Lee were responsible for the conception and design of the work. Andee Dzulkarnaen, Zaidi Zakaria, Nazri Mustaffa, and Sharifah Emilia Tuan Sharif were involved in sample acquisition and processing. All authors performed the data analysis and interpretation. Yusof Shuaib Ibrahim, Nazri Mustaffa, and Yeong Yeh Lee wrote the manuscript and all authors approved the final version.

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Nutraceuticals from natural sources have shown potential new leads in functional food products. Despite a broad range of health-promoting effects, these compounds are easily oxidized and unstable, making their utilization as nutraceutical ingredients limited. In this study, the encapsulated stingless bees' propolis in liposome was prepared using soy phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol by thin-film hydration technique. Three different formulations of phosphatidylcholine composition and cholesterol prepared by weight ratio was conducted to extract high propolis encapsulation. Physicochemical changes in the result of the encapsulation process are briefly discussed using scanning electron microscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. A dynamic light-scattering instrument was used to measure the hydrodynamic diameter, polydispersity index, and zeta potential. The increment of the liposomal size was observed when the concentration of extract loaded increased. In comparing three formulations, F2 (8:1 w/w) presented the best formulation as it yielded small nanoparticles of 275.9 nm with high encapsulation efficiency (66.9%). F1 (6:1 w/w) formed large particles of liposomes with 422.8 nm, while F3 (10:1 w/w) showed low encapsulation efficiency with (by) 38.7%. The liposome encapsulation will provide an effective nanocarrier system to protect and deliver the flavonoids extracted from stingless bees' propolis.

Aquaculture plays an important role in providing food and generate high income in many developing countries but the abundance of ammonia discharged from aquaculture wastewater gives the problem to the environment. This study focused on the extraction of hydroxyapatite (HAp) from fish scales and its modification with rice husk to produce bio-adsorbent for ammonia removal from aquaculture wastewater. The comparison has been made for the HAp preparation via microwave irradiation, alkaline heat treatment, and thermal decomposition method. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to analyze the surface chemistry and crystallinity of HAp, respectively. While the morphology of the HAp was observed under a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Hydroxyapatite extracted via thermal decomposition method shows the best performance about 79% of ammonia removal at 210 min contact time which selected for coating agent of rice husk (RH/HAp) and was successfully removed 84% at 60 min saturation time. The result shows thermal decomposition is the best technique to extract HAp from fish scales and its integration with rice husk exhibited a better performance of bio-adsorbent. The findings of this study provide useful fundamental knowledge and platform for the development and improvement of aquaculture wastewater treatment system in the future.

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This study concerns at nitrate ion removal which is one of the most dangerous issues of water contamination in Gaza Strip. The eggshell biowaste was used as a denitrification biosorbent for water and groundwater. The results showed that the highest removal of nitrate was at pH 6.0–7.5, eggshell particle size in the range 90–710 μm, drying temperature at 45 °C, incubation temperature of adsorbent/adsorbate mixture at 37 °C and contact time of 24 hours. At the optimum conditions, the maximum amount of nitrate removed was 8.25 mg/g eggshell. when 1,500 mg/L of NO3− was applied. It was found that the eggshell biosorbent could be recovered and reused for removing the nitrate with removal capacity of 0.79–0.92 mg/g eggshell (79–92%) in the case of washed samples while the removal capacity was 0.79–0.92 mg/g eggshell (89–93%) in the case of unwashed samples when 100 mg/L of NO3− was applied. Results using the eggshell column method showed a nitrate removal efficiency of 90% at a flow rate ≤2 mL/min of the eluents. The biosorbent was applied to remove nitrates in real groundwater samples from different locations in Gaza Strip and the efficiency of nitrate removal was in the range (77.4–93%).

The present study was undertaken to study the effect of calcinate temperature on characteristics of hydroxyapatite synthesized from the fish scale (FHAp). The FHAp calcined at different temperatures starting from 100 up to 300 °C. The structures of FHAP were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The analytical results show that the FHAp quality increased as the calcin temperature increased. The FHAp displayed excellent characteristics in term of particle size, morphology and properties and crystalinity after calcined at 300 °C, FHAp 300. From this study, it founded that 300 °C is the lowest calcin temperature could be applied to synthesize high quality of HAp from fish scale biowaste.

BACKGROUND: Membrane fouling in downstream processing has become a major obstacle in enzyme production. The use of a membrane with high surface hydrophilicity may be an acceptable way to overcome this problem. In this study, the effects of dip time on chitosan incorporation were investigated to produce a low fouling ultrafiltration membrane for trypsin separation.