Advances on Cellulose Manufacture in Biphasic Reaction Media.

Cellulose is produced industrially by the kraft and sulfite processes. The evolution of these technologies in biorefineries is driven by the need to obtain greater added value through the efficient use of raw materials and energy. In this field, organosolv technologies (and within them, those using liquid phases made up of water and one partly miscible organic solvent, known as "biphasic fractionation" in reference to the number of liquid phases) represent an alternative that is receiving increasing interest. This study considers basic aspects of the composition of lignocellulosic materials, describes the fundamentals of industrial cellulose pulp production processes, introduces the organosolv methods, and comprehensively reviews published results on organosolv fractionation based on the use of media containing water and an immiscible solvent (1-butanol, 1-pentanol or 2-methyltetrahydrofuran). Special attention is devoted to aspects related to cellulose recovery and fractionation selectivity, measured through the amount and composition of the treated solids.

Recent advances in the production of oligogalacturonides and their biological properties.

The human population is becoming old and ageing, which is related to a variety of health issues, such as Alzheimers disease, obesity, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and some types of cancers like colorectal cancer. Furthermore, diet is a determining factor in the appearance of some of these diseases due to its direct effect at the systemic level (for instance, increase in glucose and LDL-cholesterol levels in the serum) and its influence on the composition and activity of the gut microbiota. In this context, the use of functional ingredients can be a useful strategy to prevent or even treat (in combination with drugs) some of the above-mentioned pathologies. Among the variety of functional ingredients, prebiotics have received significant attention by the scientific community. Although the already commercialized FOS are the most studied prebiotics, some efforts have been devoted to the search and evaluation of new prebiotic candidates with additional properties. In particular, in the last decade, a variety of in vitro and in vivo assays have been carried out using well isolated and characterized oligogalacturonides, demonstrating that some of them have interesting biological properties, including anticancer, antioxidant, antilipidemic, anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory activities besides prebiotic effects. This work reviews the scientific literature published recently on the production of oligogalacturonides with a special focus on their biological properties.