The booming demand for energy across the world, especially for petroleum-based fuels, has led to the search for a long-term solution as a perfect source of sustainable energy. Lignocellulosic biomass resolves this obstacle as it is a readily available, inexpensive, and renewable fuel source that fulfills the criteria of sustainability. Valorization of lignocellulosic biomass and its components into value-added products maximizes the energy output and promotes the approach of lignocellulosic biorefinery. However, disruption of the recalcitrant structure of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) via pretreatment technologies is costly and power-/heat-consuming. Therefore, devising an effective pretreatment method is a challenge. Likewise, the thermochemical and biological lignocellulosic conversion poses problems of efficiency, operational costs, and energy consumption. The advent of integrated technologies would probably resolve this problem. However, it is yet to be explored how to make it applicable at a commercial scale. This article will concisely review basic concepts of lignocellulosic composition and the routes opted by them to produce bioenergy. Moreover, it will also discuss the pros and cons of the pretreatment and conversion methods of lignocellulosic biomass. This critical analysis will bring to light the solutions for efficient and cost-effective conversion of lignocellulosic biomass that would pave the way for the development of sustainable energy systems.

Bromelain is a concoction of sulfhydryl proteolytic enzymes. Depending upon the site of extraction it can be regarded as either stem bromelain (SBM) (EC 3.4.22.32) or fruit bromelain (FBM) (EC 3.4.22.33

No abstract

BackgroundProbiotic bacteria are becoming an important tool for improving human health, controlling diseases and enhancing immune responses. The availability of a cost effective cultivation conditions has profound effect on the efficiency and role of probiotic bacteria. Therefore the current study was conducted with an objective to develop a low cost growth medium for enhancing the biomass production of a bio-therapeutic bacterial strain Lactobacillus plantarum AS-14. In this work the isolation of Lactobacillus plantarum AS-14 bacterial strain was carried out from brinjal using cheese whey as a main carbon source. Moreover, the effect of four other nutritional factors besides cheese whey was investigated on the enhanced cell mass production by using response surface methodology (RSM).ResultsThe best culture medium contained 60 g/l cheese whey, 15 g/l glucose and 15 g/l corn steep liquor in addition to other minor ingredients and it resulted in maximum dry cell mass (15.41 g/l). The second-order polynomial regression model determined that the maximum cell mass production (16.02 g/l) would be obtained at temperature 40°C and pH 6.2. Comparative studies showed that cultivation using cheese whey and corn steep liquor with other components of the selected medium generated higher biomass with lower cost than that of De Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) medium under similar cultivation conditions (pH 6.2 and temperature 40°C).ConclusionIt is evident that the cell biomass of L. Plantarum AS-14 was enhanced by low cost cultivation conditions. Moreover, corn steep liquor and ammonium bisulphate were perceived as low-cost nitrogen sources in combination with other components to substitute yeast extract. Of all these factors, cheese whey, corn steep liquor, yeast extract and two operating conditions (temperature and pH) were found to be the most significant parameters. Thus the cost effective medium developed in this research might be used for large-scale commercial application where economics is quite likely important.

Podophyllotoxin, along with its various derivatives and congeners are widely recognized as broad-spectrum pharmacologically active compounds. Etoposide, for instance, is the frontline chemotherapeutic drug used against various cancers due to its superior anticancer activity. It has recently been redeveloped for the purpose of treating cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients. Podophyllotoxin and its naturally occurring congeners have low bioavailability and almost all these initially discovered compounds cause systemic toxicity and development of drug resistance. Moreover, the production of synthetic derivatives that could suffice for the clinical limitations of these naturally occurring compounds is not economically feasible. These challenges demanded continuous devotions towards improving the druggability of these drugs and continue to seek structure-optimization strategies. The discovery of renewable sources including microbial origin for podophyllotoxin is another possible approach. This review focuses on the exigency of innovation and research required in the global R&D and pharmaceutical industry for podophyllotoxin and related compounds based on recent scientific findings and market predictions.

Abstract:The current study describes the emphatic use of response surface methodology for the optimized biodiesel production using chemical and enzymatic transesterification of rice bran and sunflower oils. Optimal biodiesel yields were determined to be 65.3 ± 2.0%, 73.4 ± 3.5%, 96.5 ± 1.6%, 89.3 ± 2.0% and 41.7 ± 3.9% for rice bran oil and 65.6 ± 1.2%, 82.1 ± 1.7%, 92.5 ± 2.8%, 72.6 ± 1.6% and 50.4 ± 2.5% for sunflower oil via the transesterification catalyzed by NaOH, KOH and NaOCH 3 ,NOVOZYME-435 and A.n. Lipase, respectively. Based upon analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Response Surface plots significant impact of reaction parameters under study was ascertained. FTIR spectroscopic and HPLC methods were employed for monitoring the transesterification reaction progress while GC-MS analysis was performed to evaluate the compositional analysis of biodiesel. The fuel properties of both the rice bran and sunflower oil based biodiesel were shown to be technically compatible with the ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2012, 5 3308 standards. The monitoring of exhaust emission of synthesized biodiesels and their blends revealed a marked reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) and particulate matter (PM) levels, whereas an irregular trend was observed for NO x emissions.

No abstract

Synthesis of surface modified/multi-functional nanoparticles has become a vital research area of material science. In the present work, iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles prepared by solvo-thermal method were functionalized by polydopamine. The catechol groups of polydopamine at the surface of nanoparticles provided the sites for the attachment of Aspergillus terreus AH-F2 lipase through adsorption, Schiff base and Michael addition mechanisms. The strategy was revealed to be facile and efficacious, as lipase immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles grant the edge of ease in recovery with utilizing external magnet and reusability of lipase. Maximum activity of free lipase was estimated to be 18.32 U/mg/min while activity of Fe3O4-PDA-Lipase was 17.82 U/mg/min (showing 97.27% residual activity). The lipase immobilized on polydopamine coated iron oxide (Fe3O4_PDA_Lipase) revealed better adoptability towards higher levels of temperature/pH comparative to free lipase. The synthesized (Fe3O4_PDA_Lipase) catalyst was employed for the preparation of biodiesel from waste cooking oil by enzymatic transesterification. Five factors response surface methodology was adopted for optimizing reaction conditions. The highest yield of biodiesel (92%) was achieved at 10% Fe3O4_PDA_Lipase percentage concentration, 6:1 CH3OH to oil ratio, 37 °C temperature, 0.6% water content and 30 h of reaction time. The Fe3O4-PDA-Lipase activity was not very affected after first four cycles and retained 25.79% of its initial activity after seven cycles. The nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR (Fourier transfer infrared) Spectroscopy, XRD (X-ray diffraction) and TEM (transmission electron microscopy), grafting of polydopamine on nanoparticles was confirmed by FTIR and formation of biodiesel was evaluated by FTIR and GC-MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) analysis.