The use of chemical herbicides in agriculture has raised concerns due to its adverse effects on farmers' health, environmental sustainability, and consumer safety. Paraquat, a widely used herbicide, has been banned in Thailand. In response to this issue, this research focused on the development of natural herbicide products as an alternative to conventional chemical herbicides. The study involved the extraction of bioactive compounds from selected plants with potential herbicidal properties and evaluating their effectiveness in controlling target weeds. The results indicated that the developed natural herbicide demonstrates significant weed control efficiency. Additionally, this product can be applied to organic farming systems, reducing reliance on hazardous chemicals and promoting sustainable agricultural practices. The development of this natural herbicide served as an essential step toward environmentally friendly and safe agricultural solutions.
ที่มาของโครงการนี้เกิดจากปัญหาการใช้สารเคมีกำจัดวัชพืชในภาคเกษตรกรรม ซึ่งแม้ว่าสารเหล่านี้จะมีประสิทธิภาพในการควบคุมวัชพืช แต่กลับก่อให้เกิดผลกระทบต่อสุขภาพของเกษตรกร ผู้บริโภค และสิ่งแวดล้อมในระยะยาว โดยเฉพาะสารพาราควอต ซึ่งเป็นสารเคมีกำจัดวัชพืชที่ได้รับความนิยมแต่ถูกห้ามใช้ในหลายประเทศ รวมถึงประเทศไทย เนื่องจากมีความเป็นพิษสูงและไม่มีวิธีการรักษาหากได้รับสารเข้าสู่ร่างกาย นอกจากนี้ การตกค้างของสารเคมีในดินและแหล่งน้ำยังส่งผลต่อความสมดุลของระบบนิเวศและคุณภาพของผลผลิตทางการเกษตร ด้วยเหตุนี้ โครงการวิจัยนี้จึงถูกพัฒนาขึ้นโดยมีเป้าหมายในการค้นหาและพัฒนาสารจากธรรมชาติที่สามารถทดแทนสารเคมีดังกล่าวได้อย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ เพื่อลดความเสี่ยงต่อสุขภาพของเกษตรกร ลดปัญหามลพิษทางสิ่งแวดล้อม และส่งเสริมการทำเกษตรกรรมที่ยั่งยืน นอกจากนี้ การวิจัยยังตอบสนองต่อนโยบายของภาครัฐในการสนับสนุนการใช้สารชีวภาพและนวัตกรรมที่เป็นมิตรกับสิ่งแวดล้อม เพื่อสร้างสมดุลระหว่างผลผลิตทางการเกษตรและการดูแลสิ่งแวดล้อมให้ยั่งยืนในระยะยาว
คณะวิศวกรรมศาสตร์
This thesis project was conducted to identify the optimal conditions for producing concentrated butterfly pea juice using vacuum evaporation to preserve key compounds in butterfly pea flowers, such as anthocyanins—natural pigments with high antioxidant properties. The study applies a Box-Behnken Design, a statistical method that facilitates analysis of multiple factors. The research focuses on the ratio of dried butterfly pea flowers to water, extraction temperature, and evaporation temperature, each of which has a direct effect on the preservation of key compounds, color, aroma, and flavor. The results indicate that using a dried flower-to-water ratio of 1:15, an extraction temperature of 60°C, and an evaporation temperature of 40°C under low pressure can minimize the loss of essential compounds and best retain the properties of the concentrated butterfly pea juice. Findings from this research provide a foundation for developing an industrial production process for concentrated butterfly pea juice and enhance the potential for creating new products from butterfly pea flowers.
คณะแพทยศาสตร์
Background: The RGL3 gene plays a role in key signal transduction pathways and has been implicated in hypertension risk through the identification of a copy number variant deletion in exon 6. Genome-wide association studies have highlighted RGL3 as associated with hypertension, providing insights into the genetic underpinnings of the condition and its protective effects on cardiovascular health. Despite these findings, there is a lack of data that confirms the precise role of RGL3 in hypertension. Additionally, the functional impact of certain variants, particularly those classified as variants of uncertain significance, remains poorly understood. Objectives: This study aims to analyze alterations in the RGL3 protein structure caused by mutations and validate the location of the ligand binding sites. Methods: Clinical variants of the RGL3 gene were obtained from NCBI ClinVar. Variants of uncertain significance and likely benign were analyzed. Multiple sequence alignment was conducted using BioEdit v7.7.1. AlphaFold 2 predicted the wild-type and mutant 3D structures, followed by quality assessment via PROCHECK. Functional domain analysis of RasGEF, RASGEF_NTER, and RA domains was performed, and BIOVIA Discovery Studio Visualizer 2024 was used to evaluate structural and physicochemical changes. Results: The analysis of 81 RGL3 variants identified 5 likely benign and 76 variants of uncertain significance (VUS), all of which were missense mutations. Structural modeling using AlphaFold 2 revealed three key domains: RasGEF_NTER, RasGEF, and RA, where mutations induced conformational changes. Ramachandran plot validation confirmed 79.7% of residues in favored regions, indicating an overall reliable structure. Moreover, mutations within RasGEF and RA domains altered polarity, charge, and stability, suggesting potential functional disruptions. These findings provide insight into the structural consequences of RGL3 mutations, contributing to further functional assessments. Discussion & Conclusion: The identified RGL3 mutations induced physicochemical alterations in key domains, affecting charge, polarity, hydrophobicity, and flexibility. These changes likely disrupt interactions with Ras-like GTPases, impairing GDP-GTP exchange and cellular signaling. Structural analysis highlighted mutations in RasGEF and RA domains that may interfere with activation states, potentially affecting protein function and stability. These findings suggest that mutations in RGL3 could have functional consequences, emphasizing the need for further molecular and functional studies to explore their pathogenic potential.
คณะวิศวกรรมศาสตร์
During the recent years, PM2.5 concentration is rising above the safety exposure limit in Thailand. PM2.5 could have originated from various sources such as exhaust fumes, open air burning, wildfire, etc. This concludes that all cities or places would have different PM source contributions. Most studies regarding the PM source findings were done based on chemical analysis. Our research team would like to predict the PM sources physically by nanostructures analysis. These methods would require the PM dust to be collected in a limited amount of time and dry. The use of paper filters may cause contamination from filter material which may cause errors in result evaluation. Our team suggests using Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) where electrostatics is used to capture PM dust. This research mainly focuses on designing and building the ESP system for PM collection whereas the requirement is to collect at least 100 mg of PM dust within 1 day which would be adequate for nanostructure analysis. The study revealed that the customized ESP system could achieve of up to 80% collecting efficiency (which is more than the commercial ESP that we previously used), there’s a also a parametric study of relationships between flow velocity and collecting efficiency where collecting efficiency is inversely proportional to flow velocity. The suggested air velocity is not to exceed 2 m/s. However, there’re still more room for improvement of the ESP system for PM collection such as the convenience of PM collection process which resulted from the ESP construction geometry and sizes.