Efecto hipoglucémico del extracto acuoso de Chuquiraga jussieui J.F. Gmel en ratas con diabetes inducida / Hypoglycemic effect of aqueous extract from Chuquiraga jussieui J.F. Gmel in rats with induced diabetes

Introducción: la Chuquiraga Jussieui J.F. Gmel es una planta silvestre que crece en los Andes ecuatorianos y es utilizada ampliamente por las culturas ancestrales y la población común como medicina folclórica, especialmente como antidiabético, antinflamatorio y febrífugo. Objetivos: evaluar el efecto hipoglucémico del extracto acuoso de la Chuquiraga jussieui, en ratas con diabetes inducida. Métodos: para la determinación del efecto hipoglucémico, se utilizaron ratas de la línea isogénica Wistar con hiperglicemia inducida. Se trabajó con 6 grupos (control normal sin tratamiento, control hiperglicémico con estreptozotocina, control hiperglicémico tratado con fármaco hipoglucemiante glibenclamida, y 3 concentraciones del extracto acuoso 100, 200 y 400 mg/kg de peso corporal, del extracto de Chuquiraga jussieui. Los resultados fueron evaluados estadísticamente, mediante pruebas de distribución normal con el test de Shapiro wilk y homogeneidad de varianza por el test de Levene, análisis de varianza entre los grupos y comparaciones múltiples (Tukey). Resultados: el grupo con estreptozotocina bajo el efecto solamente de la hiperglicemia inducida y sin tratamiento alguno, mostró aumentos significativos de las medias de glicemia durante todo el tiempo del estudio; El grupo con glibenclamida presentó una disminución significativa en más de 8 mmol L-1 de diferencia, igualmente sucedió con los grupos de tres concentraciones de extracto 100, 200 y 400 mg/Kg tratados con los diferentes niveles de extracto de la planta en estúdio, y resultó mayor el contraste en el último grupo. Conclusiones: se determinó que el extracto acuoso de Chuquiraga jussieui J. F Gmel presenta efecto hipoglucemiante a partir de 400 mg Kg-1 frente a un fármaco en un modelo para diabetes mellitus tipo 2.

Introduction: Chuquiraga jussieui J.F. Gmel is a wild plant species that grows in the Ecuadorian Andes. It is broadly used by ancestral cultures and the common population as folk medicine, particularly as antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory and febrifuge. Objectives: Determine the hypoglycemic effect of aqueous extract from Chuquiraga jussieui in rats with induced diabetes. Methods: Determination of the hypoglycemic effect was conducted in rats from the Wistar isogenic line with induced hyperglycemia. Six groups were formed: normal control without treatment, hyperglycemic control with streptozotocin, hyperglycemic control treated with the hypoglycemic drug glibenclamide, and aqueous extract from Chuquiraga jussieui at three concentrations (100, 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight). Statistical assessment of results included normal distribution by the Shapiro­Wilk test, variance homogeneity by Levene's test, analysis of variance between the groups, and multiple comparisons by Tukey's tests. Results: The streptozotocin group with induced hyperglycemia and no treatment showed a significant mean glycemia increase throughout the study. The glibenclamide group showed a significant decrease of over 8 mmol/l, and so did the three extract groups (concentrations of 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg) treated with various volumes of extracts from the study plant, the contrast being greater in the latter group. Conclusions: It was determined that aqueous extract from Chuquiraga jussieui J.F. Gmel displays hypoglycemic activity as of 400 mg/kg versus a drug in a model for type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Development of a low-cost cellulase production process using Trichoderma reesei for Brazilian biorefineries.

BACKGROUND: During the past few years, the first industrial-scale cellulosic ethanol plants have been inaugurated. Although the performance of the commercial cellulase enzymes used in this process has greatly improved over the past decade, cellulases still represent a very significant operational cost. Depending on the region, transport of cellulases from a central production facility to a biorefinery may significantly add to enzyme cost. The aim of the present study was to develop a simple, cost-efficient cellulase production process that could be employed locally at a Brazilian sugarcane biorefinery. RESULTS: Our work focused on two main topics: growth medium formulation and strain improvement. We evaluated several Brazilian low-cost industrial residues for their potential in cellulase production. Among the solid residues evaluated, soybean hulls were found to display clearly the most desirable characteristics. We engineered a Trichoderma reesei strain to secrete cellulase in the presence of repressing sugars, enabling the use of sugarcane molasses as an additional carbon source. In addition, we added a heterologous ß-glucosidase to improve the performance of the produced enzymes in hydrolysis. Finally, the addition of an invertase gene from Aspegillus niger into our strain allowed it to consume sucrose from sugarcane molasses directly. Preliminary cost analysis showed that the overall process can provide for very low-cost enzyme with good hydrolysis performance on industrially pre-treated sugarcane straw. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we showed that with relatively few genetic modifications and the right growth medium it is possible to produce considerable amounts of well-performing cellulase at very low cost in Brazil using T. reesei. With further enhancements and optimization, such a system could provide a viable alternative to delivered commercial cellulases.

Bio-oil production of softwood and hardwood forest industry residues through fast and intermediate pyrolysis and its chromatographic characterization.

Bio-oils were produced through intermediate (IP) and fast pyrolysis (FP), using Eucalyptus sp. (hardwood) and Picea abies (softwood), wood wastes produced in large scale in Pulp and Paper industries. Characterization of these bio-oils was made using GC/qMS and GC×GC/TOFMS. The use of GC×GC provided a broader characterization of bio-oils and it allowed tracing potential markers of hardwood bio-oil, such as dimethoxy-phenols, which might co-elute in 1D-GC. Catalytic FP increased the percentage of aromatic hydrocarbons in P. abies bio-oil, indicating its potential for fuel production. However, the presence of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) draws attention to the need of a proper management of pyrolysis process in order to avoid the production of toxic compounds and also to the importance of GC×GC/TOFMS use to avoid co-elutions and consequent inaccuracies related to identification and quantification associated with GC/qMS. Ketones and phenols were the major bio-oil compounds and they might be applied to polymer production.

DesinFix TM 135 in fermentation process for bioethanol production.

Brazil has the world's largest ethanol production from sugarcane, but bacterial contamination decreases the ethanol yields. It was shown that the biocide DesinFix™ 135 can reduce the contamination without decreasing the yeasts' viability or negatively affecting the ethanol production.

DesinFix TM 135 in fermentation process for bioethanol production

Brazil has the world's largest ethanol production from sugarcane, but bacterial contamination decreases the ethanol yields. It was shown that the biocide DesinFixTM 135 can reduce the contamination without decreasing the yeasts' viability or negatively affecting the ethanol production.