Drug metabolism is a pharmacokinetic process whose main objective is to modify the chemical structure of drugs to easily excretable compounds. This process is carried out through phase I and phase II reactions. The enzymes of cytochrome P450 (CYP450) participate in phase I reactions, and their activity can be inhibited or induced by xenobiotics. The aim of this chapter is to study the clinical relevance of the induction and inhibition of CYP450, by describing the effect that some bioactive compounds present in medicinal plants or foods can modify, either increasing or decreasing the activity of CYP450 enzymes and with it modify the bioavailability and depuration of drugs. Examples will be described on the interaction of medicinal plants and foods of vegetal origin that when combined with some drugs can generate toxicity or therapeutic failure; this will allow gathering relevant information on the adequate pharmacological management in different clinical situations.
Part of the book: Medicinal Chemistry
An important area to cope with in the implementation of technologies for the generation of energy from renewable sources is storage, so it is a priority to develop new ways of storing energy with high efficiency and storage capacity. Experimental reports focused on ZnO-graphene composite materials applied to the anode design which indicated that they show low efficiencies of around 50 %, but values very close to the theoretical capacity have already been reported in recent years. The low efficiency of the materials for the anode design of the Li-ion battery is mainly attributed to the pulverization and fragmentation of the material or materials, caused by the volumetric changes and stability problems during the charge/discharge cycles. In this chapter, we will discuss the development of composite materials such as ZnO-graphene in its application for the design of the anode in the Li-ion battery.
Part of the book: Zinc Oxide Based Nano Materials and Devices