter ions with the presence of an antibacterial drug, ciprofloxacin (CIP)...

Introduction Microplastics (MPs) are plastic particles and fibres < 5mm. They are generally hydrophobic and have relatively high surface area when they are in the smaller particle size range. Then, they have stronger ability to adsorb pollutants and could become a source of pollutants themselves [1]. Some microplastics have been found to cause oxi...

Lead (Pb2+) pollution is a serious food safety issue. Rapid detection of Pb2+ residual in food is vital to guarantee food quality and safety. Here we propose ratiometric aptamer probes allowing robust Pb2+ detection in food samples. Pb2+ specific aptamer can bolster a transition of G-quadruplex structural response to Pb2+; this process can be monit...

Microplastics (MPs), including fibres, are plastic particles smaller than <5mm in size, that are ubiquitous in the environment. They are present in wastewater effluents and appear with greater abundance with dimensions <0.5mm fraction and even in tap water (~5 particles/L 150 μm). This suggests that most drinking water treatment plants are not effe...

The objectives of the current study are to investigate the concentration, biological risks, chemical speciation, and mobility potential of heavy metals and also the determination of spatial distribution, physicochemical characteristics, and abundance of microplastics in coastal sediments and edible bivalves of the Persian Gulf, the coastal area of...

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been identified as main contributors to releasing microfibres into the environment, however, WWTPs do not have microfibre-targeting technologies. In this study, photocatalysis is evaluated as a potential technology to treat microfibres in WWTPs by studying the degradation of polyamide 66 (PA66) microfibres u...

This study assesses the occurrence of microplastics (MPs) in coastal and sea surface sediments, as well as water samples, collected from the coastal region of the southern Caspian Sea, Mazandaran province, Iran. A total of 32 sediment and 10 water samples were studied. The mean concentration of MPs was 15 units kg⁻¹ in the sediments and 710 units m...

Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are toxic products from the Maillard reaction that form from the reaction of sugars, amino acids and creatine/creatinine when cooking protein rich food. In this work, commonly consumed meats in Saudi Arabia (camel, beef and chicken) were fried under conditions resembling home cooking. The effect of marinades made of blueb...

Following earlier reports of water contamination and arsenic (As) toxicity symptoms in residents of Kurdistan Province, As was determined in rock, soil and plant samples to investigate its fate from rock to crops and its potential effects on human health. Total As content ranged from 4.9 to 10,000 mg/kg, 7.7–430 mg/kg and < 0.05–25,079 µg/kg (dry w...

Neonicotinoids are widely used to control insect pests in agriculture. Their presence in the environment can affect the health of non-target insects and aquatic animals. The behaviour of four neonicotinoids, namely imidacloprid, acetamiprid, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam, has been investigated in soils with contrasting characteristics to understand...

The Owena River Basin in Nigeria is an area of agricultural importance for the production of cocoa. To optimise crop yield, the cocoa trees require spraying with neonicotinoid insecticides (Imidacloprid, Thiacloprid Acetamiprid and Thiamethoxam). It is proposed that rainwater runoff from the treated area may pollute the Owena River and that these p...

Stormwater runoff carries pollutants from urban areas to rivers and has the potential to be a main contributing source of microplastics (MPs) to the ecosystem. Stormwater detention reservoirs (SDRs) differ from ponds and lakes in that SDRs retain most particulate matter and they are emptied after storm events. This paper investigates the occurrence...

The reliance on plastic for a vast number of consumer products, many of them single-use, results in their continuous entry into aquatic environments. Plastic waste can fragment into smaller debris, some with a diameter < 5 mm (microplastics). Microplastics are of growing concern especially since 2014, however to date research on microplastic pollut...

Water quality especially drinking water is highly significant to human lives. To access the safe and secure drinking water, nowadays it has become an issue of global concerns. A novel method using an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was proposed to analyze sulfate level in bottled and metropolitan water...

Soil drying-rewetting is known to enhance soil phosphorus leaching, which in part is due to osmotic shock and lysis of microbial cells upon rewetting. However, it is not entirely clear how this may be influenced by the intensity and duration of soil drying. We hypothesized that the intensity and duration of soil drying play important roles in deter...

New analytical methods are needed for the analysis of nanosystems in food products and packaging; nanosytems are increasingly incorporated in products and, through their analysis, it will possible to improve food and study their health risk. Micro- and nanocapsules, nanohydrogels, nanoemulsions, lipid nanoparticles, micelles, metallic nanoparticles...

Environmental factors, including air pollution, noise, and decline in biodiversity, have become issues of major concern over recent decades. Air pollution and other environmental contaminants (such as pesticides) have led to concerns relating to the health and well-being of human, animal and plant populations, whilst changes in temperature and rain...

A method based on eco-friendly solid-phase extraction (SPE) and ultra-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was validated for the trace analysis of malachite green (MG) in industrial wastewater samples. For the extraction of MG, a lignocellulose biomass composite material was prepared from moringa oleifera pods, wh...

The removal of phosphorus (P) from sewage effluents is necessary to control eutrophication in receiving waters. Biochar has been proposed and is investigated for the capture and reuse of P, however the forces driving and limiting P adsorption are still largely unclear. To identify the forces governing P uptake by biochar, biochars with markedly dif...

Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are foodborne carcinogens for which their formation is highly dependent on cooking conditions. HCAs have been commonly quantified in food items prepared with simple procedures. This approach is suitable for elucidating HCAs’ formation, but it only partially reflects the contamination in consumed food. In the current inves...

Agricultural production results in wastes that can be re-used to improve the quality of the environment. This work has investigated for the first time the use of abundant, un-modified agricultural wastes and byproducts (AWBs) from grape, wheat, barley and flax production, to reduce the concentration of Cd, a highly toxic and mobile heavy metal, in...

The control of osteoblast/osteoclast cross-talk is crucial in the bone remodelling process and provides a target mechanism in the development of drugs for bone metabolic diseases. Osteoprotegerin is a key molecule in this biosignalling pathway as it inhibits osteoclastogenesis and osteoclast activation to prevent run-away bone resorption. This work...

Addressing food security issues arising from phosphorus (P) scarcity is described as one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st Century. Dependence on inorganic phosphate fertilisers derived from limited geological sources of P creates an urgent need to recover P from wastes and treated waters, in safe forms that are also effective agricultu...

Basic concepts that are important to understand the role of nanotechnology in food products are introduced in this first chapter. Nanotechnology, nanomaterials, and nanoparticles are presented in an illustrative way. The chemical and economical importance of such tiny materials (nanomaterials), and concepts of preparation and control of their prope...

The inclusion of nanomaterials in food products is emerging due to a better understanding of their properties and technological benefits. Therefore methodology to characterize nanomaterials in relevant media is urgently needed. The multiple relevant properties of nanomaterials and the limitations of analytical techniques demand the use of a combina...

Emerging Nanotechnologies in Food Science presents the current knowledge and latest developments in food nanotechnology, taking a multidisciplinary approach to provide a broad and comprehensive understanding of the field. Food nanotechnology is a newly emergent discipline that is fast-growing and evolving. The discipline continues to benefit from...