A state of the art review on the co-cultivation of microalgae-fungi in wastewater for biofuel production.

The microalgae have a great potential as the fourth generation biofuel feedstock to deal with energy crisis, but the cost of production and biomass harvest are the major hurdles in terms of large scale production and applications. Using filamentous fungi to culture targeted alga for biomass accumulation and eventually harvesting is a sustainable way to mitigate environmental impacts. Microalgal co-culture method could be an alternative to overcome limitations and increase biomass yield and lipid accumulation. It was found to be the high feasibility for the production of biofuels from fungi and microalgae using wastewater. This article aimed to state the synergistic approaches, their culture protocols, harvesting procedure and their potential biotechnological applications. Additionally, algal-fungal consortia could digest cellulosic biomass, potentially reducing operating costs as part of industrial need. As a result of co-cultivation, biofuel production could be economically feasible owing to its excellent ability to treat wastewater and be eco-friendly. The implications of the innovative co-cultivation technology have demonstrated the potential for further development based on the policies that have been supported and implemented.

A holistic zero waste biorefinery approach for macroalgal biomass utilization: A review.

The growing concerns over the depleting fossil fuels and increase in the release of greenhouse gas emissions have necessitated the search for the potential biomass source for alternative energy generation. In this context, third generation biomass specifically maroalgae has gained a lot of research interest in the recent years for energy and products generation such as ethanol, butanol, alginates, agars, and carrageenans. There are a few reviews available in scientific domain on macroalgal biomass utilization for bioethanol production but none of them has addressed precisely from phenolic precursor compounds to the entire ethanol production process and its bottlenecks. Here, we explained critically the processes involved in bioethanol, value added products and chemicals production utilizing macroalgal biomass as a feedstock along with its zero waste feasibility approach. Apart from this, we have also summarized the major issues linked to the macroalgae based biofuels and bioproducts generation processes and their possible corrective measures. Biorefinery is a promising way to generate multiple products from a single source with short processing time. Thus, this review also focuses on the recent advancement in the macroalgal biomass scaling up and how this could help in the growth of macroalgal biorefinery industry in the near future.

In vitro efficacy of Bryophyllum pinnatum leaf extracts as potent therapeutics.

Leaf extracts of Bryophyllum pinnatum (BPEs) are used in several countries. Contextually, evaluation of the therapeutic potential of these was carried out in this study to explore antioxidant and antityrosinase potential through different in vitro methods. The radical scavenging properties of BPEs were studied using various techniques, based on the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) dot blot thin-layer chromatography (TLC) method, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, metal chelation, ß-carotene bleaching, inhibition of DNA breakage on agarose gel, and lipid peroxidation inhibition using liver and brain microsomes. EC50 values of the results reflected that aqueous-methanolic BPE was the most active one. Antibrowning potential of the fresh leaf extract showed an antityrosinase property, with EC50 values of enzymatic assay of tyrosinase inhibitory activity further advocating the findings.

Pharmacological and biomedical properties of sea anemones Paracondactylis indicus, Paracondactylis sinensis, Heteractis magnifica and Stichodactyla haddoni from East coast of India.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the biomedical and pharmacological activity of Paracondactylis indicus (P. indicus), Paracondactylis sinensis (P. sinensis), Heteractis magnifica (H. magnifica) and Stichodactyla haddoni (S. haddoni). METHODS: The live sea anemones were kept inside the glass bowl along with some amount of distilled water in an ice container for 15 min. During stress condition, nematocysts released from the tentacles were collected and centrifuged at 5,000 rpm for 15 min. The supernatant were collected in separate cleaned beakers for lyophilisation. RESULTS: The protein content of crude extracts was 15.2, 28.7, 18.2 and 35.4 µg/mL. In hemolytic assay, the P. indicus was sensitive (16.842 HT/mg) on chicken blood but P. sinensis was less sensitive (1.114 HT/mg) on chicken and goat blood. Whereas H. magnifica and S. haddoni showed hemolysis (0.879, 0.903 HT/mg and 56.263, 0.451 HT/mg) in chicken and goat blood. In antimicrobial assay, the methanol extract of P. indicus showed maximum inhibition zone of 9.7 mm against S. typhii and P. sinensis showed 9.8 mm against K. pneumonia in methanol and ethanol extracts. Whereas the H. magnifica and S. haddoni showed maximum of 10 mm against S. typhii, K. pneumonia in methanol and ethanol extracts. CONCLUSIONS: The high toxic sea anemones may also contain some biologically active agents which has haemolytic, analgesic and anti-infilamatory activity.