Effects of osmotic pressure and pH on citric acid and erythritol production from waste cooking oil by Yarrowia lipolytica.

Erythritol and citric acid could be produced from waste cooking oil (WCO) by Yarrowia lipolytica under different medium conditions, and osmotic pressure together with pH were considered to be the critical factors in this process. High osmotic pressure (2.76 osmol/L) combined with low pH (pH 3.0) promoted the highest yield of erythritol (21.8 g/L) accompanied by low-producing citric acid (2.5 g/L). By contrast, the highest citric acid biosynthesis (12.6 g/L) was detected under a pH of 6.0 and an osmotic pressure of 0.75 osmol/L, when only 4.0 g/L of erythritol was yielded. Moreover, lipase activities in these two media were also detected, and pH 3.0-OP 2.76 was supposed to be more beneficial to lipase activity. Biochemical pathways involved in the biosynthesis of erythritol and citric acid were subsequently investigated, and the products yielded from WCO were assumed to be correlated with the activities of transketolase, erythrose reductase, citrate synthase, and glycerol kinase. However, RT-PCR analysis revealed that mRNA levels of these enzymes did not significantly differ, confirming that metabolic flux regulations of erythritol and citric acid mostly took place at the post-transcriptional level.

Erythritol production by Yarrowia lipolytica from okara pretreated with the in-house enzyme pools of fungi.

Okara (soybean residue) is an ideal erythritol feedstock due to its low price and high-nutrient content. Fungal-fermentations were carried out in okara using in-house enzyme pools generated by Mucor flavus or Trichoderma reesei to make okara more accessibility in the subsequent erythritol production using Yarrowia lipolytica. Mucor-fermented okara produced a high erythritol yield because of its special component and micromorphology. Five days is the optimal period for Mucor fermentation. Different fermentation modes were compared in terms of erythritol production and yield. The concentration of Mucor-fermented okara in erythritol fermentation medium was optimal at 30.0g/L. Moreover, 40.0g/L NaCl was added as the osmotic regulator. No extra ingredient was needed during this process. Results of 5-L fermentations showed that an erythritol titer of 14.7g/L, with a yield of 0.49g/g okara was obtained. These findings indicated that Mucor-fermented okara was an economically alternative feedstock for low-cost erythritol production.

Chemical composition and functional characteristics of dietary fiber-rich powder obtained from core of maize straw.

A novel dietary fiber (MsCDF) based core of maize straw (Core) was prepared by using high boiling solvent of sodium peroxide by high pressure pretreatment (HBSHP). The composition of MsCDF, and several physicochemical properties for MsCDF related to its nutritional quality were investigated. The results revealed that the MsCDF contains high contents total dietary fiber (TDF), soluble dietary fiber (SDF), insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) and two main monosaccharaides, xylose and glucose. Meanwhile, the studies of physicochemical properties of MsCDF indicated that MsCDF performed well water-holding capacity (WHC), oil-holding capacity (OHC), Swelling, solubility (SOL), Glucose dialysis retardation index (GDRI) and adsorption capacity on cholesterol. The results of this study serve as evidence that MsCDF can be used as a functional food additive, Core can be used as a crude material to produce MsCDF and the technology of HBSHP can be used to modify the physico-chemical properties of Core.

Erythritol production by Yarrowia lipolytica mutant strain M53 generated through atmospheric and room temperature plasma mutagenesis.

Mutants of Yarrowia lipolytica with high erythritol production were generated through an atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) mutation system. Among these mutants, Y. lipolytica M53 exhibited the highest erythritol yield. In a batch culture, M53 produced 64.8 g/L erythritol from 100 g/L glycerol. The yields of byproducts (e.g. mannitol, arabitol, and α-ketoglutaric acid) were low, and the mechanisms underlying these changes were examined by measuring enzyme activities in the pentose phosphate pathway. Up to 145.2 g/L erythritol was produced by M53 from 200 g/L of glycerol, and erythritol accumulation was promoted by 3.7 mg/L of Cu2+, 10.15 mg/L of Mn2+, and 30.37 g/L of NaCl. Fed-batch cultivation of M53 in a 5-L fermentor produced 169.3 g/L erythritol with low levels of byproducts within 168 h. This finding confirmed the potential of M53 as an erythritol producer on a commercial scale.

Citric acid production from hydrolysate of pretreated straw cellulose by Yarrowia lipolytica SWJ-1b using batch and fed-batch cultivation.

In this study, crude cellulase produced by Trichoderma reesei Rut-30 was used to hydrolyze pretreated straw. After the compositions of the hydrolysate of pretreated straw were optimized, the study showed that natural components of pretreated straw without addition of any other components such as (NH4)2SO4, KH2PO4, or Mg(2+) were suitable for citric acid production by Yarrowia lipolytica SWJ-1b, and the optimal ventilatory capacity was 10.0 L/min/L medium. Batch and fed-batch production of citric acid from the hydrolysate of pretreated straw by Yarrowia lipolytica SWJ-1b has been investigated. In the batch cultivation, 25.4 g/L and 26.7 g/L citric acid were yields from glucose and hydrolysate of straw cellulose, respectively, while the cultivation time was 120 hr. In the three-cycle fed-batch cultivation, citric acid (CA) production was increased to 42.4 g/L and the cultivation time was extended to 240 hr. However, iso-citric acid (ICA) yield in fed-batch cultivation (4.0 g/L) was similar to that during the batch cultivation (3.9 g/L), and only 1.6 g/L of reducing sugar was left in the medium at the end of fed-batch cultivation, suggesting that most of the added carbon was used in the cultivation.

Citric acid production in Yarrowia lipolytica SWJ-1b yeast when grown on waste cooking oil.

In this study, citric acid was produced from waste cooking oil by Yarrowia lipolytica SWJ-1b. To get the maximal yield of citric acid, the compositions of the medium for citric acid production were optimized, and our results showed that extra nitrogen and magnesium rather than vitamin B1 and phosphate were needed for CA accumulation when using waste cooking oil. The results also indicated that the optimal initial concentration of the waste cooking oil in the medium for citric acid production was 80.0 g/l, and the ideal inoculation size was 1 × 10(7) cells/l of medium. We also reported that during 10-l fermentation, 31.7 g/l of citric acid, 6.5 g/l of isocitric acid, 5.9 g/l of biomass, and 42.1 g/100.0 g cell dry weight of lipid were attained from 80.0 g/l of waste cooking oil within 336 h. At the end of the fermentation, 94.6 % of the waste cooking oil was utilized by the cells of Y. lipolytica SWJ-1b, and the yield of citric acid was 0.4 g/g waste cooking oil, which suggested that waste cooking oil was a suitable carbon resource for citric acid production.

Direct conversion of pretreated straw cellulose into citric acid by co-cultures of Yarrowia lipolytica SWJ-1b and immobilized Trichoderma reesei mycelium.

The immobilized cellulase-producing mycelium of Trichoderma reesei was found to produce 2.9 U/ml of cellulase activity within 144 h while 2.1 U/ml of cellulase activity was produced within 120 h by the free mycelium of the same strain. When the immobilized mycelium of T. reesei was co-cultivated with the free cells of Yarrowia lipolytica SWJ-1b in flask, Y. lipolytica SWJ-1b could yield 10.7 g/l of citric acid and 3.9 g/l of isocitric acid from 40.0 g/l pretreated straw within 240 h. Under the similar conditions, Y. lipolytica SWJ-1b could yield 32.8 g/l of citric acid and 4.7 g/l of isocitric acid from 40.0 g/l pretreated straw supplemented with 20.0 g/l glucose within 288 h. When the co-cultures were grown in 10-l fermentor, Y. lipolytica SWJ-1b could yield 83.4 g/l of citric acid and 8.7 g/l of isocitric acid from 100.0 g/l of pretreated straw supplemented with 50.0 g/l glucose within 312 h.

Chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of the extracts of the flowers of the Chinese plant Chimonanthus praecox.

This study investigated the antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of the extracts of the flowers, essential oil (EO) and semi-volatile fractions (SVF) of Chimonanthus praecox. The chemical composition of the EO was analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) which revealed that the EO contained elemene, muurolene, caryophyllene, cadinol and spathulenol. The effective antibacterial activity of the EO suggested that its different responses on the microorganisms studied depended on the synergistic effects of the compounds contained in the EO. The effective antioxidant activity of the EO showed that the EO had a more marked antioxidant effect on scavenging O2(-)· and OH· than DPPH·, and SVF had a higher potential for scavenging DPPH· than the EO. Our data suggested that the flowers of Chimonanthus praecox had pharmaceutical benefits, and are also a potential source of natural antioxidants and biocides.

Synthesis and theoretical studies on the vibration of a novel (3,4-disfluoro)phenylquione.

A novel (3,4-disfluoro)phenylquione (2F-PQ) was synthesized through the reaction of 3,4-Difluoroaniline and 1,4-benzoquinone. Its structure was verified by (1)H NMR, FTIR and Raman spectra. The ground-state geometries were optimized by using density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP/6-311G+(d,p), B3PW91/6-311G+(d,p) and MPB3PW91/6-311G+(d,p) level without symmetry constrains, respectively. The predicted FTIR and Raman spectra scaled by factor are well consistent with experimental spectra.