Effects of fungal based bioactive compounds on human health: Review paper.

Since the first years of history, microbial fermentation products such as bread, wine, yogurt and vinegar have always been noteworthy regarding their nutritional and health effects. Similarly, mushrooms have been a valuable food product in point of both nutrition and medicine due to their rich chemical components. Alternatively, filamentous fungi, which can be easier to produce, play an active role in the synthesis of some bioactive compounds, which are also important for health, as well as being rich in protein content. Therefore, this review presents some important bioactive compounds (bioactive peptides, chitin/chitosan, ß-glucan, gamma-aminobutyric acid, L-carnitine, ergosterol and fructooligosaccharides) synthesized by fungal strains and their health benefits. In addition, potential probiotic- and prebiotic fungi were researched to determine their effects on gut microbiota. The current uses of fungal based bioactive compounds for cancer treatment were also discussed. The use of fungal strains in the food industry, especially to develop innovative food production, has been seen as promising microorganisms in obtaining healthy and nutritious food.

Fungal-based bioactive compounds have various health benefits.Prebiotic fungi play an active role in the regulation of gut microbiota.Anti-tumor effective fungal components will contribute to alternative medicine.Beta-glucan and chitin are the most promising fungal metabolites for cancer treatment.

Potential use of olive oil mill wastewater for bacterial cellulose production.

In this study, olive oil mill wastewater (OOMW), an important waste in the Mediterranean basin, was evaluated to produce bacterial cellulose (BC). For this purpose, the effects of different ratios of OOMW fractions (25-100%) and some additional nutrients (yeast extract, peptone and Hestrin-Schramm medium (HS) components) on BC productions were investigated. Unsupplemented OOMW medium (75% and 100%) yielded as much as BC obtained in HS medium (0.65 g/L), while enrichment of OOMW medium (%100) with yeast extract (5 g/L) and peptone (5 g/L) increased the amount of BC by 5.5 times, reaching to 5.33 g/L. In addition, produced BCs were characterized by FT-IR, TGA, XRD and SEM analyses. BC from OOMW medium (100% OOMW with supplementation) has a high thermal decomposition temperature (316.8°C), whereas it has lower crystallinity index (57%). According to the FT-IR analysis, it was observed that the components of OOMW might be absorbed by BCs. Thus, higher yield productions of BCs from OOMW media compared to BC obtained from HS medium indicate that olive oil industry wastes can be integrated into BC production for industrial applications.

Repeated batch fermentation of immobilized E. coli expressing Vitreoscilla hemoglobin for long-term use.

This study describes an efficient and reusable process for ethanol production from medium containing whey powder, using alginate immobilized ethanologenic E. coli strains either expressing (TS3) or not expressing (FBR5) Vitreoscilla hemoglobin. Reuseabilities of the FBR5 and TS3 strains were investigated regarding their ethanol production capacities over the course of 15 successive 96-h batch fermentations. The ethanol production was fairly stable over the entire duration of the experiment, with strain TS3 maintaining a substantial advantage over strain FBR5. Storage of both strains in 2 different solutions for up to 60 d resulted in only a modest loss of ethanol production, with strain TS3 consistently outperforming strain FBR5 by a substantial amount. Strains stored for 15 or 30 d maintained their abilities to produce ethanol without dimunition over the course of 8 successive batch fermentations; again strain TS3 maintained a substantial advantage over strain FBR5 throughout the entire experiment. Thus, immobilization is a useful strategy to maintain the advantage in ethanol productivity afforded by expression of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin over long periods of time and large numbers of repeated batch fermentations, including, as in this case, using media with food processing wastes as the carbon source.

Effective ethanol production from whey powder through immobilized E. coli expressing Vitreoscilla hemoglobin.

Ethanol production from whey powder was investigated by using free as well as alginate immobilized E. coli and E. coli expressing Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb) in both shake flask and fermenter cultures. Media with varying levels of whey (lactose contents of 3%, 5%, 8% or 15%) and yeast extract (0.3% or 0.5%) were evaluated with fermentation times of 48-96 h. Immobilization and VHb expression resulted in higher ethanol production with all media; the increases ranged from 2% to 89% for immobilization and from 2% to 182% for VHb expression. It was determined that growth medium containing 8% lactose with 0.5% yeast extract yielded the highest ethanol production for free or immobilized strains, with or without VHb expression, in both shake flask and fermenter cultures. Immobilization with alginate was found to be a promising process for ethanol production by VHb-expressing ethanologenic E. coli.

Efficient ethanol production from potato and corn processing industry waste using E. coli engineered to express Vitreoscilla haemoglobin.

Engineering of ethanologenic E. coli to express the haemoglobin (VHb) from the bacterium Vitreoscilla has been shown to enhance ethanol production by fermentation of pure sugars, sugars from hydrolysis of lignocellulose, components of whey, and sugars from wastewater produced during potato processing. Here, these studies were extended to see whether the same effect could be seen when a mixture of waste materials from processing of potatoes and corn into potato and corn chips were used as sugar sources. Consistent increases in ethanol production coincident with VHb expression were seen in shake flasks at both low aeration and high aeration conditions. The ethanol increases were due almost entirely to increases in the amount of ethanol produced per unit of cell mass. The VHb strategy for increasing fermentation to ethanol (and perhaps other valuable fermentation products) may be of general use, particularly regarding conversion of otherwise discarded materials into valuable commodities.