Editor's letter

The second issue of volume 45 of 2016 of Revista Colombiana de Química has the participation of different national and international authors. The contributions come from authors from Lima (Peru), La Habana (Cuba) and from Riohacha, Bogota, Pasto, and Medellin (Colombia). Here are the contents of the issue, published according to their subject.

The section of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry has one article in which four proteolytic enzymes, present in cell wall of carnation roots (Dianthus caryophyllus L.), were analyzed. These enzymes were extracted through two methods; efficiency of extraction was compared by evaluating enzyme activity. The study proposes a methodology to extract these four enzymes simultaneously.

The section of Section of Applied and Analytical Chemistry has five articles. In the first of them an electronic nose based only on four SnO₂ gas sensors, which can detect and classify alcohols efficiently, incorporating statistical principal component analysis (PCA), was developed. In the second article the chemical composition of particulate matter PM₁₀, found in La Guajira-Colombia, was studied; it was found that the main causes of PM10 presence are the marine aerosol, agricultural, livestock and mining activity. In third article the efficiency of plant material processed water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), used as support for nanometric MnO₂ catalysts for carmine dye degradation, was analyzed; these nanoparticles showed a 97.6% efficiency removing indigo carmine in 5 min. In the fourth article, oil seed blackberry (Rubus glaucus) was extracted and microencapsulated by spray drying to prevent early degradation and extend its useful life.

Finally, the last article identifies the main compounds in three kinds of commercial rums from Colombia, through solid phase microextraction headspace (HS-SPME), coupled to gas chromatography detectors mass spectrometry and olfactometry mode ( GC-MS-O); esters, aromatics, alcohols, acetals, were found among other compounds, which provide odorant features.