Citric acid has high economic potential owing to its numerous applications. It is mostly produced by microbial fermentation using Aspergillus niger. In view of surges in demand and growing markets, there is always a need for the discovery and development of better production techniques and solutions to improve production yields and the efficiency of product recovery. To support the enormous scale of production, it is necessary and important for the production process to be environmentally friendly by utilizing readily available and inexpensive agro-industrial waste products, while maintaining high production yields. This article reviews the biochemistry of citric acid formation, choices of citric-acid producing microorganisms and raw materials, fermentation strategies, the effects of various fermentation conditions, citric acid recovery options and the numerous applications of citric acid, based on information drawn from the literature over the past 10 years.

There are increasing applications of diazotrophic rhizobacteria in the sustainable agriculture system. A field experiment on young immature oil palm was conducted to quantify the uptake of N derived from N2 fixation by the diazotroph Bacillus sphaericus strain UPMB-10, using the 15N isotope dilution method. Eight months after 15N application, young immature oil palms that received 67% of standard N fertilizer application together with B. sphaericus inoculation had significantly lower 15N enrichment than uninoculated palms that received similar N fertilizers. The dilution of labeled N served as a marker for the occurrence of biological N2 fixation. The proportion of N uptake that was derived from the atmosphere was estimated as 63% on the whole plant basis. The inoculation process increased the N and dry matter yields of the palm leaflets and rachis significantly. Field planting of young, immature oil palm in soil inoculated with B. sphaericus UPMB-10 might mitigate inorganic fertilizer-N application through supplementation by biological nitrogen fixation. This could be a new and important source of nitrogen biofertilizer in the early phase of oil palm cultivation in the field.

Expired dairy products are often disposed of due to the potential health hazard they pose to living organisms. Lack of methods to recover valuable components from them are also a reason for manufactures to dispose of the expired dairy products. Milk encompasses several different components with their own functional properties that can be applied in production of food and non-food technical products. This study aims to investigate the novel approach of using liquid biphasic flotation (LBF) method for protein extraction from expired milk products and obtaining the optimal operating conditions for protein extraction. The optimized conditions were found at 80% concentration ethanol as top phase, 150 g/L dipotassium hydrogen phosphate along with 10% (w/v) milk as bottom phase, and a flotation time of 7.5 min. The protein recovery yield and separation efficiency after optimization were 94.97% and 86.289%, respectively. The experiment has been scaled up by 40 times to ensure it can be commercialized, and the protein recovery yield and separation efficiency were found to be 78.92% and 85.62%, respectively. This novel approach gives a chance for expired milk products to be changed from waste to raw materials which is beneficial for the environment and the economy. Processes 2019, 7, 875 2 of 18Of the proteins in milk, 80% is Casein and the remaining 20% is Whey protein [3]. Casein is chiefly phosphate-conjugated and mainly consists of calcium phosphate-micelle complex. Whey protein is a collection of a globular proteins with a high level of α-helix structure and the acidic-basic and hydrophobic-hydrophilic amino acids are distributed in a fairly balanced form. Whey proteins have substantial levels of secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structure. They are heat-labile stabilizing their protein structure through intermolecular disulfide linkage [4]. The proteins in milk are considered to be complete as they contain all types of essential amino acids in amounts that match the amino acid requirements. They are used as a standard reference for proteins to compare with other food proteins due to their high quality. Branched-chain amino acids contents such as valine, isoleucine, and leucine in milk are also higher than many other foods [4].Since the conventional technique for extracting bioactive compounds need longer extraction time yet cost-consuming with complex scale-up, the liquid biphasic flotation (LBF) method was proposed [5]. LBF system is an integration of the adsorptive bubbles floatation system, where the biphasic system is supported with air bubbling to transport the biomolecules from one phase to another. The surface-active compound of biomolecules present will be absorbed onto the surface of ascending gas bubble and be brought from the bottom phase to the top organic phase [6]. LBF is formed by combining an immiscible polymer and a salt solution. Addition of salt to water will cause segregation of ions into their preferred water structuring [7]. Aqueous biphasic systems will occur when certain solutes cause an aqu...

The effect of different harvesting time on Napier grass's nutrient composition (Pennisetum purpureum) leaves was investigated. Taiwan Napier grass grown under field conditions were harvested at day-15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 after planting. The leaves samples subjected for analyses on dry matter, moisture, ash, crude fibre, crude fat, crude protein and acid detergent fibre, and the data expressed as a percentage. The present study found that the different harvesting time had changed all nutrients composition, except, crude protein where no variation in crude protein during any harvesting time observed. The present study recommends harvesting time for Taiwan Napier grass between 45 and 60 days after planting was the best. This finding is useful as baseline data that provides information on Taiwan Napier's nutritional composition grown at a particular cropping site. It helps plan and strategy for new planting activity, especially when determining the best time for harvesting.

We were not aware of some errors made in the proofreading phase; therefore, we wish to make the following corrections to the mathematical equations in the text [...]