Integrating life cycle assessment and multi criteria decision making analysis towards sustainable cocoa production system in Indonesia: An environmental, economic, and social impact perspective.

Sustainable Cocoa production practices should be investigated comprehensively to address sustainability requirements and mitigate Cocoa production issues in Indonesia. This study aims to identify the sustainable Cocoa production system considering the environmental, economic, and social impacts. Life cycle framework and multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) were integrated to obtain the study's objectives by comparing Cocoa monocropping system (CM) and Cocoa intercropping systems (IC). The result indicated that in the environmental sustainability aspect, the monocropping system (CM) showed higher performance as indicated by the lower environmental impact in all indicators; for example, CM emitted a lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) that has a lower margin of 34.5-55.9 % compared to the intercropping system (IC-I and IC-II). In the economic aspect, both on the short-term and long-term analysis, the Cocoa intercropping system (IC-II) generated higher value-added and economic feasibility, with a higher profit margin of 150-205 % compared to CM and IC-1. Along with the increase of economic benefits in IC II, this system also significantly provides social benefits, as presented by the higher social index margin of 4.9-23.7 % compared to other systems. Furthermore, by applying decision-making analysis, the result determines the highest index on the Cocoa intercropping system II (IC-II). These findings highlight that applying the intercropping system II is recommended to overcome the cocoa issue at the farmer and decision-maker levels. Additionally, the proposed method that combined LCA-MCDM can be applied to another agricultural commodity to achieve sustainable agriculture production.

Biobutanol production from underutilized substrates using Clostridium: Unlocking untapped potential for sustainable energy development.

The increasing demand for sustainable energy has brought biobutanol as a potential substitute for fossil fuels. The Clostridium genus is deemed essential for biobutanol synthesis due to its capability to utilize various substrates. However, challenges in maintaining fermentation continuity and achieving commercialization persist due to existing barriers, including butanol toxicity to Clostridium, low substrate utilization rates, and high production costs. Proper substrate selection significantly impacts fermentation efficiency, final product quality, and economic feasibility in Clostridium biobutanol production. This review examines underutilized substrates for biobutanol production by Clostridium, which offer opportunities for environmental sustainability and a green economy. Extensive research on Clostridium, focusing on strain development and genetic engineering, is essential to enhance biobutanol production. Additionally, critical suggestions for optimizing substrate selection to enhance Clostridium biobutanol production efficiency are also provided in this review. In the future, cost reduction and advancements in biotechnology may make biobutanol a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Promising Ursolic Acid as a Novel Antituberculosis Agent: Current Progress and Challenges.

Tuberculosis (TB) stands as the second most prevalent cause of global human mortality from infectious diseases. In 2022, the World Health Organization documented an estimated number of global TB cases reaching 7.5 million, which causes death for 1.13 million patients. The continuous growth of drug-resistant TB cases due to various mutations in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strain, raises the urgency of the exploration of novel anti-TB treatments. Ursolic acid (UA) is a natural pentacyclic triterpene found in various plants that has shown potential as a novel anti-TB agent. This review aims to provide an overview of the therapeutic prospects of UA against MTB, with a particular emphasis on in silico, in vitro, and in vivo studies. Various mechanisms of action of UA against MTB are briefly recapped from in silico studies, such as enoyl acyl carrier protein reductase inhibitors, FadA5 (Acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase) inhibitors, tuberculosinyl adenosine transferase inhibitors, and small heat shock protein 16.3 inhibitor. The potential of UA to overcome drug resistance and its synergistic effects with existing antituberculosis drugs are briefly explained from in vitro studies using a variety of methods, such as Microplate Alamar Blue Assay, Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube 960 and Resazurin Assays, morphological change evaluation using transmission electron microscopy, and in vivo studies using BALB/C infected with multi drug resistant clinical isolates. Besides its promising mechanism as an antituberculosis drug, its complex chemical composition, limited availability and supply, and lack of intellectual property are also reviewed as those are the most frequently occurring challenges that need to be addressed for the successful development of UA as novel anti-TB agent.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Performance of Semi-Refined Kappa Carrageenan-Based Film Incorporating Cassava Starch.

This paper reports the incorporation of cassava starch (CS) at various concentrations into a previously developed ZnO/SiO2-semi-refined kappa carrageenan-based film (SRκC) bionanocomposite and evaluates its performance as minced chicken edible packaging. The incorporation of CS into SRκC-based films aims to provide multifunctional food packaging with enhanced surface morphology, thickness, mechanical properties, and transparency. The effect of the incorporation of various mixing ratios of CS and SRκC (CS:SRκC ratios of 1:3, 1:1, and 3:1) was investigated. The results show that the surface morphology, thickness, and mechanical properties of the SRκC-based films are increased by incorporating CS. Interestingly, a significant shelf-life improvement of up to 6 days is obtained for the application of the CS:SRκC 1:3 film as minced chicken packaging. It is concluded that the incorporation of CS into SRκC-based film is promising for extending the shelf life of minced chicken samples.