In this current time, industries are prevalent in many countries, and as a result have contributed to the boom in factories around the globe. However, there are also multitudes of issues that arise from the establishment of these many factories, some serious concerns pertain to the toxicity that often comes from smoke, wastes, side products, and water contamination (i.e., due to the presence of heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, and nickel). A substantial amount of research is performed to effectively remove these heavy metals released in the environment. But there is still a need for an environmentally friendly, biodegradable ligand for their removal; one solution is to use a bio-renewable, biodegradable, and environmentally friendly materials that can bind and extract the metals from various media. Some other concerns are focused on drawbacks that have arisen from pharmaceutical industry such as low water solubility and dissolution rates of many drugs. One way to address this issue is by using the prodrug strategy.<br/>Rosin, an FDA approved material used as a coating and binding agent for pharmaceutical tablets, can be used to address both of the above issues; its main component is a carboxylic acid (abietic acid) which can form esters with hydroxy- functionalized compounds (e.g., imidazole-2-thiones or hydroxy containing pharmaceuticals). The resulting esters can be used either to form metallic complexes with heavy metals (i.e., imidazole-2-thione materials) or to deliver the desired drug into an aqueous environment (i.e., through a prodrug strategy). In addition, the hydrolysis of the rosin esters will allow for its recovery. Here we present our efforts towards developing such functionalized rosin esters as bio-renewable, biodegradable ligands for removal of heavy metals from the environment, and as potential drug delivery systems.

Towards rosin materials for environmental and pharmaceutical applications

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.