Production and Characterization of High Value Prebiotics From Biorefinery-Relevant Feedstocks

Abstract

Hemicellulose, a structural polysaccharide and often underutilized co-product stream of biorefineries, could be used to produce prebiotic ingredients with novel functionalities. Since hot water pre-extraction is a cost-effective strategy for integrated biorefineries to partially fractionate hemicellulose and improve feedstock quality and performance for downstream operations, the approach was applied to process switchgrass (SG), hybrid poplar (HP), and southern pine (SP) biomass at 160°C for 60 min. As a result, different hemicellulose-rich fractions were generated and the chemical characterization studies showed that they were composed of 76–91% of glucan, xylan, galactan, arabinan, and mannan oligosaccharides. The hot water extracts also contained minor concentrations of monomeric sugars (≤18%), phenolic components (≤1%), and other degradation products (≤3%), but were tested for probiotic activity without any purification. When subjected to batch fermentations by individual cultures of Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Bacteroides fragilis, the hemicellulosic hydrolysates elicited varied responses. SG hydrolysates induced the highest cell count in L. casei at 8.6 log10 cells/ml, whereas the highest cell counts for B. fragilis and B. bifidum were obtained with southern pine (5.8 log10 cells/ml) and HP hydrolysates (6.4 log10 cells/ml), respectively. The observed differences were attributed to the preferential consumption of mannooligosaccharides in SP hydrolysates by B. fragilis. Lactobacillus casei preferentially consumed xylooligosaccharides in the switchgrass and southern pine hydrolysates, whereas B. bifidum consumed galactose in the hybrid poplar hydrolysates. Thus, this study (1) reveals the potential to produce prebiotic ingredients from biorefinery-relevant lignocellulosic biomass, and (2) demonstrates how the chemical composition of hemicellulose-derived sources could regulate the viability and selective proliferation of probiotic microorganisms.

Ionic-liquid-Assisted Fabrication of Lignocellulosic Thin Films with Tunable Hydrophobicity

“…Because these films are entirely made of lignocellulosic biomass, they are 100% renewable and could be recycled using the ionic liquid. Our proposed process encompasses sustainable technologies such as hot water pretreatment, which does not require any chemical input and produces a hemicellulose-rich co-product with direct utility as a prebiotic ingredient, among others . The anti-solvents (methanol, water) used during solution casting are non-hazardous and could be recovered via distillation and reused.…”

“…where the liquid hot water hydrolysates are considered as coproducts; 32 the lower the value of this factor, the higher will be the sustainability of operations. Characterization of Wood Powder, Casting Solution, and Thin Films.…”

“…The sustainability of our film fabrication process was estimated using the feedstock intensity factor, defined as follows where the liquid hot water hydrolysates are considered as co-products; the lower the value of this factor, the higher will be the sustainability of operations.…”

Influence of dietary n-3 long-chain fatty acids on microbial diversity and composition of sows’ feces, colostrum, milk, and suckling piglets’ feces

“…Ruminococcaceae has been reported to play a role in the degradation of complex carbohydrates ( Crost et al, 2018 ) and the production of butyrate, and it is associated with anti-inflammatory effects ( Liu et al, 2019 ). Particularly, Ruminococcus OTU was identified as R. flavefaciens , which plays an important role in the digestion of hemicellulose and cellulose plant cell walls ( Fontes and Gilbert, 2010 ), and their degradation-derived products may act as prebiotics to gut microbiota ( Rajan et al, 2021 ).…”

Switchgrass extractives to mitigate Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium contamination of romaine lettuce at pre‐ and postharvest

“…Since it does not compete with food production, mitigates greenhouse gas emission, and the harvested biomass can be utilized for biofuels (bioethanol, biobutanol), bioproducts (biocomposites, prebiotics), and platform chemical (furfural, toluene, etc.) production, switchgrass cultivation has immense potential to sustainably advance the bio‐economy (Bruce, 2016; Rajan et al., 2021; Tao et al., 2019).…”