India is amongst the largest banana (Musa acuminata) producing countries and thus banana pseudo stem is commonly available agricultural waste to be used as lignocellulosic substrate. Present study focuses on exploitation of banana pseudo stem as a source for bioethanol production from the sugars released due to different chemical and biological pretreatments. Two fungal strains Aspergillus ellipticus and Aspergillus fumigatus reported to be producing cellulolytic enzymes on sugarcane bagasse were used under co-culture fermentation on banana pseudo stem to degrade holocellulose and facilitate maximum release of reducing sugars. The hydrolysate obtained after alkali and microbial treatments was fermented by Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCIM 3570 to produce ethanol. Fermentation of cellulosic hydrolysate (4.1 g%) gave maximum ethanol (17.1 g/L) with yield (84%) and productivity (0.024 g%/h) after 72 h. Some critical aspects of fungal pretreatment for saccharification of cellulosic substrate using A. ellipticus and A. fumigatus for ethanol production by S. cerevisiae NCIM 3570 have been explored in this study. It was observed that pretreated banana pseudo stem can be economically utilized as a cheaper substrate for ethanol production.

Lignocelluloses from agricultural, industrial, and forest residues constitute a majority of the total biomass present in the world. Environmental concerns of disposal, costly pretreatment options prior to disposal, and increased need to save valuable resources have led to the development of value-added alternate technologies such as bioethanol production from lignocellulosic wastes. In the present study, biologically pretreated (with the fungus, Pleurotus ostreatus HP-1) and chemically pretreated (with mild acid or dilute alkali) wheat straw (WS) and banana stem (BS) were subsequently subjected to enzymatic saccharification (with mixture of 6.0 U/g of filter paper cellulase and 17 U/g of β-glucosidase) and were evaluated for bioethanol production using Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCIM 3570. Biological and chemical pretreatments removed up to 4.0–49.2 % lignin from the WS and BS which was comparatively higher than that for cellulose (0.3–12.4 %) and for hemicellulose (0.7–21.8 %) removal with an average 5.6–49.5 % dry matter loss. Enzymatic hydrolysis yielded 64–306.6 mg/g (1.5–15 g/L) reducing sugars from which 0.15–0.54 g/g ethanol was produced from Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCIM 3570.

Three simple, economical, precise, and accurate methods are described for the simultaneous determination of Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TE) and Emtricitabine (EM) in combined tablet dosage form. The first method is ratio derivative spectra, second is first-order derivative spectrophotometry and third is absorption corrected method. The amplitudes at 271.07 and 302.17 nm in the ratio derivative method, 224.38 and 306.88 nm in the first order derivative method were selected to determine Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TE) and Emtricitabine (EM), respectively, in combined formulation. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range of 3-21 μg/ml for TE and 2-14 μg/ml for EM for first two methods and range for third method was 6-30 μg/ml of TE and 4-20 μg/ml of EM. The percent assay for commercial formulation was found to be in the range 98.91%–101.72% for both the analytes by the proposed three methods. Absorption corrected method was successfully applied to carry out dissolution study of commercial tablet formulation by using USP II dissolution test apparatus. The methods were validated with respect to linearity, precision, and accuracy. Recoveries by proposed methods were found in the range of 99.06 %-101.34 % for both the analytes.

Background Commercialization of biosurfactant production is a big challenge due to high production cost. Biosurfactant production can be made economic by using low cost agro-industrial wastes or byproducts as media supplement. It also solves the problem of environmental pollution through waste management. In the present study attempt was made to produce biosurfactant from Sphingobacterium thalpophilum DP9 using various agro-industrial wastes or byproducts at optimum fermentation conditions evaluated by traditional and statistical methods. Partial characterization of biosurfactant was also carried out through qualitative chromatographic techniques; quantitative spectroscopic method and functional group identification by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Results One factor at a time optimization experimentation showed highest emulsification in media supplemented with potato peel powder (43.12 ± 3.41%), urea (46.00 ± 3.09%), pH 7 (41.74 ± 1.15%) at 40% aeration (47.41 ± 1.62%). 1% Inoculum (O.D.600=1.00) size favored highest emulsification (26.39 ± 1.60%). Plackett-Burman design experimentation showed carbon source (potato peel powder), nitrogen source (urea) and temperature significantly affect on biosurfactant production. Response surface experimentation by central composite design showed interaction between nitrogen source and temperature significantly influenced on biosurfactant production. Validation of model was showed increase in emulsification from 43.62 ± 2.55% to 86.11 ± 3.47% on fourth day of incubation. Partial characterization showed biosurfactant contains 439.58 ± 0.0129 µg/ml carbohydrate and 507.41 ± 0.0064 µg/ml of protein. Lipid was absent in it. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy chromatogram showed peaks at 1652.17 cm− 1, 1541.01 cm− 1, 1463.71 cm− 1 and 722.32 cm− 1 which indicated presence of peptide bond, peptide moiety, carbohydrate protons and primary as well as secondary amines. Conclusion Potato peel powder, urea and temperature have significant influence on biosurfactant production from Sphingobacterium thalpophilum DP9. When potato peel powder and urea supplied at optimum level, biosurfactant production was increased by two fold. Biosurfactant produced by S. thalpophilum DP9 was belongs to glycoprotein class and as per our best knowledge, this is the first report on glycoprotein biosurfactant produced from Sphingobacterium genus.

Enzymes in aqueous environment usually deal with purified enzyme preparations isolated from living matter which does not mimic real catalytic properties in vivo. Interaction of enzymes in nature takes place with different surfaces composed from lipid membranes or they get incorporated into biomembranes. Although Water is not a dominating component in the cytoplasm but plays a structural role by participating in the formation of biocatalytic complexes like glycoproteins. Water is needed to keep biocatalyst in active confirmation and hence plays very crucial role in biocatalytic reactions, activity and stability so that it can be used for various applications. This review focuses on composition, preparation properties and parameters which influence enzymes in reverse micelles and application of micellar enzymology to study protein chemistry, shifting equilibrium of various reactions, to recover various products by partition chromatography and bioremediation of chlorophenolic environmental pollutants.

Background and Objectives: Hemodynamics in neonatal sepsis is complex and poorly understood. Several studies have reported conflicting findings on cerebral blood flow (CBF) in sepsis from severely increased flow to severely decreased flow. The objective of our study was to study CBF by measuring the resistive index (RI) of the anterior cerebral artery in late-onset neonatal sepsis (LONS). Methods: All newborn infants admitted in our neonatal intensive care unit with suspected LONS during the period from January 2017 to December 2017 underwent point-of-care transcranial Doppler ultrasonography to measure the RI of the anterior cerebral artery within 24 h of clinical presentation before starting inotropes if at all required. Infants with congenital heart disease, perinatal asphyxia, major congenital malformations, and genetic syndromes were excluded. Neonates with positive culture were included in the final analysis. Results: Of 89 suspected LONS, 33 were culture positive and were analyzed. The mean admission weight was 2.33 ± 0.76 kg. The mean gestational age was 33.5 ± 3.4 wk. Most common organism isolated was Klebsiella pneumoniae (82%). The RI was high in 54.5% (17 of 33) and normal in 45.5% (15 of 33) cases. Conclusions: LONS is a unique and complex hemodynamic state and we found it associated with the high RI indicating decreased CBF. A larger study may help in more understanding of this unique hemodynamic association.

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