31 March 2014

Ellen Ou has presented her final seminar in the School to share the findings of her research during her PhD. The tradition is to celebrate the occasion with a piece of cake.

We heard about the identification of the main antioxidant compounds Ellen identified in extracts from leaves of Sonchus oleraceus using a neat online HPLC assay that allows simultaneous separation of compounds with an assessment of the antioxidant activity of each peak. Ellen also shared the results of an investigation into the stability of the 3 main antioxidants under different storage conditions. The highlight of the talk was when Ellen presented her most recent data where the S. oleraceus leaf extracts were shown to reduced cell stress, being both protective and also helping cells to recover from induced stress.

Well done on a great seminar Ellen.