Valorisation of biomass and diaper waste into a sustainable production of the medical mushroom Lingzhi Ganoderma lucidum.

Global solid waste is expected to increase by at least 70% annually until year 2050. The mixture of solid waste including food waste from food industry and domestic diaper waste in landfills is causing environmental and human health issues. Nevertheless, food and diaper waste containing high lignocellulose can easily degrade using lignocellulolytic enzymes thereby converted into energy for the development and growth of mushroom. Therefore, this study explores the potential of recycling biomass waste from coffee ground, banana, eggshell, tea waste, sugarcane bagasse and sawdust and diaper waste as raw material for Lingzhi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) cultivation. Using 2% of diaper core with sawdust biowaste leading to the fastest 100% mushroom mycelium spreading completed in one month. The highest production yield is 71.45 g mushroom; this represents about 36% production biological efficiency compared to only 21% as in commercial substrate. The high mushroom substrate reduction of 73% reflect the valorisation of landfill waste. The metabolomics profiling showed that the Lingzhi mushroom produced is of high quality with a high content of triterpene being the bioactive compounds that are medically important for treating assorted disease and used as health supplement. In conclusion, our study proposed a potential resource management towards zero-waste and circular bioeconomy for high profitable mushroom cultivation.

Tapioca Cellulose Based Copper Nanoparticles for Chemoselective N-Alkylation.

Biomaterials as a support for catalysts are of prime importance. Tapioca root which is an abundant biopolymer source was used to synthesize cellulose supported bio-heterogeneous poly(hydroxamic acid) copper nanoparticles (CuN@PHA) and was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), ultraviolet­visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses. The tapioca cellulose supported CuN@PHA (50 mol ppm) effectively catalyzed N-alkylation reaction of aliphatic amines with α,ß-unsaturated compounds to give the corresponding alkylated products. High yields up to 95% were achieved for the converted products. The reusability of the cellulose supported nanoparticles was found to be excellent with no significant reduction of its catalytic activity over several cycles. The catalyst showed high catalytic activity having turnover number (TON) 18000 and turnover frequency (TOF) 2250 h⁻¹.

New insights into seaweed polyphenols on glucose homeostasis.

CONTEXT: Polyphenol-rich marine macroalgae are gaining dietary importance due to their influence over diabetes mellitus and the role as a vital source of high-value nutraceuticals. Their assorted beneficial effects on human health include competitive inhibition of digestive enzymes, varying the activity of hepatic glucose-metabolizing enzymes, lowering the plasma glucose levels, and lipid peroxidation, delaying the aging process. OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we review the health beneficial effects of polyphenols and phlorotannins from brown seaweeds with special emphasis on their inhibitory effects on carbohydrate-metabolizing enzymes. METHODS: A survey of literature from databases such as Sciencedirect, Scopus, Pubmed, Springerlink, and Google Scholar from the year 1973 to 2013 was done to bring together the information relating to drug discovery from brown seaweeds as a source for diabetes treatment. RESULTS: Over the past two decades, 20 different bioactive polyphenols/phlorotannins have been isolated and studied from 10 different brown algae. Discussion of the positive effect on the inhibition of enzymes metabolizing carbohydrates in both in vitro and in vivo experiments are included. CONCLUSION: Despite the recent advancements in isolating bioactive compounds from seaweeds with potential health benefit or pharmaceutical behavior, studies on the polyphenol effectiveness on glucose homeostasis in human beings are very few in response to their functional characterization. Added research in this area is required to confirm the close connection of polyphenol rich seaweed-based diet consumption with glucose homeostasis and the exciting possibility of prescribing polyphenols to treat the diabetes pandemic.