Journal of Bioprocessing & Biotechniques

Agriculture sector is observing a rise in the usage of organic fertilizers that are prepared from waste generated in farm, kitchen and other agro-industries. We studied the influence of 4 liquid organic manures (OM) on the germination of egg plant and coriander seeds. These organic fertilizers were prepared by using raw materials that are readily available in the fields and nearby sugar industry, thus providing the farmers with an option for preparation of cheap organic. Microbial analysis of these OM showed a rich microbial consortia comprising of nitrogen fixers, phosphate solubilizers, Lactobacilli, altogether providing enhancement in plant growth. In this study, we tested the efficacy of these OM on seed germination in red-, black- soil and coco peat. Application of OM resulted in improved seed germination for egg plant seeds. But we did not observe any significant effect for coriander germination in comparison to the controls, although it had positive effect on leaf coloration in field. To understand the biochemicals in these OM on positive effect on plant growth, we performed metabolomic studies using GC-MS and NMR spectroscopy. Analysis of biochemical cycles revealed that nitrogen metabolic pathways followed by carbohydrates and vitamins pathways were crucial. The need of the hour is to design OM that are suited for different crops along with few designed specifically for their growth in different soil conditions. We present importance of metabolomic approaches for understanding the efficacy of biochemicals in customizing preparations of OM.

The strong enhancement of the reflection back to the sharp (R<20 nm) tapered quartz tip (factor >2 up to 50!) uniquely enables apertureless shear force SNOM, local Raman, and fluorescence of flat or rough daily life and real world surfaces of all types, including biological/medical ones. It is highly versatile, economic, artifact-free at slopes up to 70° (sometimes 80°) with heights of several μm, and uncomplicated. Sharp tips are pulled at almost no cost. The unparalleled optical resolution is <8.6 nm. Also numerous industrial and biological/medical applications are revealed at the several μm ranges, for example cancer detection in up to 25 × 25 μm2 or up to 50 × 50 nm2 frames within 2 min. None of these qualities are present in more recent stochastic techniques like STED, STORM, PALM, etc, that must first chemically react biological samples all over with huge fluorescence dyes for detection and calculation of fluorescence distributions at only slight submicroscopic resolution. The ensuing claims of the stochastic work must therefore be counterchecked (this includes creation of improved knowledge) by the revival of save cheap and easy apertureless SNOM revealing much finer details of the actual bio objects in their actual hydrogen bonding and coiling states, for the sake of reality and further progress. Physical foundations and applications in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and industry are demonstrated. Nothing of that is achievable by STED, STORM, PALM, etc. with their highly-restricted versatility.

Biochemical processing involving enzymatic catalysis of hydrolysis reactions of oils and fats must overcome significant technological barriers before the full benefits of the technology can be realized. Owing to their selectivity and mild reaction conditions, lipases are becoming increasingly important as biocatalysts provided that their kinetics and optimum reaction conditions are well-understood. In this study we report on the development and validation of a kinetic model for the degradation of oils using Candida rugosa lipase, from which a better understanding of the influence of different reaction conditions on hydrolysis kinetics is elucidated. Variations of reaction temperature, mixing speed, enzyme loading and substrate concentrations yielded a maximum lipase activity of 25.67 lipase units (LU), and an activation energy of 4.32 Kcal/gmol. Significantly higher enzyme loading at 0.7 mg/ml was achieved, a 169% increase over most recently reported loading by other investigators. Optimum operating ranges for medium pH and substrate concentration were established to be 7.5 to 8.5, and 30 to 55%, respectively. Reported findings mark a significant improvements over previously reported much narrower ranges of 8.0 for pH and 30 to 43% for the substrate concentration under similar experimental conditions. Developed kinetics model closely predicted and matched experimental results, rendering it suitable for biochemical engineering design application.

The batch production of antibiotic by Penicillium chrysogenum is modeled using phenomenological and empirical approaches. In the phenomenological approach, the fungal growth is described by the logistic law, a substrateindependent model for microorganism population dynamics. In addition, the production of penicillin is also modeled considering that the formation of antibiotic is not associated with cell growth and that the product is degraded by hydrolysis according to first-order kinetics. From two sets of experimental data extracted from the literature regarding the batch cultivation of the fungus under different initial cell concentrations (0.18 and 0.40%-DW), it was possible to estimate the model parameters using one of the sets, while the model validation test was performed using the other set. The phenomenological model satisfactorily described the behavior trend of the modeled state variables; however, there is need to obtain a larger amount of experimental data in more diverse initial conditions to achieve a better estimation of parameters and a better description of the bioprocess phases. In the empirical approach, sigmoidal models were adjusted to describe the temporal profiles of cell and product concentrations. The empirical models were successful in describing the bioprocess behavior and appeared quite viable for the modeling of complex bio-systems, such as those comprising the production of antibiotics by filamentous fungi. The parameters of the mathematical models generated by each approach were statistically significant at a confidence level of 95%. Relationships between the growth kinetic parameters of the phenomenological model and those of the empirical model were established.

An actinobacteria of Indonesia origin identified as Streptomyces herbaricolorBioMCC-a.RP-131 has potential antifungal activities. In our earlier study, this strain exhibited a broad spectrum of in vitro antifungal activity against various type strains of fungus (molds and yeasts). Fermentation of this strain in a complex medium lasted for 8 days to produce a broth having high antifungal activity for separation. Extraction of 2 litre fermentation broth with n-Butanol (1:1) produced 24 grams of dried crude extract. Separation of active compound via two times fractionations of the crude extract in silica gel column chromatography eluted with co-solvent in gradient was able to separate almost all impurities. From the analysis of UHPLC-MS spectrum, we found the final fraction still contained 2-4 components with 12 possible chemical formulas. One of the formula was C39H39N4 (MW 562.3175 g.mol-1) not reported yet in Chemspider database, suggesting it to be a new compound. Further work of separation is required to obtain single antifungal compound for chemical structure elucidation with UHPLC-MS and NMR.