Author Archive

RSC Advances: Recognising our reviewers

This week, the Royal Society of Chemistry has been joining in the celebrations for Peer Review Week – a global event recognising the essential role that peer review plays in maintaining scientific quality.

At RSC Advances, recognising our reviewers is very important to us. Earlier this year we launched the RSC Advances Reviewer Panel, containing almost 450 members from over 50 countries, spread across 6 continents.  Members of the Reviewer Panel are hand-picked by the editors and are specialists from across all fields of the chemical sciences. They are a key part of our commitment to deliver rigorous and fair peer review and that your manuscript is handled by experts throughout the peer review process. We are proud to work with these individuals and to recognise their crucial role, their names are published on our website and they receive a certificate, thanking them for their hard work, dedication and valuable contribution they have made to the journal.

Our Associate Editors also play an important role in our peer review process providing reviews on manuscripts they are handling that are in their area of expertise. The Associate Editors receive payment for the manuscripts they handle as part of our recognition of the central role they have in maintaining the strict scientific and quality standards of RSC Advances.

We would like to say a massive thank you to our Associate Editors and Reviewer Panel members, as well as the RSC Advances Editorial Board, and all of the chemical sciences community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.

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Turmeric – potential ingredient to anti-cancer therapies

Turmeric, a spice commonly used in curries, contains a natural polyphenol called curcumin, which has been revealed as a promising anti-cancer therapeutic.

Tautomeric forms of curcumin and nanoparticle drug delivery systems

The undesirable properties and side effects of current anti-cancer therapeutics have inspired scientists to search for a natural remedy which may be better tolerated.  Curcumin has been demonstrated to inhibit cancer cell survival and to induce apoptosis without promoting the development of side effects.

Studies comparing the incidences of cancer in India and the West revealed that there was a lower risk of cancer in India. It is proposed that a major contribution to these statistics could be the increased intake of plant derivatives, such as curcumin, into the diet. In Asia, turmeric has been used for its medicinal properties for more than two thousand years!

In the 1800s scientists were able to isolate the curcumin molecule, but the structure wasn’t elucidated until 1910 – it is the structure which is responsible for its unique physiochemical and biological properties:

  • Often used as a dye due to its vibrant colour.
  • Increases the thermal stability of collagen, used for dermal wound healing.
  • Stability is maintained at room temperature allowing it to be used for medicinal purposes.

Traditional medicine has used curcumin to treat several conditions including inflammation, respiratory infections and blood clotting, but there is a rapidly growing interest in its effects on cancer.

Curcumin has yet to be licenced as a drug, possibly due to its susceptibility to rapid degradation in a wide range of environments and its sensitivity to pH and light. Under certain conditions curcumin becomes unstable and degrades, yielding other compounds. As many drug delivery systems tend to stabilize curcumin it needs to be determined whether it is curcumin itself or its degradation products that provided the biological activities observed.

To find out more about the chemical properties, bioactivity and approaches to cancer cell delivery of curcumin, read the full review by clicking the link.

Curcumin, a promising anti-cancer therapeutic: a review of its chemical properties, bioactivity and approaches to cancer cell delivery
Melessa Salem, Sohrab Rohani and Elizabeth Gillies
DOI: 10.1039/C3RA46396F

Access is free* until the 28.03.14 for registered users

*Access is free for 4 weeks through a registered RSC account – click here to register

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10 of the Highest Cited RSC Advances Articles from 2013

Here are 10 of the highest cited RSC Advances articles published in 2013:

Thermo-responsive fluorescent vesicles assembled by fluorescein-functionalized pillar[5]arene
Huacheng Zhang, Xing Ma, Junfei Guo, Kim Truc Nguyen, Quan Zhang, Xiao-Jun Wang, Hong Yan, Liangliang Zhu and Yanli Zhao.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 368-371
DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22123C

Bioinspired self-cleaning surfaces with superhydrophobicity, superoleophobicity, and superhydrophilicity
Shunsuke Nishimoto and Bharat Bhushan.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 671-690
DOI: 10.1039/C2RA21260A

Organocatalytic enantioselective decarboxylative Michael addition of beta-ketoacids to alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones
Young Ku Kang, Hyun Joo Lee, Hyoung Wook Moon and Dae Young Kim.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 1332-1335
DOI: 10.1039/C2RA21945J

First application of core-shell Ag@Ni magnetic nanocatalyst for transfer hydrogenation reactions of aromatic nitro and carbonyl compounds
Manoj B. Gawande, Huizhang Guo, Anuj K. Rathi, Paula S. Branco, Yuanzhi Chen, Rajender S. Varma and Dong-Liang Peng.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 1050-1054
DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22143H

3-Substituted 2-phenyl-indoles: privileged structures for medicinal chemistry
Henrik Johansson, Tanja Bøgeløv Jørgensen, David E. Gloriam, Hans Bräuner-Osborne and Daniel Sejer Pedersen.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 945-960
DOI: 10.1039/C2RA21902F

Towards artificial neurons and synapses: a materials point of view
Doo Seok Jeong, Inho Kim, Martin Ziegler and Hermann Kohlstedt.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 3169-3183
DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22507G

Rational design on n-type organic materials for high performance organic photovoltaics
Christos L. Chochos, Nikos Tagmatarchis and Vasilis G. Gregoriou.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 7160-7181
DOI: 10.1039/C3RA22926B

Recent advances in electrochemical glucose biosensors: a review
Chao Chen, Qingji Xie, Dawei Yang, Hualing Xiao, Yingchun Fu, Yueming Tana and Shouzhuo Yao.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 4473-4491
DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22351A

Laser flash synthesis of graphene and its inorganic analogues: An innovative breakthrough with immense promise
Prashant Kumar
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 11987-12002
DOI: 10.1039/C3RA41149D

Aqueous biphasic systems: a benign route using cholinium-based ionic liquids
Shahla Shahriari, Liliana C. Tomé, João M. M. Araújo, Luís Paulo N. Rebelo, João A. P. Coutinho, Isabel M. Marrucho and Mara G. Freire.
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 1835-1843
DOI: 10.1039/C2RA22972B

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