RSC Advances Blog

We are very pleased to announce that RSC Advances is now fully indexed in Scopus. 

SciVerse Scopus is the world’s largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. By featuring in Scopus, RSC Advances articles become even more discoverable and visible to scientists. All our 2011-2012 content are completely free to access subject to a simple registration process.

According to Scopus, RSC Advances has published over 700 articles since our launch in August 2011. Why not join your peers and take this opportunity to submit your work today!

PS: We are also indexed in other major databases such as Thomson Reuters SCI-expanded databases including ISI Web of Science and CAS.

Dr Claudio Santi (left), poster prize winner, University of Perugia, Italy with Professor George Varvounis (right), Vice Chairman of Eurasia 2012

RSC Advances was proud to sponsor the poster prize at the recent Eurasia conference in Corfu, Greece. Held every 2 years since 1988, the meeting was the 12th of its kind and hosted for the first time in Europe. About 450 delegates from over 55 countries engaged in discussions about their latest findings on the chemical sciences. The meeting kicked off with a plenary lecture from the Nobel laureate, Professor Akira Suzuki, providing updates on the metal-catalysed Suzuki reaction.

The conference then proceeded with 6 daily parallel sessions covering the following topics:

Bioinorganic Chemistry
Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Diagnostics
Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Drugs Design
Environmental and Green Chemistry
Physical Chemistry and Spectroscopy
Theoretical and Computational Chemistry
Organometallic Chemistry and Catalysis
Coordination Chemistry and Inorganic Polymers
Analytical and Solution Chemistry
Organic Synthesis and Natural Products
Food Chemistry
Supramolecular Chemistry and Nanomaterials
Polymer Science
Chemical Education

The delegates were graced with over 200 posters on the above subjects. The poster winner in the Environmental and Green Chemistry category went to Dr Claudio Santi, University of Perugia, Italy. Claudio presented his work on “PhSeZn-Halides:Nucleophilic Reagents in on Water Conditions”. On behalf of  RSC Advances, Professor George Varvounis, University of Ioannina, Greece, Vice Chairman of Eurasia 2012, presented Claudio with an RSC Book on Molecular Solar Fuels and a certificate (see photo above). Many congratulations to the winner!

Vera Thoss tells Elinor Richards about her bluebell business and research, using her car in her experiments and analysing whale vomit

Vera Thoss is an environmental chemistry lecturer at Bangor University, UK. Her research is based on ecological chemistry, which addresses processes mediated through specific compounds within ecosystems and environmental chemistry, which is concerned with the impact of human activities on the environment

What inspired you to become a scientist?
It all started when I was 13 and I had my first chemistry lesson. I instantly took to the subject and from then my mind was made up. I was also curious and wanted to ‘understand the world’.

What projects are you working on?
Currently, my group is working on oil pollution, composting and plant-derived products. It seems a bit of a stretch but it is all part of carbon cycling: plants build precious molecules, most of the time these remain intact but may transfer into air, water or soil. Crude oil is the remnants of sunken forests. So in the end, all the chemistry comes from plants photosynthesising and creating complex fragrances, tastes and colours. It is fascinating.

What discoveries have you made during your research on bluebells?
Bluebell seeds have a high oil content and the oil has an unusual composition. Even though this is the first chemical assessment of Hyacinthoides non-scripta  oil, the chemistry is not earth-shattering. The ecology aspects gave room for more discoveries, for example we found seed stores on the site, meaning that possibly voles or shrew have collected the seeds for storage. This has never been reported before.

Tell us about your bluebell conservation efforts and how your research can help.
We are hoping to show that bluebell seeds can be a source of fine chemicals. We obtain an oil of unusual composition from the seeds. The residue contains iminosugars, which may be of use in future medicines. I am hoping that the compounds isolated from bluebell seeds will be of commercial value, which in turn means that the conservation of bluebells pays for itself. We are hoping to paint the mountains and woodlands blue again.

Find out more about the Vera Bluebell farm and the BEACON and PROBECO projects in Chemistry World

Link to journal article
Triacylglycerol Composition of British Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) Seed Oil
Vera Thoss ,  P J Murphy ,  Ray John Marriott and Thomas Wilson
RSC Adv., 2012, Accepted Manuscript, DOI: 10.1039/C2RA20090B