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Biomass valorisation is conventionally associated with the production of green biofuels. However, this could extend beyond the conventional perception of biomass application into other domains such as medical sciences. Acid condensate (AC) obtained from pyrolysis promises a good potential for biomedical applications, notably for its antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. In this study, concentrated AC extract (CACE) obtained from microwave-assisted pyrolysis of palm kernel shells was fractionated, and the resulting fractions were pooled according to similar thin layer chromatography profiles into combined fractions (CFACs). CFACs were evaluated for total phenolic content, antioxidant level, cytotoxicity, and wound healing activities toward human skin fibroblast cells (HSF 1184). CFAC-3 showed the highest total phenolic content (624.98 ± 8.70 µg GAE/mg of sample) and antioxidant activities (DPPH IC50 of 29.47 ± 0.74 µg/mL, ABTS of 1247.13 ± 27.89 μg TE/mg sample, FRAP of 24.26 ± 0.71 mmol Fe(II)/mg sample, HFRS of 257.74 ± 1.74 µg/mL) compared to CACE (DPPH IC50 of 81.76 ± 2.81 µg/mL, ABTS of 816.95 ± 30.49 μg TE/mg sample, FRAP of 9.22 ± 0.66 mmol Fe(II)/mg sample, HFRS of 689.30 ± 36.00 µg/mL), no cytotoxic properties at ≤50 µg/mL, and significantly faster wound closure (at 1.25 µg/mL) compared to the control 12 h after treatment. The phosphorylation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) and protein kinase B (AKT) were upregulated, thus indicating that wound healing of CFAC-3 followed through this signalling pathway. To conclude, phenolic-rich CFAC-3 obtained from the pyrolysis of palm kernel shells demonstrated potential biomedical application as an alternative wound healing agent with high antioxidant and wound-healing activity. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first study to report on the wound healing activity of AC and its wound healing mechanism.

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Interest and demand for bacterial pigments is growing due to rising awareness of toxicity of synthetic dyes. This study evaluated on the production of flexirubin-type pigment from Chryseobacterium artocarpi CECT 8497 using liquid pineapple waste in 5-L bioreactor and its application as environmental-friendly ink. Liquid pineapple waste supported bacterial growth and pigment production for C. artocarpi CECT 8497. The ink was successfully formulated with polyvinyl butyral and polyvinyl pyrrolidone giving a smooth texture. The functional groups of formulated ink identified using FTIR were OH, C-C and C-H. Flexirubin ink was stable during the entire storage period of 30 days at temperatures, ranging from 25 to 70°C, pH 1.0 to 11.0 and in the presence and absence of light. This is the first report on ink formulation of flexirubin-type pigment from C. artocarpi CECT 8497 and its potential application on plastic materials.

More than half of the reported new discovered/invented drugs are ones with poor solubility, absorption or both. These are the crucial issues that can affect the bioavailability of the drugs. Therefore, improving solubility of poor-soluble drugs is absolutely important. One of the methods to solubilize them in biological fluids is using surfactants. Surfactants are an amphiphilic organic compound containing hydrophilic and lipophilic parts that allow it to reduce the surface tension between two opposite polar phases.  Several popular methods used to determine critical micelle concentration which includes surface tension, conductivity and UV-vis spectroscopy. These surfactants plays number of roles in antibacterial compound synthesis include size reduction agent, stabilizer, solubilizer and drug-carrier. This review will also critically discuss on the roles of surfactants in antibacterial compound synthesis/production and its effect on the antibacterial activity of the drugs.