Sustainable use of the spent mushroom substrate of Pleurotus florida for production of lignocellulolytic enzymes.

Spent mushroom substrate (SMS), a major byproduct of the mushroom industry, is a lignocellulosic biomass, which contains approximately 57-74.3% of holocellulose fraction. This study was aimed at utilizing SMS of Pleurotus florida for recovery of lignocellulolytic enzymes and sugars and also as a substrate for production of cellulolytic enzymes using different isolates of Trichoderma and Aspergillus under solid-state fermentation (SSF). SMS of P. florida extracts contained significant amounts of laccase (3,015.8 ± 29.5 U/g SMS) and xylanase (1,187.9 ± 12 U/g SMS) activity. Crystallinity pattern and chemical changes in SMS revealed that SMS had a lower crystallinity index (34.2%) as compared with the raw biomass (37.8%), which, in turn, helps in enhancing the accessibility of cellulolytic enzymes to holocellulose. Among the isolates, Trichoderma longibrachiatum A-01 showed maximum activity of endoglucanase (220.4 ± 5.9 U/mg), exoglucanase (78.5 ± 3.2 U/mg) and xylanase (1,550.4 ± 11.6 U/mg) while Aspergillus aculeatus C-08 showed maximum activity of cellobiase (113.9 ± 3.9 U/mg). Extraction with sodium citrate buffer (pH 4.8) showed maximum cellulolytic enzyme activity as compared with other solvents tested. Partial purification of endoglucanase, exoglucanase, xylanase, and cellobiase resulted in 56.3% (1,112.5 U/mg), 48.4% (212.5 U/mg), 44% (4,492.3 U/mg), and 62% (705.0 U/mg) yield with an increase by 5.2-, 4.5-, 4.1-, and 5.0-fold as compared with crude extract. The results reveal that SMS from P. florida could be a potential and cost-effective substrate for production of cellulolytic enzymes from T. longibrachiatum A-01 and A. aculeatus C-08.

Phenolic compounds based conjugates from dextran aldehyde and BSA: Preparation, characterization and evaluation of their anti-cancer efficacy for therapeutic applications.

Here, we have synthesized phenolic compounds (pc) based on conjugates from dextran aldehyde (dex-ald) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) and screening their potential activity as therapeutic agents in cancer disease. The synthesized conjugates were analyzed by UV-vis, FT-IR, XRD and SEM analysis. UV-vis spectra of conjugates showed the shifting of spectral peak at UV to visible region revealed the enhanced conjugation due to formation of linkage. The XRD peaks of conjugates found broader and indicating the amorphous phase of conjugating materials in compared to free components. The SEM images showed that the conjugated materials having numerous pores on its surface, which proved its porous nature. The amount of phenolic compounds conjugated with (dex-ald-pc) and (BSA-pc) were found to be 65.4 and 73.91mg/g of conjugates, respectively. Cells viability was significantly decreased approximately 80-85% at concentration of 100µg conjugates whereas the free polymers or phenolics did not affect the viability of cancer cells. Generation of high quantity of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells treated with conjugate materials, which may caused cell apoptosis in cancer cell line. The results clearly showed that conjugation of phenolic compounds were an effective method to improve the functional properties for therapeutic applications.

Optimization of enzymatic saccharification of microwave pretreated sugarcane tops through response surface methodology for biofuel.

The optimization of biomass loading enzyme loading, surfactant concentration and incubation time, using response surface methodology (RSM) and Box Behnken design for enzymatic saccharification of sugarcane tops (SCT) for maximum recovery of fermentable sugars using crude cellulases, resulted in 90.24% saccharification efficiency. Maximum saccharification yield of 0.376 g/g glucose as substrate for ethanol production was observed at optimal conditions of 10% biomass loading (pretreated), 100FPU/g of cellulase loading, 0.04% (w/w) surfactant concentration and 72 h of incubation time.