**Meet the editor**

Alessio Innocenti was born in 1974. He graduated in Chemistry, with a specialization in Pharmacology, from University of Florence, Italy, in 2002. He received a PhD in Chemical Sciences from the University of Florence in 2006 and, since then, has been working as a postdoctoral Research Associate at the Department of Chemistry, University of Florence. He is responsible for the experimental assays of the research

group, working on enzymatic kinetics and inhibition studies and focusing in particular on the carbonic anhydrase family. Since 2004 he has been included in four European collaborative projects involving a network of several universities and research institutes all over the European Union. His passion and enthusiasm for research has led to the publication of 133 scientific papers in peer-reviewed international journals so far. Since 2003 he has been a General Chemistry Instructor at the Department of Pharmacy at the University of Florence, trying to transmit his love for Chemistry to his students.

Contents

**Preface IX** 

and Taisun Kim

Ahmed A. El-Sherif

Chapter 5 **Heavy Metal Ion** 

**Part 1 The Importance of Stoichiometry in Host-Guest Chemistry 1** 

**Evaluation of the Host-Guest Recognition Mechanism 27** 

Chapter 1 **Stoichiometric Ratio in Calixarene Complexes 3**  Flor de María Ramírez and Irma García-Sosa

**Binding Stoichiometry and Spectroscopic** 

Chapter 3 **The Determination of the Stoichiometry of Cyclodextrin Inclusion Complexes by Spectral Methods:** 

Cristina Tablet, Iulia Matei and Mihaela Hillebrand

**Complexes with Relevant Biomolecules 79** 

Tjoon Tow Teng, Yusri Yusup and Ling Wei Low

**Part 3 Stoichiometry in Lipids and Polymers Architecture 133** 

Chapter 6 **Lipid Composition in Miscible and Immiscible Phases 135** 

**An Application of the Equilibrium Slope Method 121** 

Satish Balasaheb Nimse, Keum-Soo Song

**Possibilities and Limitations 47** 

**Part 2 Stoichiometry of Metal Complexes 77** 

Chapter 4 **Coordination Chemistry of Palladium(II) Ternary** 

**Extraction Using Organic Solvents:** 

Walter F. Schmidt, Michael A. Crawford, Swati Mookherji and Alva D. Mitchell

Chapter 2 **Water-Soluble Calix[4]arene Derivatives:** 

## Contents

### **Preface XIII**


### **Part 2 Stoichiometry of Metal Complexes 77**

	- **Part 3 Stoichiometry in Lipids and Polymers Architecture 133**

Contents VII

**Part 6 Biomedicine and Environment: The Future is Now? 335** 

**The Elements at the Heart of Biological Interactions 357** 

**on the Giant Extracellular Hemoglobin of** *Glossoscolex paulistus* **and Some Other Giant Hemoglobins from Different Worms 337** Marcel Tabak, Francisco A.O. Carvalho, José W.P. Carvalho,

Jose F.R. Bachega and Patrícia S. Santiago

Chapter 15 **Recent New Characterizations**

Chapter 16 **Biological Stoichiometry:** 

Mehdi Cherif

Kimberly R. Kubas and Kelly A. Casoni

### **Part 6 Biomedicine and Environment: The Future is Now? 335**

Chapter 15 **Recent New Characterizations on the Giant Extracellular Hemoglobin of** *Glossoscolex paulistus* **and Some Other Giant Hemoglobins from Different Worms 337**  Marcel Tabak, Francisco A.O. Carvalho, José W.P. Carvalho, Jose F.R. Bachega and Patrícia S. Santiago

VI Contents

Chapter 7 **Stoichiometry of Polymer Complexes 147** 

Chapter 8 **Dermatological Application of PAMAM –** 

**Vitamin C Case Study 195** 

**Part 4 The Role of Stoichiometry** 

Chapter 10 **Determination of the Binding** 

Cheng-Yang Huang

Fumio Arisaka

Chapter 13 **Distribution Diagrams** 

**Part 5 Experimental Techniques** 

Chapter 11 **Stoichiometry of Protein Interactions** 

Chapter 12 **Methodology for Bioprocess Analysis:**

Chapter 14 **Limiting Reactants in Chemical Analysis: Influences of Metals and Ligands on Calibration Curves and Formation** 

> Mark T. Stauffer, William E. Weller, Kimberly R. Kubas and Kelly A. Casoni

Farges Bérangère, Poughon Laurent, Pons Agnès and Dussap Claude-Gilles

**and Graphical Methods to Determine or to Use the Stoichiometric Coefficients of Acid-Base and Complexation Reactions 287** Alberto Rojas-Hernández, Norma Rodríguez-Laguna, María Teresa Ramírez-Silva and Rosario Moya-Hernández

Stanisław Wołowiec, Marek Laskowski, Barbara Laskowska, Agnieszka Magoń, Bogdan Mysliwiec and Marek Pyda

**Regulation by the Numbers 213**

A.Z. El-Sonbati, M.A. Diab and A.A. El-Bindary

**Vitamin Bioconjugates and Host-Guest Complexes –** 

**in the Determination of Protein Interactions 211** 

**by Use of the Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay 235** 

Chapter 9 **Stoichiometry of Signalling Complexes in Immune Cells:** 

Elad Noy, Barak Reicher and Mira Barda-Saad

**Site-Size of the Protein-DNA Complex** 

**in Bacteriophage Tail Assembly 243**

**for the Evaluation of Stoichiometry 259**

**Mass Balances, Yields and Stoichiometries 261**

**Constants for Selected Iron-Ligand Chelates 311** 

Chapter 16 **Biological Stoichiometry: The Elements at the Heart of Biological Interactions 357**  Mehdi Cherif

Preface

picture.

are chemicals.

biology.

Science seeks to understand and explain our world, be that its physical composition (geology), chemical composition (chemistry), the way its composite matter interacts (physics), or the organisms that inhabit it (biology). We can only get an idea of what life is all about by piecing together information from each discipline to give us the big

We don't have to look very far to realize that it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate biology from chemistry. After all, our body is a bag of chemicals. The proteins that form our hair, nails and muscle fibers are chemicals; the minerals that are the basis of our own bones and teeth are chemicals; even the food and drinks we consume

Chemistry explores life at the level of atoms and molecules. It is really all about understanding how atoms interact to form larger, more complicated substances. Biology then looks at their behavior when they are combined on a larger scale (cells, tissues, organisms, populations). Chemistry is encapsulated by a handful of essential concepts that are epitomized by the world around us. Just grasping these concepts is sufficient to get to grips with many of the key chemical principles that underpin

Life is the result of thousands of different biochemical reactions occurring in every cell of our body. At first glance many of these reactions seem very complicated. Beneath the façade of complexity, however, lie simple principles and tools that give support to all chemical reactions. Some of them undergo the general concept of stoichiometry.

The word stoichiometry may sound mysterious, but it is simply based on Greek words meaning 'element measure'. It is a branch of chemistry that deals with the relative quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions. At first blush one could think of stoichiometry as something confined to a general chemistry course or a student laboratory, but a deeper consideration of the term itself reveals a surprisingly wide range of applications. We are surrounded every day by tens of thousands of different chemical compounds with contrasting characteristics. Sometimes, the presence of a compound is essential for our existence, like O2 in the air or glucose in the food. By contrast, the presence of a compound may be detrimental, like pollutants

## Preface

Science seeks to understand and explain our world, be that its physical composition (geology), chemical composition (chemistry), the way its composite matter interacts (physics), or the organisms that inhabit it (biology). We can only get an idea of what life is all about by piecing together information from each discipline to give us the big picture.

We don't have to look very far to realize that it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate biology from chemistry. After all, our body is a bag of chemicals. The proteins that form our hair, nails and muscle fibers are chemicals; the minerals that are the basis of our own bones and teeth are chemicals; even the food and drinks we consume are chemicals.

Chemistry explores life at the level of atoms and molecules. It is really all about understanding how atoms interact to form larger, more complicated substances. Biology then looks at their behavior when they are combined on a larger scale (cells, tissues, organisms, populations). Chemistry is encapsulated by a handful of essential concepts that are epitomized by the world around us. Just grasping these concepts is sufficient to get to grips with many of the key chemical principles that underpin biology.

Life is the result of thousands of different biochemical reactions occurring in every cell of our body. At first glance many of these reactions seem very complicated. Beneath the façade of complexity, however, lie simple principles and tools that give support to all chemical reactions. Some of them undergo the general concept of stoichiometry.

The word stoichiometry may sound mysterious, but it is simply based on Greek words meaning 'element measure'. It is a branch of chemistry that deals with the relative quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions. At first blush one could think of stoichiometry as something confined to a general chemistry course or a student laboratory, but a deeper consideration of the term itself reveals a surprisingly wide range of applications. We are surrounded every day by tens of thousands of different chemical compounds with contrasting characteristics. Sometimes, the presence of a compound is essential for our existence, like O2 in the air or glucose in the food. By contrast, the presence of a compound may be detrimental, like pollutants

### XIV Preface

in the water of alcohol in our blood stream. This is the reason why we need ways of determining what is in our chemical environment, of knowing what is there and, more importantly, how much. Evaluating the amount of a compound we have in a system is often vital: too much of a compound may be toxic to the point of being lethal, too little may be equally harmful.

The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the importance of stoichiometry in the biomedical field. It contains a collection of selected research articles and reviews all providing adequate and up-to-date information related to stoichiometry from different point of views. The first section deals with host-guest chemistry, focusing on selected calixarenes, cyclodextrins and crown ethers derivatives. In the second and third sections the book presents some issues concerning stoichiometry of metal complexes and lipids and polymers architecture. The fourth section aims to to clarify the role of stoichiometry in the determination of protein interactions, while in the fifth section some selected experimental techniques applied to specific systems are introduced. The last section of the book is an attempt at showing some interesting connections between biomedicine and the environment, introducing the concept of biological stoichiometry and presenting some data that prove how the two disciplines entwine. On this basis, the present volume would definitely be an ideal source of scientific information to advanced students, junior researchers, faculties and scientists involved in biomedicine, biochemistry and other areas involving stoichiometry evaluation.

A special word of appreciation is due to Mr Bojan Rafaj, the Publishing Process Manager who oversaw and coordinated the publishing of all materials and assisted me and the authors in completing our work easily and in a timely manner. My profound thanks also to the technical editor who prepared these manuscripts for publication by InTech - Open Access Publisher.

> **Dr. Alessio Innocenti**  Department of Chemistry, University of Florence, Italy
