Potato Juice, a Starch Industry Waste, as a Cost-Effective Medium for the Biosynthesis of Bacterial Cellulose

Abstract

In this work, we verified the possibility of valorizing a major waste product of the potato starch industry, potato tuber juice (PJ). We obtained a cost-effective, ecological-friendly microbiological medium that yielded bacterial cellulose (BC) with properties equivalent to those from conventional commercial Hestrin–Schramm medium. The BC yield from the PJ medium (>4 g/L) was comparable, despite the lack of any pre-treatment. Likewise, the macro- and microstructure, physicochemical parameters, and chemical composition showed no significant differences between PJ and control BC. Importantly, the BC obtained from PJ was not cytotoxic against fibroblast cell line L929 in vitro and did not contain any hard-to-remove impurities. The PJ-BC soaked with antiseptic exerted a similar antimicrobial effect against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa as to BC obtained in the conventional medium and supplemented with antiseptic. These are very important aspects from an application standpoint, particularly in biomedicine. Therefore, we conclude that using PJ for BC biosynthesis is a path toward significant valorization of an environmentally problematic waste product of the starch industry, but also toward a significant drop in BC production costs, enabling wider application of this biopolymer in biomedicine.

Preparation of Komagataeibacter xylinus Inoculum for Bacterial Cellulose Biosynthesis Using Magnetically Assisted External-Loop Airlift Bioreactor

“…The %SR was on average 311%; such a value stays in the range reported by other research teams [51][52][53]. In addition, the value of WHC (4.38%), measured in the present study did not differ significantly from the results presented by the other authors [52][53][54] and in our previous analyses [27,55]. Likewise, regardless of the fermentation cycles, we observed no significant differences in tensile mechanical properties, nano-fibrillar structure and TCI (Table 3).…”

Bacterial Nanocellulose Fortified with Antimicrobial and Anti-Inflammatory Natural Products from Chelidonium majus Plant Cell Cultures

“…The interest in its application in food, pharmaceutical, medicinal and biotechnological industry is constantly growing [ 31 ]. It is predicted to increase even more, because one of the main disadvantage of BNC biosynthesis, related with need of expensive culturing medium, was recently overcome by replacing it with various organic, industrial leftovers (such as potato juice) what allowed to produce BNC of properties comparable to these of BNC produced with use of dedicated medium [ 32 ]. With regard to material properties, BNC displays a wide spectrum of desirable features, such as high water-related properties and mechanical strength [ 32 ].…”

“…It is predicted to increase even more, because one of the main disadvantage of BNC biosynthesis, related with need of expensive culturing medium, was recently overcome by replacing it with various organic, industrial leftovers (such as potato juice) what allowed to produce BNC of properties comparable to these of BNC produced with use of dedicated medium [ 32 ]. With regard to material properties, BNC displays a wide spectrum of desirable features, such as high water-related properties and mechanical strength [ 32 ]. The production of BNC is, to major extent, environment-friendly; also utilization of BNC does not exert harmful effects on environment, because this organic polymer is fully degraded by soil microorganisms to simple sugars and their derivatives [ 33 ].…”

Reprocessing of side-streams towards obtaining valuable bacterial metabolites

“…However, when there is prolonged irrigation with potato wastewater, the soil becomes clogged and loses water permeability, and this method also leads to water eutrophication (Piwowarek et al 2022 ). Ciecholewska-Juśko et al ( 2021 ) used potato wastewater to cultivate K. xylinus bacteria (28 °C, 7 days). The yield of BC synthesised from potato wastewater (diluted 1:1 with water) was comparable to the production of BC in the HS medium.…”